Exodus 6:6

6:1-9 We are most likely to prosper in attempts to glorify God, and to be useful to men, when we learn by experience that we can do nothing of ourselves; when our whole dependence is placed on him, and our only expectation is from him. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, a God performing what he had promised, and finishing his own work. God intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God. More than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. He intended his own glory: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. These good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and have made them forget their misery; but they were so taken up with their troubles, that they did not heed God's promises. By indulging discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have, both from God's word and from his providence, and go comfortless.

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord,.... Eternal in his being, immutable in his counsels, faithful to his covenant, and able to fulfil it: and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; which lay heavy on them, and made them sigh and groan: and I will rid you out of their bondage; in which they were kept, and by which their lives were made bitter: and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm; with an arm stretched out from heaven to earth, as Aben Ezra expresses it; even by the exertion of his almighty power, openly and manifestly displayed in the lighting down of his arm upon the enemies of his people, and in delivering them out of their hands: and with great judgments; upon the Egyptians, by many and sore plagues and punishments inflicted on them.

(6) I will redeem you. —The idea of God purchasing, or redeeming, Israel is here brought forward for the first time. Later on we learn that the redemption was accomplished in a twofold way—(1) by the long series of wonders, culminating in the tenth plague, whereby they were taken out of Pharaoh’s hand, and ceased to be his slaves, becoming instead the servants of God; and (2) by being led through the Red Sea, and thus delivered, one and all, from impending death, and so purchased anew. (See Exodus 15:13-16 .) The delivery from Pharaoh typified our deliverance from the power of Satan; the bringing forth from Egypt our deliverance from the power of sin. With a stretched out arm.—See the comment on Exodus 3:20. Witn great judgments. – That the “wonders” to be performed would also be “judgments” is here first declared plainly, though previously hinted at (Exodus 3:20; Exodus 4:23). In Genesis God had said that he would “judge” the nation which should afflict Israel (Genesis 15:14), but not that he would do so miraculously.

With a stretched-out arm, i.e. my almighty power. A metaphor from a man that stretcheth out his arm, and puts forth all his strength to give the greater blow. With great judgments, i.e. punishments justly inflicted upon them, as the word judging and judgments is oft used, as Genesis 15:14 2 Chronicles 20:12 Proverbs 19:29 .

Verse 6. - Say unto the children of Israel . God felt for the disappointment which the people had suffered in finding no alleviation of their toils, but the reverse, after their hopes had been raised high by the words of Moses ( Exodus 4:31 ). He therefore sent them an inspiriting and gracious message. "They should be rid of their bondage; they should be brought out; they should be redeemed and delivered by his mighty arm and miraculous intervention. He, Jehovah, had said it." Faith would lay hold on this assurance and cling to it, even though God still delayed his coming, and did not precipitate matters. A stretched-out arm . Arms are stretched out by men to help and save. An outstretched arm in the Egyptian writing meant "action." The phrase, elsewhere so common, is here used for the first time. (Compare, however, Exodus 3:20 .) It was significant of active, energetic help. Great judgments . These had been previously hinted at ( Exodus 3:20 and Exodus 4:22 ) but had not been previously called "judgments." Compare Genesis 15:14 : "Also that nation whom they serve will I judge." The plagues of Egypt were not merely "wonders," but punishments inflicted on a proud and cruel nation by a Judge. Exodus 6:6

