Exo 15:13-17 | KingComments | STEP | God has redeemed the people by His lovingkindness, and guided them by His strength. The verse stands in the past present tense, as if God had both redeemed the people and brought them to His holy habitation. In this verse we listen to the language of faith of a redeemed people (cf. ). As a direct consequence of salvation, the people have a great perspective for the future. In faith they see themselves already arriving at the place God has devised for them. God does not deliver His people to leave them to their own devices. He delivers His people, and then brings them to His dwelling place, the tabernacle in the wilderness. That is what the second part of this book is about. The redemption and deliverance of the sinner are not an end in themselves. They are the necessary means to become the dwelling place of God. The church is now the dwelling place of God in the Spirit ( ; ).

‏ Exodus 15:13-17

The Direct Consequence for His People

God has redeemed the people by His lovingkindness, and guided them by His strength. The verse stands in the past present tense, as if God had both redeemed the people and brought them to His holy habitation. In this verse we listen to the language of faith of a redeemed people (cf. Rom 8:30). As a direct consequence of salvation, the people have a great perspective for the future. In faith they see themselves already arriving at the place God has devised for them.

God does not deliver His people to leave them to their own devices. He delivers His people, and then brings them to His dwelling place, the tabernacle in the wilderness. That is what the second part of this book is about. The redemption and deliverance of the sinner are not an end in themselves. They are the necessary means to become the dwelling place of God. The church is now the dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph 2:22; 1Tim 3:15).

The Impact on Other Peoples

It is as if Moses in this song has now in the spirit moved to the moment that God’s dwelling place in the midst of the people is erected. The enemies see that God has achieved His goal with His people. Even today, all the actions of God for the benefit of His people make a great impression on their bitter enemies.

In our lives as believers the enemy will be rendered impotent if we in faith show that we live for God. If God is our dwelling, and if we are a dwelling for Him as a church, it will disarm the enemy.

The Purpose of God’s Actions

In Exo 15:13 Moses speaks of God’s dwelling in the wilderness. Now it is about God’s dwelling in the promised land. There is mentioned “the mountain of Your inheritance”. The inheritance is always connected to the land. It is also “Your inheritance”, the inheritance of God. God will take possession of His inheritance by letting His people take possession of it. Once there, He will establish there a permanent “dwelling”, a “sanctuary”, the temple. The redeemed also see this place ahead in faith, for he speaks of it as a finished thing: “Which Your hands have established.”

The people of God, the church, may dwell with Him. The temple is also a picture of the Father’s house (Jn 14:2). The church will be there forever. Until then, the temple, like the tabernacle, represents the church as the dwelling place of God on earth.

The temple belongs to a people in the land and is a permanent dwelling. The tabernacle belongs to a people in the wilderness and is a mobile dwelling. Both aspects are present in the church. The church is a heavenly thing. This is how she is presented in the letter to the Ephesians. At the same time, she is still on earth, travelling through the wilderness of this world. In that way, for example, she is presented in the first letter to the Corinthians.