Exodus 6 — I Will Be Your God
God answers Moses' despair. The covenant is reaffirmed in seven great "I wills" — I will bring out, I will rid, I will redeem, I will take you for a people, I will be your God, I will bring you in, I will give you the land. Moses tells the people; they cannot hear for anguish. God repeats the command. The genealogy of Moses and Aaron is given.
“I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God.”
— Exodus 6:7
- v.1-8 The seven "I wills" of God to His people
- v.9 The people cannot hear for anguish of spirit
- v.10-13 God commands Moses again to speak to Pharaoh
- v.14-27 The genealogy of Levi to Moses and Aaron
- v.28-30 Moses' renewed objection
A puzzling statement, since Genesis records the divine name many times. The point is not that the patriarchs never heard the name, but that they did not know the full meaning of it. God reveals Himself by El Shaddai — God Almighty — to those who needed to know His power for personal provision. He reveals Himself by YHWH (Jehovah) to those who need to know His covenant faithfulness in delivering a nation.
New names of God arise at new stages of His unfolding work. Each generation knows Him more fully than the previous one — though He has been the same all along.
The first three of the seven "I wills." Notice the verbs — bring out, rid, redeem. Three stages of deliverance. Out of the burdens (the work pressure), out of the bondage (the legal status of slavery), out of the slave-system itself by redemption.
For the believer, salvation is a three-stage redemption: from the guilt of sin (justification), from the power of sin (sanctification), from the presence of sin (glorification). The pattern of Exodus 6 runs through the whole Bible.
The heart of the covenant. I will be to you a God. God's deepest gift is Himself.
The formula recurs throughout the Bible. Jeremiah 31:33 — I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Revelation 21:3 — the consummation: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them.
They could not hear. The greatest promises ever spoken to Israel — and they could not receive them, because they were too crushed to listen.
Sometimes God's word lands on hearts that are too broken to take it in. The fault is not in the message but in the receivers. Pastoral patience with the deeply wounded means continuing to speak the gospel even when it cannot yet be heard.
Memorize the seven I wills of Exodus 6:6-8. When your circumstances tell you God has forgotten, recite them. He has said them and He keeps them. The bondage you currently feel will end. The redemption is on the way.
Every "I will" of Exodus 6 finds its yes in Christ. He brought us out from the burden of sin. He rid us of the bondage of the flesh. He redeemed us with the stretched-out arm — the arms stretched on the cross. He took us to Himself for a people. He is our God. He brings us into the inheritance prepared. The whole sevenfold promise is yes and amen in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God responds to Moses' neither hast thou delivered thy people at all with now shalt thou see. The answer to despair is sometimes a single word: now. What God has been working on is about to become visible.
With a strong hand shall he let them go — both the strong hand of God forcing Pharaoh, and the strong hand of Pharaoh driving them out. God uses both. The willing and the unwilling alike serve His purposes.