Deeper Commentary
Exo 6:1
Yahweh said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by
a strong hand he shall let them go, and by a strong hand he shall drive
them out of his land-
See on Ex. 5:22,23. God doesn't give up with Moses' pathetic
loss of faith in Ex. 5:23. He assures him that His saving purpose will
indeed work out. Because He is Yahweh, the saviour God, and His purpose
"will" work out, because "I will be who I will be". See on :2. The
point is that "now", now both Moses and Israel were at rock bottom in
faith, God would act to save. It was not that He turned away from them
because of their poor response to Him, thinking 'OK then, well I won't do
it then'. We see here His saving grace.
Exo 6:2 God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am Yahweh-
The Name speaks of the Father's desire to respond to His children,
despite their weakness of faith; see on :1. The
root word ehyeh from which 'Yahweh' is derived occurs 50 times,
mainly in the context of God's help and comfort in real situations. This
is the practical nature of the things expressed in the Name. The repeated
references to God’s Name in Ex. 3 and 6 had a very practical context.
Israel needed to summon all their faith to believe that actually, they
were not in a hopeless situation there in the concentration camps of
Egypt. Even when they were given no straw and told to make the same number
of bricks, the comfort they are given is to remember the Name of
their God, who had acted according to that Name in the past, and would do
so in the future for them- because He is and will be who He has been.
Exo 6:3 and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God
Almighty; but by My name Yahweh was I not known to them?-
The idea may be that "I am" is also "I was". The Yahweh who had come through for the fathers, was just as much going to come through for Israel in abusive slavery in Egypt.
See on Ex. 5:22,23.
At the time of the burning bush, the people knew Yahweh's Name as a word-
because "By My name Yahweh was I not known?" (Ex. 6:3), and clearly enough
the patriarchs had been aware of the Yahweh Name. But the point was that
they didn't see from His Name, just as a word, what He was really like,
and what He could do for them. The Egyptians and others with whom Israel
had had contact invoked their gods by pronouncing their name, and expected
a miracle to happen. Presumably Israel had tried doing this with the word
'Yahweh'- and nothing happened. Moses put the problem to God in Ex. 6, and
the response was "Ehyeh asher ehyeh". "I am that I am" isn't a
purely correct translation, because the Hebrew verb used doesn't mean
simply existence in an abstract sense. It refers rather to being there /
present / being someone or something for someone. Martin Buber, in my
judgment one of the finest of the many fine Jewish minds to have engaged
with this matter of the Name, concluded: "'I am that I am' could only be
understood as an avoiding of the question, as a statement which withholds
any information". I would put it somewhat more gently, in saying that God
was saying that He will be present with us, will be what Israel ultimately
needs, without defining precisely in what sense. Because we're mere
humans, we don't know what to ask of God as we should; and His very Name
is the comfort that He will be for us as we need, with our eternal
salvation in mind. God seemed to have encouraged Israel to understand this
by going on to promise simply that "I shall be [ehyeh] present"
(Ex. 3:12; 4:12). At this point it seemed Israel were doomed to make
bricks without straw, and to be worked to death literally. But through the
revelation of His Name, He wanted them to trust that He knew best how to bring
them to salvation; He didn't want them to invoke His Name in the primitive
way the Egyptians did with their gods, hoping for a quick-fix miracle. God
is only ehyeh for His people; and there came a terrible moment when
He had to tell them through the prophets that "You are not my people and I
am not ehyeh
for you" (Hos. 1:9). Israel lost this 'presence' of their God. And
we know that we are His people by the constant sense we have of the hand
of Providence in our lives, even through the unanswered prayers that
reveal an altogether higher and ultimately Divine game plan
in place in our lives. But like Israel before Moses, we wish for the quick
fix, the waving of the wand to resolve the issues, the sense of the saving
presence of God in our experiences, working out His ultimate plan of
delivering us from Egypt / this world and from ourselves.
God had revealed Himself as Jehovah previously (thus Abraham could speak of 'Jehovah Jireh' in Gen. 22:14, and God clearly tells Abraham and Jacob "I am Yahweh...", Gen. 15:7; 28:13). One take on this is that the patriarchs conceived of God as a singular Angel- "God Almighty" (as Jacob: "The Angel that redeemed me from all evil"). Now Yahweh says "you shall know that I am Yahweh your Elohim which brings you out from under the burden of the Egyptians" (Ex. 6:7). God is saying, 'I will be Elohim; I will be manifested not in just one Angel, but in many'.
