1Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said,
“I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously.
He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.
2Yah is my strength and song.
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him;
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3Yahweh is a man of war.
Yahweh is his name.
4He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea.
His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.
5The deeps cover them.
They went down into the depths like a stone.
6Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power.
Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces.
7In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you.
You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.
8With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up.
The floods stood upright as a heap.
The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder.
My desire will be satisfied on them.
I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy them.’
10You blew with your wind.
The sea covered them.
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12You stretched out your right hand.
The earth swallowed them.
13“You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed.
You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.
14The peoples have heard.
They tremble.
Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.
15Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed.
Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab.
All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16Terror and dread falls on them.
By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone,
until your people pass over, Yahweh,
until the people you have purchased pass over.
17You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance,
the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in:
the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established.
18Yahweh will reign forever and ever.”
19For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. 20Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. 21Miriam answered them,
“Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously.
He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.”
22Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah. 24The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them. 26He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
27They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.
This is a short chapter of just eight verses. In these, we see that the number seven is used seven times. Seven is God’s number for completion. What is to take place is the total completion of God’s wrath on the earth. The word used here for “wrath” in Greek is a powerful word. It is (θυμός – thymos/thumos). You can recognize it in the word “thermos,” which means “heat.” It is something beyond mere anger. It is unusual. It speaks of a passionate, overwhelming “flash point”, an explosive kind of anger. It is a seething, boiling, burning kind of anger. The text tells us that in these plagues, the wrath of God is “complete”. Interestingly, the word “complete” is related to tetelestai [God’s work of redemption is done], the last word Jesus uttered from the cross. The word used here is ἐτελέσθη (etelesthe), meaning that in these judgments God’s wrath will be perfected, finished, and completed. God’s judgment will be over. God will vindicate His people.
John looks into heaven and sees all the saints of God as victorious. That’s all the believers in Jesus throughout history, standing on a sea of what looks like water mixed with fire. He sees the saints of God standing victoriously above all of humanity. They are on something “like” a sea of glass and fire, and they are holding harps. I think the description of “fire” describes what these saints have been through. They are standing victoriously, having passed the test. The mention of harps is interesting to me. I guess this is where the idea of people sitting around in heaven playing harps comes from. And they are having a great big huge praise and worship service. Two or three songs of Moses are recorded in the Torah and the Ketuvim. We find a song of Moses in Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 32, and Moses also wrote Psalms 90. One song of Moses is recorded as being sung after the children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea. The song begins, “I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.” Moses sings of God’s faithfulness in triumphing over the enemies of God and His people. (see Exodus 15:11).
God will indeed avenge the blood of His servants. He will avenge the blood of righteous Gentiles along with His own righteous people. This revenge is part of what is happening during the time of these bowls of wrath. John sees seven angels clothed in bright linen coming out of the temple's inner shrine. This is the place where the Ark of the Covenant is housed. Each of these seven angels is given a bowl of wrath. The presence of God saturates the temple in smoke and glory and will remain so until the end of the wrath is completed. I have to admit, when I read this, all I could think about was that scene from Indiana Jones: “In Search of the Lost Ark”. The Nazis have tried to use the Ark to somehow harness the power of God in their quest for evil. When they get out in the desert and open the Ark, holy angels come out of it, clothed in linen robes, and they annihilate the Nazi goons. These plagues, these bowls of wrath, are God pulling out all the stops. These seven angels came out of the area where not only the Ark of the Covenant was placed, but where the Menorah, the Showbread Table, and the Altar of Incense rested (Exodus 35-40). Reader, the only normative instruction to be found in this passage is that we don’t want to experience anything of the wrath of God. In Scripture, you and I are given repeated opportunities to avoid the wrath of God. It is in accepting Jesus and His work on the cross that the wrath of God passes over us. He that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 paraphrased).