Our Covenant-Keeping God / Exodus 6:1-30

God Plays the Long Game

Well, church, it is so good to see you this week. It’s good to be back with you. We are continuing in the story of Exodus, so if you have a Bible with you, turn to Exodus chapter 6. We are going to cover the whole chapter today.

If you were with us last week, hopefully you sat under the counsel of Mike’s teaching. He did such a powerful job with the text. Were you here? Did it speak to you profoundly? I know it did me, and I love hearing Mike preach. I am so thankful to have him back in the game. If you had told me back in 1994, when Mike and I were fraternity brothers and roommates, that twenty-three years later we would be pastoring together and preaching back-to-back messages, I would have slapped you silly! That’s crazy. But such is our God.

That is much of what we are going to see in the text this week: the faithfulness and the power of our God to do the unthinkable. He is far above the small boxes we try to fit Him into. His power is profound. We have seen that throughout our study of Exodus, and we are going to see it even more today.

If you remember from last week in Exodus chapter 5, we saw that first big encounter. After all that preparation for Moses in the wilderness, God sent Moses and Aaron to confront Pharaoh and tell him that the God of the world demands he let His people go. And you remember Pharaoh’s response: “Not only am I not going to let them go, but because you’re here trying me right now, I’m going to make their slave labor even harder.”

From Moses’ perspective, the whole thing backfired. As the Israelites were pressed even harder in cruel bondage, they began grumbling at Moses, saying, “What are you doing to us? You haven’t come to set us free. You might as well have handed Pharaoh a sword! This is going to be our death, not our deliverance.” Under the pressure of his own people railing against him, Moses ran back to God and spent the bulk of chapter 5 in frustration and disappointment. In his view, God’s plan had failed.

What we have already seen from the very outset of Exodus is that when it comes to redemption, God is playing the long game. God is not going to win this in the first quarter, even though He easily could. He is stretching this out because there is a plan in place that is far bigger than what we can see. Moses was frustrated at the end of chapter 5 because he treated this like sudden-death overtime—as if God had lost, Pharaoh had won, and it was all over. Moses was trying to call God’s hand way before God had even played it. His knowledge of the counsel of God’s will was limited.

By the way, this is exactly how we act when suffering comes into our lives. Everything is fine between us and God until suffering hits, and then we get angry at Him. We feel like God is holding out on us, or that suffering is an interruption to His plan, failing to understand that suffering is often a central part of His plan. We start talking back to God. It is the equivalent of peeking your head into a two-hour movie, watching two minutes of it, and then trying to tell the director how the plot should go.

God says, “No, Moses. There is way more here than you can possibly see. There is way more going on than you can even comprehend.”

Exodus 6:1 (NASB)

Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.’

God is telling him, “Moses, you haven’t seen anything yet. I am just getting started, and I know Pharaoh far better than you do. Pharaoh is not going to yield easily to diplomacy. He is going to have a power flexed against him that is so mighty, he will be forced to drive you out. You think this is done, but this isn’t sudden-death overtime. This is a full five-round MMA fight, and by the end of it, I’m going to have him in an armbar until he taps out!” God knows what He is doing, and Moses has to trust Him.

From El Shaddai to Yahweh: A History Lesson

Even that counsel in verse 1 probably wasn’t enough to convince Moses to walk back into Pharaoh’s court. So in verses 2 through 5, God gives Moses a history lesson. Moses needs to understand that God’s past promises provide the context for God’s future deliverance.

Exodus 6:2-5 (NASB)

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, ’I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but [by] My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them. ’I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. ’Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.

In order to appreciate what God just told Moses, you have to understand the fascinating Hebrew wordplay taking place. God is saying, “Moses, let’s remember why we’re in this situation in the first place. About five hundred years ago, I made some promises to your forefathers that led us up to this very moment, and I am not done with those promises.”

God is referring to the literal shot He called back in Genesis 15. Listen to what God told Abraham five centuries before this conversation with Moses:

Genesis 15:13-16 (NASB)

[God] said to Abram, ’Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. ’But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. ’As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. ‘Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’

God told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a land not their own—check. That they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years—check. But God also promised that He would punish that nation and bring them out with great possessions in the fourth generation. That part hadn’t happened yet. God is reminding Moses of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “Those promises still have to happen. You think this is over, but I’m going to ensure they are fulfilled.”

