The Story
Four hundred years after Joseph died in Egypt, a new Pharaoh rose who did not know him. Israel by then was no longer a family but a nation, and the nation was a labour force. Bricks without straw. Sons drowned in the Nile. A people groaning under the weight of an empire that had forgotten how it had once owed them everything.
God hears. The first verb of the Exodus is hearing. "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry." And he calls a man from a burning bush — a fugitive shepherd, eighty years old, with a stutter and a price on his head — and sends him back to the court that wanted him dead.
Then the plagues. Each one is a contest between the Lord and a god of Egypt: the Nile turned to blood; frogs from Heqet's marshes; locusts in the fields of Seth; darkness over the throne of Ra. Nine signs, and Pharaoh's heart hardens through every one.
The tenth is different. The Lord tells Moses to tell the people to take a lamb — one for each household, a year-old male without blemish — and to kill it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. They are to take its blood and paint it on the two doorposts and the lintel of every house. "The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you."
It is the founding act of Jewish history, and the seed of Christian theology in a single image. A spotless lamb dies. Blood goes on the wood. Wherever the blood is, the angel of death walks by. Three thousand years later, John the Baptist will look at Jesus walking toward him and say, "Behold, the Lamb of God." He is quoting Exodus.
They eat the lamb roasted, in haste, with their sandals on. By morning Egypt's firstborn lie dead, and Pharaoh — who once said "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" — is sending the slaves out into the desert with whatever they can carry. The treasure of the empire goes with them.
But Pharaoh does not stay broken. He raises his army and chases them, and the people of Israel find themselves trapped between his chariots and the sea. The cry goes up. Moses lifts his staff. The east wind blows all night. And in the dark hours before dawn, the people of God walk into the sea on dry ground, while above them the waters hang on either side like cathedral walls. By morning, Egypt's army lies broken on the shore behind them, and the daughter of a Levite picks up a tambourine and begins to sing.
Scripture
Then the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them."
Exodus 3:7–8 (ESV)
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old… The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:5, 13 (ESV)
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Exodus 14:21 (ESV)
The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him.
Exodus 15:2 (ESV)
Lyrics
[Intro]
Four hundred years…
Four hundred years of brick and burden…
And the children of the promise cried out…
[Verse 1]
I saw them bent beneath the sun,
Their backs like broken reeds,
Their fathers' God a distant name
They whispered in their need.
But the Voice that spoke to Abraham
Had never once forgot —
He heard them from His holy throne,
And the hour came — and it was hot.
[Pre-Chorus]
And a bush began to burn…
And it would not burn away…
And a shepherd took his sandals off
On the mountain of that day —
[Chorus]
"I AM!"
Said the God of fire and flame —
"I AM!"
The One without a frame —
Go to Pharaoh, lift your rod,
Tell the tyrant of the sod —
"LET MY PEOPLE GO!"
Thus says the Lord, thus says the Lord —
LET. MY. PEOPLE. GO.
[Verse 2]
The rivers ran as red as wound,
The frogs came through the door,
The locusts blackened out the sun,
The firstborn cried no more.
But in the homes where lambs had bled,
Where doorposts dripped with red,
The angel of the Lord passed by —
And not a child was dead.
[Pre-Chorus 2]
For the Lamb had died instead…
And the blood was on the wood…
And a shadow of a future cross
Was painted where they stood —
[Chorus]
"I AM!"
Said the God of blood and grace —
"I AM!"
Who sees the sinner's face —
By the lamb, by the sign,
By the covenant divine,
"I WILL PASS YOU BY!"
Thus says the Lord, thus says the Lord —
PASS. YOU. BY.
[Bridge]
Then came the sea…
A wall of water, a wall of dread…
And Pharaoh's chariots thundered near…
But the Lord said —
(thunderous)
"STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND!"
And the waters split in two —
"STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND!"
And the ransomed walked through —
On dry ground! On dry ground!
Through the grave of the sea they came!
On dry ground! On dry ground!
And Egypt drowned in the very same!
(softer, awed)
And He brought them to a mountain…
And He gave them ten commands…
Wrote with the finger of the Holy…
On the tablets in their hands —
"I will be your God —
And you will be My people —"
[Final Chorus]
"I AM!"
(the Lamb, the Lamb, the Lamb!)
"I AM!"
(I AM, I AM, I AM!)
From the chain to the shore,
From the blood on the door,
To the land He had promised them before —
He delivered. He delivered. He delivered.
[Outro]
But the wilderness was long…
And the hearts of men were stone…
They forgot the parted sea…
They forgot the fire on the throne…
And the promise walked ahead of them…
…toward a king who had not yet come.
About the song
"The Blood and the Sea" is the album's first triumph — the first time God's people see what the God who made promises in tents actually does in history. The track is built on the doorpost/sea pairing: salvation under a marked door, and salvation through a divided water. The chorus deliberately echoes the rhythm of the Song of Moses; the bridge gives Miriam her tambourine.