A Journey Through the Bible: Exodus 15 and 16

Exodus 15:3—“Jehovah is a man of war: Jehovah is his name.” An interesting statement, worthy of a few comments. First of all, we must keep in mind that this “song of Moses” (Exodus 15) is poetry and thus not to be taken with absolute literalness. “Jehovah” is obviously not a “man.” And His basic quality is not “of war.” Indeed, the God of the Bible will render vengeance upon His enemies and the enemies of His people, and quite frequently in the Old Testament, He did that via warfare—using one nation of peoples to attack and/or punish another, the latter of which simply has gone beyond His grace and was in worthy of His wrath. At times, a culture or society was so abominable that it was no longer fit to live on this earth and God used war to annihilate that civilization. It is extremely likely that He does the same thing in the Christian dispensation, but we have no absolute proof of that. We do know that He fights for His people, and Moses’ glorification of Him in this very song is in praise of the deliverance Jehovah wrought, miraculously and wholly without the aid of man, for Israel. His name is “Jehovah,” which, interestingly, softens the “man of war” concept. The name “Jehovah” refers to God’s covenant nature; He made a covenant with all of mankind to send a Redeemer for our sins (Gen. 3:15), and, of course, He made a covenant with Israel to be that nation through whom that Savior would come (Gen. 12:3). That entire agreement and promise of Jehovah speaks of His wondrous grace and mercy. It isn’t His fault if men reject or ignore that covenant and thereby become deserving of meeting that “man of war.”

Exodus 16:3—“And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." How soon people forget! They were groaning under the miserable slavery and bondage in Egypt, but they hadn’t been gone two months yet before they want to go back to that condition. There is justification for their desires, but not for the way they expressed them. A “wilderness”—which is little more than a desert—is not going to have sufficient food to feed the multitude of Israelites who were making this journey. Of course, God knew that and fully intended to provide for them. However, rather than trusting Him in that matter and patiently, humbly asking Him, they have to complain and gripe about it. The Lord was patient with these people, but their constant grumbling eventually led to their punishment; grumbling is indicative of a lack of faith. It is a good example for us. Do we trust the Lord to provide our needs when things don’t look so good, or do we murmur and find fault and long for the world out of which we came? Ask the Lord, reverently, humbly, and thankfully, and wait for His answer. He knows what we need and will provide it in His time, when it is best for us.