6 . the burdens ] Exodus 1:11 , Exodus 2:11 , Exodus 5:4-5 . rid ] an archaism for deliver (A.S. hreddan , to snatch away ; Germ. retten , to deliver ). So in AV. Genesis 37:22 , Psalm 82:4 (RV. in both deliver ); Psalm 144:7 ; Psalm 144:11 (RV. rescue ); and in PBV. of the Psalms, Psalm 18:49 ; Psalm 71:1 . bondage ] Exodus 2:23 ; rendered ‘service’ in Exodus 1:14 (twice). redeem ] The proper sense of the Heb. gâ’al is to resume a claim or right which has lapsed, to reclaim, re-vindicate : it is thus used Leviticus 25:25 ff. of the ‘redemption’ of a house or field, after it has been sold (cf. Jeremiah 32:7-8 ), and in the expression, the ‘avenger ( gô’çl ) of blood,’ properly the one who vindicates the rights of a murdered man: it is also often used metaphorically of deliverance from oppression, trouble, death, &c., as here, Exodus 15:13 , Genesis 48:16 , Hosea 13:14 , Psalm 103:4 , and especially in II Isaiah, of Yahweh’s reclaiming His people from exile in Babylon, Isaiah 41:14 ; Isaiah 43:1 , &c. On the syn. pâdâh , see on Exodus 13:13 . a stretched out arm ] not again till Deuteronomy 4:34 . Six times in Dt. (usually with ‘a mighty hand’), and sometimes also besides. Cf. the verb in Exodus 7:5 ; also Isaiah 5:25 ; Isaiah 9:12 ; Isaiah 9:17 ; Isaiah 9:21 ; Isaiah 10:4 ; Isaiah 14:26-27 . judgements ] Not the usual word. Exodus 6:6 ; Exodus 7:4 ; Exodus 12:12 , Numbers 33:4 in P; 10 times in Ez. (e.g. Exodus 5:10 ; Exodus 5:15 ); and twice besides.

3. I … God Almighty—All enemies must fall, all difficulties must vanish before My omnipotent power, and the patriarchs had abundant proofs of this. but by my name, &c.—rather, interrogatively, by My name Jehovah was I not known to them? Am not I, the Almighty God, who pledged My honor for the fulfilment of the covenant, also the self-existent God who lives to accomplish it? Rest assured, therefore, that I shall bring it to pass. This passage has occasioned much discussion; and it has been thought by many to intimate that as the name Jehovah was not known to the patriarchs, at least in the full bearing or practical experience of it, the honor of the disclosure was reserved to Moses, who was the first sent with a message in the name of Jehovah, and enabled to attest it by a series of public miracles.

Equipment of Moses and Aaron as Messengers of Jehovah. - Exodus 6:1 . In reply to the complaining inquiry of Moses, Jehovah promised him the deliverance of Israel by a strong hand (cf. Exodus 3:19 ), by which Pharaoh would be compelled to let Israel go, and even to drive them out of his land. Moses did not receive any direct answer to the question, "Why hast Thou so evil-entreated this people?" He was to gather this first of all from his own experience as the leader of Israel. For the words were strictly applicable here: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter" ( John 13:7 ). If, even after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their glorious march through the desert, in which they had received so many proofs of the omnipotence and mercy of their God, they repeatedly rebelled against the guidance of God, and were not content with the manna provided by the Lord, but lusted after the fishes, leeks, and onions of Egypt ( Numbers 11 ); it is certain that in such a state of mind as this, they would never have been willing to leave Egypt and enter into a covenant with Jehovah, without a very great increase in the oppression they endured in Egypt. - The brief but comprehensive promise was still further explained by the Lord ( Exodus 6:2-9 ), and Moses was instructed and authorized to carry out the divine purposes in concert with Aaron ( Exodus 6:10-13 , Exodus 6:28-30 ; Exodus 7:1-6 ).

The genealogy of the two messengers is then introduced into the midst of these instructions ( Exodus 6:14-27 ); and the age of Moses is given at the close ( Exodus 7:7 ). This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source than the previous one; it rather presupposes Exodus 3-5 , and completes the account commenced in Exodus 3 of the equipment of Moses and Aaron as the executors of the divine will with regard to Pharaoh and Israel. For the fact that the first visit paid by Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh was simply intended to bring out the attitude of Pharaoh towards the purposes of Jehovah, and to show the necessity for the great judgments of God, is distinctly expressed in the words, "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh." But before these judgments commenced, Jehovah announced to Moses ( Exodus 6:2 ), and through him to the people, that henceforth He would manifest Himself to them in a much more glorious manner than to the patriarchs, namely, as Jehovah; whereas to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He had only appeared as El Shaddai. The words, "By My name Jehovah was I now known to them," do not mean, however, that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah. This is obvious from the significant use of that name, which was not an unmeaning sound, but a real expression of the divine nature, and still more from the unmistakeable connection between the explanation given by God here and Genesis 17:1 .