Exodus 15:13-21 – God’s purpose is for us to experience His presence

More than showing who Moses and the people thought God was, the song they sang also sought to praise Him for what He had done. In Exodus 15:13-18, this song specifically demonstrates what He purposed to do for His redeemed people. God’s purpose in saving them was highlighted. He acted specifically by leading them with His mercy and love and kept them in His covenant love. The goal was to guide them to His holy habitation or presence. The loving-kindness of God mentioned in verse 13 shows us how absolutely loyal God truly is. Here He proved His love for the Israelites by faithfully keeping His promise. Everything they had experienced was entrenched by the love of God. He kept His promise and brought them out of slavery. And He would be leading them into the land He had promised to give them.

As Moses and the people praised God, the prophet began to look into the future and expressed confidence that God would lead them in the journey forward. The path they would take into Canaan was traced. He saw how God would defeat their enemies. Exodus 15:14-16 outlined in advance what God eventually did in the book of Joshua as follows:

“The peoples have heard, they tremble;
Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia.
“Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;
The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
Terror and dread fall upon them;
By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone;
Until Your people pass over, O Lord,
Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.”

God did not act randomly. He acted with love to keep His people with specificity as the enemy in Canaan would be defeated one by one. He would bring them into the land and help them to conquer it. God’s ultimate purpose was to bring the people He brought out to live with Him. The mountain of inheritance was referring to Mount Zion and the city of Jerusalem where God called His dwelling place. In the Bible, Mount Zion and Jerusalem are references to God’s presence. We can see from these verses that God’s whole intention was that His people could come into His presence and enjoy Him. This is not just God’s plan for the Israelites but an indication of His plan for all of us. He wants us to come into His presence and enjoy His love. The climax of the song was for the people of God to experience His reign forever and ever. That was how Moses concluded in verse 18 saying, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever.”  

As we reflect on this song of Moses, we can’t help but see a great God worthy of our praise and worship. He is the eternal and all-powerful God. He is a God of love and loyalty, seen in His faithfulness in keeping the covenant He had made with the people. He is the kind of God that we cannot afford to do without. And He will see us through till we experience His divine presence. He is all we should ever want and need. If we are to experience Him in all His fulness there is no way to do so but to personally enter into a relationship with Him. Let us make Him our strength and our song. Moses made it a point to enter into an experience of a personal relationship with God. What about us? We must make this great and glorious God our strength and our song, and He shall become our victory. It was for this reason that Miriam, Moses’ sister, also responded with timbres and dancing, inviting us to “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted.”!