The First Dance - Exodus 15:1-21

15:1-21 - The sea has closed behind the Israelites and the entirety of the Egyptian army pursuing them has been destroyed. Additionally, the entirety of the nation of Egypt as a world power has collapsed. The Hebrews have seen the power of the hand of God and His willingness to wield that power in their behalf, and they are overcome with joy. I also have to wonder how much of their good mood had to be with basking in spiritual light for the last big while the Egyptian army sat in spiritual darkness. This joy has led to a phenomenon that we haven’t seen yet in the Old Testament, but that we will see frequently here after, the whole of Israel began singing a song praising God in his triumph over Egypt, recounting the entire event. They use very descriptive and enthusiastic language such as “salvation,” “drowned,” “greatness,” “stubble,” “congealed,” and “trembling,” etc. TB notes that in Hebrew, this song rhymes, with divisions into stanzas and metered in a way consistent with ancient Hebrew writings, and was so significant in it’s creation that it became a staple in song and chant on all Shabbat (Sabbath) worship services for the foreseeable future.

There are a few points about the song that TB brings up, the IM doesn’t have anything on this so I’m just going to go with the lecture. First is that this and the following songs were written by men, not God, so they could have some inaccuracies. Second, in verse 11 the Israelites ask, “who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?” The Hebrew words used here were indicative of the “Lord’s” place in the hierarchy of gods, meaning that it is clear here that Israel still believes in multiple gods, it’s just that this one, Adonai, is the highest, the most powerful. This wasn’t that significant of a finding for me because we knew that they still believed that, but the point that TB made was poignant for me because it was so powerful. TB notes, “just as baby Christians learn that Jesus is Lord, but don’t know much else, so it was with Israel and their understanding of Yehoveh. New Christians begin with lots of preconceived notions that they take for granted are true, not realizing that most of what they think they know about God is false. And, so, on the one hand while Israel looked to Yehoveh as Israel’s only god, on the other hand they did not see Him as the ONLY god that existed, but as the highest god among the gods… the chief god… in this case mightier than Egypt’s gods.” He goes on by quoting Dr. Robert McGee who says, “when we first come to God, we are full of deceits that have filled us throughout our lives. Simply accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior does not set us free from these deceptions.”

He goes on that these deceptions that plague us and keep us from understanding the truth about God and His gospel has to be slowly chipped away at by out personal devotion and desire to know God. This resonated with me because I’ve been having so many conversations recently with people about the Church and all that, and to be completely honest, almost every single person that I know has left the Church, everyone that I have been close to or bonded over Church doctrine or anything like that, they are all gone, they’ve all rejected it. And I often have conversation with them or other people who are “worried” about them leaving, and in the midst of these conversations, all I can think is “we don’t know everything, in fact we probably don’t know very much at all.” Religion is such a difficult concept for so many people for so many reasons. The main reason is that throughout human history religion has been the most effective tool of controlling and manipulating a large body of people. Who had the most power in medieval Europe? The Pope. Not the kings, not any of the aristocracy, but the Pope and his structure of priests and bishops and all that. They held the power. Why? Because people perceived that they controlled the favor of God not only in this life but in the next. Sure a king could kill you, but he couldn’t control your soul after death, whereas the religious leaders could dictate that fate. Plus, I think that most people have an innate sense of belief, or at least a knowledge that this life is flawed and can’t the all there is. We accepted the gospel before we came to this earth, there’s still a thread of belief or wanting to believe for most people, plus the light of Christ. But people are now and probably always have been cautious of religious leaders because it’s human nature to take a position of authority and exercise it for your own gain and religion, even our own, is not immune from that. The Church has been used as a means of control before, just because we have the truth doesn’t mean that we have it perfectly.

Anyway, all of this is to say that we don’t know everything. People accept and reject the gospel for so many different reasons and all those reasons are valid, just because we don’t understand them doesn’t mean that God doesn’t. Just because we think that someone is throwing their life away doesn’t mean that God isn’t just as invested in their lives as He is in ours. Just because we can’t see the end from the beginning doesn’t mean that God hasn’t already made a plan to redeem all of us. We need to chill out and just be nice to each other and accept that we are all on our own paths with our own struggles and our own pain and if we can’t love someone and be nice then that means that we are the one who needs fixing, not them.