Exodus 15

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0:00 So we're continuing through my favorite verses. And this little section in Exodus called Miriam's Song is one of my favorite verses. And it became one of my favorite verses in seminary. I had this Hebrew professor. This guy that taught Hebrew, and then he taught the Torah to us. Really smart guy. He's teaching at a college now.

0:32 But when he taught Hebrew, I had him for Hebrew. And when he taught Hebrew, he would, the second half of the class would be vocabulary. The syntax of Hebrew is pretty simple. Most of the work of Hebrew is figuring out memorizing the vocabulary. So the first half of the class, you would just be working on the syntax. And the second half, he'd be presenting your vocabulary words that you had to learn. And he was like a preacher. He was one of the better preachers on campus.

1:03 And he had this rhythm where he would run five miles every morning, but before he would do that, he would read the Bible in its original language. He'd read 20 minutes of the New Testament in Greek and 20 minutes of the Old Testament in Hebrew and 20 minutes of the Psalms in Hebrew. He was kind of a ADD guy, really, lots of energy. A little bit smaller than me. And I'm a little guy, but lots of energy. And so he had been doing that for years. He had read through the Old Testament seven times,

1:35 the New Testament 12 times, by the time I had been there. So then reading them for 20 minutes got kind of wrote in the morning. So then he started adding memory verses in the original language that he would memorize as he was running this five miles in the morning. So he'd do that, then he'd work on the commentary, then he'd come teach our class. Can you imagine? He just loaded by the time he came to teach class with us. He'd been meditating on the scriptures in the original language for an hour reading them.

2:06 And then for however long it takes you to run five miles for him, probably like 45 minutes. And then he's like working on the commentary, right? In the original language, then he comes and he's giving us, and I remember when he got to this one, Eric's on dry ground, on dry ground. And when you get to this story, this story in Exodus is the one I told the kids. Maybe you've heard it before where God has miraculously delivered the Israelites

2:36 out of Egypt through the work of the 10 plagues and they get to the Red Sea. And there's all this debate, is it the Reed Sea of Reeds or the Red Sea? Is it marshy or a big thing? But it's an obstacle they couldn't cross is the important part. And they get to the Red Sea and they're like standing there and remember that they've got the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day and they're standing there between the Red Sea and the impending army. It's important to know the Egyptians

3:07 had the strongest army in their day, probably because of the chariots and the metallurgy they had where they could form weapons. They're coming down on the Israelites. The Israelites get pissed at Moses. Or they're not good graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die. It's dark, right? Everything happens at night when it's scary. All of the, why do the hurricanes always come at night? Why do tornadoes always hit places at night? Why in the movies, the always worst part of the battle

3:37 is at night, the Israelites are stuck between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea at night. And the pillar moves in between them and the Egyptians and Moses raises his staff and the Red Sea parts. Somebody's gotta be first and they go. And this is the part where Lesson picks up our vocabulary. He's like, how are it's on dry ground? First he goes, yeah, he goes, how are it's on dry ground? Then he goes through every place where

4:09 air it's has been used, you know? And when God creates the earth and he talks about the correlation between standing on dry ground and having firm faith. And this Hebrew word that comes up and he starts recalling from memory, I'm not as good as him, all the places where air it's pops up, right? And so now he's like building for me this like story of how air it's and the people walking through on dry ground. And then when you read the story in Exodus, they're walking through and as they're getting through,

4:41 they're more than halfway through the Israelites and the pillar of cloud lifts and goes to the other side. Now it's in front of the Israelites again, but it's not blocking the Egyptians anymore. So they come running. And then it says as the Israelites are finishing up and the Egyptians reach middle ground early in the morning. And then Lesson takes off again. And this phrase in Hebrew, lift note, bokeh, early in the morning. And he starts going on every time the word bokeh

5:12 for morning shows up in the Old Testament and then the corollary in Greek in the New Testament. He's like, everything good happens early in the morning. Lift note, bokeh, always, if you read early in the morning when the sun dawns and a new day starts, God comes with new things. It's no coincidence that the women go to the tomb early in the morning. Early in the morning, they see the sun come up and it says that God releases the Red Sea and it swallows up all the Egyptian army, right?

5:47 And just after that story, God defeats the largest military power of the day. You get Exodus chapter 15. And there's two sections in the first half of chapter, Exodus chapter 15 that repeat twice. And if you look at, if there's a heading on your version of Exodus chapter 15, it might say something like a song of Miriam or a song of Moses.

