The Assurance of God’s Character and Covenant

Having replied to Moses’ complaint that the Israelites are still in bondage by promising to have Pharaoh force the Israelites out of Egypt (Ex. 6:1), the Lord elaborates on that pledge in today’s passage. This elaboration gives further confidence that God will keep His promises, for it is a reminder of His nature and His history with His people.

First, God reminds Moses of the divine name—“LORD,” or Yahweh (v. 2). As seen in our study of Exodus 3, the divine name is more than a mere designation; rather, it says something about God’s very essence. It speaks to His self-sufficiency and inherent power. As John Calvin comments, “God is called [LORD], because He has existence from Himself, and sustains all things by His secret inspiration.” As the self-existent source of all things that governs and preserves them, the Lord can save His people, and His name gives Moses confidence of that.

Exodus 6:3–5 provides assurance by looking to the history of God’s relationship with His covenant people. The Lord says that He, Yahweh, appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as “God Almighty.” Once again, the Lord tells Moses, as He did in Exodus 3:6, that He is the same God who entered into a covenant with the patriarchs of Israel and their descendants (see Gen. 15; 26:1–4; 35:1–15). He had promised to be faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so He was; thus, Moses can be sure that He will be faithful to Israel. The Lord, although the Israelites were not yet out of Egypt, demonstrates that He has not forgotten this covenant by reiterating the covenant promises and noting that He has seen the travails of His people (Ex. 6:4–5).

Note, however, what God says in Exodus 6:3—namely, that by His name “LORD” or Yahweh, He did not make Himself known to the patriarchs. On the surface, this seems odd because the patriarchs did in fact call on God as “LORD”—that is, Yahweh (e.g., Gen. 14:22). Yet it is possible that the ESV punctuates this text incorrectly, since punctuation is not a part of the original Hebrew text. It could be that God says in the second half of 6:3: “My name is the LORD. Did I not make myself known to [the patriarchs]?” That removes the difficulty, for the expected answer to the question is yes. If the English translation is correctly punctuated, on the other hand, what God is saying is not that the patriarchs never called Him Yahweh but that they did not know Him in the full display of His saving power, as the Lord is about to show Israel in the exodus (see v. 6).