Exodus 15 · The Lantern

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.

It is said in the ode, "For he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he cast into the sea." The many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted, who gives reigns to pleasures, "he has cast into the sea," throwing them away into the disorders of the world.

Our motive in going over all this, dearly beloved brethren, is that we may be on our guard, for fear that, after coming out from Egypt and hastening through the desert for forty days—for forty years, as it were—to reach the land of promise, we should long for the fleshpots of Egypt and be bitten to death by the serpents.

"For he has been gloriously extolled" who has already granted us in the bath of regeneration what we have been singing about: "horse and rider he has cast into the sea." All our past sins, you see, which have been pressing on us, as it were, from behind, he has drowned and obliterated in baptism.

The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name.

Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

"The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has cast into the sea, the chosen riders, the three officers he has sunk in the Red Sea." Pharaoh, as one more powerful in wickedness and holding the kingdom of iniquity, drives "chariots." It is not enough for him to mount one horse; he drives many at once, he compels many at once with the blows of the twisted lash.

And the worldly pride and arrogance and the troops of innumerable sins which were fighting for the devil in us, he obliterated in baptism.

"The elite of his officers, who were standing three deep, he submerged in the Red Sea." Who are the elite of his officers? Surely those chosen by the devil for luxury, wickedness and pride, the source of all evil. Moreover, these, standing three deep, occupy those three ways in order to subvert man to evil deeds, to tempt him to evil speech or to win him to evil thoughts.

The depths have covered them; they sank there like a stone.

Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.

You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.

At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

You stretched out Your right hand, and the earth swallowed them up.

With loving devotion You will lead the people You have redeemed; with Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.

The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

and terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone until Your people pass by, O LORD, until the people You have bought pass by.

You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance— the place, O LORD, You have prepared for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established.

The LORD will reign forever and ever!”

For when Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

"The prophetess Miriam took.…" How did she become a prophetess? Either, like Isaiah's wife, she had the honorary title of prophecy, although she was not a prophetess, or because she was just a woman.

And Miriam taking the timbrel led the dances with maidenly modesty. But consider whom she was then prefiguring. Was she not a type of the church, who as a virgin with unstained spirit joins together the religious gatherings of the people to sing divine songs?

This name is related to prophecy and salutary to those reborn. It is the badge of virginity, the glory of purity, the indication of chastity, the sacrificial gift of God, the height of hospitality, the sum total of sanctity. Rightly therefore is this motherly name that of the mother of Christ.

And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)

So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,

saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the waters.

After this it says that: "they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees". Do you suppose it has no reason that the people is not led first "to Elim", where "there were twelve fountains of waters", in which there was no bitterness, but rather where there was very great pleasantness from the density of the palms, but is led first to sal…

When the people of God went out from Egypt, their sixth resting place, in which "there were twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees," was called Elim (that is, "of rams"), so that both by its name and by its appearance it might contain the figure of the apostles and the apostolic men.

Again, you can multiply the four cardinal virtues by the three theological, and then there are twelve: for prudence must be faithful, trusting, and loving; and so it is with the others. And they are represented by the twelve springs, the twelve gems in the High Priest's vestment, and the twelve doors of the City.

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