3 Days of Prayer and Fasting (2022/04)

1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” 6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, 7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”

10 So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” 14 And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

6:1 But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people 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 slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 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. 8 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.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

In 6:2-5, God reminds Moses of four things that He has already done for His people.

Then, in 6:6-8, God instructs Moses to tell the people of Israel that He will specifically fulfill all of His promises, with seven “I will” statements.

From the beginning and end of this section, the entire speech is about what the LORD will do, and not what Moses and Aaron will do. Only the LORD can deliver Israel from their slavery and bring them into the Promised Land. Salvation belongs to the LORD. This idea is reinforced by repetition of the phrase, “I am the LORD.” What God says to Moses begins with the assurance, “I am the LORD,” and what God says to the people of Israel begins and ends with the same phrase, “I am the LORD.” And smack dab at center of what God says to Israel is the only statement about what the people will do, and it’s this, “you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”

Remember what the name, YHWH, means. It means “I AM WHO I AM,” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.” It is derived from the Hebrew word, “to be,” which is connected to God’s promise to Moses in 3:12, “I will be with you.” God’s very name means that He is God with us. It means that God has bound Himself up with His people by an irrevocable covenant. This is why, over and over again through Scripture, God’s people appeal to God’s deliverance saying, “for the sake of your great name“ (e.g. Ps. 25:11; 31:3; 143:11). Ezekiel 20:44 is particularly helpful here, where the LORD says, “you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel…” Let’s say that your father agrees to be a co-signer on your mortgage loan, if you default on your loan, your Father must assume legal responsibility for repaying the loan, because his name and his credit is on the line. In a similar way, it falls upon the LORD’s name to bring Israel into the Promised Land, because they are His chosen people, and He has promised to be with them. His name is tied up with their welfare.

We need to remember that the basis of our salvation is who God is and not who we are. The basis for our salvation is God’s self-declaration, “I AM the LORD.” God’s promises begin and end with “I AM the LORD,” not “You are lovely,” “You are worthy,” “You are righteous.” No, if our deeds and our ways were the basis for God’s salvation, we would be in grave trouble. God saves us because we are His and His name is on us, and we are His because He has chosen us in His love, out of His sovereign grace, not because we deserved it.

It says in Exodus 6:9 that “they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” They have been oppressed for so long, disappointed so many times, that their spirit is broken. The Hebrew phrase is literally “their shortness of spirit.” When you exercise strenuously you experience shortness of breath, similarly, here, due to the unrelenting oppression of the Egyptians, the Israelites are “short of spirit,” they lack spirit, they lack life and vitality, they lack faith, they lack hope, they lack courage, they are anguished and crushed in spirit. There are many such people in our lives. People who have faced much rejection, many disappointments, even abuse. And such suffering can undermine our confidence in people, and even shake our faith in God. It can make us increasingly pessimistic and cynical, as our pain lingers unabated.

Throughout this passage, and throughout Exodus, there is an ongoing tension and conflict between the LORD God, and Pharaoh, the anti-God. The LORD’s envoys say “Thus says the LORD” (5:1), but Pharaoh’s envoys say “Thus says Pharaoh” (5:10). The LORD says, “Let my people go, that they may serve me…“ (7:16), but the oppressed Israelites repeatedly declares themselves to be servants of Pharaoh in 5:15-16. Will the Israelites serve Pharaoh, or will they serve YHWH?

The choice is clear. When the “people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh” (5:15), Pharaoh responded, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks” (5:17-18). This is in stark contrast to Exodus 2:23-24, where it says that “the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” When they cry out to Pharaoh, they are not heard, but when they cry out to the LORD, they are heard and remembered and seen and known. Similarly, Pharaoh complains in 5:4-5 that Moses and Aaron are making Israel “rest from their burdens.” The word “rest” is the verbal form of the Hebrew word “sabbath.” Later in Exodus 20:8-11, the LORD specifically commands Israel to rest: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.” Pharaoh is a cruel and selfish master, so he only demands work, seven days a week, but YHWH is a gracious Master, and He commands His people to rest.