Bible Readings
Reading 41: God reassures Moses and prepares him
Read Exodus 6:1–30.
What a setback it must have been for Moses, the elders, the work foremen and indeed, all Israel when Pharaoh not only refused to let them go but made their lives worse. But Yahweh was just starting His work of rescuing them.
How did God encourage His struggling servant? Yahweh spoke audibly to Moses and gave him great promises. He said, “I am the Lord” (“I am Yahweh”) four times. He was the great “I am” who made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them the land of Canaan. He said, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.” (Exodus 6:2.)
What did God mean by that? We know He had used His personal name—Yahweh—since at least the time of Adam and Eve’s grandson, Enosh. For example, Genesis 4:26 says, “When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the Lord [Yahweh] by name.”
So the name Yahweh was not unknown to Moses’ ancestors. What God meant was that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not yet fully experienced Yahweh fulfilling His promises to them. But it would be Moses’ generation and the next who would really experience the power of Yahweh as the promise-keeping God. They would know Yahweh more intimately than their ancestors did.
Seven times Yahweh said, “I will.” (Count them in verses 6–8.) He gave details of what He was going to do for Israel. At the heart of His promises was this: “I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Yahweh assured Israel they were in the centre of His plan. Rescuing them would be His responsibility. Moses could cling to His promises and experience peace, confidence and courage in the battles of life.
Then the account is seemingly interrupted by the family history or genealogy of Moses and Aaron. This is not an accident but rather, it was Yahweh’s way of reminding the reader (and that includes us) that God had chosen Moses and Aaron specifically for their task.
The way that the Hebrews identified themselves was through their family tree. Moses and Aaron had to be legitimate spokespersons for Israel. In other words, they had to be true Israelites and so the genealogy in this chapter proved this. Notice how the genealogy started and ended with God’s command for them to lead the people (verses 13 and 26–29).
Though reading the genealogy may seem like just reading a list of names of fathers and sons, the specific names show us that God is a meticulous record keeper. In many parts of the Bible, very few words are used to describe major events. God is very economical in His writing. So when He slows down to record the lists of family ties, we should recognise He is recording the real history of real people who lived lives of real consequences.
Reading about the family tree of Moses reminds us that though we may be one among billions of people, the Creator-God of the universe is keenly and intimately interested in each and every one of us and the details of our lives.
And thanks to Moses and the prophets after him, we have the written Word of God where we can read about God’s great promises to us. We can always find encouragement through God’s great promises to us.
For example, Philippians 4:6–7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
When we are faced with worry, God invites us to go to Him in prayer and share what is on our hearts and minds. He wants to comfort us, encourage us and sometimes even help us see things from His perspective instead of from our own human perspective. Remember, we have a real relationship with the God of the universe. And He can give us peace even in the midst of life’s challenges.
When we stand on God’s promises like this, life may not suddenly become easier, but we wouldn’t be in despair or a state of hopelessness, as if we were alone in our challenges. Like Moses, we can learn the lesson that when we are in despair, we can share our feelings with God, cling to God’s promises, and do what God tells us to do, and trust Him for the outcome.