The Lord is a Man of War, Part 2

Call to Worship: Palm 52

Text: Exodus 15

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.

“Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them

Introduction: No Problem Passages

I have resolved to have no “problem passages” in the Bible. This is because The Bible isn’t the one with the problems… I am.

By “no problem passages” we mean I am not embarrassed by any part of the bible. Let it be true and every man a liar.

We’ve been examining a period of redemptive history where God is very hard on his enemies. He is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart – all so that he might destroy him and his armies in the Red Sea.

And this is an opportunity to learn to take the bible straight with no mixers. Whether we realize it or not, we sometimes expect the preacher to be a college bartender – cover up the taste of the hard stuff with a bunch of sugary mixers. Sure God seems awful hard on Pharaoh, but let me cover up that hard stuff with a bunch of qualifiers and sentimentality so that the truth doesn’t burn your throat.

But if we’re going to really advance in Christian maturity, we have to learn to take God as he is. We have to resist the temptation to remake or remix God in manner that is more pleasing to our tastes.

Today we’ll be in Exodus 15. The song of Moses and Miriam. What did they do when they saw the wrath of God poured out on their enemies? They rejoiced. They worshiped.

So that’s the basic goal today. Take God as he is. And not only be ok with what we see – but praise God for who he is.

Illustration: Catfishing

I watched this documentary years ago called Catfish. Have ya’ll seen that? It is, in my opinion, mesmerizing. A young man strikes up a conversation with a young single woman on the east coast. They chat for months. Grow close. And then Nevim, the guy, decides to make the trip out east to surprise her in person.

Turns out the woman wasn’t who she said she was. She was an older woman, married (if I remember correctly) and had fabricated this online persona.

I have this theory that a lot of so-called deconstruction is really just the final act of a catfishing story. People were presented with a false view of God. Usually a super sanitized soft version of God. And then either their lives get hard, or they start reading the bible and find that they have been tricked. God wasn’t as one dimensionally nice as they were led to believe.
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This is a normative bible song

It is said that Exodus 15 is the first song in the OT. But it is not at all unusual. It is very much like so many other songs.

Psalms review: I ran a word search of the Psalms for two words: Enemy and Foe. Those two words appear 86 times. And some Psalms are very militaristic but do not include those specific words. The majority of the Psalms have this kind of language in them.

The truth is that the modern church has a problem. 99% of our songs follow the themes of about 10% of the bible’s songs. Sure there are some bible songs that feature only redemption and do not include any kind of militaristic or judgment language. But those are the exception and not the rule. The normative bible song includes the themes of judgment and destruction of God’s enemies.

Our guys are really trying to change this. But it isn’t easy. Super thankful for our guys and all the efforts their putting into our singing in general.

II. Moses’ and Mariam’s reactions are normative Christian reactions.

We have Moses’ reaction in vs. 1-18 that include:

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. (1-7)

And Miriam’s in vs. 21-22:

Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

They are reacting rightly. If we are don’t respond to this data with worship, then it is we who are abnormal.

2a. Bible women love this about God

I sometimes hear that the church’s neglect of the militaristic side of Christianity is owing to the church being feminized. As if all of this worshiping God’s warrior personality is something that really grabs the male heart but not so much the female heart. That sounds plausible until you start looking at the bible. When you look at the bible, you have to say that women weren’t always so offended by this kind of language.

Hannah’s Song:

And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. (1 Samuel 2:1)

The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. (2:6-7)

The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (2:10)

Lady Wisdom: In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified in various places as a woman. In chapter 1, Lady Wisdom says the following:

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. (Proverbs 1:23-27)

Mary:

“for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;” – Luke 1:49-52

So if modern women find this kind of stuff objectionable, I don’t think it is their femininity that is the problem but rather their modernity.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” Who said it? It was a popular girl song in David’s day. Compare that with women sing about today.

