THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 6..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land."

God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan and the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from great act of judgment.

I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord."

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, for I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These are the heads of their fathers' houses, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Pilu, Hezron, and Carmi.

These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon, Genuel, Jamin, Ohab, Jachan, Zohar, and Shoel. The sons of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations.

Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of life of Levi being 137 years, the sons of Gershon, Libni, and Shimei, by their clans, the sons of Kohath, Amram, Izha, Hebron, and Uziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years, the sons of Merari, and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. Amram took as his wife Jacobek, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. The sons of Izzah, Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri the sons of Uziel, Mishael, Elzaphen, and Zithri. Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Aminadad, and sister of Nahshon.

And she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, the sons of Korah, Asir, Alcanah, and Abiseth. These are the clans of the Korahites. Eliezer, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putwell, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the father's house of the Levites by their clans. These are the Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.

It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and this Aaron. On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you. But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of Well, we have been together working our way through this book, the book of Exodus, and we've been introduced to Moses already.

And we know that Moses was somewhat a reluctant prophet, a prophet who you can almost say was unwilling to take up the task that the Lord had given him to go and lead the people from Egypt, out of the land of Egypt, into the land of promise. from their bondage. However, his reluctance must have subdued someone at least towards the end of chapter four, because there we know that when he presented the case to the people of Israel and the elders, and he said to them what the Lord God had spoken to him about him hearing their plight and their cries and groans, and he was going to release them from the land and from bondage, we know that at the end of that chapter, And so Moses goes from probably a state of reluctance and almost unwillingness to now boldness and joy. Now he and Aaron go into the presence of Pharaoh and they declare to Pharaoh, as God had told them, let God's people go. But he's not met with probably are waiting for, because not only does the king of Egypt deny Moses' request, his heart is hardened, and through that hardened heart he increases the severity towards this people, demanding they make the same amount of bricks with no straw.

They used to provide the straw, that is the Egyptians, now the Israelites want to go and provide their own straw and make the same amount of bricks. This is unfair, this is that have gone from bad to worse are now laid squarely on Moses. They essentially wish that Moses had never left Midian. In fact, one would say that the words towards the end of the chapter, chapter 5, you could almost say that they're claiming that their own blood is on Moses' head. Moses goes from being a reluctant prophet to a joyful one, and now he sinks back into hopelessness and despair.

So last week we saw this disparaged man and what he does, and if you remember there was two things that we spoke about last week. We said the first was that Moses did what was right and what should come natural to every child of God, to every Christian. When you're in circumstances that feel beyond what you can bear, you run God. Because only in God do you find solace. Only there do you find answers.

Only there do you find rest for your soul. We commend Moses for that, but he's not to be imitated because his attitude was not one of reverence. He had gone to God, yes, but he was more accusatory than grateful. He blamed God and even pinned on God doing evil, he says. And he says that God, or he at least implies that God is He did his part.

God, I've done what you asked me to do. I've gone into this king, the most powerful man in the world at that stage, and I've said to him what you told me to say, yet he hasn't released his people. Why haven't you done what you're meant to do, God? I've done what I'm meant to do. Why haven't you done what you're meant to do?

So you have these why questions towards the end of chapter five. The Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And the tension now is at its utmost high, because Moses is accusing God. And that's where we left the chapter last week. Now, in chapter six, the conversation continues.

Moses is still yet in the presence of God. He said what is on his heart. He's poured out his heart in openness before the Lord. And I want you to realize how God of Moses, and that word is now. He says, now you shall see what I will do to Moses.

You see, Moses had the ideal situation in his mind. Even though God had told him that Pharaoh's heart will be hardened and he will not release the people, he must have forgot that detail because when he went into the presence of Pharaoh, he ideal timing of God. But now God says, now, now I will do, now he will see the strong arm of the Lord. Now if you ask the people of Israel, that would have said that four centuries ago God should have relieved them from the bondage they're in. But that wasn't God's timing either.

He said, I'll wait 430 years. And if you recall, many years ago, he said those words to Abraham. God's timing is perfect. according to His time, not ours. Now, now is the time for Yahweh.

The great I Am will put His glory on show before the people of Israel, before the King of Egypt, and before all the occupants of the land of Egypt who worship false deities, who are no deities at all. He will put His might on display. They will see His mighty hand of Yahweh, and He will redeem and with Jacob he has not forgot that he told these people that he will relieve them from their bondage that he will remove them from being under the oppression and take them to a land called their own a land flown with milk and verse and there's much disagreement amongst many scholars as what it means and this is how it reads I appeal to Abraham the words of Yahweh to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty but my name the Lord is Now the patriarchs, we're told, he knew God as El Shaddai, or God Almighty, as it is in our text. But we know also that they knew him as Yahweh, because if we look in the book of Genesis, tens of times the word or the name Yahweh is in our Bibles, and in fact, it comes on the lips of the patriarchs as well. Beloved, we must remember the great I Am, or Yahweh, is the name that represents the sum total of all He is, all His attributes.

