So the people of Israel came, fearing for their lives, to the shore of the Red Sea. The Egyptian army was close behind. The people cried out to Moses – sarcastically – “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11). Then God parted the waters, the people marched in astonishment across the sea bed to the Sinai peninsula, and all the pursuers were lost in the flood as the sea water rushed back in and destroyed the Egyptian army (14:21-29).

So there the Israelites were, having jogged up the slope from the depths, now collapsed on the beach, gasping for breath. They had escaped from generations of slavery and from imminent death. And Moses led them in a song of victory: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him … The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name” 15:1-3).

It is right that the Israelites sang a song of exultation and praise to God for rescuing them from death: if God had not provided the way, they would all be dead. But instead of a lament that so many Egyptians have suddenly been killed in this event, we find this gladness and gloating over the fate of the chariot drivers and the infantry and the elite officers (15:4). Perhaps the officers had to die to make the rescue succeed, but we could still mourn that necessity; and most of the common soldiers would have been teenage recruits and draftees, lives cut short when they had hardly begun.

Still, better that they sang to the Lord than that they sang about themselves. As Miriam and her women’s choir sang the refrain, “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (15:20). Our human words will be incomplete and self-serving, so much of the time;

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You’ve got the whole world in your hands, O Lord. We are grateful that you saved our ancestors from slavery and death, but we lament the loss of life even for our enemies, knowing that you love them, too. Human hearts and human conflict are such a muddle. Help us to love all the world, as you do.

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