Another reading is to accept the AV translation "But by My Name Yahweh I was not known to them", but to enquire what it means to "know Yahweh". Verse 7 states that Israel would "know Yahweh" through their experience of the Exodus from Egypt [cp. "My people shall know My Name", Is. 52:5 and often]. So to "know Yahweh" is to have relationship and experience with Him. The idea may therefore be that even Abraham did not "know Yahweh" to the extent that Israel were to "know Yahweh" through what they were about to experience. The intimacy of relationship that He was offering them far surpasses even the experience of the patriarchs. So the idea would be "I was not known to them [compared to the extent to which I shall be known to you]". They had perceived Yahweh as El Shaddai, a powerful God. But now God was offering intimate relationship. This is the same development seen in those who in immaturity see God as merely a powerful source of answered prayer, to give them something, to sort out life for them. But these should lead to relationship.
Exo 6:4 I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the
land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens-
"I am that I am" can equally mean 'I was who I was', and implies that
He will be who He was historically. And historically, He had been their
saviour God. And although with the cry of the slave drivers fresh in their
ears it seemed this was all irrelevant, the point was that the God of
historical salvation was going to come through for them now. Because that
was what His Name was all about.
Exo 6:5 Moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom
the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant-
The "groaning" was that just described at the end of Ex. 5, where the
Israelites groan because of having to now make bricks without straw. To
try to alleviate the burden, they even plead with Pharaoh that they are
his people and not Yahweh's (see on Ex. 5:16). But despite that, God's
grace was such that He simply felt sorry for them in their affliction. He
likewise saved them at the time of the judges, not because they had
repented or were suddenly faithful to Him- but simply because of His pity
for them in their sufferings (likewise Jud. 2:18 "When Yahweh raised up
judges for them, Yahweh was with the judge and saved them out of the hand
of their enemies all the days of the judge, for it grieved Yahweh because
of their distress because of the oppression".). God's pity
was because of His covenant relationship with them, even though they were
bitter with Him, wanted to stay in Egypt, worshipped Egyptian gods, and
carried the star of Remphan and tabernacle of Moloch with them through the
Red Sea. We are in that same covenant and know that same grace.
But we can also understand from the context that their groanings were against God. But in His love and understanding, He even pitied them that they felt that way about Him, and wanted to save them rather than turn away from them because of their groaning.
Exo 6:6 Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will
bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you
out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and
with great judgments-
The three "I will"s clearly allude to 'I will be who I will be / who
I was and have been'. This assurance of salvation was and is part of God's
most essential characteristics bound up with the very essence of His Name.
Those who bear that Name should therefore be able to say that they are
assured, at this moment, of final salvation. For this is so much part of
God's purpose and essence. The Divine assurance "I will... [save,
deliver, redeem, take you out, free] is found seven times, completely, in
:6-8. Seven sentences, with seven verbs in the first person ["I will..."].
This is the significance and comfort of baptism into that Name. For in
this sense the Name of the Father is the name of the Son, in functional
terms. We note the large number of personal pronouns used in these verses:
"I... My...". We sense the very personal essence of God, bound up in His
Name, very intensely articulated. This is God's insistence that He
will save, despite our lack of qualification and in the face of every
apparent impossibility of that plan. Hence Yah-hoshua, 'Yah Saves', was
the name of His Son, 'Jesus'. For in Him we see the supreme articulation
of all that God is- a saviour God. Our doubts about our personal salvation
are therefore pitted, pitifully, against the absolute essence of who
Yahweh is. "Redeem" is the word used of what a relative does to save
another relative, the word of the kinsman redeemer, who 'redeemed' a
relative who had fallen into slavery, debt or hard times, or who had died
without seed. Israel, like us, were being told that this Divine "I
will..." was on the basis that we are His very own kith and kin; and we
now understand that the more because of the work of the Lord Jesus. We are
no longer merely servants, but actual sons; through the Spirit sent forth
into our hearts, we cry "Abba, Father", a relationship far beyond being
adopted children. We are His actual children if we are in His Son (Gal.
4:4-6). And it was well understood that an adopted child could never be
disowned by the adoptive Father. This is the force of "You shall know
[Me]" (:7, unlike Pharaoh who refused to know Yahweh, Ex. 5:2); to know,
in the Hebraic sense, means to have a relationship with. And that
relationship is one of family, because Yahweh will be our redeemer, the
kinsman redeemer. This is why the ten commandments begin with the command
to accept that "I am Yahweh your God". All this is really true. "I am
Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:2,3).
