Opposed

“In the greatness of your majesty, you threw down those who opposed you”  Exodus 15:7

Opposed – In the oldest song in recorded history, Moses proclaims something quite spectacular.  This song of praise and triumph contains the sternest of warnings – something that we seem to have long forgotten.  Moses stands on the edge of the Red Sea.  The waters are filled with dead Egyptian soldiers.  God has rescued the Israelites in a spectacular way.  And Moses draws the correct conclusion:  the enemies of God’s children are the enemies of God. 

Notice that Moses does not say, “you threw down those who opposed us“.  He sees that if someone stands against God’s elect, that person opposes God Himself.  And he had better watch out.  God judges harshly those who oppose Him.

The Hebrew word qum basically means, “to stand up”.  But it has a very wide umbrella of meanings.  Here the context tells us that those who stand up against God are going to be cut down.  If you are going to stand before the Lord, you had better be on His side.  No one can stand before Him without His favor.

There is comfort in this thought.  Those who oppose you oppose God.  And God will not remain complacent about their opposition.  God protects His own.  He may not protect us the way that we expect (after all, did the Israelites really expect the sea to open?).  But God is faithful.  And this is the hidden cultural part of this word.  The word for covenant comes from the word for “cut”.  If I cut a covenant with you, you and I both made a cut on the forearm.  From that point on, we each ware a scar that signifies our bond.  An enemy who sees that scar knows this:  if I attack this man, I will also have to fight the man who is in covenant with him. 

I wear God’s covenant scar.  Don’t mess with me.  God’s got my back.