God’s victory over the Egyptians in the Red Sea provoked men and angels to sing a song of God’s victory in protecting His chosen people.
The verse that follows the song then talks about Moses’s sister Miriam.
It tells us Miriam took a timbrel in her hand.
But it does not just describe what she did, it describes who she was. This is the first time in Scripture that Miriam was described as a prophetess.
A prophet or a prophetess is actually a spokesperson for God.
All we knew about Miriam previously is the fact that she was the sister who watched over baby Moses when he was placed in a basket in the Nile River.
Actually, Miriam is the only woman who is described as a prophetess in the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible.
So this prophetess took that timbrel in hand to dance and then others went out to dance with her, with their timbrels.
Think about it, the Israelites were leaving Egypt to follow Moses and Aaron and they took their musical instruments, supposedly for such an occasion.
They were confident they would have a reason to celebrate victory – and they did!
If you wondered, as I did what a timbrel is, it is nothing more than a tambourine. I imagined this was what it was, but I had to check because I just could not imagine a woman older than Moses dancing with a tambourine.
But Scripture goes on to say Miriam chanted for them:
She chanted the words “Sing to the Lord, for He was triumphed gloriously”.
It was after this that Moses instructed the Israelites to leave that area. Out they went into the wilderness of Shur.
They traveled for three days and found no water.
That’s when the complaining began.
What short memories human beings have. They were given a gigantic miracle with their enemy destroyed and now they lost all faith in God’s desire to take care of them and make them His people.
This was only three days away from the most inspiring miracle they had ever seen in their lives and now they are complaining about an inconvenience.
In fact, on this short journey to Mt Sinai they complained four different times for four different situations.
Human nature is amazing, and sorry to say, we are not exempt.
They get a miracle and the next day they forget about what has been done and they cry concerning their next inconvenience.
They are, and we do, basically forget what God had done and say, “none of that is impressive, what are you going to do for me now.”
Their next stop was at Marah, where there was water, but they couldn’t drink it.
Marah is actually the word for bitter and that word described that oasis to a ’T’.
Because of all the complaining and frustration Moses cried out to the Lord and once again the Lord provided a miracle.
The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood and when Moses threw it into the water, the water became sweet.
This is miracle number two during the freeing of the Israelites from slavery.
It was at this site where Moses built a statute and a law.
It was there that God told the people, “If you will heed the Lord your God diligently, doing what is upright in His sight, Giving ear to His commandments, and keeping, all His laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I the Lord are your healer.”
It is important to take note here. God did not say the Jews would have no diseases. He said He would not bring upon them any of the diseases He brought upon the Israelites.
And as much as people want to read what they would like into that verse, We cannot hold God to what he did not say.
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