And God has many attributes that become more and more known throughout redemptive history. And fully and finally, they come on display in the person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Of those attributes, Yahweh is almighty, he's eternal, he's the all-sufficient God, but also he's a God who fulfills every promise. The patriarchs knew Yahweh as the almighty and the covenant maker. They believed.

But the people of Israel will soon come to know him as the covenant keeper, the covenant fulfiller. experience, in real time, what the patriarchs believe with their eyes of faith, that Yahweh is a covenant keeper. And so now in verses 6 through 8, this covenant-keeping God will issue seven, I will statements. And they are a reiteration of His promises that He made to Moses, that Moses, on my apologies, will communicate to the people of Israel. Now let's put our eyes into the text.

I want you to hear the I will statement. I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from the slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. Listen to this one, beloved. by God. For God to say these things means that he's looking for an intimate relationship with his people.

And this is the most blessed thing that we know is fully recognized in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Continuing, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. one of those high wheels. to our wives and our families that we will protect them to the best of our ability.

But if we find ourselves, and I don't know why we would find ourselves in a situation like this, going down a dark alley and 15 armed men in front of us, we will do our best to protect them, but it's very unlikely we'll be able to keep our promise to protect them. Because there are things that can happen that are out of our control. However, I want you to look how Yahweh. I am the Lord. This is a reminder of who He is.

You see, the valid reasons that you and I may have, unintentionally, to break our promises, don't apply to God. He's all-powerful. No one can stay His hand. He's all-knowing. No one can thwart His will.

He's sovereign. Everything is under His complete control. Nothing catches this God by surprise. give up, they focus more on the immediate physical conditions. And so we're told they do not listen.

They forego the peace. the rest of knowing that God is in complete control and God will fulfill his promises. But how many of us forego that peace, that comfort, that rest, when we ought to be holding to the sovereign God of the universe, knowing full well he is a God And then we see this, and we see, unfortunately, it wasn't only the people of Israel who lacked the faith, because the response of Moses is once again telling. He says, I, how can they listen to me? The people haven't listened to me.

How will Pharaoh listen to me? For I am a man of uncircumcised lips. You see, this is where you then get the genealogy of Aaron and Moses, and it really is a display of their humanity. You see, they're not of a special pedigree, they're from the tribe avenging what had been done to their sister Dina. They're men, and they act like men.

We're people, and we act like people. Humanity. Although the names of this genealogy, and we're not going to go into this, so many important names here, which we just don't have the time to go through this evening, but we will go on as we work our way through the book of Exodus and beyond. We will see a lot of these names come up, but it is very much focused on the tribe of and we'll come to see that in subsequent chapters. But we're to remember that these men, Moses, who is the author of this book, and Aaron, are me-men.

Because later on, Moses is revered. Later on, Moses is revered by many of the Jews. But he's a me-man, and he's an instrument or a vessel that God uses to accomplish his purposes. Now this is evident, as I said before, context here, it's most likely, like other translations have translated it, it could most likely mean that I'm a man of unskilled lips. I have a burn, a heavy tongue.

My tongue is deficient, probably the excuse he made originally to God, saying, why would you send me, a man who can't speak properly? But again, Moses ought to have his eyes on the majesty of God, but instead, he's concentrating on his own human attributes. mighty hand of God. He's the one who made the promises, and beloved, He's the one who'll fulfill them, and He uses the instruments that He uses, and many of the times, the instruments He uses are obstacles, but He'll still perform and fulfill that which He has accomplished. Many years later, many years later, we know that in the land of Israel, when Israel had found rest, the aged Joshua says these words in Joshua 23.

speaking to the people of Israel, you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord, your God, promised concerning you. Even at that point they could look back and see that God was indeed faithful, and this hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we ought to also look back Jesus Christ. But we know there is a here and a not yet element of our salvation, don't we? The here is in Christ and we enjoy that even now, praise God. But the not yet, we need to wait.

We need to wait until we enjoy that in its fullness. The fullness of the eternal rest, for example, is something we all long for. It's coming. The return of our Saviour is coming. These are promises we ought to be holding to, trusting, not looking to our own circumstances, but looking at the God who gave these promises.

Because those promises are as good as the person who gave them.