This is so much more than 'You must believe that God is one'. It is a
command to accept the wonder of the fact that this one God is our God. And
so to achieve this, God would bring them out from under the burdens of
Egypt, just as His Son saves those who are under heavy burdens. On a
spiritual level, we are even now freed from the ties that bind; we have
changed masters and are no longer slaves to sin (Rom. 6). We are to
respond to this gracious salvation, by doing to others what God did to us.
And so these ideas are alluded to later in the law: “If a resident alien
among you has prospered, and your brother, being in straits, comes under
his authority... he shall have the right of redemption... One of his
brothers shall redeem him” (Lev. 25:47,48).
Israel were brought out by "great judgments" (Ex. 6:6; 7:4), i.e. by
God's stretched out arm (Ex. 6:6). The way He acted with His “arm” was a
manifestation of His judgment principles which are part of His Name. Therefore the Red Sea
deliverance is described as the judgment of God, the day of the Lord etc.
because God's people exited from the world whilst judgments came upon it;
the Name of God was revealed through this process (Ps. 76:6-9; 103:6,7).
Yahweh "purchased" His people from Egypt (Ex. 15:16) in the sense that He "redeemed" them (Ex. 6:6), alluding to the idea of buying a close relative out of slavery to a Gentile. God's people were in slavery to Egypt and wished to remain like that (Ex. 14:12); and had accepted their idols, rather than Yahweh (Ez. 20:8). Yet God bought them out of that slavery, He redeemed them only thanks to His love and pity (s.w. Is. 63:9); so earnest was He to have them as His own. We cannot push the metaphors too far, but the price paid was perhaps represented by the blood of the Passover lamb. For this finally was the price He was willing to pay to redeem us, similarly weak as they were. For we are redeemed (s.w.) by Him from the power of sin and death (Hos. 13:14).
Exo 6:7 and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a
God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, Who brings you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians-
Literally, 'I will take you unto Myself as a people', as in Ex. 19:4.
This is similar to the formulae used for adoption of children into a
family. This could continue the family allusion of :6, where we read that
God would redeem / act as a family redeemer, a ga'al, for His
people. The idea may not be that they became His people at the point of
the exodus, but rather that He took them to Himself "as a people", they
received a collective redemption, not one of them was left behind, not
even the most faithless. But the collective nature of Yahweh's salvation,
in our times seen in Jesus, Yehoshua, Yah's salvation, must be responded
to on an individual level.
But "to take", especially when followed by "to know...", is the
language commonly used in the Bible for how a man takes a wife and then
knows her and they bring forth fruit. The conception of intimacy is
amazing. The sex act, when a man knows a woman, is alluded to in seeking
to reflect the intended intensity between Yahweh and His people. The ideas
alone make slavery in Egypt / the world of such little moment, compared to
such intimacy with God Almighty. We note the absence of conditions.
God "will" do all these things. It is the image of the man who wants to
force through his relationship with a woman until marriage, in the spirit
of Boaz having no rest until he had made Ruth his own, and redeemed her.
God likewise is not at rest until He has redeemed His Israel. All we have
to do is say yes; that, from one viewpoint, is the only condition. The
marriage allusions are continued in :8; having taken and known Israel, "I
will bring you..." is also a marriage allusion. A man desired a woman,
then took her and brought out her into his house: “[If] you see among the
captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and would take her to wife,
you shall bring her into your house...” (Dt. 21:11,12).
Exo 6:8 I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an inheritance: I am
Yahweh’-
This promise was solemnly made, with uplifted hand as it were (Num.
14:30), to that generation who left Egypt (Ex. 6:8). But they did not
enter the land, as Num. 14:30 makes clear. This was because Israel broke
their side of the covenant, and did not in fact want to enter the land;
and continued serving the idols of Egypt, which they took with them
through the Red Sea (Ez. 20:8; Acts 7:43). But that promise was guaranteed
by the fact that "I will bring you into the land... I am Yahweh" (Ex.
6:8). The very essence of Yahweh, that 'I will' save, as surely as 'I will
be who I will be', a saviour God, was fought against by Israel's idolatry
and unfaithfulness to the covenant. And because 'Yahweh' involves His
character, which includes His judgment of sin and not turning a blind eye
to it (Ex. 34:4-6), human intransigence and faithlessness was allowed to
as it were even counteract His most essential 'being' a saviour God for
His beloved people.
