The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 233

Ver. 2.-Hol,y joy in God. In each nationa~ h_istory there is some one surpassingly great event. A Thermopylm for Greece; a Le1ps1c for Germany; a Moscow for Russia; a Waterloo for England. The Jews had one great event, supreme in its influence on their national life. By his relation to that event God would even be known. "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." All other deliverances, accomplished afterwards, were treated but ae reminders of this. All songs of thanksgiving, sung over subsequent redemptions, were modelled after the "song of Moses," of which the chorus was sung by tens of thousands led by the timbrels and dances of the women, on the further shores of the sea. And ther~ was much in that event which fitted it to hold such a place in the thoughts of generations. It was the deliverance which, once and for ever, assured the world of the fact that God -the One, living, and true God-was the God of the Jewish race. One can hardly imagine the excitement and the triumph of that time. The mightiest nation of that day roused itself, in a paroxysm of furious revenge, to pursue and to destroy what it regarded as a crowd of fleeing slaves. What hope could there be for such a multitude, when the king himself, a host of armed warriors, prancing horses, mighty chariots, pressed on after them ; when the pathless waters of e. great sea waved and rolled before them, and the mountains hemmed them in on the further side? If we were reading common human history, such a story could only have ended somewhat in this way: " And the frightened crowds of fugitives were pressed on and on into the pitiless waters, or were ruthlessly cut down and slain by the advancing hosts." But we are reading e. page out of sacred history. There a.re the words, "Stand still, and see the salvation of God; " and, behold, those waters a.re arrested in their flowing; they roll back in swelling heaps; the ocean bed lies bare; and those "slaves" step steadily a.cross the strangest pathway ever made for mortal feet to tread. Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen dash boldly forward into the way that was not made for them. The Red Sea was bright with the banners, and flashed with the shields of warriors; and then-dragging wheels, softening sands, hurrying waves, and the pride of Egypt is broken: "Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen bath he cast into the sea." God was magnified that· day, magnified in deliverance, and magnified in judgment. He was that day the Salvation of his people, and they stood upon the shores of that flood, uniting in one triumphant shout, and saying, "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously." '!'he verses preceding the text allude to this scene. The spiritual blessings of Messiah's reign a.re described under the figure of this passage of the sea. From all spiritual scatterings and bondages and captivities, Messiah shall bring his people. The text is part of a song to be sung by the spiritually ransomed-a song formed, partly, upon the model of that older song of Moses. We gather from it that a spirit of humble and trustful joy in God is the proper spirit for redeemed souls to cherish. L REASONS FOB. llUlNTAINING A SPLBIT OF HOLY JOY IN GoD. Too often the sombre sides of Christian experience are dwelt on, and young people take needlessly dark notions of the pious life. The model of the Christliness is not the calm sister of mercy, but the self-de □ ying mother, the gentle, thoughtful, active elder sister, the strong man, whose bright face and cheery words and sinless laugh can kindle the gladness of those around him. The Bible is full of song. Its face can, indeed, settle into the severest gravity, into the sternness of righteous indignation, into a tenderness of sympathy; but the {.).Qe of the Bible ci,,n also break i11to emilea. Ripples cross ripples, aud waves leap OH, XII, 1--6.) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 225