3/4 I Walked on Dry Land, Too

This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is March 4, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called I Walked On Dry Land, Too. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.

Our readings for today are Exodus 15, Luke 18, and Job 33.

Please open your Bibles to Exodus 15.

Yesterday we read about the crossing of the Red Sea: God parted the waters and the Israelites passed through on dry ground. Look, I don’t want to boast, but once I walked on dry land in the middle of a lake. When I was young, my grandparents had this lakehouse and one winter they had to do some maintenance on the dam on the other side of the lake, so they let a ton of water out and the water level went way way down. It was a huge lake so we probably walked ½ a mile, ¾ of a mile out into the middle of the lake. Didn’t seem like a big deal at all. 

You’re not impressed with that story because nothing impressive happened. I tell the story because it is such a massive contrast to what we read about in Exodus 14 yesterday and what Moses sings about in Exodus 15 today. In this Scripture for Students, Moses celebrates the greatest moment of miraculous deliverance in the entire Old Testament: crossing the Red Sea.

Please follow along with me as I read Exodus 15:1–18. This is a little bit longer reading, but it will be worth it:

1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 

2 The LORD is my strength and my song, 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 man of war; the LORD is his name. 

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen 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, shatters the enemy. 

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes 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 glorious deeds, doing wonders? 

12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 

13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. 

14 The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 

15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 

16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased. 

17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. 

18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.

Wow. What a passage. If you haven’t read this yet today, take your time when you do. Read it more than once. If you have already done your Bible reading, go back and read this again. There is so much here. 

When I was growing up, we would sing a song in church sometimes that was based on verses 1 and 2 of this song but looking back on it, I feel like we would needed to sing the whole thing to really do it justice. I want to point out just a couple of features that make this song so incredible.

First, consider verse 11, “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” One of the repeated themes of the Old Testament is that Yahweh, the God of Israel is the only true God and the gods of this world (notice that they are always referred to with a little “g” – gods), those gods are always counted as nothing in comparison. The second time Moses asks the question, he fills in what God is like, did you notice the words that Moses uses to describe God? Majestic, awesome, glorious deeds, wonders. These words are so elevated, so lofty, so magnificent in every way that it is as if Moses is just daring anyone to trot out their so-called “gods.” The answer to Moses’s question—both times—is a resounding “No one is like the LORD!”

Next, verses 13–16 are interesting because they describe the response of other nearby nations to what just happened: Philistia, Edom, Moab, Canaan. Now, the crossing of the Red Sea just happened, so it seems unlikely that word would have reached those nations and come back to Moses for him to comment on it. Moses may be predicting what is about to happen, or speaking prophetically some kind of judgment on those nations. But even more interesting to me is how these verses describe God’s relationship to Israel. It says in verse 13 that God led with “steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed” and in verse 16, Moses refers to the people “whom you have purchased.” 

To say that God “redeemed” and “purchased” Israel is not so much a commentary on how much Israel cost God. We’re not checking receipts or something here. Instead, it indicates that God owns Israel. He now holds them as his own treasured possession. Why would he do that? Well, Moses said in verse 13 that it was because of his steadfast love. This is a famous word, hesed. It’s one of the few Hebrew words that most people know. Steadfast love is a good translation for it and here is why it is significant in this setting. The word occurs about a dozen times in Genesis, but this is the first time the word has occurred in Exodus, and it will only occur three more places: once in the 10 Commandments and twice in chapter 34, where God famously reveals himself to Moses, describing his name. I can’t wait to talk more about those verses when we get there. 

The point of all this is that Moses recognizes that something extremely important is going on: in rescuing Israel from slavery and delivering them from certain death, God has done more than just be kind to them or done them a favor. God has done the unthinkable: he has made Israel his own and entered into a relationship with them. 

For Christians, this is significant because when we get to the New Testament, we’ll find that the NT writers use the language of the Exodus to describe an even greater salvation and an even greater display of God’s love: by dying on the Cross, Jesus (a better Moses) rescued his people (the true Israel, the church) from a more dangerous slavery (bondage to sin) by completing an even greater miracle (taking the wrath of God on himself for all those he came to save). No wonder that the author of the letter to the Hebrews says in 3:3, “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.” 

So now, Christians everywhere can know that we have the love of God. As great a display of love as the Exodus was, it does not even begin to compare with the display of love of God in giving his Son. Let us rejoice and be glad and rest in this amazing gift.

That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.

This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!