I hate to break it off when you guys are having such a good time enjoying one another's company,
but let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus.
We're back in Exodus today, chapter 5, starting in verse 1.
We'll go all the way to chapter 6, verse 9.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Heavenly Father, just as you revealed yourself to Moses,
and to Israel,
we know that today you are revealing more of yourself to us from your Word.
So we incline our ears and our hearts to you.
Show us that you are the faithful God,
the God who is with us,
the God who is completely trustworthy,
even when every circumstance seems to indicate otherwise.
Renew our faith in you and our love for you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Exodus chapter 5.
Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh,
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
Let my people go,
that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.
But Pharaoh said,
Who is the Lord,
that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord.
And moreover, I will not let Israel go.
Then they said,
The God of the Hebrews has met with us.
Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness,
that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God,
lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
But the king of Egypt said to them,
Moses and Aaron,
Why do you take the people away from their work?
Get back to your burdens.
And Pharaoh said,
Behold, the people of the land are now many,
and you make them rest from their burdens.
The same day,
Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen,
You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks,
as in the past.
Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
But the number of bricks that they made in the past,
you shall impose on them.
You shall by no means reduce it,
for they are idle.
Therefore, they cried,
Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.
Let heavier work be laid on the men,
that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.
So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people
went out and said to the people,
Thus says Pharaoh,
I will not give you straw.
Go and get your straw yourselves,
wherever you can find it,
but your work will not be reduced in the least.
So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt together,
stubble for straw.
The taskmasters were urgent,
saying,
Complete your work,
your daily task,
each day,
as when there was straw.
And the foremen of the people of Israel,
whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had said over them,
were beaten and were asked,
Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday,
as in the past?
Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh,
Why do you treat your servants like this?
No straw is given to your servants,
yet they say to us,
Make bricks,
and behold,
your servants are beaten,
but the fault is in your own people.
But he said,
You are idle.
That is why you say,
Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.
Go now and work.
No straw will be given you,
but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.
The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said,
You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks,
your daily task each day.
They met Moses and Aaron,
who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh.
And they said to them,
The Lord look on you and judge,
because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants,
and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.
Then Moses turned to the Lord and said,
O Lord,
why have you done evil to this people?
Why did you ever send me?
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name,
he has done evil to this people,
and you have not delivered your people at all.
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.
God spoke to Moses and said to him,
I am the Lord.
I appear to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty.
But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them.
I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan,
the land in which they lived as sojourners.
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel,
whom the Egyptians hold as slaves,
and I have remembered my covenant.
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.
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.
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.
Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel,
but they did not listen to Moses
because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Perhaps a few of us have lived what others would describe a charmed life.
You haven't really encountered much suffering in or setbacks in your life,
smooth sailing most of it.
You come from a solid family.
You've always been healthy.
You went to a prestigious school,
found a wonderful spouse,
and now you make a lot of money,
and you're well loved by everyone around you.
But most of us,
and probably even those of us who appear on the outside to have such a charmed life,
have experienced significant pain and brokenness in our lives.
Maybe you have an incurable disease that God has not healed you of.
Maybe you have had miscarriages.
Maybe you feel lonely,
but God hasn't answered your prayer for a spouse.
Maybe you have asked God to lift the cloud of depression or anxiety from your mind,
but you still remain under its dark shadow.
Perhaps you've faced a lot of rejections in your life,
many disappointments,
perhaps even abuse.
So we become,
because of these experiences,
increasingly pessimistic and cynical
as our pains linger unabated.
And the Israelites were familiar with that experience.
It says here in Exodus 6-9
that they did not listen to Moses
because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
They had been oppressed for so long,
disappointed so many times,
that their spirit is broken.
That's literally in Hebrew,
the shortness of spirit.
In the same way,
when we're exercising strenuously,
you experience shortness of breath.
Here, due to the unrelenting oppression of the Egyptians,
they're experiencing shortness of spirit.
They lack courage.
They lack life.
They lack vitality.
They lack hope.
They're anguished and crushed in spirit.
But in this passage,
the Lord reminds such people
that he is the Lord who keeps his promises
despite appearances to the contrary.
And we're going to see reasons
why we can continue to trust in him
and hope in him
even when you're in those places in your life.