6:19 Then Moses and the people of Israel saying a song to the Lord when they get to the other side of the Red Sea and the Egyptians are dealt with and they are safe, they sing a song. I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. 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.

6:51 The Lord is his name. The song goes on, but then if you skip down in Exodus chapter 15 down to verse 21 or backing up to 19, for when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground. In the middle was the sea, then Miriam the prophetess,

7:23 the sister of Aaron took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines dancing. And Miriam sang to them, sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and rider thrown into the sea. And this is the section where he started talking. He couldn't stop himself. Our vocabulary word was bokeh, but he just kept going. That's why I loved vocabulary with Dr. Lessing. He starts by telling us bokeh, we just have bokeh.

7:55 And then he brings us to this story. And we get this whole thing about the early in the morning business. And then he gets to the Miriam, the song of Miriam, horse and rider, he has thrown into the street. The Lord, my God, my strength, my song, he has become my victory. And you have to remember that our scriptures come in the context of people, right? And so this English version that you have is probably a translation of the Masoretic Hebrew text, which the oldest Masoretic Hebrew text we have

8:26 is from like the 10th century, not that old. Compared to, we have some New Testament documents that date back into the first and second century, little fragments of the Gospels and things. And we have some Septuagint documents, even some Latin Vulgates that are, the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew text. The Latin Vulgate is a Latin version of the Greek version. We have both Latin Vulgate and Greek Septuagint texts

8:58 that are older than the Masoretic texts. But the Masoretic text is a Hebrew, unbroken in the Hebrew tradition. And so most people see it as the cleanest understanding of the oldest treatment. Now it's been supplemented by some fragments we have, like you've heard, maybe of the Dead Sea Scrolls and stuff. Those aren't complete Old Testament, but you have Old Testament books that are pulled out of there that predate the Masoretic text. But most of your stuff comes from the Masoretic. Why is, do I care about this?

9:29 Because when you start going deep into the story, the Old Testament has several different forms of Hebrew and Arabic languages in it. It's not all consistently the same Hebrew, because it's written in different eras, by different people, in different regions, affected by different empires. So most of it is Hebrew, but there is Arabic

10:01 and ancient Aramaic forms of language. This is why this gets cool here, right here. This business here where they re-quoted Miriam, where it says, sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider thrown into the sea. We just got done with this story. Early in the morning, they're crossing on dry ground. They celebrate, God has defeated, and Miriam sings. She grabs a tambourine, and all the women follow her. Think about Miriam for a second.

10:33 Miriam, remember that she's the brother of Moses. So she's a little bit older than Moses, his older sister. Of course, he's got Aaron also, but Aaron was able to survive and stay with the Israelites. So Aaron is a fair degree younger than Moses because he's after the genocide where they were killing all the boys, right. And so think about that then. Miriam is the oldest, right. And she's the one who followed Moses after her mom, reluctantly put him in the little basket

11:04 and throw him in the Nile. She's the one who had the courage to go speak to the Pharaoh's daughter and suggest that she could find a wet nurse for this baby that Pharaoh's daughter had rescued out of the Nile. She brought her back to her mom so that Moses was able to nurse with his mom until he was old enough to be weaned. She's the one. Miriam has been through it. She then when he came back, he wasn't gonna confront Pharaoh without Aaron, but you know that Miriam was caught up in that conversation

11:38 between her two brothers going back to deal with Pharaoh one time after the next. And when they were dealing with the plagues of locus and the frogs and the boils, everyone was coming to Miriam going, what are your brothers doing? They're making our life harder, not better. And she was the one having to figure that out and deal with it in the community. It's easier to talk to Miriam than to go deal with Aaron and Moses. They're like talking, they're getting commands from God and arguing with Pharaoh.

12:10 Meanwhile, Miriam is keeping everybody happy and in line, you know? And so when finally they get the release, then they go and now they survive miraculously the battle and everyone follows Miriam. When Miriam comes to sing, when she grabs the tambourine, everyone comes behind her. Later, you'll hear in numbers, she gets frustrated with Moses for the woman that he married and Miriam and Aaron together build a revolt

12:42 that calls down the condemnation of God, a big enough revolt because people will follow Miriam. I'm telling you this to say, when Dr. Lessing went through it, he said, you need to know this little section is the oldest, most ancient form of language there is in the Old Testament. He said, most people think this little section from Miriam sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider he has thrown into the sea is the first thing our people wrote down.

