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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter 5:12 through 6:27
God
Promises Deliverance (ch. 5:22 – 6:12) We
see Moses feelings after being criticized so harshly by his fellow Jews
in verse 22. He returns to
the Lord and asks, "why have you brought trouble on this people?
Is this why you sent me?"
You can certainly understand Moses predicament.
He was supposed to be used by God to free Israel, but things are worse than ever. Things
often get worse before they get better. In
verse 23 Moses goes as far to say to God, "you have not rescued
your people at all." Note
that Moses calls the Jews "your people", as in, "God's
people". This is to
emphasize the fact that the Jews are God's people, and on the surface,
it appears that God is not looking after His people, especially after
saying that He would free I've
already mentioned that God is sovereign, so He can do whatever He wants,
even if it does causes suffering to His own people.
It is clear throughout history that God does not protect His
people, whether Jews or Christian from suffering. I'd suggest that if He
allows His people to suffer, He has a specific plan for this suffering.
God just doesn't get pleasure in seeing His people suffer. I
think this event speaks clearly of the Great Tribulation that I
understand will happen at the end of this present age.
God's people In
the NIV chapter 6 carries on from chapter 5. In
verse 1 God responds to Moses' complaint.
He says that Moses will now see his mighty hand that will stretch
out against Pharaoh. The
text says that Pharaoh won't simply let Israel
go, but he will drive them out, as to say, "get out of here.
I don't want you around any more."
God
continued to speak to Moses in verses 2 and 3.
The words in this text have been well debated.
The NIV reads as follows. "I
appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ad God Almighty, but by my
name the Lord I did not make myself known to them."
The term "God Almighty" is from the Hebrew El Shaddai,
meaning the almighty breasted one who looks after His people.
The word "Lord" is Yahweh, meaning, "I am".
In
the book of Genesis we see both El Shaddai and Yahweh used to refer to
God, although Yahweh is used much less.
Prior to Exodus 6, Israel
did know the name Yahweh. Yet,
this verse says that in times past, Israel
knew God as El Shaddai, but He did not make Himself known to them as
Yahweh. The simplest
explanation is that Israel
knew God as El Shaddai, "the Almighty who looks after them."
Yet, even though they used the name Yahweh from time to time to
refer to God they did not fully understand what that meant, because God
didn't fully explain it to them, but now, He does, and He does it
through Moses. That is why
Yahweh is always related to the idea of covenant.
You will see in the next verse that to be so. The
whole train of thought here suggests pretty clearly that the revelation
of God, who He is, what He does, and His will, is progressive.
The progression ends in Jesus.
He is the final revelation of who God is.
Many people want to make others part of this progressive
revelation, but shouldn't. Some
say Mohamed would be another revelation of God, but that is not
Scriptural. Some say Smith
of the Mormons would be another example of progressive revelation, that
is, Smith was God's revelation for that age, but that's not Scriptural
either. The revelation of
who God is ends in Jesus. If
you read Hebrews chapter 1, you'll come to this understanding
immediately. In
verse 4 God tells Moses that He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the God
reminds Moses of the land covenant because that is the issue at hand.
God says that He will deliver Verse
5 begins with the word "moreover", that is to say, "I'm
not done talking yet." What
God says now is that He has heard the groaning of Israel, and He has not forgotten His covenant.
God does not forget anything He has promised.
You can be certain of that. As
I have said many times before, the same applies to So
in verse 6 God tells Moses to return to the Jews and tell them again
that God will deliver them from Egypt. This deliverance is based
on His covenant, not Notice
Verse
7 clearly states that when In
verse 8 we see that the covenant was sworn with uplifted hands.
I'd suggest that every time you raise your hands in worship to
God, this should be a reminder of the covenant, and an acknowledgment
that we are God's covenant people. In
verse 9 we see how In
verse 11 God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go.
This time Moses is not to tell Pharaoh to let Moses
responds to God by saying that if his own people won't listen to him,
why should Pharaoh. Once
again, in human reasoning, he is right, but God wasn't expecting Moses
to think like a human. He
wanted Moses to think like Himself.
We
see the term "faltering lips".
Some suggest that Moses stuttered.
Others suggest that he was simply nervous when he appeared before
Pharaoh. Family
Records Of Moses And Aaron (ch. 6:13 - 27) Once
again, in verse 13 God "commands" Moses and Aaron to lead You
might ask yourself if Moses and Aaron really understood what was going
on here? Did they understand
that God was the one hardening Pharaoh's heart?
Did they know that God was doing this in order to show His power
both to The
rest of this section is a partial listing of those who left
We
learn in verse 26 that Moses was to lead |