First, we're going to see the failure of God's promises
in verses 1-23,
or the seeming failure.
And then we're going to see the fulfillment
of God's promises in chapter 6,
verses 1-9.
It's been two weeks away from Exodus,
so let me remind you what happened
last time when we were in chapter 4.
When God sent Moses to go into Egypt
and gather the elders of Israel
to tell them about God's plan to deliver them,
Moses protested to God in chapter 4, verse 1,
Behold, they will not believe me
or listen to my voice.
Despite the fact that God assured him
that they will listen to his voice.
But of course,
when Moses obeys,
they actually do listen to him.
And Moses is pleasantly surprised.
And so at this point,
he's kind of on cloud nine.
His meeting with the elders of Israel
went much better than he anticipated.
And now he feels,
he and Aaron feel like they're on a roll.
So with daring confidence,
they march into Pharaoh.
And this is what they say
in chapter 5, verse 1.
Thus says the Lord,
the God of Israel,
let my people go
that they may hold a feast to me
in the wilderness.
There are a couple problems
with this grand announcement.
Because first,
originally in chapter 3, verse 18,
God had instructed Moses
to go with the elders of Israel
to confront Pharaoh.
But here, according to verse 1,
he goes by himself with Aaron.
And then second,
what they say to Pharaoh
is not at all what God
had told them to say to Pharaoh
earlier in chapter 3, verse 18.
Because God had told them to say,
the Lord,
the God of the Hebrews,
has met with us.
And now,
please,
let us go on a three days journey
into the wilderness
that we may sacrifice
to the Lord our God.
much like the way you hold your cards
close to your hand
when you're playing a game
and you don't let others
figure out what you're planning
or doing.
Or like the way an army
lays an ambush
with the, you know,
enduring war
to trick an enemy
into making a blunder.
This was a strategic calculation
to begin with a more diplomatic
and palatable request
of a temporary leave of absence
before leaving Egypt permanently.
So it was a way to test Pharaoh
to show how stubbornly opposed
he was to worship of the Lord.
But perhaps,
in their overweening confidence,
Moses and Aaron skip all of that
and they go straight to the end game.
There's no please,
there's no let us go
on a three days journey,
simply the unqualified demand,
let my people go.
But they run into a brick wall
and Pharaoh responds in verse two,
who is the Lord
that I should obey his voice
and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord
and I will not let Israel go.
The kings of Egypt back then
were considered to be gods
and they gladly indulged that fancy.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago,
Rachmir,
who served as prime minister
under Pharaoh Thutmose III
and Amenhotep II
in 5th century BC
described Pharaoh this way,
what is the king
of upper and lower Egypt?
He is a god
by whose dealings one lives,
the father and mother of all men,
alone by himself,
without an equal.
The famous Pharaoh,
Ramesses,
his name means born of Ra,
the Egyptian deity of the sun
and he claimed to be the,
formed in the image of Tatanen,
the father of the gods.
So considering these realities in Egypt,
Pharaoh's disdainful response
to Moses is not at all surprising.
He's basically saying,
who is Yahweh?
I've never heard of him.
I'm the god of these lands.
I'm the one in charge.
Why should I listen to him?
Pharaoh thinks he's a somebody
while the Lord is a nobody.
So there's no way
he's going to let the Israelites go.
And Pharaoh's response aptly captures
the heart of human rebellion against God.
We have all sinned
and rebelled against God
in the same way.
Even though we were created
to worship God
and to live for him,
we say,
who is the Lord?
And that I should obey his voice.
I do not know the Lord.
Rather than acknowledging
God's authority as our creator,
we declare ourselves
to be the authority
of our own lives.
We live like autocrats
who rule our own little victims.
As Romans 1.25 says,
we have worshipped and served
the creature rather than the creator.
We did not see fit
to acknowledge God as God.
But Pharaoh's denial,
I do not know the Lord,
anticipates the refrain
of chapter 6, verse 7,
which says,
you shall know
that I am the Lord your God.
Knowing God
is a major refrain
throughout the book of Exodus.
Again and again in the book,
the Lord says to the Israelites,
you shall know
that I am the Lord your God.
And again and again,
he says to the Egyptians,
the Egyptians shall know
that I am the Lord
when I stretch out my hand
against Egypt
and bring out
the people of Israel.
