Based upon Exodus 15: 1-21.
Preached by Charles J.
Tomlin,
on July 11th 2021
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist
Partnership
Series: The Roots of God’s
Justice 14/20
Exodus 15:1–21 (NRSV): Then
Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord, for
he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown
into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and
my might, and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will
praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a warrior; the
Lord is his name.
4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his
army he cast into the sea;
his picked officers were sunk
in the Red Sea.
5 The floods covered them; they
went down into the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, O Lord,
glorious in power—
your right hand, O Lord,
shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your
majesty you overthrew your adversaries;
you sent out your fury, it
consumed them like stubble.
8 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.
9 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.’
10 You blew with your wind,
the sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the
mighty waters.
11 “Who is like you, O Lord,
among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in
holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your
right hand, the earth swallowed them.
13 “In your steadfast love
you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your
strength to your holy abode.
14 The peoples heard, they
trembled; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Then the chiefs of Edom
were dismayed; trembling seized the leaders of Moab;
all the inhabitants of Canaan
melted away. 16 Terror and dread fell upon them;
by the might of your arm,
they became still as a stone
until your people, O Lord,
passed by,
until the people whom you
acquired passed by.
17 You brought them in and
planted them on the mountain of your own possession, the place, O Lord, that
you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that
your hands have established.
18 The Lord will reign
forever and ever.”
19 When the horses of
Pharaoh with his chariots and his chariot drivers went into the sea, the Lord
brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Israelites walked through
the sea on dry ground.
20 Then the prophet
Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went
out after her with tambourines and with dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to
them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown
into the sea.”
Some
people look at something extraordinary and will then write it off as just
another ordinary event.
Case
and Point: A certain comedian was an
avid baseball fan, but every other sport to him was just a bore. One afternoon, when a friend took him to see a
football game, the comedian watched the action on the field with total
disinterest. Suddenly, in the second
half of the game, the crowd came to its feet when a punt receiver ran the ball
almost the entire length of the field.
"Did
you see that?" the friend screamed. "He carried the ball ninety
yards!"
"So,"
the comedian shrugged. He said, ‘I’m not
impressed, it isn’t heavy.’ (Adjusted
from Barbara Brokoff)
Now
that’s will take the wind out of your sails!
But today, I want to try to put some ‘wind’ back into your sails, as we
come to the final section of messages from this series on Micah 6:8, ‘What
the Lord Requires?”
In the first
part of our journey, we looked into lives of Old Testament people who were
‘doers’ of justice. Justice flows out of God’s desire for us is to
be free to be who we are created to be but in a broken world, doing justice and
living righteously isn’t automatic, so we must pursue it.
Secondly,
we also spoken about ‘loving mercy’ as God loves mercy. In order to pursue justice in this world, we also
understand that God is for us, not against us.
Our God, the true God of the biblical tradition, is love and this is why
God calls us to live righteously and seek justice; God loves us. But God also, calls us to love mercy not
only in our own behalf, but in behalf of others too. Our loving, merciful God is a missionary God
and he calls us to be a missionary people whose mission is to do justice through
acts of gracious and merciful love.
Today,
we come to the final part, which is foundational to both doing justice and
loving mercy. Micah describes this is as
‘walking humbly with your God’.
In the next six messages we will use stories of Old Testament Bible
characters to help us understand what it means to ‘walk with God humbly,
so that we will do more than what we want, but that we will walk with God in
ways that we do what God wants: do justice that loves mercy.
Before
we get to our text for today, if you take a closer look at the context of
Micah’s words, you’ll see that Micah’s understanding of justice and everything
about mercy, begins with ‘the LORD’ (6:1) who is God. Remember,
when Micah speaks these words about doing justice, loving mercy, and
walking humbly with God, the context is a courtroom where the prophet
Micah has envisioned the LORD taking his people to court before the mountains
(6: 1-2). In Micah’s own words, the Lord has a case against his own people because
the faithful have disappeared (7:2) and the people pervert justice
(7:3) as they have become very skilled in devising and doing
evil (7:1) in how they live (2:1ff). They ‘hate the good’ (3:2) and don’t love
and trust each other, even in their own families (7: 5-6). They’ve even learned to love the evil they
are doing to each other (3:2).
The
Lord’s case against his own people was full proof. They were on trial for both the evil they
have done, as well as, the good they have failed to do. The evil that permeated Israel, like the
evil that quickly overtake any nation, is moral, but it’s also a spiritual. In other words, the reason Israel has succumbed
to perverting justice and loving evil is, as Micah says, they have learned to ‘walk
haughtily’ (2:3) and have failed to ‘walk uprightly’ (2:7) leaving right
‘paths (4: 2) and walking with ‘a god’ (4:5) but not walking
humbly with their God, who is the Lord (4:5, 6:8).
