Allow me to digress in order to progress. To occupy ourselves with song as we stroll along our way is not an unusual occurrence. For instance:
Upon leaving the love of his teenage years during the late 60s, many young men could be heard singing,
“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day; when its cold outside, I’ve got the month of May. Well, I guess you say, ‘What can make me feel this way?’ My girl. Talking ‘bout my girl. My girl!
And then while working in the yard, tending the flowerbed or raking leaves or mowing the lawn, and contemplating how far the Lord has bought us, some have been heard singing,
“I thank You Jesus; I thank You Jesus, I thank You Lord; for You brought me from a mighty long way.”
And then some of us, while walking alone in the shadows of a dark night, thinking about the dangers that might lurk in the darkness to engulf us, could be heard singing,
“Walk with me, Lord. Walk with me; walk with me, Lord; walk with me. All along this tedious journey, I want Jesus to walk with me.”
And many a preacher/pastor, when facing a hostile crowd of church members, have been heard singing from their seat to the pulpit,
“I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord. Stay Thou near by. I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee. Every hour, I need Thee. So bless me now, my Savior. I come to Thee.”
So to occupy ourselves with song as we stroll along our way is not an unusual occurrence.
But if you would look again at the first three words of verse 1 of chapter 15, you will find an uncharacteristic phrase: “Then SANG MOSES ….” If the commencement of that verse had read, “Then Spoke Moses,” or “Then Prophesied Moses,” or “Then Prayed Moses,” perhaps we would have read it and paid no attention to it. For characteristically, Moses would Speak as the mouthpiece of God and as the representative of the people. Characteristically, Moses would Pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob on behalf of the nation. So if that verse would have read “Then Said or Prayed Moses,” it probably would not have grabbed our attention.
But it does not say, Then Said Moses, but THEN SANG MOSES!!! And that, my friends, is an unusual occurrence! Nowhere else in Scripture do we find this phrase or any hint that Moses ever Sang again. Only here is recorded the startling words of THEN SANG MOSES! We need to really look at this! For, I submit to us that, the Singing of Moses Signals the Sign of Something Significant!!!
Let me just take a few moments to explain why I chose to use the term Sign instead of miracle or wonder. All three of these are actually synonyms one for the other. Beyond that, they have a different nuance in terms of emphasis. All three can be describing the same event and yet God is teaching us three different truths.
As an example, one of the writers describes the man on the side of the road who was born blind; and it may be described as a miracle in one passage or referred to in another as a sign and still another may refer to it as a wonder. And the reason is because the word “miracle” has to do with the objective reality of the supernatural, supermundane, and super-terrestrial activity of God invading the natural order of things and bringing out His desire and design in them. Irrespective of what others think about it, it’s just God acting through His own sovereignty.
In other words, when we look around and see it, it is already a miracle. But when I observed that same event from a subjective conclusion, then it is no longer a miracle; it is then a “wonder.” Which simply means this: When I look at the miracle that God has performed, I wonder how it was done. That’s why it is a wonder; because that’s speaking out of my own subjective experience or the eye of the beholder of the miracle in the Bible. So when one describes what God has done, he describes it as a wonder; but when it was what God had done, it was described as a miracle.
And so the reason I am using the word “sign” is because with every miracle, the first thing that God wants us to recognize is the fact that we are not to focus on the miracle anymore than we focus on a sign.
As an example, I leave Lubbock and the sign on the side of Highway 119 says Levelland is 19 miles, I don’t hop on the sign and think I’ve arrived. When you get hungry this evening and you see a sign that says Furr’s Cafeteria or Burger King’s, you don’t hop on the sign. The reason is because the sign is pointing to something inside or something farther on down the road.
So whenever we come across a miracle in the Bible such as feeding of the 5,000, you don’t focus on the miracle, because they got hungry the next day. So if it didn’t last for them you know it will be of no value to us. Save for the fact that wherever there is a miracle in the Bible, you just keep on reading a verse or two and you will get the message. And it’s the message that’s permanent, not the miracle. When He fed the hungry multitude with two fish and five loaves of bread, He did take bread and break it but when you keep reading you will hear Him say, “I am the bread of life.” Now that’s what’s important. It’s the message behind the miracle.
And whenever we observe that message behind the miracle and describe it as a wonder, then the wonder will always be a witness to what God has done. And the reason we need the witness to the wonder is because the sign is pointing to our salvation. And since the Sign of Moses’ Singing points to our Salvation or Deliverance from some Present Danger, I thought it would be helpful if we could find out When did Moses Sing?