So already,
Moses here gives us
a clue to this reality
that they will come
to know the Lord.
Even though Pharaoh's asking
who is the Lord,
ironically,
in this passage,
God is named
by his personal name,
Yahweh,
over and over again.
Remember that whenever
the word Lord
appears in all caps,
it's a translation
of God's personal name
in Hebrew.
So in chapter 6,
verse 2,
the Lord reiterates
how he has revealed himself
to his people
as Yahweh,
but Pharaoh,
on the other hand,
is never named.
Not in this passage
and not anywhere else
in the book.
Pharaoh thinks
he is somebody
and that Yahweh
is nobody,
but the reality
is exactly the opposite.
The Lord is known
and he will be known,
but Pharaoh remains unknown
to the readers of Exodus.
The Lord will be remembered forever,
but Pharaoh will be forgotten.
And before long,
Pharaoh himself
will come to this conclusion.
He will soon learn
that he, the Lord,
and not himself,
is the authority in Egypt
and everywhere else.
And when he learns this,
Pharaoh's unqualified no
in this instance
will be changed
to an unconditional yes.
The same is true for us,
whether you know
the Lord or not.
Whether you acknowledge
him or not.
The day is coming
as prophesied
in Habakkuk 2, verse 14,
when the earth
will be filled
with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
The day is coming
when we will have no choice
but to acknowledge
the Lord as God.
Every knee will bow before him.
Every tongue will confess
his name and swear allegiance
to him.
The choice before us
is whether we will do it
as his willing subjects now
or as his subdued enemies later.
If you don't know the Lord,
this is an opportunity
for you to heed his word
because he's speaking now from it.
And after getting this hard no
from Pharaoh in verse 2,
we see Moses and Aaron
kind of walking back
their bold proposition
of verse 1
and qualifying their demand
in verse 3.
Then they said,
the God of the Hebrews
has met with us.
Please let us go
a three days journey
into the wilderness
that we may sacrifice
to the Lord our God
lest he fall upon us
with pestilence
or with the sword.
So now they're saying
something closer to
what God had originally
commanded them to say
in chapter 3.
So gone is the bold,
thus says the Lord.
And now they explain meekly
the God of the Hebrews
has met with us.
Oh, you don't know the Lord?
Well, he's the God of the Hebrews.
You know them.
You know us.
You're slaves.
Gone is the triumphant.
Let my people go.
Now they say,
please let us go
on a three days journey
into the wilderness.
That's not too much
to ask, is it?
But that's not all they say.
Moses and Aaron
also add their own touch.
They portray the Lord
as this vindictive deity
who would punish the Israelites
with pestilence
or with the sword
if they fail to go out
into the wilderness
to offer sacrifice.
Look at what they say.
Lest he fall upon us.
The whole time in this verse
us refers to the Israelites,
not to all of Egypt.
So he's saying,
have pity on us, Pharaoh.
It's not because
we really want to do this.
Our God is a little temperamental,
you see.
Prone to lose his temper.
He might kill us
if we don't go out
into the wilderness.
Please let us go.
But Pharaoh doesn't budge.
It says in verses four to five,
but the king of Egypt
said to them,
Moses and Aaron,
why do you take the people
away from their work?
Get back to your burdens.
And Pharaoh said,
behold,
the people of the land
are now many
and you make them rest
from their burdens.
The Jews are a sizable workforce
and Pharaoh doesn't want
any supply chain issues.
He wants enough bricks
for all the building projects
that he is working on.
And this response shows
just how oppressive
of a tyrant Pharaoh really was.
He treats Israelites like cattle.
Their only value to them,
to him is their labor.
He doesn't care
how heavy their burdens are.
He's upset that Moses
wants to make them rest
from their burdens.
This word rest
is the verbal form
of the Hebrew word for Sabbath.
Later in Exodus 20,
in the Ten Commandments,
God will specifically
command them to rest.
Remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor
and do all your work,
but the seventh day
is a Sabbath
to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not
do any work.
And then in Deuteronomy chapter 5,
where the Sabbath command
is repeated,
Moses specifically gives
this rationale
for the command to rest.
Quote,
You shall remember
that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God
brought you out from there
with a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm.
