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Charles Spurgeon · Citado em PreceptAustin
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Spurgeon has an interesting comment on Ps 106:12 They believed the promise when they saw it fulfilled, but not till then. This is mentioned, not to their credit, but to their shame. Those who do not believe the Lord's word till they see it performed are not believers at all. Who would not believe when the fact stares them in the face? The Egyptians would have done as much as this. They sang his praise. How could they do otherwise? Their song was very excellent, and is the type of the song of heaven; but sweet as it was, it was quite as short, and when it was ended they fell to murmuring. "They sang his praise, "but "they soon forgat his works." Between Israel singing and Israel sinning there was scarce a step. Their song was good while it lasted, but it was no sooner begun than over. Recall Exodus 14:31 "When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses." - Joe Temple says "That is written very clearly to indicate to us that Moses had a place of very high esteem in the eyes and the minds of the people. They feared the Lord. They believed the Lord and His servant, Moses. There is a sense in which these verses are telling us that the people put Moses on the same level with God, and it would have been a very simple, small step from that to beginning to worship and deify Moses, but it is interesting to notice that Moses gives all of the glory to God. There is no reference in this hymn to anything that Moses had done. There is no reference to any of the bravery or any of the brilliance or any of the logic of Moses. All of the glory goes to God, so one of the most impressive things about Moses, one of the most impressive points in our study of the life of Moses, was that Moses was a mature believer. What was that mark of maturity? The ultimate test of maturity, I think, is pointed out in the Scripture in various ways and here is one illustration of it: The ultimate test of maturity is whether or not a man can give all of the glory to God. (Life of Moses) Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD - So in response to their reverential fear and belief in Jehovah, the new nation joins Moses in a song of praise to Jehovah. It is notable that this entire song does not mention or extol Moses, but focuses solely on Jehovah and His greatness, especially His great power in delivering the Israelites from Egypt.
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Spurgeon - Note, that they were singing, singing a very loud and triumphant song; and you would have thought that they would have kept on singing for the next forty years. It was such a triumph, such a deliverance, God’s arm was made so bare before their eyes, that you would have thought that their jubilation would have lasted throughout a lifetime, at the least. On the contrary, it lasted a very little while. Yet what a song it was that they sang! “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” What a song of triumph that is which is sung by souls saved from sin, and death, and hell, by the great atoning sacrifice of Christ! Oh, when we first realize that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we do, indeed, “feel like singing all the time”, for our sins are washed away, and we have a notion that we shall always keep on singing till we join in the song of the glorified in heaven. Matthew
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Spurgeon asked "How strong is a believer? I say it with reverence, he is as strong as God—‘The Lord is my strength.’ In Ps 18:1 David says " “I love You, O LORD, my strength.” In Ps 28:7 David affirmed "The LORD is my strength." "You are my strength" (Ps 31:4). In Ps 59:17 David says "O my strength, I will sing praise to Thee." In Ps 62:7 David calls God "The Rock of my strength." The psalmist says "Thou are the God of my strength." (Ps 43:2) Ps 118:14 says "The LORD is my strength." Isaiah 49:5 appears to be a prophecy of Messiah. Listen to what He says "My God is My strength!" Amazing! I cannot grasp this truth! In a prophecy of future blessings on the nation of Israel Isaiah 12:2 says "I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.” Jeremiah says "O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, " (Je 16:19)
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Spurgeon comments - Moses saw men dying all around him: he lived among funerals, and was overwhelmed at the terrible results of the divine displeasure. He felt that none could measure the might of the Lord's wrath. Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. Good men dread that wrath beyond conception, but they never ascribe too much terror to it: bad men are dreadfully convulsed when they awake to a sense of it, but their horror is not greater than it had need be, for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Holy Scripture when it depicts God's wrath against sin never uses an hyperbole; it would be impossible to exaggerate it. Whatever feelings of pious awe and holy trembling may move the tender heart, it is never too much moved; apart from other considerations the great truth of the divine anger, when most powerfully felt, never impresses the mind with a solemnity in excess of the legitimate result of such a contemplation. What the power of God's anger is in hell, and what it would be on earth, were it not in mercy restrained, no man living can rightly conceive. Modern thinkers rail at Milton and Dante, Bunyan and Baxter, for their terrible imagery; but the truth is that no vision of poet, or denunciation of holy seer, can ever reach to the dread height of this great argument, much less go beyond it. The wrath to come has its horrors rather diminished than enhanced in description by the dark lines of human fancy; it baffles words, it leaves imagination far behind. Beware ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. God is terrible out of his holy places. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah! Remember Korah and his company! Mark well the graves of lust in the wilderness! Nay, rather bethink ye of the place where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Who is able to stand against this justly angry God? Who will dare to rush upon the bosses of his buckler, or tempt the edge of his sword? Be it ours to submit ourselves as dying sinners to this eternal God, who can, even at this moment, command us to the dust, and thence to hell. Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy - Shatters describes a violent breaking of the power of an enemy. The Septuagint uses the verb thrauo which means literally to shatter or to break in pieces as one does to pottery. This picture recalls the prophecy of the Messiah Who will one day come against the nations and kings of the earth who take their stand against God. Psalm 2:9 warns them "‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’” And in an even more dramatic picture one thinks of the Stone (the returning Messiah) in Daniel 2:34-35+ = “You (KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR) continued looking until a STONE was cut out without hands, and IT struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the STONE that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (the Messianic Kingdom)." Exodus 15:7 "And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff. the greatness - Ex 9:16 De 33:26 Ps 68:33 148:13 Isa 5:16 Jer 10:6 overthrow those who- Isa 37:17,23,29,36,38 Mic 4:11 Na 1:9-12 Zec 2:8 14:3,8 Ac 9:4 consumes them - Ps 59:13 Ps 83:13 Isa 5:24 47:14 Na 1:10 Mal 4:1 Mt 3:12 And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You - You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff - "Like a dreadful projectile, thou didst direct thy wrath against the foes of Israel, scattering desolation and death." (Bush) Exodus 15:8 "At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. blast - Ex 14:21 2Sa 22:16 Job 4:9 Isa 11:4 37:7 2Th 2:8 the floods - Ex 14:22 Ps 78:13 Hab 3:10 At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up - Blast is Ruach meaning breath, wind, and has basic sense of "air in motion." Ruach was used in Ex 10:13 of blowing in the locust plague and then removing them (Ex 10:19). This is a anthropomorphic description of the words in Exodus 14:21+ when "the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided." And then in Exodus 14:26+ "the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” Note that nostrils is aph which is translated (NAS) as nose or nostrils some 24x and and anger over 200x from the fact that when we become angry our nostrils begin to flare or as Bush says "the effect of anger in inflating the nostrils." So one could paraphrase this description as "the breath of Your anger!" This is a frightening depiction. Job has a similar frightening description "By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast (Ruach) of His anger (aph) they come to an end." (Job 4:9) Amos 4:13 reminds us that it is the LORD God "Who forms mountains and creates the wind." In Ge 8:1 God remembered Noah and "caused a wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided." God "brings out the wind from His storehouses." (Jer 10:13) The blast of Yahweh will be seen in the end times against the man of sin... Then that lawless one (ANTICHRIST) will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; (2 Th 2:8) The flowing waters stood up like a heap - Heap describes the walls of water through which Israel traversed. The waters, which are naturally fluid, were supernaturally standing up as though they were in a heap, like a mound of earth piled up. Psalm 78:13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, And He made the waters stand up like a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea - Likewise, the flowing waters deep in the ocean solidified – as though they were turned to ice Congealed (qapa) means to curdle, to congeal; to become settled, stagnant. It refers to something standing still or slowing down its movement, becoming thick. Here it is used of God's congealing the waters of the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross on dry land. The Septuagint uses the verb pegnumi which means to make firm or stable by fixing in a place. To make solid (esp of liquids), so used of curdling milk or congealed blood. Exodus 15:9 "The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.' I will pursue - Ge 49:27 Jdg 5:30 1Ki 19:2 20:10 Isa 10:8-13 36:20 53:12 Hab 3:14 Lu 11:22 destroy - Ex 14:5,9 Bruckner - The descriptive narrative (vv. 9–10) tells how the enemy boasted in six ways (a triad of parallels). We hear the Egyptian’s pride as they boasted of pursuing, overtaking, dividing, gorging, and drawing their swords and destroying. John
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Spurgeon writes that "It is obvious, then, from the plentiful allusions to this song in holy scripture, that it is full of deep spiritual significance. It teaches us not only to praise God concerning the literal overthrow of Egypt, but to praise him concerning the overthrow of all the powers of evil, and the final deliverance of all the chosen.” The LORD shall reign forever and ever - "This sublime pean is here concluded with a burst of rapturous exultation in view of God’s universal and everlasting dominion. Though they had seen an end of Pharaoh’s reign, and were assured of the final extinction of those hostile powers with which they would yet have to contend, there was no period to be put to the ever-during reign of the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords. This appears to have been a sort of chorus in which all the people joined." (Bush)
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Spurgeon quips that "The Egyptians found enough water, and even too much of it, for they were drowned in the sea, but the well-beloved Israelites had no water at all. So is it with the wicked man; he often has enough of wealth, and too much of it, till he is drowned in sensual delights and perishes in floods of prosperity." NET Note - The first event of the Israelites' desert experience is a failure, for they murmur against Yahweh and are given a stern warning – and the provision of sweet water. The event teaches that God is able to turn bitter water into sweet water for his people, and he promises to do such things if they obey. He can provide for them in the desert – he did not bring them into the desert to let them die. But there is a deeper level to this story – the healing of the water is incidental to the healing of the people, their lack of trust. The passage is arranged in a neat chiasm, starting with a journey (A), ending with the culmination of the journey (A'); developing to bitter water (B), resolving to sweet water (B'); complaints by the people (C), leading to to the instructions for the people (C'); and the central turning point is the wonder miracle (D). Steven