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The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 1/19/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.

Hey, church. Thanks for joining me in a reading and study of the Book of Exodus. We've been on a little winter Christmas break. Thank you for that time, but with the New Year having begun, it's time now to jump back into our Tuesday night study and to jump back into the Book of Exodus.

Exodus Recap

Now, up to this point, we've studied the first four chapters of the book of Exodus. We saw the difficult conditions that the people of Israel were in, in Exodus chapter one. The centuries had ticked by, over four centuries from the time that Joseph brought his family to Egypt with him. And the children of Israel had grown into a people that was somewhere around two or 3 million in number. And they had been blessed and well received there in Egypt for the bulk of that time, but a pharaoh or king arose, who did not know Joseph and he began to mistreat the people of Israel because of fear that they might rise up against the Egyptians.

And so the relationship change. No longer were they operating in a symbiotic kind of way, but now the Egyptians or the pharaoh were operating in the role of master and the Israelites were operating in the role of slave. This slavery grew so intense that the pharaoh demanded that the people of Israel kill their firstborn or kill their sons when they were born, so that the Israelite daughters could assimilate into Egypt by marrying Egyptian men. But of course, even this backfired and God caused the people of Israel to multiply. In the midst of this time, Moses, a baby born to an Israelite woman named Jochebed, was after three months of being hidden by his mother and father, put into a basket, sealed with pitch and floated down the Nile River, where Pharaoh's daughter saw him and took him into her family. And Moses was raised as an Egyptian, though Hebrew, of course, in origin.

And eventually the day came when he was about 40 years of age that he assumed he would be the one that would deliver the people of Israel from their captivity, but they did not receive him as their deliver. And instead, because Moses defended a man and killed a man in defense, he had to flee for his life because he had murdered, or so it had been said, an Egyptian. And so he fled into the wilderness of Midian, where he married a woman named Zipporah, who was the daughter of a man named Reuel or Jethro. And there he took care of Jethro's sheep on the backside of the wilderness. All the while, the people of Israel, their plight, their calamity, their persecution was only increasing. They continued to cry out to God and God heard them.

And so one day, when Moses was 80 years old, God spoke to Moses from a bush that was burning, yet not consumed. And he turned aside to see this thing. God revealed himself to Moses and called Moses to go back to Egypt and to be the spokesperson for God. "You will be like God to Pharaoh. I will speak through you." God declared to Moses. Moses objected, he asked God a series of questions trying to defer or delay or get out of the commitment entirely, but God confirmed, "No, you are the man that will go." And he entrusted Moses with a miraculous staff and various signs that he promised that Moses would perform as an evidence that he was who he said he was when he went back to the people of Israel, even allowing Moses's older brother, Aaron, to be his mouthpiece and collaborator in the great Exodus that was about to occur.

And so Moses went back to Egypt. Aaron and Moses reunited. There was a bit of difficulty on the road, and so Zipporah and their children, that Moses and Zipporah had had two sons, they went back into Midian, they'd meet up with him later. And Moses now, with Aaron, is in Egypt, ready to declare to Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord, 'Let my people go.'" The first thing though, that they did is they appeared to the elders of Israel. They performed signs for them. They told them that God had sent them. And so with enthusiasm and excitement, they are now ready to go in and see God work a deliverance.

Now, of course, you have to remember that even though God had told Moses that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened, it would have been impossible for Moses to understand what was about to unfold. We look back on this story, we think about the plagues and the terrible difficulties and the way that God poured out his wrath, his direct judgment upon all the false gods of Egypt, especially the supreme false god, Pharaoh himself, who declared himself to be the Son of God. And we look back on it, and we sort of read with anticipation, Moses heading into the season of plagues. But you might imagine Moses heading into that time himself, suspecting success, suspecting ease, expecting that God is going to quickly deliver his people from their captivity. So they come in with confidence, and with boldness, because God had given them authority, and so they are ready to declare.

Exodus 5 -- Preparation for Redemption: From Bad to Worse

1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.”

Let's begin now, our study of chapter five by reading verse one. It says, "Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness."

Again, fresh off momentum, they come in to Pharaoh. They're excited. The elders have believed, the people have believed. Their prayers are answered. The Lord has heard, the Lord has visited the offspring, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Verse 31, the last verse of chapter four says that they bowed their heads and worshiped. They are on a spiritual high, at this point, so excited about what God is doing.