Women in Church History:

This is not only true of women in the bible but also in church history. I was reminded of Julia Ward Howe’s song – the Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on
Glory, Glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on

That didn’t strike anyone as odd or unfeminine. Women have often written these kinds of things. Take the hyman written by Ellen Gates:

This is war in earnest
Not a childish play
Swords and martial music
On a festal day
Oh thou christian soldier
To the cause be true
In the day of battle
There is work to do.

We need to raise our young girls to love justice and praise God for it – otherwise they will seek men who are meek in the wrong ways.

And more generally, the church needs mothers who expect their men to fight and to win.

So we’ve said that Exodus 15 is a normal Christian song. And we’ve said that Moses and Miriam’s reactions are normal Christian reactions. Now let me add a third idea.

III. God’s work revealed in Exodus 15 is normative. This is how he normally acts. This isn’t merely an Old Testament thing.

Genesis 3:15 - the very first gospel promise is a violent one

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

The most quoted and alluded OT verse in the NT is Psalm 110:1

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Mt 22.44; 26.64; Mk 13.36; 14.62; 16.19; Lk 20.42-43; 22.69; Acts 2.34-35; 5.31; 7.55-56; Rom 8.34; 1 Cor 15.25; Eph 1.20; Col 3.1; Heb 1.3, 13; 8.1; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Pt 3.22

The great work of God throughout all of redemptive history involves both the saving of the chosen and the destruction of the wicked.

Last week I read from Colossians 2:13-15:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Hebrews 2:14-15 — Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

3a. He causes his enemies to perish by their own pride

Psalm 7:12-16 — If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

Psalm 9:15 — The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

Psalm 57:6 — They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves.

As Merlin says in That Hideous Strength:

“Their own strength has betrayed them. They have pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads. Therefore, they will die.”

3b. He uses his people as bait

This is what he does with Job. Have you seen my servant Job? In the end Satan is humiliated.

He does this with Lot. Allowing him to be captured by the four kings of Dan in order to destroy them.

This is what he does with Joseph. He gives the young man dreams which enticed his brothers to sell him into slavery so that he winds up in Egypt and eventually becomes the agent of their salvation.

And most importantly, he does the same thing with his only begotten son.

Augustine wrote, “The Redeemer came and the deceiver was overcome. What did our Redeemer do to our Captor? In payment for us He set the trap, His Cross, with His blood for bait.”

The Father put a target on Jesus’ back and sent into Jerusalem where all those under the power of Satan — Pilate, Herod, the priests, Judas — took the bait and crucified the Lord of Glory.

God is able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He is able to accomplish salvation for his people while also accomplishing judgment for the wicked.

See 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

What is not normative

We’ve said that Exodus 15 is a normal kind of bible song.
And that Moses’ and Miriam’s reaction is a normal reaction
And that the work of God shown in Exodus 15 is his normal work. To execute judgment on the wicked and redemption for those whom he has chosen. Very often through the same action.

Now let’s conclude with what is not normal. Or what you might say is the New Covenant surprise.

Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God has made it possible to simultaneously save and destroy his enemies

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come

That’s what salvation is. It is the voluntary identification of with the death of Christ. A choice to be united with him in his death so that we can also be united with him in his resurrection.

So that you can join Paul in saying,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

In the cross, we see God’s preferred way of destroying his enemy. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32) but all of heaven rejoices when a sinner repents (Luke 15:7).

So we can say to the world – God’s judgment has come. This only ends one way. All the wicked will perish.

Jesus now sits at the right hand of the father, working through the church to make all of his enemies his footstool.

Choose your means of destruction. Either repent and be identified with the death and resurrection of Christ – or go on living as God’s enemy and face the natural consequences for your sin.

And oh it would be so much better for you – to face God’s wrath at Calvary, than to face it in eternity.

We cannot be faithful gospel witnesses if are ashamed of God’s wrath. Rather than being embarrassed by it, we must exalt in it.

Everybody must stand before the judgment seat of God. God will spend eternity doing two basic things. He will pour his love out in one place and his wrath in another.

But at the cross, we see him doing both.