Exodus-6

Exodus 6….

Exodus 5:22-23(ESV)
²²Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 
²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Exodus 6:1-12(ESV)
¹But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
²God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord”. 
³I 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. 
⁴I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 
⁵Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 
⁶Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 
⁷I 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. 
⁸I 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.’” 
⁹Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
¹⁰So the Lord said to Moses, 
¹¹“Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 
¹²But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 

 5:22-23 – Moses goes to Prayer in seeking out God.  However, he demonstrates his frustration in stating that God brought trouble upon this people.  He attributed God to the ultimate cause and Pharaoh as the immediate cause. 

He states:  “You have not rescued your people at all,”….

Moses shows what he was actually thinking that God’s promised deliverance would occur relatively quickly and would not involve setbacks or disappointments.  The most important thing to have learned at the B.bush was that God said “I will be with you”  that He was going with him.  God’s character is at stake!  God says in chapter 6  “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh”.  NOW, is the time!   Key: the time has come!

Lesson:  Moses is writing this account and show how he was unreasonably impatient for God’s deliverance.  The wilderness generation and we, the decedents, are a people that have a similar tendency in being creatures of impatience.  This is what Moses had to learn and all believers then and now have to learn for ourselves.  We need to acquire an understanding that God’s timing rarely coincides with our expectations.  That His idea of the hardships we need to go through seldom coincides with our idea of how much we can take. 

V.1 –  Use a ‘mighty hand”   (beyad hezaqah)  (Remember since it is in Hebrew it is read from right to left.)   Notice the “Heza” Mighty .    In verse 3:19 it should hat it would take something greater than human power to move Pharaoh to let them go.  It stated:  “because of my mighty hand”  is an idiom connoting “by force”.

V.2-5–  Had Moses just questioned God or had he expressed a lack of understanding?  Did he show the tendency of human time table?  Was his humanism coming to the foe or was he doing what that generation continued to do in having not learned to ‘wait upon the LORD’?.

This was the first time in Exodus that God says “I am Yahweh” – “I am the LORD”…  Used twice before in Gen. 15:7 to Abraham and Gen. 28:13 to Jacob.    In both cases it was in connection with the promise of the land to their descendants.

God’s name is now going to be fully known  – that is, the significance of the name is going to be understood now in Israel’s history.    It is like saying:  “This Exodus generation will witness my mighty saving power.”  This is the Salvation name.  God is fully revealing Himself to the Israelites and the nations.  He will save His people!

V.3– God explains to Moses that He, Yahweh, was the El Shaddai (“God the Mountain One” or by tradition uses “God Almighty”)      To ensure Moses that the promises to the patriarchs will be carried out that the Israelites will be taken to the ‘land of the promise’.  There is a continuity between the promises to the patriarchs and the need to confidence in the present difficulties. 

Genesis 15:13–16 (NASB95)  The whole Exodus story in this very compact form:

          13       God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14  “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.  15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.  16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

V.5 – I have heard your complaint   (Ex3:7)

God repeats the elements again to Moses.  It would be like God saying:  Let’s try it again, but this time listen closely.  This is who I am; I am Yahweh.  I made promise to the patriarchs that I intend to keep.  I know what is happening and I am poised to do something about it – THUS, stand back and watch.

Moses is sent back..  he is to reestablish the trust broken before.  He is to speak God’s promise to them of delivery (salvation).

Exod. 6:6-8  –  ⁶Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.  ⁷I 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.  ⁸I 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.’” 

V.6-8 – In verses 6-8 God gives the words to tell the people…  they summarize God’s plan for his people.

God’s outstretched arm is raised against their oppressors.  It indicates that God is planning plagues to force Pharaoh to let His people go.  These would serve as a judgment against Egypt for their unfairly oppressing the Israelites.  These people were never a real threat as they would never join with any of Egypt’s enemies to take over Egypt.  They were illegally placed in servitude so God would rescue them and punish the Egyptians in the process.