Therefore,
the Lord your God
commanded you
to keep the Sabbath day.
Pharaoh is a cruel
and selfish master
who demands work
seven days a week.
But the Lord
is a gracious master
and he commands
his people to rest.
God says we should not
work all the time.
Why?
Because we're not
slaves anymore.
Who or what,
if I may ask you,
is the Pharaoh
that you are enslaved
to in your own life?
Are you living
for people's approval
or for the applause of man?
Do you want to accomplish
big things in life
so that you can finally
be recognized?
So you can prove yourself
to others?
Who is your Pharaoh?
Are you living to please
or satisfy other people?
If we serve
any other master
but the Lord God
who promises us
rest for our souls,
then we will be
run into the ground.
We will have to work
without rest.
In the Academy Award
winning film
Chariots of Fire,
there's a poetic contrast
between two gold medal
winning Olympic sprinters,
Harold Abrams
and Eric Little.
Harold Abrams
runs for himself
so he works
tirelessly
and even though
he is incredibly successful,
he feels empty
and can't shake off
this feeling
of existential crisis.
He says in the movie,
and now in one hour's time,
I will be out there again.
I will raise my eyes
and look down that corridor
four feet wide
with ten lonely seconds
to justify
my whole existence.
But will I?
Eric Little,
on the other hand,
runs for God.
And when he finds out
that the opening heat
for the hundred meter dash
is set for Sunday,
he decides that he will not run
on the Sabbath,
not even in the Olympics.
And so he skips the race
and goes to church.
I'm not necessarily endorsing that,
but that was his conviction.
I respect him for it.
Why?
Because he doesn't need
to prove himself.
He doesn't need the Olympic gold medal
to justify his existence
so he can rest.
He ends up winning the gold medal anyway
in a different event
that was not even his best event.
Only God can give rest for us
from our burdens.
You cannot justify your own existence.
You must find your identity
and fulfillment
in God,
in Christ.
You cannot save yourself.
You must believe in Jesus
alone for your justification
and salvation.
Our gracious Lord,
and Master,
he's offering us rest
from our burdens.
But are you living
like a servant
of the Lord
or like a servant
of Pharaoh?
The previous Pharaoh
in chapter 1
thought that he could control
the fast-growing
Israelite population
by keeping them
under his thumb,
under slavery.
And this new Pharaoh's mentality
is no different.
He thinks the best way
to keep the Israelites
and put them back to work
is to double down
and be even harsher with them.
So it says in verse 6-9,
the same day,
Pharaoh commanded
the taskmasters
of the people
and their foremen,
you shall no longer
give the people straw
to make bricks
as in the past,
let them go
and gather straw
for themselves.
But the number of bricks
that they made in the past,
you shall impose on them.
You shall by no means
reduce it,
for they are idle.
Therefore they cry,
let us go and offer
sacrifices to our God.
Let heavier work
be laid on the men
that they may labor at it
and pay no regard
to the lying words.
So straw,
during those days,
was added to clay
because straw
is this, you know,
fibrous,
linear fiber
that makes the brick
more, I guess,
stable
instead of crumbling apart.
And so that's why
they put straw in there.
And Pharaoh had a store
of straws,
but they are now
refusing to give the straws.
And the result
is predictable.
The Israelites
failed to meet the quota,
but then they get,
the foremen get beaten up
and it's the demand
of them to bring
the same amount
of bricks.
And notice how
they make this announcement,
the taskmasters.
They say,
thus says Pharaoh
in verse 10.
It's the exact contrast
from verse 1.
Thus says the Lord.
There's an ongoing
tension and conflict
here in this passage
between the Lord God
and Pharaoh
who is the anti-God.
And Pharaoh's decree
exposes his cruelty.
It says that the Israelites
in verse 12
have to scatter
throughout the land
together,
stubble for straw.
So stubble is
what's left over
after the harvest
for straw is already done.
The leftover part,
the small part that's over.
So that means
the Egyptians
already took all the straw.
They harvested it all,
put it in storage,
and now they're refusing
to give it to the Israelites.
Instead,
they're making,
sending them back out
to go get the leftovers.
No wonder they can't
find enough straw.
And not only that,
they're turning
the Israelites against them.
Notice that they
appointed Jewish
foremen
to oversee the labors.