So,
the Lord has a case against his own people, and allows judgement to come upon
them because they learned to love injustice and failed to show love and mercy
to each other.
But
how does this requirement relate to us, today, in our own lives? Does God still require us to do justice,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Our God? We’ve answered ‘yes, of course’ by studying
what the Torah, the most basic law of God says about doing justice and loving
mercy. Of course, we must still ‘do
justice’ in our world. Of course, we
must still love mercy. How
terrible would it be to have to live in a world without both fairness (justice)
or forgiveness (mercy)? Any person who
can reason and think it through, knows that Micah speaks with wisdom here.
But
what about ‘walking humbly with OUR God’? What can, does, and should this mean in a science-based,
high tech world like ours, where it’s not only ‘their’ God who is now questioned,
but it’s also OUR own God, the God of the Jews and Christians, and now the
Muslims too, who is being held in question and great doubt. Thus, the question constantly before us isn’t
just ‘who’ is God and how should we ‘walk’ before him, but is there a
God at all? Just like it was in Micah’s day, the question
of God asks ‘will we walk through life ‘haughtily’ (2:3) living as the
song says ‘My way’? Or, will we walk in
life, as Micah says is required of us, with
humility singing the alternative: ‘I did it God’s way!” Our finally messages will attempt to answer:
Does the humility required in walking with God make any real difference in my
life or for the world?
This
very symbolic picture of ‘singing’ life, ‘my way’, like Frank Sinatra used to
sing, or singing your life in the alternative ‘God’s way’ connects us with
today’s text from Exodus. Here in
Exodus 15, we find both the extensive Song of Moses along with the very
brief, Song of Miriam. The ‘songs’ appear in the Exodus story, as music of celebration just after the
Israelites passed through the dry seabed and escaped from Pharaoh’s armies (Ex.
14:1ff).
After
being released from years of oppression in Egyptian slavery, Moses and his
sister Miriam broke out in song and celebration ‘to the LORD’. This
is where ‘walking humbly with God begins! We begin to walk with the LORD when we learn
how to SING TO THE LORD! (15: 1,
21). And singing to the LORD begins, as I suggested
at the beginning of this message, when we SEE or experience something that is extraordinary
that is ‘for us’ and not ‘against us’.
SEE: THE PROPHET MIRIAM...
The
humble walk with God, at least in the Exodus, begins really with Miriam, not
with Moses; and do you know why?
Notice that it is Miriam who is named the Lord’s Prophet (15: 20),
long before Moses was (Deut. 18: 14; 34: 10).
Another
interesting tidbit, if you should call it that, is you’ll notice that the
chorus in Moses song is basically the same as the small little chorus that
Miriam sang. That short little chorus found
in both their songs goes: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumph gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea” (15: 1; 15: 21). (Yes, I realize it sounds violent and
cruel. One Jewish commentary says, today
we should have preferred another ending, but this was a real, dramatic expression
of relief from great suffering and pain at the hands of their masters).
Now,
back to what it most important to note? Moses’
chorus and Miriam’s are almost the same.
So, who wrote it? Well, it appeares
first and looks like it came Moses and was seconded by his sister. But, look again, in the Hebrew in English too, Miriam’s words give the command in the
imperative: SING! Moses’ words
are more like obeying the command in present action: I WILL SING!. Do you see it? It comes first by Moses in the text because
Moses is the leader, but Moses looks like’s answering what his big sister
wrote!
Jewish
writers also remind us It was Miriam who watched to see where the
basket went when his mother put him in a basket to float down the Nile, in
hopes of saving his life from Pharaoh’s killing spree. When Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the basket,
it was Miriam who then bravely approached her (risking her life too) to suggest
she could find a Hebrew woman to be his wetnurse. Of course, that wetnurse who nursed and
raised the child for Pharaoh’s daughter was Moses’ mother herself (2: 1-10).
Why am I
revisiting this story? Because I want
you not only to understand that Miriam was Moses’ big sister, I also want you
to see how daringly courageous Miriam was too.
This is important, because just like Miriam took charge in helping to
save her little brother, Miriam steps up again after God’s mighty deliverance
of the people. This is why, Jewish
scholars, who have studied this Song of Moses intensively, say that Miriam’s
song isn’t just an ‘Amen’ to Moses’ song, but this is an ancient way of signing
her name at end of the song. Moses song
is Miriam’s ‘signature’ moment.
