God Promises Deliverance

Story: God promises Deliverance

Passage: Exodus 6:1-13

Characters:  Moses, God

Summary: God told Moses He was going to lead them out of Egypt.  He said He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but He did not tell them His name.  He promised to give them Canaan and now he heard the Israelites crying out and He remembered His covenant.  God told Moses what to tell the Israelites.  God was going to redeem them with great acts judgement.  God would take them as His people and they would take Him as their God.  The people did not listen though because they were broken.  God told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let the people out of the land.  Moses objected but God gave Moses and Aaron a charge to bring the people out of Egypt.

Notes:  There are a few interesting things in this passage.  God started this dialogue by outlining His history with Israel.  Now He was going to fulfill His covenant.  He told Moses exactly what to say to the people.  Interestingly, it sounds like Moses did not argue this time.  God promised the people that He would deliver them and redeem them with acts of judgment.  He would take them as His people and He would be their God.  You get the sense that God is a husband telling His girl that He’s chosen her and He’s committed to her.  In fact, in the context of the rest of the Bible, this is exactly what God is telling Israel!  He speaks of His delivering them as if it had already happened.  Moses told them that, but they didn’t listen.  The passage even explains why they didn’t listen.  They had broken spirits and harsh slavery.  Sometimes, when we are extremely oppressed and discouraged, it is easy to get caught up in our own problems and not believe God is really there.  This is exactly what Israel was doing.  God was unfazed though and he told Moses to go to Pharaoh next.  Moses felt that if his own people didn’t listen to him, why would Pharaoh?  The passage says the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.  I don’t know exactly what God said here, but apparently it gave Moses and Aaron the confidence they needed to obey.


Questions:  What did God tell Moses and Aaron?  Did anyone in Israel believe God was going to deliver them?  Why did God still love these people?

Lessons:  Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in our circumstances and lose trust in God.  The Israelites did this and so did Moses.  God knows what to do to wake our hearts up to Him again.  It is vital that we trust Him, but when it is hard, we need to pray that God will give us the ability to trust Him.  He knew what to say to Moses and Aaron to give them purpose again and He can do the same for us.