They're from the people
of Israel.
They beat the foremen
demanding that they bring,
they produce the same
number of bricks
so that they themselves
are forced to crack
the whip on their own people
to save their own backs.
And the desperate
Jewish foremen
cry out to Pharaoh
in verses 15 to 16,
why do you treat
your servants like this?
No straw is given
to your servants,
yet they say to us,
make bricks,
and behold,
your servants
are beaten,
but the fault
is in your own people.
Notice how sadly
servile the Israelites
are in this verse.
Three times,
they reiterate
their loyalty to Pharaoh
by describing themselves
as your servants.
That's the noun form
of the Hebrew verb
that means
to serve
or to worship,
and that's the word
that God will use
repeatedly,
starting in Exodus 7,
16,
to say,
let my people go
that they may serve me.
Running through
the book of Exodus
is this overarching question,
whom will you serve?
Will the Israelites
serve Pharaoh
or will they serve
Yafu'e?
And at this point,
they are decidedly
choosing Pharaoh.
We're your servants,
Pharaoh.
But these verses
also make clear
that they're choosing
the wrong person
because it says
in verse 15
that they cried out
to Pharaoh.
And you saw
Pharaoh's harsh response.
But remember
what happened
earlier in the book
in chapter 2,
23 to 24,
when the people
of Israel
cried out
to the Lord,
he said
that their cry
for rescue
from slavery
came up to God
and God heard
their groaning
and God remembered
his covenant
with Abraham,
with Isaac,
and with Jacob.
God saw
the people of Israel
and God knew.
That's what happened
when they cried out
to the Lord.
They were heard,
they were remembered,
they were known
by God.
But when they cry
out to Pharaoh,
they get nothing
but harsh oppression.
Who are you
crying out to
for relief
in your own life?
In the pains
and struggles
of your own life,
who are you
crying out to?
Are you crying out
to the Lord
who is attentive
to even your faintest groans?
Who is listening
to you?
Who is responding
to you?
Who hears you
and sees you
better than anyone
else in the world?
Or are you
crying out to man?
And since Pharaoh
won't listen to them,
the distressed Israelites
confront Moses and Aaron
in verse 21.
The Lord look on you
and judge
because you have made
a stink in the sight
of Pharaoh
and his servants
and have put a sword
in their hands
to kill us.
And then Moses
turns around
and blames God,
attributes evil
to God
in the same way
he attributed evil
to Pharaoh.
So it seems like
the situation
is getting only worse.
It seems like
God's promises
have faltered
and Moses asked,
why did you send me here
in the first place?
But the Lord assures us
in chapter 6
that his promises
have not failed.
Earlier in chapter 3,
19 to 20,
God said that
the king of Egypt
will not let you go
unless compelled
by a mighty hand
so I will stretch out
my hand
and strike Egypt
with all the wonders
that I will do in it.
After that,
he will let you go.
He says the same thing
here in chapter 6,
verse 1.
He says,
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 hand.
It's a little ambiguous here
whose strong hand
they're talking to.
It could be referring
to the Lord's strong hand.
Because of the Lord's strong hand,
the Pharaoh will let
the Israelites go
and drive them out.
That's how a lot
of translations have it.
But the ESV
intentionally leaves it
ambiguous
and I think that's good
because it could also
be ironic.
Later in Exodus chapter 12,
33,
it says that the Egyptians
were urgent with the people
to send them out
of the land
in haste
for they said,
we shall all be dead.
And the word
translated urgent
there is the exact same word
that's translated here
as strong.
So they were strong.
The Egyptians were strong
with the people
to send them out
of the land
in haste
because they're so afraid
of further punishment
that might come to them.
So remember what I said
to you a few weeks ago
that one of the frequently
used titles for Pharaohs
back in those days
was the Lord
of the strong arm.
And so here,
that very title,
that very reputation
is being challenged.
The strong hand
of Pharaoh
is not going to be used
to keep the Israelites
enslaved,
but instead,
he will use his strong hand
to release them.
Instead of keeping them
in his iron grip,
in his strong hands,
Pharaoh will have no choice
but to send them away.
I think this is a great image.