And this would have been, of course, a dramatic meeting between Moses, Aaron and Pharaoh. The people considered Pharaoh to be a god. He was unlike an elected public servant. Pharaohs were said to be children of the sun. So they received worship alongside all the other gods In Egypt. There's even an ancient Egyptian temple with an inscription that reads of the Pharaoh, "I am that which was, and is, and shall be, and no man has lifted my veil." Rather pompous if you ask me. The kind of attitude that they should not have had. They I guess just did not realize that they were propped up basically by the Nile River that God had given them. That's why it's such a great civilization had been built in that region. But Moses goes in to Pharaoh whom he of course considers to be only a man. Impressive externally with a great kingdom but not a deity, but just a man. Moses had grown up in the royal courts, he knew the truth. He knew that Pharaoh got BO like everybody else. And so he walked in there knowing exactly what he was dealing with.

You see it says in Proverbs 29:25 that, "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe."

Listen, we have to be a people who have a respect or reverence of fear of the Lord, but who are not afraid of human beings. If there was ever a human to be afraid of it would have been Pharaoh, but Moses came in with a boldness before God and said, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" That was, by the way, the fundamental demand that Moses made. They wanted freedom. They wanted freedom, so that they could go and worship. Hold a feast of worship, he said, in the wilderness.

Now, some have wondered if this was the wrong way for Moses to approach Pharaoh. God had told Moses to go in with the elders with signs and declare these things, but here he goes in without the elders, it seems. It's possible that they are there but just unspoken in the text. And he gives Pharaoh directions that are slightly different from what God had explicitly said, as we'll see in a moment. But if Pharaoh had consented, at this point, it would have been a way for him to confess that the people belong to God, rather than belonging to Pharaoh. And they could have played a positive role. Pharaoh and his followers, the Egyptians, they could have had a positive role and said, "You know, we're going to support God's people. We're going to be behind God's people." Similar to perhaps when, four centuries earlier, they had supported and funded the burial trip back in the land of Canaan, for Jacob's body. Egypt had supported it at that point, they could have been supportive of the Israelites departing from Egypt once again. But we'll see, and of course, we know that Pharaoh is going to do no such thing.

2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

It says in verse 2, "But Pharaoh said, 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.'" He begins his rebuff of Moses by saying, "Who is the Lord?" To me, this is one of the strongest statements that evidences the hardness of heart of Pharaoh, when he asks that question, "Who is the Lord?"

In one sense, I think Pharaoh is saying, "If the Lord is the deity of the Israelite people, then consider the status of the Israelite people. They're enslaved in another man's kingdom, they are being forced to make bricks without straw. They are being killed, they are suffering greatly. So you're telling me now about the deity of those people. Apparently, this deity," Pharaoh might be implying, "is not a powerful deity, is not a strong deity, like myself." That might have been the idea or the thought that Pharaoh is communicating when he asks the question, "Who is the Lord?" Rather than realizing that the God of all creation was giving this puny man a chance to get with his program, Pharaoh rejected God's program and rejected God.

Now Pharaoh, interestingly enough, ironically enough, will get an answer to his question, "Who is the Lord?" Well, he's the God who will systematically destroy every god in Egypt, including Pharaoh. That's who the Lord is. And so this question actually set Pharaoh up for the judgment of God. Now, all of this probably just deflated the air in Moses's tire. Kind of burst his bubble there in that moment.

Apparently, victory is not going to come as quickly as Moses and Aaron and the elders and the people might have first expected. Moses comes back to Egypt ready to carry out the task that God has chosen for him to do, and it's going to take longer than he thought. This is so often the way of the Lord and the way of serving our Lord. We get grandiose ideas and expectations and hopes and dreams. And then it just takes a while for these things to unfold in his Kingdom.

3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”

Then they said, verse 3, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with the pestilence or with sword." "But the king of Egypt said to them, 'Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.' And Pharaoh said, 'Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.'"