13:15 Because Miriam came up with this song of praise and they did not want to forget it. I love that. That the first thing we wrote down wasn't what we came to call the Ten Commandments. Wasn't a word of judgment. Was a song of praise from sweet Miriam.

13:56 I have told you about my grandma before. My mom, my dad's mom. My dad's dad was like a fourth generation Lutheran pastor. He passed it all throughout the Midwest, maybe five or six churches. When grandma got her knees replaced when she got, when they both were retired, he had to learn how to make toast. She just did everything for him. That kind of guy, right?

14:26 Really good guy, but just like a guy of the 50s, 60s. Grandma just quietly went around behind him and took care of everything. They had five kids. The joke was that grandma Miller could make anything out of the cap. She could make a soup out of anything in the cabinet. It was like, you'd get there, it didn't matter. You'd think you'd had no food. All of a sudden she'd have some tomato sliced on the table in front of you and a soup that was good.

14:56 And some bread. She's very resourceful. She also, when she got older, was sitting in front of a big window, they retired, and she was sitting in front of a window with a bird book, and they had set bird feeders outside, and she would keep track of all the birds and watch them tussle with each other. And she'd keep right next to her prayer journal. Every once in a while you get a call from grandma about what she could be praying for, and you wanted grandma praying for you. But while they were still working, when grandpa was pastoring,

15:26 he'd come for a week and a half every January. January, because it was the easiest time for him to come. And his main focus was hanging out, doing projects, we'd sock up on Miller Light when he came. And because he always had Miller Light at four o'clock. And then he would get a tan. He'd want to come back with a sunburn, so he could show his congregants in the Midwest that he had gone to Florida for two weeks. And that was kind of grandpa. He'd play cards every time. But grandma would put us to bed every night.

15:58 And she'd sing us this little song from Miriam. Anybody sing this song growing up? The Lord, my God, my strength, my song. Now he is my victory. The Lord is God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him, the Lord. Isn't that great? Like grandma Hazel in the tradition of Miriam. The reason this is one of my favorite verses

16:29 is like the thing we are caught up in is a story passed down from generations about the way things really are. About the nature of the world that we're in. About the character of God who spun us into existence. And grandmas have been telling grandchildren for generations. We have this kind of lauded historical book which we have fought over and defended, which we have separated over and created sex

17:03 and denominations and schools and rules. But in the end, it's grandmother's stories and songs singing about how great the God is, who comes through for you. I was thinking about that situation where God came through for Israel.

17:33 And it made me think of Hebrews 12. At first I was trying to think of like times in my life where I haven't had Egypt coming at me. But sometimes things are not easy.

18:03 Remember, I don't know if you remember, but there was a series of the Capital One commercials, you know, the What's in Your Wallet commercials? There was a series of them where they were like going scary. Like now they're kind of like funny. But there was a period of time like in the middle 2000s, like maybe six to eight or something where they were going scary. I remember one in particular, maybe it was like a cross promotion with Pirates of the Caribbean or something, but like it was like,

18:36 what's in your wallet? And the Pirates are coming for you, you know? And I had a weird thing with Capital One where they had like secretly given me all these fees. And sometimes it can feel like there's a financial position you can get yourself in where like danger is looming. Or there's a career spot you can back yourself in

19:09 to where it feels like catastrophe is coming. Or there's a member of your family that's put themselves in positions where you can't see a helpful or healthy way out. Like I haven't had Egypt coming at me, but I know what it feels like to go, I'm not sure how we're going to get out of this situation.

19:43 And that's what got me into Hebrews 12. Hebrews is towards the back of your Bible if anybody's using a paper version. That's one of the last Paul letters we get in there. We don't think Paul actually wrote it. It was probably one of his students. But Hebrews chapter 12, because I was thinking about this situation like I don't know what it takes like the first guy to step into the Red Sea,

20:13 whether that was Miriam or Aaron or who goes in there first, you know? But what a crazy situation. And the Israelites have a point like in their complaint. They have some validity there. Like hey man, the 10 plagues were kind of amazing and a little bit kind of laborious and drawn out. Couldn't you have done that faster or quicker or like if we knew that the 10th one was coming,

20:47 could you jump ahead to that? And now that you've got us out here, this is like, I mean you came through, but they didn't know he was coming through, but they're like, what is going on? Can you save us or not? Can you fix us or not? But then he does, right, of course. And so that's why we get the song. But that moment where it's like, did you bring, where there are not enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die,

21:18 looking at all the options on the table, that is the rational response. Like, that's the like logical, logical response, like, well this is it, pack it up, right? The best thing they did in complaining was that they complained to Moses. It would have been worse if they'd have complained just to each other, but not had the courage to complain to Moses.