V.7 – a declaration of divine covenantal election of Israel, as they are ‘my people’ and I am ‘their God’.  There were blessings and responsibilities associated with this election.  This would come at the time at Mt. Sinai.  KEY: “then you will know…” 

NAC Quote:  “Here what God was saying was, in effect:  “Trust me that I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  What is the proof?  I won’t give you any yet, but when you are out of Egypt and at the place where I will take you as my own people (which any reader understands to be Sinai since Moses wrote Exodus after Sinai), you will be able to look back on what has happened and see that I accomplished everything that I promised you.”

V. 8 – Looks back to the promise given Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Really saying:  “I am Yahweh, your covenant God.”  The words:  “I am LORD” is a statement of identity and but relational identity.  The person can say ‘I have a connection to God.”  “I know Him personally.”  (EVEN TODAY)

V.9 – they do not listen to Moses. 
The people ‘grumble’ in the face of God’s mercy.  Their present reality dictates what they think God can and cannot do; they do “not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage”.  Apparently Moses has not gottn past his discouragement.  (A discouragement brought on by not waiting on Jehovah – by entering into human thinking and human timetable for the solution.)

Exodus 6:9–13 (NASB95)  –   So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage. 10  Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.” 12  But Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, “Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?”       13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

QUOTE from NAC:

“Optimism is often dashed by suffering, especially ongoing suffering. Faith is often diminished by hardship because emotions play a powerful part in most human thinking, and thinking can become increasingly pessimistic when any sort of pain continues unabated. Accordingly, it is understandable that the Israelites would not listen (v. 9) to Moses’ latest message of divine reassurance, even though they had previously welcomed Yahweh’s words (4:29–31). Pharaoh’s strategy (5:7–9) had proved remarkably successful. The people were overcome by impatience for relief and by hard slavery (niv “discouragement and cruel bondage”).

This presented an obvious tactical problem for Moses, which he voiced in v. 12. If the Israelites, who would be his natural allies and who stood to gain from the message he was speaking on God’s behalf, would not listen, how could he ever expect to meet success by carrying on with the task of demanding freedom from Pharaoh, who was his natural enemy in this situation and who stood to lose hugely from an Israelite exodus?”

God still assigns Moses to confront Pharaoh again and demand Israel’s exodus.  (V. 10-11)  

V.12– Moses again brings up his inability to speak as the literal translation reads:  “My lips are uncircumcised” or speech impediment (faltering lips) and not ready for public speaking. 
In other words, Moses was still desperate and desperately discouraged and pessimistic. He wanted out. God, however, knew better.

Exodus 6:13-27

¹³ 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.

The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron

¹⁴ These are the heads of their fathers’ houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben. ¹⁵ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon. ¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years. ¹⁷ The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans. ¹⁸ The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. ¹⁹ The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. ²⁰ Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. ²¹ The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. ²² The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri. ²³ Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ²⁴ The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are the clans of the Korahites. ²⁵ Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.

²⁶ 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.” ²⁷ It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.

²⁸ On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” ³⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

The genealogy is the line of Levi extending to Phinehas with Aaron at the center. 

This is a genealogy that goes backward and forward in time.  Starting with the 3^rd son of Jacob and ending with Phinehas.  It places Exodus in this broad historical perspective of God reaching backward and forward.

Phinehas is a highly regarded figure in the Old Testament.  Numbers 25:1-17 as he is the one wo turns God’s anger away from the Israelites by killing an Israelite and his Mediante wife (Zimri and Cozbi) . As a result God makes a covenant of a lasting priesthood for his honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites (v.13).

The line:  Levi  –  Kohath – (Amram & Jocabed) – Aaron   (Moses)
                                                (Aaron & Elisheba) – Eleazar – Phinehas

It establishes Aaron as a worthy partner in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, particularly in his role as Moses’ mouthpiece – a role reiterated in 6:28-7:7.

V.26 “…by their hosts.”  –  would be to bring them out by their divisions as by clan divisions and priestly divisions.  This is to say ‘God’s army” has conquered Egypt and is leaving. 

V. 26 states in

ESV  “These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.”

By their clans….

NJJV:  Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.”   
By their armies…

Message:          This is the Aaron and Moses whom God ordered: “Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt clan by clan.” These are the men, Moses and Aaron, who told Pharaoh king of Egypt to release the Israelites from Egypt.