God lifted up His hand, as men lift up their hand towards Heaven to swear by God that they telling the truth. And so as Paul notes, God swore by Himself as He could swear by no greater. We feel His almost desperation, certainly His zeal, in seeking to persuade man that He will perform His promise of the Kingdom. But despite the sevenfold "I will..." save you, the generation that heard these words did not enter into Canaan. They thwarted even God's "I will" by their extreme refusal to accept His word of sovereign promise. Likewise God had told Pharaoh to 'let My people go" as if they were His people. But they were still worshipping Egyptian idols and did not fulfil the conditions of Ex. 19 to be His people. But God presents here as the lover who so wants it to work out and dreams of entering marriage covenant with them at Sinai and taking them to live with Him in a new land. But they spurned such live in their hearts returned to Egypt.
The following verses are an intentional anticlimax to this intense protestation of saving love by Almighty God. Israel were too narrow minded and obsessed by their immediate horizon (:9), to believe it or feel it. And Moses still felt a failure because of his uncircumcised lips. And in countless millions of cases, God's love and desire to 'make it work' has been spurned by short sighted people. We have the genealogy of Moses and Aaron as if to highlight their weakness; and as well as the genealogy of their tribe Levi, we have that of Reuben and Simeon as well. These were the three tribes cursed by Jacob on his deathbed. We are given the overall impression of human weakness.
Exo 6:9 Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen
to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage-
Literally, from shortness of breath. We imagine them panting
under their burdens. But "anguish of spirit" is literally 'narrow spirited
/ minded'. Like so many, they only saw the narrow cllimits defined by what
we are seeing and experiencing at this moment.
Yet still they later thought Egypt was better than the path to the Kingdom. In Ex. 4:31 we read that the people believed Moses, but now they disbelieve. The Lord's challenge "DO you now believe?" comes down to us all. Fickleness in faith has so often characterised God's people.
The Hebrew behind "cruel bondage" has a numerical value of 430, the number of years Israel were to be in Egypt (Ex. 12:40,41). This is a good example of how implicit deep within the experience of suffering is the certainty of ultimate deliverance. The cloud truly has within it a silver lining.
This appears to be God, through the inspired narrative, being generous to them. Rather like the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane being excused because they supposedly 'slept for sorrow'. The good news of the Gospel is for those afflicted by bondage and anguish of Spirit, as the Lord makes clear in the beatitudes. But here, the weight of the bondage is used as an excuse for their disbelief and disobedience- which later the prophets were to deeply lament. We marvel at God's grace.
Exo 6:10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying-
It seems that Yahweh now tells Moses to speak directly himself to
Pharaoh; although He does take account of Moses' excuses about his stammer
and poor knowledge of Egyptian. And He provides Aaron as a concession to
that weakness. But His ideal intention was that Moses should speak to
Pharaoh; because He loves to use the stammering, nervous tongue through
which to speak His word.
Exo 6:11 Go in, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children
of Israel go out of his land-
There is no contradiction here with the requests to let them go and
keep a feast to Yahweh for three days (Ex. 3:18; 4:23). For that still
required the people to "go out of his land". But it could also be that
once Pharaoh turned down that initial request, for the men to go and keep
a feast and return, then the demands upon Pharaoh got progressively
larger- not just the men, but all Israel, along with their children and
animals, and not for three days but permanently. God clearly was working
according to a carefully devised program with Pharaoh. Those who refuse
God's requests likewise find that to avoid condemnation, the requests
become larger and larger.
Initially, God had told Moses to take the elders with him and speak to Pharaoh (Ex. 3:18). Then, He had told Moses to take Aaron with him as his spokesman to Pharaoh. Now, He tells Moses to go and talk directly himself with Pharaoh- leading to Moses' outburst about his speech impediment in :12. We see the same God working in our lives; making concessions to our weakness, but ever seeking for us to live up to our personal callings, stripping us of all our crutches and excuses.
Exo 6:12 Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, Behold, the children of Israel
haven’t listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, who am of
uncircumcised lips?-
We noted earlier that Pharaoh's daughter immediately knew that the baby Moses was a Hebrew boy because she noticed he had been circumcised. But here, Moses argues as if he is uncircumcised. He means "I am a man of impeded speech, with a speech impediment", but he expresses this in terms of being uncircumcised of lips. This is Moses at a weak point.