Here is where the name play comes in. God says, “When I made those promises five hundred years ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they knew Me as God Almighty.” In Hebrew, that title is El Shaddai. They knew Him as God Almighty, the supreme and sovereign Ruler of the universe. They knew He was the God who could rain fire and brimstone on two wicked cities, who could open the womb of a barren ninety-year-old woman, who could spare her son on the mountain, and who could preserve Joseph after his eleven brothers betrayed him. They knew Him as El Shaddai, the all-powerful God.

“But you, Moses,” God says, “I am about to give you access to a side of Me that not even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob experienced. They knew Me as El Shaddai, but you are about to know Me as Yahweh—the covenant-keeping God of Israel.”

In the Hebrew text, the name Yahweh was considered so sacred and holy that the Jewish people would not pronounce it, substituting words like Adonai (Lord). God is telling Moses, “They knew Me as the great Promise Maker, but you are going to know Me as the great Promise Keeper. You think I am done? The reason I am not done is because of My name: I am Yahweh, and I do not fail on My promises to you.”

Three times in this chapter God declares: “I am the Lord” (I am Yahweh). In verse 2, verse 6, and verse 8. It doesn’t matter that there is a Pharaoh in Egypt when there is a Yahweh in heaven!

John Piper once noted that El Shaddai was, in many ways, the kindergarten understanding of God’s name when He made those early promises. But God was about to give Moses a doctorate-level education in who He is. He is not just the God who makes covenants; He is the God who, in the full strength of His power, keeps those covenants by delivering His people from bondage. El Shaddai is the God who can do it for anyone; Yahweh is the God who will do it for you. He is the covenant-keeping God.

Many of us have to go through that same spiritual journey. We go through life understanding in theory that God is almighty—He is El Shaddai, sovereign over everything. But do we know Him as Yahweh? Do we know Him personally as the God who brings us out of bondage, into deliverance, and into intimate communion with Himself?

Often, God has to break us—whether through a forty-year wilderness journey or through plans that seemingly backfire—so that we move beyond an abstract theology of His power into an intimate knowledge of His personal faithfulness. That takes time. God plays the long game. He reminds Moses, “You are part of a redemptive narrative that began long before you and will continue long after you. You only caught two minutes of the movie. I have so much more plot to develop. You’ve got to trust Me as Yahweh.”

The Seven “I Wills” of Redemption

After reassuring Moses based on His past faithfulness, God gives Moses a message of encouragement for the frustrated Israelites based on His future faithfulness.

Exodus 6:6-8 (NASB)

’Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ’I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. ’Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ‘I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you [for] a possession; I am the LORD.’’

In verses 1 through 5, God repeatedly said, “I have.” But in verses 6 through 8, God declares, “I will” seven distinct times:

1. “I will bring you out…”
2. “I will deliver you…”
3. “I will redeem you…”
4. “I will take you for My people…”
5. “I will be your God…”
6. “I will bring you into the land…”
7. “I will give it to you for a possession…”

These are not just the hopeful intentions of El Shaddai; they are the ironclad assurances of Yahweh.

While Israel struggled to believe these words in their immediate misery, these seven “I will” statements would become so precious to them that they would later form the structural pattern for the Passover Seder meal. The traditional Passover meal is divided into four stages, each concluding with the drinking of a cup of wine based directly on these promises:

1. The Cup of Sanctification: “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
2. The Cup of Deliverance: “I will deliver you from their bondage.”
3. The Cup of Redemption: “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.”
4. The Cup of Restoration: “I will take you for My people, and I will be your God.”

For the next fifteen hundred years, the Jewish people would drink those four cups to celebrate God’s covenant faithfulness.

Look closely at verse 7 to see the ultimate purpose behind the Exodus. Why did God deliver them? It wasn’t merely for Israeli national pride, or to flex His muscles, or to embarrass Pharaoh and Egypt. It wasn’t even just to fulfill a real estate promise to the patriarchs. The primary reason God delivered them was so that they could be brought into unhindered access to His presence and enjoy intimate communion with Him. This entire story is about the covenant-keeping God dwelling with His people.