Perhaps
this is why, also in this text Miriam is named a prophet, long before
Moses. Miriam is one of 7 women named
prophets in the Old Testament and appears as a prophet second only to Abraham. So, it was Miriam, as well as Moses, who were
working together, teaching the people; Moses teaching the men and Miriam
teaching the women, Jewish sages say.
They worked together leading the people in their journey with the LORD. And if the ancient Jewish interpreters are
right; it was Miriam, who first SAW what God was doing through her little
brother Moses, and she was the first to fully ACKNOWLEDGE not only what she saw
happening, but she also ACKNOWLEDGED who IS THIS GOD who causes such a
wonderful thing to happen.
Isn’t
this what makes a prophet, a prophet?
The word prophet itself, comes from the Hebrew word Na’bi’ (with ah,
fem), ‘to speak’ or to ‘become a ‘spokesman’. Later on in the Old Testament a prophet was also
understood as one who spoke for God because they could SEE (Heb. Ro’Eh, 1
Sam 22:5) or envision what God wanted them to see. So, the
original idea of prophet goes back to Aaron being a spokesman, like a prophet
for Moses (Ex. 7:1), but now, Miriam is a ‘spokesperson’, but not for Moses,
but for God.
Now,
how does one get to be a ‘Na’bi’? ---a speaker for God? That’s what we need to think about first of
all, as we think about walking with God.
As the Hebrew Old Testament story continues, it will say in a more
official terms that you can’t really be a true ‘speaker’ for God, like Samuel, Elijah,
Isaiah, Micah, or Jeremiah and other were, until you also become a kind of ‘seer’
( 1 Sam. 9: 2) of God. This means being a
‘seer’ of what God sees and what God is doing. ‘Seeing’, which should probably be translated
by us as having a certain kind of mature, spiritual ‘understanding’, becomes
the office, job, or qualification of being a true prophet of the Lord. Later, Moses himself dreamed of a day, like
the New Testament day, and our day too, when ALL God’s people have the
possibility and potential to be prophets, or to speak prophetically
(Num. 11:29) because they ‘see’ clearly what God is doing in their lives and in
the world (Num 11:23).
The
importance of this little bible lesson is to remind us, that walking with the
LORD, first and foremost, is to be able to ‘see’ and to ‘understand’ what God wants
to do his good of justice and mercy through us in the world. If your recall, the major way that Jesus
explained God’s will was through parables, or stories. Jesus also explained why he spoke in stories
or parables (Matt. 13:10ff). He spoke so
his listeners could ‘see’ or ’hear’ what was happening in those stories and
would be better able to understand what God wanted them to do in the
world. But Jesus also explained that he
spoke in parable so that those who didn’t want to see or hear, wouldn’t understand
(Matt. 13:13). Do you see the
connection? Walking with God, whether
it was in the time of Moses and Miriam, or it was in the time of Jesus, was
about seeing and understanding what God was doing or wanted to do through us and
in us, IN OUR WORLD.
SING: I WILL
SING
So
Miriam is prophet who ‘saw’ what God had done, and most likely she is the one who
wrote the song that enabled Moses and the people to answer: “I will Sing!”. Together they taught the Israelites how put
God’s music back into their world. This
is what a prophets and prophetesses do; and this is what a prophetic people are
to do too. It’s what the people of God
do, the church must do in our own real ‘music’ starved world. Our walk with God begins by seeing God’s
presence at work in our own lives and singing God’s music back into the hurting
world, that can become hungry for justice and mercy.
When
I think of this Song of Celebration, I think of the wonder of music in all our
worship. Isn’t it amazing that while we
come together to hear the word preached, the word preached falls lifeless
unless we join with our hearts in singing the true, saving, and redeeming music
of soul, heart, and mind. As worship is our response to God’s goodness
and grace, while the sermon in worship explains why we sing, and how we can
have music in our souls and spirits, it is through song, music, and as in
Miriam’s case, through dance too, that the people do the ‘work’ of worshiping
and responding to God in song, answering, like Moses does, because we too are
responding to God’s justice and mercy by walking with God with humble hearts.
When
I think of how we directly connect our hearts with God with music and song, I
can’t help but think of the role music especially plays when we celebrate the
two highest days of the church year, at Christmas and at Easter. Who can ever dare imagine Christmas without
Christmas Carols and Music. When we
start singing those old songs and hymns, the kind of songs that most people don’t
sing any other time of year, we start connecting our hearts not only with the timeless
message in the songs, but also with the warm experiences of Christmas in our
past; as children, with family and friends, gathered together in a spirit of
expectation, hope, and love. Isn’t this
what music does. It connects our hearts
to what life means and what we all hope for?
