The Song of Moses and the Lamb
I love to sing. It is something I used to do well, and it helped me pay my way through college. As I age, my singing has deteriorated, but it is still something I enjoy, particularly when singing praises to God.
Music is strewn throughout the pages of scripture, but this week, I want to look at three specific songs. We see from scripture that singing was there at the beginning, at creation, and singing is found in the end of the story as we sing before the throne of the Lamb.
The Song at Creation
We are thirty-eight chapters deep in Job, listening [reading] to Job and his friends debate why Job’s life has exploded like a Gallagher-smashed watermelon. It is at this point in Job that we read [what I believe to be] a hilarious line from God. Okay, Job. Brace yourself like a man, and I’m gonna question you!
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels a shouted for joy?”
– Job 38:1-7, NIV-1978
Did you notice that the morning stars sang? Yes! The morning stars sang and the angels shouted with joy. What a scene that must have been. The singing and shouting rattled the skies before Adam and Even were even created.
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
– Isaiah 55:12, ESV
Are you there? Can you see it? Can you hear it? The mountains are singing and the trees are clapping their hands.
The Song of Moses
We see our first song from the lips of humanity when the people of God escaped the Egyptians by crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.1 The Egyptians pursued Israel onto the seabed, resulting in a great loss of life for the armies of Pharaoh.
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
– Exodus 14:28-29, ESV
The Song of the Saints
The final song we see in scripture is sung by the tribulation saints standing by the sea of glass singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
– Exodus 15:2-4, ESV
This is the song sung by those who had gained victory over the beast, those who did not succumb to the ruler of the world, who refused to take the mark.2 With faith and patience, they loved not their lives unto death,3 thus, some of them were put to death.4
Ostensibly, this is a reference back to the first song of Moses after passing through the Red Sea. If you’re familiar with typology, the escape of the Israelite slaves from Pharaoh was a type of the saints’ triumph over the beast. Moses singing on the eastern side of the Red Sea is a type to the song of the Lamb and possibly the “new song” the saints sing around the Lamb’s throne. The blood on the doorposts of Israel’s Egyptian homes is a type for the blood of the Lamb that washes the saints clean and causes them to sing…
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!
– Revelation 5:12, ESV
Indeed. Indeed. Worthy is the Lamb.
1. Exodus 15
2. Revelation 15:2
3. Revelation 12:11
4. Revelation 13:10
