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Exodus 6:1
“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, Scripture tells us, is exceedingly patient and does not always respond to the complaints of people or to their sin as they deserve. Not long after the incident with the golden calf, Moses would hear this truth from the mouth of the Lord Himself when He passed by Moses proclaiming His steadfast love, faithfulness, and slowness to anger (Ex. 34:5–7). Yet Moses was aware of this truth long before our Creator proclaimed it so directly. He knew from his own relationship with God that the Lord is exceedingly patient, as seen in the fact that He endured Moses’ objections to going to Pharaoh (4:1–17). Moses experienced divine patience again after he complained to the Lord that He was not acting quickly enough to deliver the Israelites from slavery (5:22–23). As we see in today’s passage, instead of disciplining Moses, the Lord responded with words of assurance that Israel would indeed be leaving Egypt.
The Lord begins by saying, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh” (6:1). This puts redemption forward as a revelation of God and His glory. As we read Scripture, we can see that there are several reasons that the Lord saves His children. He redeems people in order to give them eternal life (John 3:16). He saves men and women in order to give them the blessing of a new creation (Rev. 21:1–22:5). Other ways that salvation benefits us can be listed as well. While all these reasons are important, however, none of them is the primary reason that the Lord saves His people. No, the chief purpose of God in our salvation is to show forth His glory, power, and wisdom, to display to all creation what He can and will do. As the Lord will later declare to the Egyptian king, God has raised up Pharaoh in order to defeat him so that the Lord’s “name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex. 9:16).
What will Moses and the Israelites see in the exodus? Not a mere reluctant release of the Israelite slaves, for Pharaoh will “drive them out of his land” (6:1). God is going to bring the king to a place where the only choice he can make is to eject the Israelites from Egypt. Pharaoh will compel them because to do otherwise and keep any of them in the land of the Nile will be to invite utter destruction. The Lord is hinting at the coming series of plagues that will devastate Egypt and reveal the power of God in such a way that Pharaoh will want the Israelites gone at any cost (chs. 7–12).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Certainly one of the reasons that God saves us is that He wants to bless us. But the primary reason is to reveal His glory and to see His name magnified in all the earth. Understanding this should drive us to put the Lord at the center of our theology. In teaching about salvation and proclaiming the gospel, we should be clear that the driving purpose of God in redemption is the revelation of His majesty.
For Further Study
- Exodus 34:1–3
- Ezekiel 20:33–44
- John 12:28
- Revelation 2:1–7