Now, Moses here, for his part, when he responds to Pharaoh's response, he simply cannot believe that Pharaoh is not immediately giving in to his demands in verse 1. "Thus says the Lord, 'Let my people go.'" So Moses comes back and says, "Okay, let me be clear here. God wants you to let them go a three days journey into the wilderness, so they can have a festival unto the Lord." They elaborate on their initial request. And by the way, this is exactly what God had said to Moses at the burning bush. He said, "Moses," Exodus 3:18, "now listen to your voice, you and the elders of Israel should go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of Hebrews has met with us, and now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'"

Now, some people think that what Moses meant by that was, "We're going to go on a three days journey and then sacrifice to the Lord, but also never return. You're letting us go completely." And some people think that he meant, "No, we're just going to go worship for three days, and we will come back." This, by the way, was something that the Egyptians themselves were known to do. Take time off to attend to religious matters. So perhaps God is giving Pharaoh a test. "I'm not asking for anything more than you allow your people to do. Let them go and worship me for a period of time. But Pharaoh's response, no matter how he understood what Moses said, was very simple. He said, "Why do you take the people away from their work?" This man did not respond well to this threat.

6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”

And Moses's command, as authoritative as we might think Moses is, his command is not taken seriously by Pharaoh. And he just says to him, "Listen, you're wasting my time. You're wasting the time of these servants. It's time for them to get back to work. Why do you want them to have time away from serving me?" So verse 6, it says, "The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen and said, 'You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them. You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore, they cry, 'Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.' Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words."

Now, you can see quickly here the strategy of Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron have come and said, "Hey, God says, 'Let my people go.'" Pharaoh kids wind, that the people, the elders are supportive of Moses and Aaron. And so Pharaoh says, "Okay, well, let's make the work even harder. Let's force them to make bricks without straw like they made them before. Let's put a heavier burden upon them. Since they feel that they've got all this time to go and worship God, let's put heavier work upon them." And part of Pharaoh's strategy is to cause the people of Israel to become disgusted with Moses and Aaron, to accuse them and say, "Look, life was easier before you guys came along. Life was simpler before you began telling us that God wanted to deliver us as a people." And so the result of Pharaoh's decree is that the people of Israel must work harder.

But again, all this is really doing, is pitting Pharaoh directly against God. The standoff is now prepared. It is Pharaoh versus God, it is God versus Pharaoh. And ironically, these Israelites who had to work harder, God would look at them and say, "I want you to come out so that you won't have to work at all. I want you to Sabbath before me, to rest before me." Pharaoh, he doesn't even simply say, "Well, keep working." He says, "I want you to work more." He made their work harder than before. As I pointed out before, oftentimes, this is the way it is in God's process in our lives. A great Exodus is about to occur here. God is going to deliver his people and there's going to be a freedom from captivity. And in Christ Jesus, we are set free from our sin. But so often there's a process, isn't there? There's a process of things getting worse at times before they get better. And the people of Israel were going to go through this collectively, the situation was going to grow severe before they were delivered.

10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’ ” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

Verse 10, "The taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, 'Thus says Pharaoh, 'I will not give you straw, go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.'' So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent saying, 'Complete your work, your daily tasks each day, as when there was straw.' And the foremen of the people of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten, and were asked, 'Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?'"

Moses Blamed for Israel's Hardship

So these taskmasters have to go back to the people of Israel, the foremen, and they have to tell them, "Hey, look, 'Thus says Pharaoh.'" Now this whole passage began with what? "Thus says the Lord." So again, the confrontation is there. Here, it's Pharaoh's word, whereas before it was God's word. And this battle of sovereigns is going to continue all throughout this text. And here we have the slave drivers and the foreman, delivering the bad word, the bad message, the bad scripture of Pharaoh. And I don't think the wording is accidental, it's deliberate. It's a way to point out, this is in contrast to what the Lord says. And this is constantly the battle that we're dealing with as believers. There's what the Lord says, there's what his Word says, and then there is what man says. And Pharaoh is a great representation of human thought, because he's kind of portrayed as the ultimate man, the ultimate human. But of course, he's far from it. Jesus is the ultimate man and Jesus would have told us to be allegiant to the Word of the Lord, not the word of man.

15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”

Verse 15, it says, "Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, 'Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, 'Make bricks.' And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people. But he said, 'You are idle, you are idle.' That is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.' Go now and work, no straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks."

Now verse 14, we see that the foremen of the people of Israel speak. These are Hebrew men that were going to be beaten for their underperformance. So they have a reason to communicate this message. "And they," it says in verse 15, "came and cried to Pharaoh. There is no prayer. There's no supplication. There's no inquiry of God. Instead, what do they do? They come to Pharaoh, they go straight to Pharaoh, and they asked him their questions. They're interceding. They're looking to him. There's the Word of the Lord and the word of Pharaoh. And then there's the question, "Who is it that you are crying out to?"

