Exodus 6 - Saved to See

God saved you so that you can see and know Him.

A covenant is "a bond in blood, sovereignly administered." - O. Palmer Robertson

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF:  Moses and Aaron asked Pharoah to let God's people go to worship the LORD. But Pharoah instead made life more miserable for the Israelites, so they began to turn against Moses.

Exodus 5:22–6:12 (NIV)

²² Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why, LORD, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? ²³ Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

6 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

² God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai],  but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶ “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. ⁸ And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”

⁹ Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

¹⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹ “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.”

¹² But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”

Nicene Creed

Paragraph 1

We believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

Summary

I'll bet Moses really misses his sheep at this point. He'd lived for decades out in the wilderness tending his father-in-law's sheep until a bush began burning and the LORD called out. Now he's been sent to make an impossible demand of the most powerful man on earth, and the only result so far is that people he's been sent to save have been made even more miserable that they were before.

Moses' own faith has begun to falter as well. He left his perturbed people, returned to the LORD and said, "Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Then Moses' tact switches from being humbly inquisitive to downright accusatory. He finishes his short prayer by blaming God for not doing what He'd said He'd do: You have not rescued your people at all.

The moments after that last word sailed out of Moses' mouth must have seemed like an eternity to him. How would the God whose mere presence in a burning bush made the surrounding worthless wilderness suddenly transform into the earth's holiest ground react to such a bold accusation? It wouldn't be at all surprising at this point if the heavens opened up and a legion of angels came down to obliterate Moses for even thinking the thought, much less voicing the prayer. After all, as the Apostle Paul would warn thousands of years later, who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?

But Moses wasn't obliterated. The LORD simply and softly replies, Now you will see what I will do. In doing so, the LORD tacitly gives you permission to question Him as Moses did and the psalmists so often do: to ask Why, Lord? This isn't a blanket invitation to blame God for all of your problems, petty complaints and theological misunderstandings, but to hold God's promises before Him. It's not that God needs to be reminded of them, it's so that you are as you recite these promises back to God.

  Dig Deeper  

God's mission is more than just rescuing you. Remember, He's El Shaddai - God Almighty, the LORD, who simply uttered the words let there be light, and there was light. If all he wanted to do was rescue His people, He only needed to thunder the words let my people go down from heaven and they would instantly be set free.

Jesus told us exactly what God's mission is as He prayed to His Father the night before He'd be executed: This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3). God wasn't there to just take the burden off of Israel's back, and He didn't reveal the gospel to you just so that you'd go to heaven when you die. He wanted Moses and Israel to see what His mighty hand can do. He wanted them and wants you to truly know that He is the LORD your God.

We also get a big clue as to why God saves His people. It's because He remembers His covenant. A covenant is a formal, reciprocal agreement between two parties, and the concept is one of the primary themes that binds the Bible together. All people are born into the covenant God entered into with Adam in which God would give life as long as we obeyed Him - a contract which we have horribly breached.

But God established a new covenant in which He promised to uphold both sides of that original covenant He'd made with Adam for all those who belong to Him. In other words, your salvation is secured, as was the Israelite's long ago in Egypt, because the LORD God has legally obligated Himself to do so. He reminds Moses of it with these famous words that explain the core essence of God's covenant of grace: I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

But the Israelites, as is so often the case with us, needed to see more. Moses reported this to them, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. So God will go on to display His outstretched arm and uplifted hand with mighty acts of judgment. Stay tuned.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who always remembers His covenant and rescues His people so we can see Him and know that He is the LORD our God;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that the Spirit will cause you to see past your discouragement and harsh labor to know that the LORD is your God;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

---