From the first song of Moses in Exodus to the final song of the Lamb in Revelation, Scripture whispers, sings, even shouts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection – and what those mean for us. At Easter, we celebrate this Savior whose story the whole Bible tells, who secured our freedom, broke sin’s chains, conquered death, and now leads us in the fearless, unending song of victory.
In these two songs that bookend the Bible, God’s Word brings us to a water’s edge – and it’s the resurrection that carries us from one shore to the other. Come and see how death is swallowed up in victory, fear is cast out by perfect love, and the song that began at the Red Sea finally finds its voice in eternity.
The first song (Exodus 15)
The waters have always known the voice of God. The first time he ordered them to part, obediently they separated – above from below.
Later, they would part for Moses and the nation of God’s people who stood at the edge of the Red Sea with Egypt’s chariots thundering behind, the water stretched to the horizon like a locked door. Moses raised his staff, as God had commanded him, and the sea – slowly, fiercely, obedient to its master – split in two to make way for God’s fleeing people.
More than two million sandaled feet walked through on dry ground, the walls of water standing at attention on either side like silent soldiers, holding their breath. When the last Israelite stepped onto the beach hours later, the sea opened its mouth and exhaled. Pharaoh’s army was swallowed whole.
A nation had walked through the impossible and come out the other side. The miraculous rescue had left them fearless in the presence of God – joyful, grateful, and compelled to worship.
That night, a song broke out of them the way the sea had broken open – fierce, exultant. They sang about the God of power, a majestic, holy, wonder-working God, who, without weapons or warriors, had triumphed over their enemies.
I will sing to the LORD for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and rider he has hurled into the sea.
The LORD is my strength and my defense; 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.
Your right hand, LORD, was majestic in power.
Your right hand, LORD, shattered the enemy.
– Exodus 15:1-3, 6
This first song at water’s edge, The Song of Moses (also called Song of the Sea) commemorated the founding miracle of their faith and served as a reminder, repeated in daily prayers and every Passover holiday for millennia, that God was their salvation, and they had nothing to fear – a truth they would have to learn again and again.
On the Galilee Sea
On another sea 1,500 years later, a Jewish rabbi was in the back of a boat, asleep on a cushion when a “furious squall” (a windstorm with waves, quite possibly, up to 10 feet high) began driving the water onto the bow.
Fear rose with the waves, but their rabbi slept.
“Don’t you care if we drown?” his disciples asked after waking him. The nation still carried the fear of the sea. It represented chaos and tribulation, but also the fear of God. Who knows which they were fearing more at this moment, but they turned to Jesus.
He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still.” And just as the waters of the Red Sea had stood at attention, so now the waves in Galilee obeyed and laid down.
Terrified, his disciples asked each other, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
The water knew the truth and had acted accordingly. The disciples would learn too. Peter would declare it: You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
Because of Jesus’ teachings, his miracles, his love, and his perfect, sinless life, some people would love him. Others would hate him. Some were waiting for an opportunity to kill him, and they got it.
At just the right time, Christ, the Living Water, the One who commands the sea and stills our fears, who had power over the ocean and the waves and all things (because it was through him they were created) gave his life in exchange for ours.
On the cross
His cousin, John, had proclaimed it when he first began his ministry: “Behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” For 33 years, Jesus lived as one of us. He was tempted just like we are, “yet without sin.” Because he was the only person to ever do so, and because he was sent for this very reason, he gave up his life willingly and yielded his spirit to the Father.
Just before, he’d cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” This may have sounded like defeat … except to those who knew this song of David about the Messiah. Jesus was reciting Psalm 22, which begins in hopeless anguish but ends in triumph, a victory so far-reaching it includes even us.
“He has done it!” is the last line of the Psalm that is fulfilled in Jesus: “It is finished.”
But what is it he has done?
On the cross, Jesus, the Living Water, was poured out like water so that his life could overflow in us. His blood washes away the debt we owe because of sin. We are free from the law, free from its curse, and free from condemnation.
He disarmed the devil, taking away his power and breaking his hold over us. In Christ we have been set free indeed.
He is the Author of Life, and death couldn’t hold him in the grave. Jesus was the first person ever to escape death’s clutches, and by his rising, he conquered death and freed those of us who all our lives were held in slavery by the fear of it.
Jesus quietly got up on a Sunday morning, folded his burial clothes, walked out of the tomb, and greeted Mary. No fanfare here. But in the spiritual realm, the world order had just been overturned.
Now, if your life is hidden in Christ, his resurrection is yours too. You’re free to be fearless and confident to do the good works he has planned for you. You’re free to worship him for the mighty work and unfathomable sacrifice he made for you. He promised that anyone who drinks the Living Water will never thirst again. It will “become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” At the cross, fear is undone, Living Water is poured out, and a new song begins.
“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!”
– Revelation 1:17-18
The last song (Revelation 15)
Revelation 15 holds the last song in the Bible. The chapters leading up to it have been filled with a raging sea of troubles: hail, fire, famine, war, death. Now, chaos has been conquered, enemies have been defeated. This chapter serves as a holy pause before God’s final act of judgment.
We meet a group of people called the “overcomers.” They’ve served Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, by following him wherever he went, testifying of the eternal gospel, enduring persecution, and resisting temptation, even to the point of losing their lives. Now, alive for eternity, they stand beside a sea of glass mixed with fire and sing a familiar song with a new ending: The Song of Moses and the Lamb.
When God defeated the Egyptians at the Red Sea, all the surrounding nations trembled. But when God defeats all evil through Christ, the nations come and worship him.
Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!
Who will not fear You, Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For all the nations will come and worship before You,
For Your righteous acts have been revealed.
– Revelation 15:3-4
Revelation 21 tells us that one day, there will be no sea. God’s dwelling place will be among us! We will be his people, and he will be our God. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more fear, no death, no mourning, no crying and no pain, for the old order of things will pass away.
For now, we live in the already/not yet time when we know a little of what is to come, but eternal things are still invisible. Yet, until that final song is sung, the waters still remember his voice. Fear still gives way to his presence. And the song that began at the sea now rises from every life he’s made new.
Listen to the two songs that inspired this story:
- Christus Victor, Keith and Kristyn Getty
- No longer slaves, by David and Melissa Helser, Zach Williams