By clan by clan….

Thus the purpose for the above listing of tribal divisions (lineage).

Lesson:  

We are not to be like Moses when he questions God’s integrity – but Moses, like the other were a complex character. 

As Moses goes on we learn his understanding and relationship to God developed. 

Themes:

In Exodus we see the theme of ‘grumbling’ as this reoccurs throughout the book. 

The reiteration of the divine name is recurring’ “I am the LORD” 

The focus turns more and more to God in what He will do.  The ultimate is the central theme that the mighty God loves his people and will display that love by saving them.

For the completed scriptural thoughts one needs to read:  Ex. 6: 28-30 and 7:1-7  (the Message Bible)

“I’ll Make You as a God to Pharaoh”

²⁸       And that’s how things stood when God next spoke to Moses in Egypt.

²⁹       God addressed Moses, saying, “I am God. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I say to you.”

³⁰                And Moses answered, “Look at me. I stutter. Why would Pharaoh listen to me?”

^1–5      7 Godtold Moses, “Look at me. I’ll make you as a god to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron will tell it to Pharaoh. Then he will release the Israelites from his land. At the same time I am going to put Pharaoh’s back up and follow it up by filling Egypt with signs and wonders. Pharaoh is not going to listen to you, but I will have my way against Egypt and bring out my soldiers, my people the Israelites, from Egypt by mighty acts of judgment. The Egyptians will realize that I am God when I step in and take the Israelites out of their country.”

^6–7               Moses and Aaron did exactly what God commanded. Moses was eighty and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

In the ESV version:

²⁸ On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, ²⁹ the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” ³⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

7 And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. ² You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. ⁵ The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

V.1 – “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh”  –  Moses will be God functionally both to Pharaoh and to the Israelites. 

“In Pharaoh’s eyes he views himself as ‘a god’, a divine being.  So by calling Moses God, Yahweh is beating Pharaoh at his own game.  It is not the king of Egypt who is god; rather, it is this shepherd and leader of slaves who is God.  And this Moses-God defeats pharaoh in a manner that leaves no doubt as to the true nature and source of his power:  He controls the elements, bugs, livestock, fire from heaven, and the water of the sea; he even has authority over life and death.  Moses is not simply like God to Pharaoh.  He truly is God to Pharaoh in that God is acting through Moses. “   Quote: J. Elis…. NIV Application Commentary

This episode is the type of intimacy that God intended to have with all humanity but that was lost in the garden.  Moses as God is a striking example of “Adam-like” activity.  Moses is truly human and God is working through him.  His true humanity is displayed precisely in his intimacy with God.  He was called by God to mediate God’s image to the enslaved Israelites.  God wanted to deliver them from their present condition to one of intimacy with him.    This intimacy is already displayed in the person of Moses, through whom  God will not only save the nation now and later at Mount Sinai reveal his will to them for how this intimacy can be sustained.  It is sustained via the law and the tabernacle which are expressions of God’s holiness.

Moses takes on an ‘image-bearing’ role as seen by prophets, priests, and kings representing God to the people.  Moses as God would be the most striking Old Testament example of regaining the glory that humanity once had in the garden as the bearers of God’s image. 

Moses and most importantly Christ exemplifies what God intended for humanity; perfect image-bearers (to bring praise and glory to God). 

God repeats his directive to go back to Pharaoh and make the same request.  He also tells them that Pharaoh will harden his heart and by stubborn about realizing them until He has stretched out His hand against them.

Moses will be God directly to Pharaoh  –  that is Moses will be an authority figure to Pharaoh rather than just to Aaron.  Pharaoh will know that Moses is God’s representative and thus someone to reckon with.

God will use this opportunity to show Egypt his might.  God will toy with this ‘mighty’ nation and its godlike king, and by doing so will leave no doubt that it is he who fights the battle- note:7:5

Moses and Aaron should understand the recurring setbacks they experience by Pharaoh’s repeated refusals as being well within the parameters of God’s plan of deliverance.     Key is “I Am”