Church, this is the gospel of Exodus. This is a direct foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ came to do for us. Jesus did not come merely to hand us a fire insurance policy against hell or to help us adjust our moral behavior. He came to rescue us from the cruel bondage of sin and bring us into joyful, unhindered communion with the Father. God delights in bringing us into relationship with Himself, because that is where our ultimate joy is found.

Jesus pointed directly to this during the Last Supper in Mark 14.

Mark 14:22-25 (NASB)

While they were eating, He took [some] bread, and after a blessing He broke [it], and gave [it] to them, and said, ‘Take [it]; this is My body.’ And when He had taken a cup [and] given thanks, He gave [it] to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, ’This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. ‘Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

When Jesus celebrated that Passover meal with His disciples, it was at the third cup—the cup of redemption—that He said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” He was declaring that true redemption would come through His sacrifice on the cross. And after the fourth cup—the cup of restoration—Jesus promised He would not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom of God comes. That promise will find its final fulfillment at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Revelation 19:9 (NASB)

Then he said to me, ’Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’

We live in the tension of the “already and not yet.” We have already been delivered from the penalty and power of sin to walk in fellowship with God, yet our present sufferings remind us that we are still awaiting the final consummation of our salvation—the day when we will see Jesus face-to-face in the eternal Promised Land.

So Moses went and delivered this incredible message of hope to the people of Israel. But look at how they responded.

Exodus 6:9 (NASB)

So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of [their] despondency and cruel bondage.

They didn’t jump for joy. They didn’t shout praises. They couldn’t hear the promise because of their broken spirit and harsh labor. Just like us, when hardship overwhelms our lives, we often let our present circumstances shout louder than God’s eternal promises.

When You Feel Unqualified: God’s Grace in a Messed-Up Lineage

Even after God laid out His magnificent plan, Moses was still dragging his feet.

Exodus 6:10-13 (NASB)

Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.’ But Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, ‘Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?’ Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Moses falls right back into his old excuse: “I am unskilled in speech. If the Israelites won’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh?” This is about the fifth time Moses has played the inadequacy card. He completely focuses on his perceived weaknesses rather than God’s divine power. If you look down at verses 28 through 30, it is almost a carbon copy of this exact complaint.

What does God do when the leader He wants to use is trapped in a cycle of insecurity, doubt, and constant excuses?

He drops a genealogy right into the middle of the story!

Be honest: how many of you skip right over the genealogies when you read your Bible? You are missing the good stuff! In verses 14 through 27, God places a family tree right between Moses’ excuses. This genealogy traces the lineage of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, but it zeroes in specifically on the line of Kohath, which produced Moses and Aaron.

God includes this genealogy for two big reasons. First, He wants to assure Moses and Aaron of their legitimate covenant heritage. They are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God didn’t make a clerical error when He chose them. Second, God wants to show them the kind of family stock they actually came from. And I promise you, it is not the pristine, squeaky-clean lineage you might expect.

Moses’ excuse was essentially, “God, I’m too broken and messed up for You to use me.” But this genealogy reveals that his entire family line was broken, yet God’s sovereign plan was never derailed by human dysfunction.

Consider the details in this list:

• In patriarchal culture, the blessing usually went to the firstborn. Yet God bypassed Reuben’s line and Simeon’s line, choosing Levi’s line instead.
• In verse 15, we meet Shaul, the son of Simeon by a Canaanite woman. Simeon married outside the covenant faith, yet God still worked through the family line.
• In verse 20, we read that Moses’ father, Amram, married Jochebed, his father’s sister. Moses’ mother was his great-aunt! That is deeply complicated family baggage. Yet God sovereignly orchestrated this family to bring forth Moses and Aaron.

The dysfunction didn’t stop in the past; it continued into the next generations:

• Verse 21 mentions Korah. Korah is the cousin who later led a rebellion of 250 leaders against Moses’ authority in Numbers 16, resulting in the earth opening up and swallowing the rebels.

