Song of Deliverance

KEY VERSE: “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” —Exodus 15:2

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Exodus 15:1-10, 13

IT IS BELIEVED that the author of this song was Miriam, the sister of Moses. (Exod. 15:20-22) In Micah 6:4, Miriam is listed as one of the deliverers of the Hebrew people from Egypt: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Though she is referred to as a ‘prophetess’, her service in this field seems to be limited to her song which Moses and Israel sang after they crossed over the Red Sea, in which, actually, there is very little of a prophetic nature. It is mainly a song of praise to God for his mighty act of delivering his people from their enemies.

She did express the idea of a future habitation being prepared for God. The idea of the Creator’s interest in an earthly house to be built for him by his human creatures was first suggested in the instructions to Moses for the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. (Exod. 29:43-46) Although, earlier, Jacob, when fleeing from Esau, saw, in a dream, Jehovah looking down from heaven assuring him of the blessing for which he had risked so much. Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place. … This s none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”—Gen. 28:16,17

The idea of God’s house was embodied in the Temple built by Solomon in accordance with divine instructions. But both the Tabernacle and the Temple were recognized by their builders as inadequate to furnish a real home for Jehovah. Of the Temple, Solomon declared: “The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”—I Kings 8:27

God did not literally dwell in the Temple, but rather it was a place where his presence was miraculously represented. There, communion with God could be had, and, if done in accordance with his instructions and made in the proper spirit, sacrifices could be offered and forgiveness for sins could be obtained.—II Chron. 7:12-16

God clearly indicated in his Word that the Tabernacle and Temple arrangements were merely typical of the church of God, and their true significance was quite unrelated to a material building. See Isaiah 57:15 and Psalm 132:13.

We cannot know the ‘physical’ requirements, if any, of a divine being’s home. But we do know where our Creator finds comfort and joy in what he calls his home. We can appreciate what makes a human home desirable. With man, we know that harmonious, compatible companionship is essential for a good home, and we find it is even so with our Creator. In order to share his home—that “high and holy place” (Isa. 57:15)—his family must be composed of those who have devoted their lives to acquiring all the elements of God’s own righteous character. The Prophet Jeremiah reminds us of God’s qualities, and intimates that those who will eventually make up the members of God’s divine family will have the same characteristics: “I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”—Jer. 9:23,24

And so it must and will be with all who are being “builded together for an habitation of God.”

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