And so often, God's people make the mistake of turning to human institutions and systems in an attempt at deliverance, rather than crying out to God, turning to him and to his Word. And Pharaoh, his response was that, "You are lazy. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I'm making your work hard." That's that was his analysis of their request. So he tells them to go now, verse 18, "Go now and work."

Now this is an interesting statement that Pharaoh makes, because consider how the story ends for Pharaoh. He will tell the people of Israel to go now and serve the Lord. So right now he's saying, "Go work in Egypt," but someday, after all the plagues are over with and his firstborn son dies, he'll come to a place of desperation and he'll say, "Go work for God. Stop working for me. Go work for God."

19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

"So the foremen of the people of Israel, verse 19, saw that they were in trouble when they said, 'You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily tasks each day.' They met with Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them and as they came out from Pharaoh and they said to them, 'The Lord look on you and judge because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.'"

Now the day is done, these taskmasters are reeling. These foremen are reeling at the news that they've got to ask their brethren to produce at this heightened capacity for Pharaoh without the proper materials. They've gone in to talk to Pharaoh and Pharaoh has told them, "Well, look, I've put this upon you, because apparently, you have so much extra time that you want to go worship God, you want to worship the Lord." And so this triggers these foremen, and they go out at the end of the day, and they are waiting for Moses and Aaron. These figures now that they celebrated earlier in the passage, they now are frustrated with at this portion of the passage.

Moses and Aaron needed to go and let these guys know how poorly it had gone with Pharaoh earlier in the day. But these foremen, they already knew, because word had already gotten down to them and they'd already gone back to Pharaoh. And so they say to Moses and Aaron, "Look, you have made us stink in the eyes of Pharaoh. They've put a sword against us. It's like you've put a sword in their hand to kill us." And Moses had told Pharaoh not to allow the sword of God to be brought against the Hebrews. But here, that's exactly how they feel. They feel that they are a persecuted people. And of course, this shows us and reminds us of how fickle human nature is. How quickly we lose faith, how quickly we lose heart. Their mood change rather quickly. There wasn't a lot of faith or mental fortitude or endurance. They had not expected that things would get difficult before they got better.

Chapter 4 ends with them bowing their heads and worshiping the Lord. This is a far different experience. Very quickly, they've turned on a dime and now they're distressed over their lack of favor with Pharaoh. Their faith, their excitement, their worship, it was all very fickle.

I believe that many times, we go through this kind of experience. Where we get fired up about something we believe God is going to do, but we have no perspective about, again, the difficulty we might need to endure to see God do those things. Yes, it'll be beautiful in the end, but there's going to be trial and pain and tragedy along the way. And these followers of God were not prepared for that kind of experience. Their excitement and worship, it faded and what replaced it was fear and insecurity and worry and stress and lashing out against their spiritual leaders.

What you're seeing here is the beginning of the theme that the people of Israel are grumblers. That's what we're going to find in the wilderness, this generation is going to grumble against God. And here, they're already beginning that process as they grumble against Moses and grumble against Aaron. But on the other hand, it's hard to blame them, because their situation is worse than the day before when Moses was not there. So they're, a little bit justified and seems like, "Hey, what's going on? We thought we were going to be delivered, but things are now worse." But again, like I said, many times when God is moving, things will get worse before they get better.

And I think that part of the reason why God wanted things to get worse was not just a test for their character, but again, God needed to fully judge the false gods in Israel. So had Pharaoh just acquiesced and let them leave, there would have been no judgment of Pharaoh and all the other false gods that they worshiped. Secondly, had this happened quickly, there likely would not have been a full deliverance of the people of Israel from Egyptian idolatry. They no doubt had picked the worship of false gods while they're in Egypt, and plague after plague would help them see, "Oh, wow, we belong to the God of the universe. Our God's stronger than any of these false gods that the Egyptians worship." So it was a way for God to help them extricate themselves from false gods.

