Exodus 6--God Promises Deliverance

God Promises Deliverance
6 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.”

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

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Once again, we see that God sees the predicament that His people are in and He encourages Moses to tell Him that He hasn't sent Moses on a fool's errand and that He is going to cause Pharaoh not just to let the Hebrews go, but to drive them out and force them to leave.

Moses need not focus on the fact that Pharaoh did not listen, but that God's covenant with His people is sure and that God remembers His covenant with them and will bring it to pass just as He promised.  God also reminds Moses that He and Moses have a special relationship that no one else to this time had--God has revealed His name to Moses--a name that not even Abraham, Isaac or Jacob ever heard.

Then we see God's plan of deliverance and redemption for His covenant people.  We'll get to this in more depth when we talk about the Passover, but how is this similar and how is this different from the deliverance and redemption provided by Jesus?

We see a change in the hearts and minds and attitudes of the Hebrews that were quick to receive the message of their redemption and deliverance at first, but now that things have become harder and more difficult for them, and their spirits and have been broken by harsh slavery, they are unwilling to listen of promises of deliverance and redemption--possibly even thinking, "Look where this got us last time?"

We see God telling Moses to once again go to Pharaoh and Moses feels defeated in his mission because now not even the people of God would listen to him--how would Pharaoh listen to him?  (But God had already told him that Pharaoh would not listen, remember?).  Success is not about seeing immediate results in God's book but about being faithful to the mission that He's given us and trusting Him for the results.  One thing is for sure--God's purposes will always be accomplished, even if it doesn't happen how we want or when we want.  That's going to be a huge take-away from the book of Exodus.  Moses not only feels defeated, but he starts to feel unworthy to be the messenger of God and much like the prophet Isaiah realizes that his mouth is unclean and does not deserve to have the words of God coming forth from it.

We end today with a genealogy.  it appears to focus in on all 12 tribes again starting with Reuben and Simeon, but then focuses in on the tribe of Levi and takes it down to the various family units and tracks the lineage all the way down to Moses and Aaron.  We'll see later that God has a specific purpose for each of these family units within the tribe of Levi--they will all serve him, but not all will serve him in the same way that Moses and Aaron do.

The author (probably Moses) then brings us back to the context of the narrative to say this is what was going on at that moment when God told Moses and Aaron to speak to Pharaoh and Moses questioned God by asking why Pharaoh would listen to him.  We'll see next time that God is ready to give an answer to that question and has prepared plagues to get the attention of the people of Israel, the people of Egypt and the Pharaoh (eventually).  These plagues were designed to show that the God of Israel was superior to their gods and was not tied to physical location like many of the pagan deities were believed to be.  The LORD would show His power over the gods of the Egyptians on their home turf.