Did Moses sing when, at the Burning Bush, Jehovah revealed to him that that unspeakable Name of I AM THAT I AM and sent him to bring His people out of Egyptian bondage?
Did he sing after he cast down his rod before Pharaoh and it became a serpent and consumed the rods of Pharaoh’s magicians?
Or did he sing when God sent plague after plague, after plague after plague upon the Egyptians but spared the children of Israel?
Or did he sing when the blood was sprinkled over the door-posts of the houses of the children of Jacob while the Death-Angel walked thru the streets of Egypt killing all the first-born of the Egyptians?
Or did he sing that glorious morning of their deliverance from bondage when they started out as freed men on their trek to liberation?
I tell you, NO! The context of Chapter 14 informs us that He Sang on the heels of the Lord’s great deliverance of Israel from the grip of Pharaoh and his army. After the Lord had caused the waters of the
Red Sea to stand up like a mighty giant on both sides until Israel made it safely to the other side, and then at the stretching forth of Moses’ hands over the sea caused the waters to rush back in place drowning the army of Pharaoh therein,
THEN SANG MOSES!!! AZ YAW-SHEER’ MO-SHEH’
He reserved His Singing: ... when their Past was Covered in a flood of mercy and their Future was Laid Bare in a vision of grace, THEN MOSES SANG!
WHEN THE LORD WAS SHOWN TO BE SOVEREIGN OVER MONARCHS, GOVERNOR OVER GOVERNMENTS AND MASTER OVER NATURE, THEN SANG MOSES!
WHEN WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION WERE SMASHED, MILITARY MIGHT WAS MITIGATED AND TECHNOLOGY WAS DROWNED, THEN SANG MOSES!
As I have already hinted at, Moses is not known for having a melodious voice or a career as a songster. He is not known for singing so powerfully as to cause goose-bumps to cover the surface of the skin. He
could not play as anointedly as David, causing evil spirits to flee; or sing as skillfully as Jeduthun, the chief Musician, or minister thru song and music as melodiously as a modern-day Richard Smallwood. But as a response to witnessing the salvation of the Lord, HE SANG! Moses is not known for having a melodious voice or a career as a songster.
And that ought to suggest to us, regardless of our singing savvy or musical ineptitude, that following every Divine Deliverance should be Personal Praise!!!
The Lord’s Working should be accompanied by our Worship!
Deliverance should trigger Applause.
Salvation should signal SINGING.
So, ‘THEN SANG MOSES!’ AZ YA-SHEER’ MO-SHEH’
Need I remind you that MOSES HAD A SPEECH IMPEDIMENT! You remember what Moses said to the Lord in Exodus 4:10, don’t you. He said to the Lord, “I am not eloquent (or an the original Hebrew read, a man of words), ….: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
Oh, when Moses Sang, it must have Moved the Nation! When Moses Sang, it must have tuned up the hearts of the people; because verse 1 also says that “the children of Israel also sang this song unto the Lord.” I must interject here that the word translated “children” in the KJV is really “the men” or “male descendants of Israel.” For the Hebrew word “be-ne’” is masculine plural, which means the men or the male children.
When Moses Sang, it also stirred the heart of his older sister Miriam; for verse 20 says that Miriam “took a timbrel (a tambourine) in her hand,” and said to the women in verse 21 “Sing ye to the Lord.” The Holy Spirit empowered her to form the first Women’s Choir and Dance Company in Israel!!!
HE SANG: because the Lord had triumphed gloriously! ki ga’oh ga’aw. He doesn’t just Win, He does it in a spectacular and breath-taking way. He not only defeats our foes; he annihilates them ... He breaks their bow, destroys their chariots, drowns their horses and covered them in a flood. . . Not A Trace Is Left!
Look at Calvary! He not only Triumphed, but Triumphed Gloriously!
I think I better end this message now. For I feel Praise coming into this House. I feel Worship breaking out in Here. I feel Dancing breaking Loose in Here.
I feel like somebody wants to Git Their Praize On!
If the Lord has moved you from a Maid to a Matron, you ought to make some Music.
If He has shifted you from a Slave to a Son, you ought to Sing!
Salvation Signals a Song.
Deliverance Dictates Dance.
Redemption ought to Raise Some Praise!!!
Get on up now, and Git Yo’ Praize ON!!!
Sing to the Lord!!!
LET HIM BE GOD IN YOUR PRAISE!
LET HIM BE GOD IN YOUR WORSHIP!
LET HIM BE GOD IN GRATITUDE!
LET GOD BE GOD IN YOUR PRAISE!!!
