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Artwork for Exodus, Through Fire and Sea

Exodus 1:1-40:38

Exodus, Through Fire and Sea

Lyrics · Exodus

Exodus, Through Fire and Sea

Exodus 1:1-40:38

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Exodus collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Exodus
Collection
Exodus
Musical styles
Alternative Rock
We cried beneath the weight of Egypt We called from the dust and heaven heard Fire rose in the wilderness And the sea would remember his name Under the lash and the furnace flame We built their cities and forgot our names But in our hands, dusting our lawns Night after night with no deliverance, son Mothers wept by the river reeds Fathers bowed low under Pharaoh's decree But buried beneath the cry and the chain The God of our fathers still heard our pain Out in the wilderness, a fire touched the thorn A voice called from the flame I have seen, I have heard You heard us, in the field of sorrow You mocked us, in the night with blood You called us out, through fear and thunder No king could hold what you had loved Sea of terror, open wide, fire of heaven Lead us on, you brought us out with a mighty hand And would not leave us on our own Staff in the hand and a word in the mouth Moses stood where the proud bowed down Now ran red and the daylight broke Locust in darkness, hell and smoke Still Pharaoh hardened like hammered stone Still judgment walked through a rebel throne Till Lamb's blood shone on the wooden frame And death passed over in the holy name Then the night started moving Bread unraised in our hands The cry rolls up behind us But you said, rise and stand You heard us in the field of sorrow You marked us in the night with blood You called us out through fear and thunder No king could hold what you had loved Sea of terror, open wide, fire of heaven Lead us on, you brought us out with a mighty hand And would not leave us on our own Walls of water at either side Your breath made a road where the slaves could walk dry Horse and chariot, wheel and spear All of Egypt drowned in fear Then tambourines rang on the far shore sand But freedom shook in our trembling hands For hunger and thirst still found to squeak And the mountain burned when you came to speak Thunder on Sinai, law in the flame Glory to holy for idols made Gold in the fire, shame in the cap Mercy still moved when the covenant cracked Show us your glory, teach us your way If your presence does not go, we cannot You hurt us in the field of sorrow You mocked us in the night with blood You led us through the sea of judgment No king could steal what you had loved Mountain burning, cloud by day Holy fire when night had come You brought us out to bring us near And made to dwelling with the ones you love Not only rescue, not only release But the God of holy fire choosing still To dwell in peace, cloud above us, glory near, exodus of blood and sea, the Lord has come to dwell with the redeemed. Mm-mm-mm-mm Oh-oh-oh-oh

Lyrics transcribed from this recording. Word-for-word review is pending.

Named in this songEgyptPharaohMosesSinai

About the passage

Exodus 1: A growing people and a king who cannot stop them

Exodus opens by letting the names of Jacob's household give way to a population large enough to alarm a new king. Pharaoh treats Israel's multiplication as a military and political threat, then discovers that forced labor does not produce the result he wants. His policy escalates from taskmasters to a private order for Hebrew sons to be killed at birth, but Shiphrah and Puah refuse him because they fear God. Their resistance does not end the danger. Pharaoh responds by widening responsibility for the killing to all his people and ordering newborn sons cast into the river. The chapter therefore begins with continuity from Genesis and ends with a public death decree, while the people he is trying to suppress continue to multiply.

Study Exodus 1 in depth

Exodus 2: The child drawn from the water becomes a fugitive

Moses enters Exodus through a chain of preservation that repeatedly turns Pharaoh's policy against itself. His mother places him in a waterproofed ark among the reeds, his sister watches, and Pharaoh's daughter recognizes exactly what kind of child she has found and saves him anyway. The result is almost comic in its reversal: Moses' own mother is paid from the royal household to nurse the Hebrew boy marked by royal decree. Adulthood is rougher. Moses kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew, discovers that the act is known, and flees when Pharaoh seeks his life. In Midian he again intervenes for people being pushed aside, builds a household, and still calls himself a stranger. The chapter closes with Israel groaning, and God hearing, remembering, seeing, and attending before Moses knows he will be sent.

Study Exodus 2 in depth

Exodus 3: A name, a presence, and a commission

A burning bush draws Moses aside, but the strange fire is only the threshold. The ground becomes holy because God is present, and the voice identifies itself with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before turning directly to Israel's suffering. God has seen, heard, and known the oppression, and Moses is sent into that answer. His first question is about himself; the reply is "I will be with thee." His next question concerns the name he is to carry, and the answer joins "I AM" to the ancestral covenant rather than replacing it. Moses is then told to gather Israel's elders, approach Pharaoh, and ask for a wilderness sacrifice. Resistance is announced in advance, as are the wonders, the eventual release, and the valuables Israel will carry away. The commission arrives with both opposition and outcome already in view.

Study Exodus 3 in depth