Also, the length of time. All the judgments, the difficulty, all of that, it would help the people of Israel fully be delivered from their captivity in the sense that they would all want to go by the time God's deliverance came. It would not be hard to imagine some of them even choosing to stay and not go on the arduous journey of pilgrimage to the Promised Land. So God wanted full deliverance for the Hebrew people. He wanted full separation from the idols of Egypt for the Hebrew people, and he wanted full judgment of the Egyptian false gods. So that's probably part of the reason why it was going to be a longer process than they likely would have wanted to become free people.

22 Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For 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.”

"Then Moses," verse 22, "turned to the Lord." I love that line. He just looped back to God. He says, "God, I need you. I need your grace, I need your strength, I need your help." Moses turned to the Lord and said, "Oh, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For 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." Moses goes all the way back to God. And he's very honest with God in the things that he prays to the Lord. His personal hope, for instant deliverance, had also been brought to nothing. God had warned him about the rejection of Pharaoh, but Moses was not prepared for the rejection of the Hebrew people. He wasn't ready for this level of rejection. But in a sense, God is being very gracious with Moses here because he needed to prepare for this level of rejection.

Being the leader of the people of Israel was a difficult task in that era. He had a lot of complaints levied against him over the years. The people of Israel were often against him and he had to get to the point where his skin was thick enough and where he realized, "I'm not here serving in the Hebrew people. I'm here serving the Hebrew people's God. I'm here serving the Lord himself. And if the Lord is happy with me, then that's all that matters to me." And so there is any part of Moses who had come back to Egypt with a feeling in his heart like, "I can't wait to tell the people of Israel about what's about to occur. They're going to love me, they're going to celebrate me, they're going to be so great to me." He's disabused of that notion right away. And now he knows, "I'm in it alone before God. There might be times where we have good fellowship, myself and the people of Israel, and there might be times where they're against me. No matter what, I have fellowship with the Lord." And God is using this first development to help train that in Moses's heart.

You see, Moses had graduated, in a sense. From preparation, that's what he was doing out in the wilderness, taking care of the sheep, the flock of his father-in-law, to the actual work, the flock of God, being much more difficult to take care of than the flock of Jethro. And this is so often how the Lord will work in our lives. We'll serve him, he'll give us a task, and then he'll graduate us into the next level of responsibility. And afresh, we'll have to turn him, run to him, and ask for his help. And so I think Moses did well, in that he cried out to the Lord.

Peter said in 1 Peter 5:1, "Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." And that's what Moses had done. He had cast his burden on the Lord, Psalm 55: 22. He had just told the Lord, "Honestly, this is what I'm going through. This is what I'm experiencing during this moment." A time of real honesty in prayer before God.

Exodus 6 -- Redemption: God's Promise Remains

1 But 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.”

Let's move on into chapter 6 and see the response of God to his man, Moses. "But 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.'" So God does speak to Moses, the Lord declares to Moses. Of course, Moses had demanded freedom and things had gotten worse. So he's perplex, but God graciously now speaks back to Moses. God could have been silent with Moses, but he's not that kind of vindictive God. He hears Moses's accusation in the prayer at the end of chapter 5, and now he responds to Moses. Begins to open up Moses's eyes and tells him that Pharaoh will deliver the people of Israel with a strong hand. God promised Moses a radical and forceful deliverance. In other words, God was arranging everything for his glory and for his people's good. And so Moses needed to trust God and to trust the process that God was going to take the people of Israel through.

Of course, in the New Testament economy, believers have passages like Romans 8:28 that tell us that God loves those who are... For those who love God and are called according to his purpose, God uses all things together for his good. So we know that God is using these difficult times, but we have to believe that the Lord will use them for his great purpose and good. And so God begins to declare that to Moses, "Hey, I'm doing this. There will be a moment that Pharaoh will let you go, and with a strong hand as well."

2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 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. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.

God spoke to Moses, verse 2, 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, the land in which they lived as sojourners.'" Here, God tells Moses something beautiful. He reminds Moses of his name. It's a name that indicated the power and trustworthiness of the one who had the name. So God is trying to draw Moses's attention to his own nature and character. And we have an advantage in the moment we live in, because we can so easily look back to the cross. We don't have to look forward to the cross as Moses did by faith. We look back to the cross, and we see the character and nature of God. And so it should encourage a greater trust in our hearts for him.

But what did God mean when he said that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had only known God as God Almighty, or El Shaddai in the Hebrew, but not as the Lord, not as Jehovah or Yahweh?