Imagine like
an arm wrestling champion,
like Matthias' brother
is an arm wrestling champion,
and he imagined this,
you know,
enormous forearm
with bulging biceps,
and then he starts
arm wrestling someone else,
and his opponent
is so strong
that this champion
just is getting thrown around
like a rag doll.
That's what's happening
here to Pharaoh.
The Lord of the strong arm
used to liberate
the people of Israel.
That's what mighty king Pharaoh
is going to look like.
That's what the so-called
God king is going
to be reduced to.
He will be thoroughly
defeated and humiliated.
And what follows
in verses 2-8
is a remarkable set
of reminders
and promises by God.
In verses 2-5,
God reminds Moses
of the four things
that he has already done.
He 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.
Second,
I established
my covenant with them
to give them
the land of Canaan,
the land in which
they lived as sojourners.
Third,
I have heard
the groaning
of the people of Israel
whom the Egyptians
hold as slaves.
And fourth,
and I have remembered
my covenant.
So four things
God has already done.
And then in verses 6-8,
God instructs Moses
to tell the people of Israel
that he will
specifically fulfill
all of his promises.
And there's seven
powerful
I will statements.
I will bring you out
from under the burdens
of the Egyptians.
I will deliver you
from slavery to them.
I will redeem you
with an outstretched arm
and with great acts
of judgment.
I will take you
to be my people.
I will be your God.
I will bring you
into the land
that I swore to give
to Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob.
I will give it to you
for a possession.
And note well
that from the beginning
to the end,
the whole speech
is about what
the Lord will do
and not about
what Moses and Aaron
will do.
Only the Lord
can deliver Israel
from their slavery
and bring them
into the promised land.
Salvation belongs
to the Lord
from the beginning
to the end.
And this idea
is reinforced
by the repetition
of the phrase,
I am the Lord.
Look at that.
What God says
to Moses
begins with the assurance,
I am the Lord.
And what God says
to the people of Israel,
begins and ends
with the same phrase,
I am the Lord.
And then smack dab
at the center
of what God says
to Israel
is the only statement
of what the people
will do
and it's this,
you shall know
that I am
the Lord,
your God.
That's the heart
of what God
is trying to communicate
here.
And why is God
so emphatic about this?
God, we get it.
We know who you are.
Why does he say it
over and over again?
We find the reason
in verse 3,
I appeared to Abraham,
to Isaac,
and to Jacob
as God Almighty.
But by my name,
the Lord,
Yehovah,
or Yahweh,
I did not make myself
known to them.
This is an allusion
to Genesis 17, 1
and Genesis 35, 11
where God reveals himself
to Abraham and Jacob
respectively
as God Almighty
or El Shaddai.
And in both
of those contexts,
the name of God
is connected to
making the Israelites,
the patriarchs,
fruitful and multiply.
And that's a promise
that's already been fulfilled
as we've seen
in the first few chapters
of the book of Exodus.
But it's not that
the patriarchs
were completely unaware
of the name Yahweh.
God did reveal himself
as that to them
at two specific points
in Genesis 15, 7
and Genesis 28, 13.
Again, to Abraham
and Jacob respectively.
And interestingly,
in both of those instances
where God reveals himself
to them as Yahweh
prior to the Exodus,
that name is connected
to his promise
that they will enter
into the promised land.
And that promise
is not yet fulfilled.
And I think that's the reason
why there's this emphasis
on the name of God
because the times
of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob
were the era of promise.
But now is the time
of fulfillment.
Those patriarchs lived
as sojourners
in the promised land.
But you,
the Israelites,
will now live as owners
and possess it as your own.
And it's the name,
the Lord, Yahweh,
that guarantees
the fulfillment
of these promises.
It's like,
it's a declaration.
I am the Lord.
It's like God's signature
on the dotted line.
He's telling the Israelites,
you can go and cash
this check in the bank
because I am the Lord.
Why?
Do you remember
what the name means?
It means,
I am who I am.
It can also mean,
I will be who I will be.
It's timeless.
And that's completely
intentionally communicates
God's presence
in the past,
presence,
and the future.
He's the same yesterday,
today,
and forever.
He was and is
and will be.
So another way
to describe God
is that He is unchanging.
He is faithful.
He is always true
to Himself
and to His promises.
And that means
His promises,
His words,
never fall to the ground.
