We live in a world today where it is unfashionable to believe in right or wrong. In most matters it seems it is really just a matter of opinion. So many issues are decided not on the basis of what is fair and just, but by who can spend the most on lawyers. In some parts of the world things are far worse. The strong brutally oppress the weak, and they seem to get away with it unpunished; might appears to be right. If you want an example, look at what is happening in Zimbabwe at the present time; but there are many other places as well where the law of the jungle operates and people live in fear and oppression.

One thing that the bible tells us about God is that he is just. He is the ultimate judge of all people. We know that because on certain occasions he has stepped into history to reveal his justice to the world. We are thinking of such an occasion this morning. The Egyptians were cruelly oppressing the people of Israel. God steps in to remind the Egyptians that they are answerable to him, as it says in 7 v5 ‘..the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.’

But also God wants his oppressed people to come to the point where they too will ‘know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.’ Where there is evil, where there is wrongdoing, what everyone needs to know is that justice operates, that the innocent will be protected and the guilty brought to account; that the creator God of heaven and earth is just.

I was amazed to see on the local TV news a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t on April 1st that in a certain shopping area, life sized cardboard cut-outs of policemen were being placed; reputedly to reassure the public and deter criminals. Now I could be wrong, but I believe that if you really do need to deter criminals cardboard cutouts wont do much good. What you need is the real thing.

God in his wisdom knew that if he were to deliver his people from slavery he would have to step in personally. Not only so that both the Egyptians and Israelites might know the reality of his justice, but so that all people for all time might know it too. So God reveals himself. As we think about our passage this morning we will ponder on what God reveals of himself to us in this encounter with Moses.

1. God’s name: God tells Moses that he is revealing his name for the first time to his people. In verse 3 God says ‘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.’ We sometimes forget that Moses did not speak English. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and so it is a little bit complicated to understand what God is saying here.

If you look in your bibles, however, you find that in most places where it speaks of God as The LORD it uses all capitals. Everywhere it uses all capitals, it is to show us that in all of those places the original Hebrew Old Testament uses God’s sacred name, the name we sometimes pronounce as ‘Yahweh’, although the name was regarded as so sacred that some believe God’s people regarded it as too sacred to be even spoken, and it was written without the vowels as YHWH, or rather the Hebrew equivalent.

You find also that there are some places where ‘Lord’ is not in all capitals; in 5 v22 for example where Moses addresses God as Lord. Moses does not use the sacred name there. The Hebrew used in verse 22 is ‘Adonai’, a term equivalent to what we would use if we were speaking to a member of the House of Lords, ‘Yahweh’ was far too sacred for Moses to use in addressing God.

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had known God as God Almighty; El Shaddai in Hebrew. You do actually find that in earlier passages of scripture in the book of Genesis that the name Yahweh appears, LORD is spelled in capital letter; but here in Exodus it is quite clear that the name is first revealed to Moses. Those who wrote Genesis subsequently would have felt that it was write in retrospect to give God his rightful name in the earlier story.

Yahweh can best be translated as he who is. It is the same idea that comes across when God speaks to Moses in the burning bush and says ‘I am who I am.’ Here in chapter 6 the phrase comes across continually: ‘I am the Lord ‘. He is the living God; the God who is there.

2. The passage also shows us that God reveals his power and authority. He has not just come on the scene to offer advice or make suggestions. He knows that Pharaoh will need more than words to convince him to listen and obey. But there is never the slightest question that God will be thwarted in his purposes. The only question is how much will Pharaoh have to suffer before he acknowledges God’s authority?

God created the world, he made the laws of nature, he can use the laws of nature to bring about his justice, or he can intervene to change or suspend the laws of nature to fulfil his purposes. God will perform miraculous signs and wonders to convince Pharaoh of his intentions.

Tragically Pharaoh in his pride and hunger for power refuses to accept the evidence. Only when tragic judgement strikes, only when after many warning signs God brings something of the same type of judgement on him and his people that Pharaoh had inflicted on the Israelites does he acknowledge God’s authority and let the people go.

I also find it comforting to know that God’s power is not limited by the response of his own people. It tells us in verse 9 that when Moses told the people God’s message; they did not listen because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. Sometimes today believers do not listen to God. Things can seem so bad; we do not believe that God can help. We do not think that God’s power and authority have any relevance to our situation or problems.

Yet God doesn’t condemn or censure them, he understands what they are up against. God continues his plan for their deliverance. Even Moses seems to be losing faith. He tells God that if even the Hebrews wont believe him, there is no chance that Pharaoh would take any notice. It was common practice for Egyptian monarchs to regard themselves as divine and to expect their subjects to regard them in this way too. No wonder Moses was apprehensive. But God tells Moses that ultimately Pharaoh will listen to him. God tells Moses that he will actually be like God to Pharaoh. Aaron will be like a prophet who speaks Moses words to Pharaoh, Pharaoh will ultimately have to listen because he is dealing with the living God who has power and authority.
3. Finally, we see that God is a faithful God. The LORD had made a covenant with Abraham. The covenant extends to his descendants. God keeps his promises. Notice the section from verse 14, which is a list of names similar to others you see in the scriptures. The list begins with the families of Reuben, Simeon and Levi. Now they were Jacob’s three eldest sons.

The list then goes on to concentrate on Levi’s family and tells us how Moses and Aaron are part of that family. From those verses we can link up Moses and Aaron with the ancestors. God is faithful to his covenant people. To Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram and Moses and Aaron.

The tribe of Levi were in due course to be appointed by God to be the priests of God’s people; but God in his love and faithfulness was going to release all the tribes of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He was also going to lead them to and give them the Promised Land that he had promised to Abraham for his descendants.

You see God is faithful. He is in a long-term committed relationship with his people. And God makes a promise; I will redeem you. We still use the word today. If you have taken something down the pawnshop, something valuable like a gold ring or necklace because you are short of cash, if you get enough money in due course you can take it along to the pawnshop and redeem your jewellery.

Of course a lot of people never manage to get the money together to redeem their goods, so they never get them back. For God’s people of old, there was what was probably a more compassionate system. Within families it was normal for a near relative to be what was called a kinsman-redeemer. That person would take on the responsibility of giving help and financial support to bail out a person who had incurred debts they could not pay themselves, or to buy them out of slavery if they had fallen into it.

God said to his people; ‘I am your redeemer’ God had come to the rescue to do for the Hebrews what they could not do for themselves. He would free them from slavery. He would guide them and provide for them. He would lead them one day to the Promised Land and give them a home there.

God is faithful. But in delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, God was not just concerned for his chosen people. God’s promise to Abraham was that through his descendants blessing would come to all the nations of the world. It was all part of God’s faithful plan to send a redeemer whose mission would be to save men and women in every age and from every race from their slavery to sin and despair, and to give them the freedom and right to become his children. That redeemer was his only son Jesus.

That same God who spoke to Moses is the God we worship today. The eternal God who is; the God who is there. The God with all power and authority to judge all men; but the God who is also love and compassion; who sent his son to die on the cross to restore lost people to himself. The God who is faithful, the God from whose love nothing can separate us, and who had promises us a home in a better land one-day.

May we put our trust in him, and like Moses and Aaron, in spite of our fears and doubts do just as the Lord commands us.
 

Amen.

Return to top of page