Well, in Genesis, the Lord is mentioned 162 times. So it's not that they didn't know him, but it seems that what they had is they had his promises. But Moses is going to a greater degree, experience God's presence. We'll see in the latter parts of the Book of Exodus that Moses will actually have intense encounters with God himself. He's already had a major one, in that he's met with God at the bush that burned yet was not consumed, but he'll meet with God at the Red Sea, he'll meet with God at Mount Sinai, he'll meet with God in the Tabernacle, he'll meet with God in a tent of meeting where they will face-to-face encounter each other. So Moses is stepping into a deeper level of relationship with God. And God, it seems, is trying to remind Moses or promise Moses, "Hey, Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they knew me to a degree and I gave them great promises. They were certainly my men. But building on that foundation, you are going to know me to such a greater degree."

As I think about that, with Moses, I'm so encouraged by the direction of that relationship with God. It seems that there is this progressive thing that is occurring, where God is opening up that relationship with him in a more expanded way than ever before. And of course, now for us as believers, Christ has come, he has died on the cross, substituted himself for us, rose from the grave, ascended, poured out the spirit. Now we have the most intimate version of our relationship with God in any other point, compared to any other point in human history. God Himself living inside of us. This is the New Covenant. He's dwelling with us and we have the full recorded and preserved Word of God as well that we can study, whereby we can get to know him. And not only that, many of us have great conditions that we're in where we are able to read, we learn, study principles, and we're able to dig into God's Word not only received from excellent teaching, which helps us understand who he is and what his Word has communicated to us.

So we live in an incredible time of personal relationship with God, but I must give a word of warning. When you have so many of those things, it sometimes is tempting to turn to the teachers and the scholars and the podcasts and the writings that are biblical, pointing us to who God is, and sometimes immerse ourselves so much in these quality teachers and writers and authors and scholars and professors and pastors and leaders and prophets that God has given to us, but to neglect God in the process.

Listen, child of God, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you believed in Jesus, the Spirit is living inside of you and you can have a dynamic prayer life before God. You can enjoy God every single day of your life. You can like Moses and a greater degree than Moses, have a personal experiential walk and relationship with him. So as much as many blessings abound within the church, and we receive many things from so many, let's be sure to take full advantage of the relationship with God that we have in Christ Jesus.

Recently, I finished reading a book called Praying the Bible. As I read through this short, little book, I was so thankful, partly because I realized that this author was putting words and some better practices to what has really been my practice for many years in Christ Jesus. Each morning, I wake up, open my Bible, turn to the place that I've left off reading. And I will read through the Word and generally there will be some Scriptures that stand out to me, and I'll just write in a little journal. Half of the time, things for myself, but the other half of the time, they are prayers to God about what I've read in his Word. And for me, it has just been such a beautiful cornerstone or pillar of my life, to be able to just enjoy the Lord every single day, and I pray that you will as well.

5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say 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. 7 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. 8 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.”

God goes on to say to Moses, in verse 5, "Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I've remembered my covenant. Say, therefore, to the people of Israel, 'I'm 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. 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 burden 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.'" I love this. Notice verse 6, God says, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm." That's the first big promise he makes. Redemption is coming. "I will bring you out," he says, "I will deliver you. I will redeem you."

And this, of course, reminds us of so many of the promises of God all throughout Scripture: I will, I will, I will... God committing to what he is going to do. So the first part of the promise, "I will redeem." And then he says in verse 7, "I will take you to be my people. I will be your God." This is the second part of the promise. Not only would God redeem them, buy them out, purchase them out, but he would adopt them to be his own. That's the whole goal of the cross of Jesus Christ. This is a formula repeated in the Old and New Testament almost 50 times. That God would redeem, bring out, and then bring into his own family. "I will take you to be my people." God said. "I will be your God."

And then he says in verse 8, "I will bring you into the land. I will give it to you." In other words, "There's an inheritance that is waiting for you that I want you to go in and discover and enjoy." By the way, to me, this is the experience that God has for every believer. He wants to redeem you out of your old life. Then he wants to adopt you, bring you into his family, and show you the great position that you have in him. And then he wants you to spend the rest of your Christian life and experience, studying, discovering, knowing, practicing, living out, enjoying what he has given to you.