So the name of the Lord
suggests that He is not only
a promise maker,
but He's also a promise keeper.
And likewise,
the name Yahweh,
which means I am who I am,
is derived from the Hebrew verb
to be,
and that's connected
to God's promise to Moses
in chapter 3,
verse 12,
I will be with you.
That's the very meaning
of God's proper name.
God's name is God with us.
He is the God
who is with us.
That means He has
bound Himself up
irrevocably
with His people
by the covenant.
This is why
over and over again
throughout the scriptures,
God's people
appeal to God's deliverance
saying,
for the sake of your great name
do such and such.
Psalm 25, 11,
for your name's sake,
O Lord,
pardon my guilt.
Psalm 31, 3,
for your name's sake,
you lead me and guide me.
Psalm 143, 11,
for your name's sake,
O Lord,
preserve my life.
Why does the psalmist
think that
pardoning his guilt
and leading him
and preserving his life
is for the Lord's name's sake?
Because the name
of the Lord
is on him.
Because he belongs
to God's chosen people.
Ezekiel 20, 44
is particularly helpful here
where the Lord says,
you shall know
that I am the Lord
when I deal with you
for my name's sake,
not according to
your evil ways,
not according to
your corrupt deeds,
O house of Israel.
He acts
for the sake
of his holy name.
Let's say that
your father
agrees to sign,
to be a cosigner
on your mortgage loan.
If you default
on that loan,
your father
must assume
legal responsibility
to repay that loan.
Because his name
and his credit
is now
on the line.
In a similar way,
it falls
on the Lord's name
to bring Israel
into the promised land.
Because he has made
a covenant
with his people
and said,
these are the people
on whom my name
rests.
Perhaps some of you
are in a similar season
in life
like these Israelites
in Egypt.
You have a broken spirit,
maybe a prolonged sickness,
repeated failures
and disappointments,
persistent loneliness,
and you're doubting
God's goodness.
But despite all appearances
to the contrary,
remember that the Lord
is with you.
His name
is on you
and that means
His promises
to you
are guaranteed.
And so he says
in verse 6,
I will redeem you
with an outstretched arm
and with great acts
of judgment.
The word redeem,
what does it mean
to redeem?
What does it mean
to be a redeemer?
A redeemer
in Hebrew
is literally
the family protector.
A redeemer
was the nearest
relative
of a person
who becomes poor
and loses
all of his property
and has to sell himself
into slavery.
And if that happened
to your relative
and you're the redeemer,
it was the redeemer's
responsibility
to go and pay the debt,
redeem your relative
so that he can be free
and so that he can live
in the land
that God has given him.
So this is literally
what God is saying
He's doing for us.
His people,
we have sinned against Him.
We have a deficit.
We are under slavery
to sin.
We have lost
what was given to us
and yet God says
I will redeem.
I will pay.
I will sign
because my name
is on that people.
I'm so grateful
that that's the basis
for God's promises
to us.
Can you imagine
if it were up to us
how often we sin,
how often we fail God,
how often we fall short
of His glory?
If it were up to us,
you think God
can be faithful.
If it depended on us,
you think God
can deliver us
time and time again
but it does not
depend on us.
The assurance,
the basis
for our deliverance
is not you are worthy,
you are lovely,
or you are righteous.
righteous.
No, it is.
I am the Lord.
That's why
I will deliver you.
That's why
I will save you
and that's why
I will redeem you.
That's what God
has done for us
in Jesus.
So He's called
our Redeemer.
He paid the debt
that we could not pay.
And because of that,
because our Redeemer
died on the cross
for our sins,
because our Redeemer
signed the check,
we are now stamped
with the Spirit of God.
It's God's declaration
on us
paid in full.
my sin,
oh the bliss
of this glorious thought,
my sin,
not in part,
but the whole,
is nailed to the cross
and I bear it
no more.
Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord,
oh my soul.
Let's pray.
God,
we thank you.
God,
thank you that
even though we are fickle,
that you are faithful,
that you are unchanging,
and that your name
is the Lord,
Yahweh.
God,
because of that,
you deserve all glory,
all praise,
all honor,
all of our lives,
all that we have,
all that we are
belong to you.
You are our gracious master
and you give us rest
for our souls.
Thank you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.