Numbers 16:1-35 (NASB)

Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took [action], and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?’ When Moses heard [this], he fell on his face; and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, ’Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring [him] near to Himself; even the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. ‘Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and all your company, and put fire in them, and lay incense upon them in the presence of the LORD tomorrow; and the man whom the LORD chooses [shall be] the one who is holy. You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi!’ Then Moses said to Korah, ’Hear now, you sons of Levi, is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the [rest of] the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; and that He has brought you near, [Korah], and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking for the priesthood also? ‘Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the LORD; but as for Aaron, who is he that you grumble against him?’ Then Moses sent a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, ’We will not come up. ’Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us? ‘Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!’ Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, ‘Do not regard their offering! I have not taken a single donkey from them, nor have I done harm to any of them.’ Moses said to Korah, ’You and all your company be present before the LORD tomorrow, both you and they along with Aaron. ‘Each of you take his firepan and put incense on it, and each of you bring his censer before the LORD, two hundred and fifty firepans; also you and Aaron [shall] each [bring] his firepan.’ So they each took his [own] censer and put fire on it, and laid incense on it; and they stood at the doorway of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron. Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.’ But they fell on their faces and said, ‘O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?’ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ’Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘Get back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’’ Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him, and he spoke to the congregation, saying, ‘Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to them, or you will be swept away in all their sin.’ So they got back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out [and] stood at the doorway of their tents, along with their wives and their sons and their little ones. Moses said, ’By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. ’If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, [then] the LORD has not sent me. ‘But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD.’ As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with [their] possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. All Israel who [were] around them fled at their outcry, for they said, ‘The earth may swallow us up!’ Fire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.

• Verse 23 mentions Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. In Leviticus 10, they offered “strange fire” before the Lord and were struck down because they treated God’s holiness with contempt.

Leviticus 10:1-2 (NASB)

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Exodus 6:28-30 (NASB)

Now it came about on the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, that the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘I am the LORD; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I speak to you.’ But Moses said before the LORD, ‘Behold, I am unskilled in speech; how then will Pharaoh listen to me?’

Do you see why God put this genealogy here? Moses said, “God, I’m too flawed to be used.” God responded, “Moses, have you looked at your ancestry lately? Your whole family tree is broken! But your weakness cannot stop My power. Nothing can thwart My covenant promises. I am Yahweh. I will accomplish My purpose through your weakness.”

God was showing Moses that His redemptive plan relied on divine faithfulness, not human perfection. Centuries later, that same flawed human lineage would lead to our ultimate Deliverer, Jesus Christ, who came to rescue us from the bondage of sin and bring us into eternal fellowship with God.

Moses was looking for confidence within himself, but God was calling him to put his confidence entirely in Yahweh. The same is true for us. Human weakness cannot derail God’s kingdom plans. No government, no cultural shift, and no personal inadequacy can prevent our covenant-keeping God from saving His people.

Trusting the Promise Keeper

As we land the plane today, there are two crucial questions we need to ask ourselves in light of Exodus 6.

First: How do you know God?

I share this from my own heart because I know how easy it is to believe in God as El Shaddai in theory. On paper, we readily agree that God is all-powerful and sovereign over the universe. But do you know Him as Yahweh? Do you trust Him as the personal, covenant-keeping God who is intimately faithful to His promises for you? Do you trust that He went to the ultimate length of giving His Son on the cross so that you could enjoy unhindered relationship with Him? What is keeping you from moving past an abstract concept of God into deep, personal communion with Him?

Second: What promises of God are you struggling to believe right now?

Maybe you resonate with the Israelites today—you are so weighed down by physical trials, grief, or financial hardship that you cannot hear the promises of God. Or maybe you are like Moses—you are paralyzed by your own perceived shortcomings, making excuses for why God could never work in or through your life.

Remember this truth: human excuses can never justify divine disobedience. God’s promises and God’s power are infinitely greater than your weaknesses.

Fix your eyes on the One who is faithful.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB)

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let us take comfort in knowing that our Promise-Maker is the ultimate Promise-Keeper. He will bring His redemptive work to completion. Let’s pray.

Father, we love You. As we walk through this passage, I confess that I see so much of Moses in myself. I see the timid, excuse-making Moses who focuses only on his own weaknesses, and I see the weary Israelite whose eyes are fixed only on present pain. Lord, by Your grace, prove Yourself to be Yahweh in our lives. Turn our eyes away from our circumstances and our insufficiencies, and fix our gaze upon Your unfailing faithfulness. You are good, You are sovereign, and You keep Your covenant forever. Teach us to rest and rejoice in Your promises, for Your glory and our good. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.