Uncircumcised lips may imply he had superfluous skin on his lips, another hint that Moses had a cleft palat. And yet through that came the words of Yahweh. This is typical of the God who ever seeks to hide pride from man. And yet Moses concludes that Israel hadn't listened to him because of his lips- assuming that if he were a better spokesman, then they would have listened to him. He is tacitly criticizing God's choice of him, and overlooking how God had used Aaron in deference to Moses' complaint about his lips. And he is failing to believe that God stands for "I will...". Moses is also assuming that the only way Israel can get out of Egypt is if Pharaoh listens to him. But God had said that Pharaoh would not listen- and that was to be the basis of their salvation. Moses is still fixated on his own plans and assumptions about how Israel could be saved. Again forgetting the "I will..." implicit in Yahweh.
God had explained that His Name means "I will...", and Moses is
effectively denying the power of the Name. God had promised Moses earlier
that Israel would hear him (Ex. 3:18). God solemnly told him to
go and speak to Pharaoh, because God had told him to do so. But
Moses has
the nerve to say exactly the same words to God a second time. In a chapter which speaks much of Moses' reluctance, the record encourages us: "These are that Aaron and Moses... these are they which spake to Pharaoh... these are that Moses and Aaron" (Ex. 6:26,27).
They who were so weak, full of excuses, incomplete fulfilment of what they
were commanded to do...
Exo 6:13 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a command to
the children of Israel, and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt-
This summary statement appears to be reminding us that they were
given a commandment and potential power to bring Israel out of Egypt. But
Moses made every excuse not to, and railed against this command. And thus
this section concludes in :26,27 that these are that Moses and Aaron. This
was the extremely weak moral material which God used to save His people;
and out of their weakness they were indeed made strong.
Exo 6:14 These are the heads of their fathers’ houses. The sons of Reuben
the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are
the families of Reuben-
Exo 6:15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and
Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of
Simeon-
But 1 Chron. 4:24 simply has "The sons of Simeon were Nemuel, Jamin... and
Shaul"; but here and Gen. 46:10 shows that Shaul was Simeon's son by a wrong,
casual relationship. Yet this is not recorded in Chronicles, even though
so many other weaknesses are. Surely this is to demonstrate how if God
imputes righteousness for a repented of sin, there really is no record
of this kept by Him. This and other such lessons from Chronicles only
come from digging under the surface.
Exo 6:16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their
generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of
Levi were one hundred thirty-seven years-
"Gershon" means 'expelled', maybe meaning that like Reuben he was
expelled from the role of firstborn [he is mentioned first as if he was
the firstborn]. This is a theme of the Genesis record. But perhaps because of these
weaknesses, the line to the high priest ran through Kohath. See on :20.
Exo 6:17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their
families-
We note that both Moses and Aaron had sons called Gershon (Ex. 2:22).
Such repetition of names within families and in the same generation was
quite common, and is one thing which makes the study of the genealogies
difficult in places.
Exo 6:18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and
the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred thirty-three years-
We note the lack of emphasis upon the children of Moses and Miriam, the
great wilderness leaders of Israel. There was to be no cult of personality
nor nepotism, no riding on the name of a forefather in order to be a
leader of God's people. Spiritual leadership in the Bible was intended to
be based upon spiritual qualification. The sons and relatives of
Aaron all feature at various points in the narrative. Those of Moses
don't. He divorced with his wife and she took the kids back home to her
father. Moses married again but with no record as to how their children
turned out. "This is that Moses..." may require us to assume that he had a
failed family life. But still God used him. His family life contrasts with
Aaron, who married well, into the kingly line of Judah, and whose children
and descendants appear again in the record as serving God.
Exo 6:19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of
the Levites according to their generations-
"Mahli" and "Mushi" mean 'sickly' and 'sensitive' respectively.
This confirms the suggestion I have often made, that names were given in
response to later character and life experience. Sometimes in these
genealogies we read the birth names, at others, the names they were given
later in life. And therefore the same person can have more than one name.
Exo 6:20 Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister to himself as wife; and
she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were a
hundred and thirty-seven years-
Amram lived to the same age as Levi (:16). Numbers and ages are used
in Semitic literature often in a non literal sense, in order to make some
point. Perhaps the idea here is that Amram was indeed a true son of Levi;
despite Israel's general apostacy in Egypt, he married within his own
tribe, as if seeking to keep the spirit of the later legislation to this
effect. We note that Moses' father Amram married his own aunty, a
relationship Moses was later to define as incestuous [Ex. 6:20 "Amram took
Jochebed his father’s sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron
and Moses"]. Moses' beginnings were therefore rooted in weakness and his
survival as a healthy child was spiritually and physically against all
odds.
