15:3 a
Song of Moses

   We have already seen the words of the song, 1502a, but a portion bears repeating because it is the emphasis here: "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation." (Ex. 15:1, 2)


Moses had another song. Here is the introduction to it:
   "And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. . . . And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. . . . And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended." (Deut. 31:16, 18, 19, 30)

Excerpts from the second song of Moses
   You may want to read all of it in your Bible.
   "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
   "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
   "Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. . .  I said, I would scatter them into corners, . . . For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. . . . For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left." (Deut. 32:1-4, 7-9, 18, 26, 32-36).

   Did you notice in the first paragraph above, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Christ is the Rock. The "judgment" here is in "all his ways." The seven final plagues will be this kind of judgment.

Our current text
   "And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints [or "nations"]. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." (Rev. 15:3, 4)

15:3 b
And of the Lamb

   The Lamb also has a song. "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" (Rev. 5:6-9).

   You may wish to scan back through the songs as we have seen them, or look in your Bible for the full texts, then summarize what you feel those by the sea of glass will be singing about. Does it match the ideas we have in verses 3 and 4? (above).

15:3 c
Lamb, woman, and the road to Canaan

   The Bible often uses the experiences of the journey from Egypt to Canaan to represent how God frees us from captivity to sin and leads us to the heavenly Canaan. During the night when the angel passed over Egypt to destroy all the firstborn, the children of Israel were to kill and eat a lamb, then put its blood on their doorposts. Then they left in a mass exodus, to be tested at the Red Sea and continue toward their destination.
   The Passover Lamb slain on Calvary at the beginning of the journey of God's New Testament Israel is seen in the midst of the throne in the sanctuary in heaven. He has been found worthy as the I AM, the angel of the Lord in the pillar of cloud and of fire! (Ex. 14:18). The Lamb taken to the slaughter at Calvary became the Shepherd  and He is leading His children home.
   The woman of Revelation 12 fled to the wilderness of the New Testament Israel Rev 12:14. Then she failed the test by rejecting the message of the two faithful spies out of the ten. (Num. 13, 14), So the promise was passed on to the next generation.
   "And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? . . . Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you. . . . But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." (Num. 14:26-31).

What happened to the children — the "little ones" who were to finally enter 40 years later?
   "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom [prostitution] with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods." (Num. 25:1, 2).
   For this sin, 24,000 died by a plague. (Num 25:9) From the woman's seed a remnant was left who were not slain for this sin of immorality and idol worship. As faithful ones from each tribe, they, like the 144,000, finally crossed through the Jordan into the Promised Land.
   "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 12:17)

Does Revelation 12 describe the journey to Canaan?
   No, it draws imagery from the journey to describe the Christian church which, like the people who rejected God's invitation to go in and take the land, made up their rules for the game, combining pagan worship practices into the major church and persecuting those who opposed them. This drove those who wanted to follow their conscience, underground. Thus we have the woman (true church) in the wilderness.
   Here in chapter 15 we see the introduction to the seven final plagues. They come after the final apostasy of the New Testament church when it tries to force the conscience about how God tells us to worship. Relating to this time of trouble will be our experience, as the remnant, of going through the Jordan to enter Canaan.
   A table, T12, relates the events of the journey to Canaan with the Christian life and to chapter 12.

15:3d
Just and true
.And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

His judgments are made manifest
    We may see this as the praise of those who were pressured by the beast and the image to receive the mark, etc. The "judgments" would be the plagues which are described in the next chapter. Thus this is the result. The approval of this group shows that the accusations of the evil one against Christ were not justified. They proclaim Him their king in eager submission. This is also a result of the preadvent judgment.
   We recall another acclamation about the goodness of Christ. "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." 0505. This was after the sacrifice on Calvary. We looked at the five hymns in chapters 4 and 5 and showed that each represented a different group and time. In our present text the worship from all nations (including the wicked) is future. It comes at the end of the millennium (the thousand years). Then every knee will bow! is4523.

15:4
Who shall not fear
    Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
     The implied response is no one. We remember that the the beast supporters exclaimed, ". . . Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" 1304. That boast will be forever silenced.