21:49 Because Moses was their proxy to the God. And so when they got in a spot where they realized there's nothing they can do, at least they knew who to complain to. They knew to complain to Moses who was the proxy to God. And when you look at the story of Scripture and you find people that get in hard places, the best virtue they have is they complain to God. Because everybody gets in hard places.

22:22 Or they don't know the answer. This is like the weird thing. If you've thought back through your life and haven't got into a situation, or you don't know the way out, or you can't find the solution, there is more adventure for you. The one that got me when I thought, does everybody get into a hard place?

22:55 The one that got me is Jesus in Gethsemane. Where he is looking at like these jokers are going to kill me. Like I know we were always talking. I had a sense that I was going to sacrifice my life for everybody. But like I knew that would mean I would turn down when they want to make me king, right? But I did not know that are we sure we want to do it this way, he says. Because what it looks like right now is all I get is death.

23:27 Are we sure we want to do it this way? If you're saying I'm walking into the ocean, I'm walking into the ocean, right? Everybody comes up against challenge. And every time God comes through. I mean Jesus dies, and then God comes through.

24:01 But every time God comes through. And that's what got me to Hebrews 12 if you found it. Hebrews 12. Let's see where we should go in here. Oh right. So Hebrews 12 verse 1 first. Now assuming that you can recall the place where you didn't know what was next.

24:34 You had money challenges, career questions, family hardship. You had spots where you couldn't find what was next. Where you recognize you were between two hard places. The writer of Hebrews is talking to the Christians suggesting that they will find themselves in places like that. And then in Hebrews 12 verse 1 then says, Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

25:05 let us set aside every weight and sin which drags us down and let us run with endurance the rates set before us. The writer of Hebrews is suggesting that Miriam and all her tambourine friends and all the ones who have gone before. All the way down to Grandma Hazel who's running somewhere in a field grateful she can do that again. Is not gone but a great cloud gone before us.

25:39 Crossed the sea before us. Crossed the Jordan River before us. Walked through the cross of Calvary on their own. Now looking down and encouraging you. God always comes through every time. Since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with perseverance the rates set before us. And if you scoot forward to verse 12 in chapter 12 of Hebrews, How then shall we live in light of this assurance and the great cloud of witnesses.

26:12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. And make straight paths for your feet. So that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone. And for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

26:45 That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it so many become defiled. Look it is hard to figure out how to live faithfully in central Florida in 2025. There is a lot of cultural things that can be like what is the way forward here.

27:21 How do we find our way out here. The like several of us are in spots where it is hard to figure out the next career step. Lots of us are in spots where it is hard to figure out what is the next right response or stewardship of our family, our children, our parents. It is hard.

27:53 The testimony of Miriam the prophetess of Jesus and Grandma Hazel is that God comes through for his own in hard spots. That is the place where you look. And you ride with him the whole way. It is fascinating to me that none of the Israelites break off and try and make a treaty.

28:27 Maybe because they had seen all the plagues. They were ready to just walk into the Red Sea. But they all take the risk and go in with God. They follow the God. Jesus, when he is in the garden, has lots of options and takes the one with the God, though it brings him death. What the writer of Hebrews is trying to encourage you is that you exist in a long line.

29:01 If you were to read through Hebrews chapter 11, it talks through a long line of people who have chosen faith in hard places and God has met them. He says, these people have gone before you now. You stand in the line and the tradition of people for whom God has come through. Now then, bet on God. In easy times and hard times. Bet on God. Manage your life in a way that would suggest to yourself and those around you that there is a king and it is not you.

29:38 To whom you owe to legions and with whom all of your future is staked. Bet on God. In hard places and easy, like Miriam and Jesus and grandma Hazel. Bet on God. Let me pray. Hey Lord, thank you for this room and for what you have done for us collectively and individually. We love you. To just to love you well in a way that follows you wholeheartedly in easy times and hard that we would bet on you.

30:11 In places of confusion that we would look to you. In places of powerlessness that we would trust in you. To steward resources that we would follow you. To steward authority and influence we would listen to you. Lord, make us people who bet on you today and tomorrow and in the weeks to come. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.