More Genealogies
Today’s reading is primarily split into two parts. I’ll deal with the second half of it first
because it is a genealogy and thus easier to deal with and move ahead.
You might be wondering about the genealogy and what its
purpose is. In truth, genealogies are
usually used to prove the validity of one of the major characters of the
story. We already know Moses’ validity
through the first two chapters. On the
other hand, Aaron is a character who is new to the story and about to step up
and take a primary role. If you look at
this genealogy you can see that this listing has more to do with Aaron and his
future line than Moses. That is the
purpose of this particular genealogy. Through
the validity of the genealogy we can see for certain that Aaron is a legitimate
character and therefore the role he is about to perform is legitimately from
God.
What can we learn from this?
God is not at all against legitimizing those people to whom He has
called into service. I’m willing to be
all of us who are legitimately trying to be God’s ministers in this world could
establish quite a pedigree of faithfulness within our own lives and even the
lives of those who came before us! Each
of us should be able to point to a bastion of faith or two that taught us the
religious ropes.
Mind you, it is not about the pedigree. Who taught us our spirituality doesn’t make
us any better people. God is God and He
alone should be worshiped, not our pedigree. What our pedigree does show that
we aren’t making this stuff up as we go along!
Like Aaron and all the genealogies before us, our pedigree helps
establish us in the line of God’s hand at work.
God’s Name, revisited
Now, let’s come back to the first part of this chapter. God makes a very interesting claim in Exodus
6:3. Certainly God had made himself
known to Abraham – even if not Isaac and Jacob, although a case can be made for
them as well. The name of God, YHWH
appears all through the book of Genesis with respect to Abraham and the
others. So clearly we cannot take God’s
claim here at the surface level of thought.
God must be up to something deeper than telling Moses that he got to
know God’s personal name while the others didn’t have access to that secret
knowledge.
Some argue that this sentence should actually be a
rhetorical question. In this case, God
is asking, “and by my name did I not make myself known to them?” Grammatically, there can be some legitimacy
to this because Hebrew is a difficult language to fully understand the true
punctuation of the author. Sometimes it
isn’t clear in Hebrew as to what is a question and what is a statement. However, I personally do not think this is
the correct understanding – although it is at least worth considering as a
possibility. I think God is still deeper
than a rhetorical question.
I believe God’s point here is that while Abraham may have
received the name, Isaac may have received the promise, and Jacob may have seen
God work in his life to change him – Moses and the Hebrew people here will see
an ultimate display of God’s sovereignty.
God is going to reveal Himself in a new way in Exodus. God is going to reveal Himself as a God who
is more powerful than any other god who is worshipped by humans. God is not just a four letter tetragram:
YHWH. God is more than just a name. He is a God of power and He is in absolute
control. I think this is truly the
understanding that God implies in this most unusual claim in Exodus 6:3.
Building Character in Moses
If we look at how God responds to Moses’ plea, we can see
God establishing His faithfulness. God
reminds Moses that He called them initially – that is, God called Abraham and
all of his offspring. God reminds Moses
that He allowed Abraham and his descendants to dwell in Canaan through the
covenant. God reminds Moses about the
promise that He has made to the Hebrew people.
God is a God of faithfulness. I love that when Moses is most full of doubt,
God reminds Moses of His faithfulness.
When Moses is most full of questions about his own character, God doesn’t
focus Moses on Moses. When Moses needs a
boost, God focuses Moses on God.
I believe this is a huge point. When I am weak, having people tell me how
good I am is only so good. But having
people tell me how good God will cure my self-doubt. When I am reminded of the power and
awesomeness of God, I will learn that my own failings and inabilities are nothing
next to the character of God. When I am
weak, He is strong. See 2 Corinthians
12:10.
In the end, it is up to God to prove Himself to Moses rather
than God prove Moses’ character to Moses.
Yes, Moses has gone before Pharaoh and Pharaoh had none of it. Moses has again gone before the Hebrew people
and they are in no condition to want to believe God much less work towards emancipation. Moses himself is doubting. There is only one being in Egypt who absolutely
believes with absolute certainty that the Hebrew people will soon be free: God.
Not Moses. Not
Aaron. God.
Therefore, Exodus 6:10-13 should be ultimately read as a
testimony to how everything that happens from here on out should be given to
the glory of God. God is the only one in
Egypt who is absolutely faithful to the promise He made to Abraham. That’s a good place to stop for the day. God is absolutely faithful. In the midst of our failure, our doubt, and
our struggle, God is absolutely faithful.
Praise be to God.
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