What Miriam and Moses are singing in
this great moment, is the celebration of walking with this God who saves,
delivers, and gives us hope of life now and forever. I realize that many people today have other ‘music’
in their lives; but it’s this kind of ‘soul’ music that really matters. It’s the music that connects us with the
source of hope, peace, and of course, love.
Although
more and more people have disconnected themselves from this life source of ‘song’
that helps put music into our souls and lives,
I wonder, more and more, if we, like Israel in Micah’s day, have waited
too late to realize what we have lost?
Just before the last election, I
heard talk like I’ve never heard before, questioning ‘whether or not this
president will step down peaceably, if he loses (which he said he would), or
the other talk that saying that ‘if this president didn’t get re-elected, there
may be violence in the streets. At
least the New Media were reporting that certain cities were already preparing,
just in case.
Now,
we might write this off as “Fake news”, especially if the violence doesn’t
materialize, but what I’m hearing reported on or suggested hasn’t happened in
my life before. In a world where people
care less about the ‘music of the soul’ are we, as a people in this nation, as
Micah says, becoming more ‘skilled at devising evil’ in the world and
learning to ‘love the evil more than the good?’ Would we rather sing a song of violence,
division and hate, than a song of justice, mercy, and humility in God?
SAY: ‘FOR HE HAS TRIUMPH GLORIOUSLY
Interestingly,
the reason that Moses and Miriam are leading the celebration over Pharaoh, was that
the ‘victory’ belonged to God and to the Lord, not to the strength of human
weapons or ways. This is the true way and
the best way to victory, or at least it was for Moses, Miriam and the
people? What was God’s way, and walking
humbly with God the best way? The answer
comes clearly in both Moses’ life and in Miram’s life too. If you read the full story, Moses was a
human being who could either get ahead of God or become hotheaded, being more
destructive than constructive. Also,
Miriam too, as you can read about later, came to criticize Moses’ marriage a
foreign Cushite woman, and for this God punished her with a serious skin
disorder, the text tells us.
Just
like us, both Moses and Miram, although humble and good servants of God, they
can be SINGING to the LORD one minute,
and then SINNING against the Lord in the next.
We aren’t God, so we need God. That’s
what ‘walking humbly’ with the LORD means, that without God’s presence and
promise in our lives, instead of making music as food for the soul, we can end
up making life one, big mess.
This
is why the song we sing through life, needs to be the message God gives us to speak
and say, through both his justice and his love of mercy. This is why the ‘redeemed of the Lord’ need
not only to SING so, but we also need to SAY So. In our song, in the music of our lives, we
need to point to the God whom we all need; who is beyond all of us, but wants
to live is life among us, by living his justice and mercy through us. We begin to humbly walk with God when come
to this point when we realize who God is because we also know who we are. And we aren’t God.
Do you realize
YOUR need of God, who can guide, redeem, and save you, not only from the evil
powers in the world, but also the evil powers than can sometimes get into me
and you? Recently, we all experienced the
downfall of Roger Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News, along with Bill O’Reilly,
and others who had created a toxic working environment for new women and men
too. A recent historical, but
controversial re-enactment of that story, depicted how two women especially,
Gretchen Carlton and Megan Kelly, were pivotal in exposing all the negative and
dangerous powers that were at work behind the scenes. In one moment near the end of this
Movie, Roger Ailes is shown appealing to
Fox News owner Rupert Murdock, to appear with him, helping him to maintain some
kind of dignity as he is appoint to be fired for good. In making his appeal, Ailes reminds Murdock, “I
build your Network! I made 1/3 of all
the money! Won’t you at least stand with
me? To this appeal, the powerful
Murdock gives a simple, but firm answer!
“No!”
That’s what the lure of the world’s
power, money, and success can do to a person who, as Micah says, ends up
walking haughtily, rather than learning how to ‘walk humbly with the LORD’. Folks, in the end, it’s not CNN verses
FOX, Democrat verse Republican, nor is it even SINNER verses SAINT. Can you hear this’ “NO!
In the end it’s us deciding either to walk humbly with God or to try to
walk haughtily on our own, and we should see and say where that finally ends
up. This is why we need to wait on and
to SING a different tune in life. This
is why we need to SING the Lord’s song, as the Bible says over and over. As both Miriam and Moses sing, only through
him, through the LORD and in his victory,
not our own success, can we learn to sing the song that ends in final, glorious
triumph. Amen.
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