In our church, our vision statement is: Jesus famous. And part of what we mean by that is exactly what Paul did in so many of his epistles. He wrote about what Jesus did in the front half, you study it, you think about it, you enjoy it, and you're on the edge of your seat, on your knees, on your face in worship, thanking him for who he is and what he's done. And then you want to know, "How do I respond? How can I live?" And that's what the last half of the epistles are. Our vision as a church is that that first half of those epistles would occur that Jesus would become famous to you, become famous to me, and then that we would live out our lives in response to the incredible grace that he has given to us. That we would discover the inheritance that is ours in Christ, just as these Israelites were going to be brought into an inheritance by God. And that we would then respond to that great inheritance by worshiping the Lord and honoring him with our lives, doing anything that he asks us to do.

In a sense for us, Jesus is or Jesus famous is the wow. And then everything else is, now this is how I want to live my life in response to the redemption, adoption and inheritance that he has given to me.

And so God says to Moses, in verse 8, "I am the Lord. Remember who I am, remember my character. I will get you through this"

9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

"Moses," verse nine, "spoke these words to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery." So Moses goes back to the Israelites and he tries to tell them, "Hey, God assured me he will redeem, he will adopt, he will bring us into an inheritance." But the people of Israel, their spirit was broken, so they couldn't receive it From Moses. That phrase, broken spirit, speaks of an inward pressure caused by deep anguish that prevents proper breathing. Man, talk about a desperate place. They were so discouraged, they were so beaten down by their situation. They just couldn't believe in the Lord.

It says in Proverbs 18:14, "A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?" Man, just something about that discouragement that enters our souls, it's so debilitating. That's what the people of Israel had experienced. They just could not move.

Now, it's interesting, though, when you cross-reference this movement in Israel's life with a passage in Ezekiel 20:5-11. It's possible that part of the reason the Israelites were not ready to really believe in God at this point is because they had embraced some of the idols in Egypt and were not yet ready to let go of them. It says in that passage that God says, "I had said to them, 'Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.' But they rebelled against me, and were not willing to listen to me." None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.

As I said, it's very possible when you look at that cross-reference from Ezekiel chapter 20, that there's something more going on beneath the surface with these Israelite elders, the people of Israel. There's an idolatry perhaps that is binding them to where they just can't be obedient. They're not ready to surrender to God.

10 So the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 12 But 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?” 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 Lord," verse 10, "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, 'Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me, how then shall Pharaoh listen to me 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.

And so here again, Moses is pushing back a little bit on the Lord. He says, "I'm unclean, I am incapable, I have stammering lips." He's very discouraged about his perceived inability to move the people. But the Lord said, "No, you've got to do this, you've got to give them a charge, talk to the people of Israel about Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt." So it will occur, Moses cannot be given an out on this task. And we will look at that and see the beginning of the plagues, in chapter 7.

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?”

But before the chapter ends, because this is about to introduce us to an important movement, the plagues and all of that, and because Moses is a great figure in all of this, his genealogy is recorded. And that's what you have in verse 14 to verse 27. And as is typical for Biblical genealogies, and we've already seen a few in our studies of the Book of Genesis, this one is selective, and generations [inaudible 00:51:24] of the idea is to show Moses's genealogy, his descendants, his ancestry. And so let's read it together in honor of God's Word.

It says, "These are the heads of their father's houses." Verse 14, "The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Hanok, Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son 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 the life of Levi being 137 years. Now, the sons of Gershon, that's Levi's son, Libni and Shimei, by their clans. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. The years of the life of Kohath been 133 years. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations.

"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. The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg and Zikri. The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. Aaron took as his wife, Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korathites. 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 father's houses 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 uncircumcised lips, how will Pharaoh listen to me?'" Again, restating what we saw before the genealogy, Moses pushing back on God, but God saying, "No, you are going to go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. That will be your continual refrain."

And really in that genealogy we read, it was the genealogy of Levi, most specifically, showing us the family of Moses and Aaron. And then some of the descendants of Aaron and the way that his offspring worked out and some of the marriages between his sons because the descendants of Levi would become the Levites. And the descendants of Aaron would become the ones who would actually serve in the priesthood. So it's important to note these different figureheads who would eventually be responsible for the leading of worship in the tabernacle and temple for the people of Israel.

And so that concludes chapter 6. And as I said, we'll get into chapter 7 and begin to see God confronting Pharaoh to a much greater degree through the direct nature of the plagues. God bless you, church.