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Exodus 6:7–9
“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” (vv. 7–8).
Genesis 17:7 records perhaps the greatest of all of God’s promises: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” The Lord pledges to take those who trust in Him and their children who trust in Him as His people in order to be their God. Nothing can be better than to have the living and true God as our God—to be in a right relationship with Him—for if we are on His side, no weapon formed against us will prosper (Isa. 54:17). As Paul puts it so memorably in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Since there is no truth more comforting and encouraging than that God is our God, we are not surprised to find it in the words the Lord speaks to Moses after the prophet expresses his discouragement at the apparently slow-moving hand of God to free Israel from Egypt (Ex. 5:22–6:8). God will not redeem Israel merely to alleviate the suffering of the people, as important and necessary as that is. He is not going to free them from Pharaoh and then leave them to make it on their own. Instead, He is liberating them so as to fulfill the promise to Abraham that his offspring will be His people. The Lord will release them so that He will be their God forever.
This pledge to be the God of the Israelites involves also giving them the land of Canaan, for that is what He promised to Israel’s patriarchs (see Gen. 15). So the Lord has now, in giving His name and promises, demonstrated that the omnipotent Creator is for Israel and can be trusted to be for Israel forever. He will not fail to cement the covenantal bond between Himself and the Israelites. Apparently, Moses understands the significance of this, for he does not object to God’s words. Instead, in Exodus 6:9, we read that he passes on these profound promises to the Israelites. Yet Israel does not respond with the same kind of faith. As we see, the people do not “listen to”—that is, believe—Moses and his word from God (v. 9). Overwhelmed by impatience and discouragement, they cannot see that the Lord will keep His promises.
We too can be overwhelmed by impatience and suffering and find it hard to believe God. Without pretending that the hardships of life are not difficult, let us strive at these times all the more to renew our hope in the Lord.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
John Calvin exhorts us to learn from the example of the disbelieving Israelites and seek to free our minds from sorrow so that we will believe the Lord. This does not mean pretending that life is not hard or that evils have not befallen us. It involves meditating on what God has done for us in the past, meditating on His promises, and fellowshiping with others who will help us look to God in continuing faith.
For Further Study
- Leviticus 26:1–13
- Jeremiah 7:23
- Ephesians 2:11–22
- 1 Peter 2:10