Exo 6:21 The sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri-
The theme of this section, as explained on :13,26,27, is how the
leaders of Israel, Moses and Aaron, were so weak. And with the benefit of
our knowledge of Korah's later apostacy, we see the theme repeated here.
Exo 6:22 The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Sithri-
The recording of four generations is surely to prove how the
prediction of Gen. 15:16 came true- in the fourth generation they were to
return to Canaan.
Exo 6:23 Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of
Nahshon, as his wife; and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and
Ithamar-
The theme of this section, as explained on :13,26,27, is how the
leaders of Israel, Moses and Aaron, were so weak. And with the benefit of
our knowledge of Nadab and Abihu's later apostacy (Lev. 10:1-4), we see
the theme repeated here.
We also see here how Aaron married a woman from the tribe of Judah. The connection between the kingly and priestly lines was made right at the start of Israelite history.
Exo 6:24 The sons of Korah: Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are
the families of the Korahites-
1 Chron. 6:22,23 defines the relationships more closely; , Elkanah
was the son of Assir, and only a "son of Korah" in the sense of being a
descendant of him. The sons of Korah didn't perish with their father (Num.
16:32; 26:11), and became authors of some of the Psalms, working as gate
keepers in the temple (1 Chron. 9:19; 26:1-19).
Exo 6:25 Eleazar Aaron’s son took one of the daughters of Putiel as his
wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’
houses of the Levites according to their families-
Putiel isn't mentioned elsewhere, but it appears to be a common
Egyptian name, “He whom God gave”. This continues the theme of spiritual
weakness (see on :23)- even the mother of Phinehas was an Egyptian, whom
his father ought not to have married. Although we could argue the other
way- that for an Egyptian to marry one of the slave Hebrews could be a
reflection of this woman's acceptance of Yahweh as her God, even though
most of His people were very far from Him. Just as it seems the daughter
of Pharaoh who adopted Moses married into the Israelites.
Exo 6:26 These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Yahweh said, Bring out
the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies-
This summary statement appears to be reminding us that they were
given a commandment and potential power to bring Israel out of Egypt. But
Moses made every excuse not to, and railed against this command. And thus
this section concludes in :26,27 that these are that Moses and Aaron. This
was the extremely weak moral material which God used to save His people;
and out of their weakness they were indeed made strong.
Exo 6:27 These are those who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out
the children of Israel from Egypt. These are that Moses and Aaron-
The point of :26 is laboured here a second time- that "these are
those...", these weak ones, stubbornly not wanting to be used by God,
initially little better than Pharaoh, resistant to His word of
salvation... who were used, and out of their weakness they were indeed
made strong.
Exo 6:28 It happened on the day when Yahweh spoke to Moses in the land of
Egypt-
There is solemn emphasis in :28,29, stating the same thing twice,
that Yahweh really spoke to Moses. And he had resisted this Divine
calling.
Exo 6:29 that Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, I am Yahweh. Speak to Pharaoh
king of Egypt all that I speak to you-
As explained on :1-4, the Yahweh Name promised that "I will..."
redeem Israel, and yet Moses refused to believe that. And a comparison of
what God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, and what he is recorded as telling
Pharaoh, would suggest Moses was not fully obedient to this solemn
calling.
Exo 6:30 Moses said before Yahweh, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and
how shall Pharaoh listen to me?-
Because of his weakness, we are able to relate to Moses, and see him as
our example. It is possible that Moses was not circumcised (Ex. 6:12,30);
which would make him even closer to us. As noted on :26,27, this refusal
of Moses to respond to God's word, and his making of pathetic excuses, is
being laboured. For "these are those" (:27) who were used. That we might
glorify God for His patience, and soften ourselves to work with Him
without resistance. The genealogy just provided shows that Moses
was the offspring of an aunty and her nephew; and I have suggested that
this made it likely that Moses had a cleft palate. Hence his description
of himself as of uncircumcised lips, as if he had superfluous flesh that
needed cutting off. And this is how we all feel, that we have flesh that
ought to have been cut off by now. And yet God still speaks and works
through us. This is His style and way with men.
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