Exodus 6: The God Who Is Faithful

Introduction:

Can anyone think of the time you were most disappointed or let down by someone who made a promise to you, and you were banking on them and they didnt follow through? What were thoughts and emotions that came with that? Wouldn’t you say it rattled you’re ability to trust at all? I mean I remember for one of my birthdays I made it up in my mind that all I wanted was a macbook, I had done all the research, knew the exact size, color and model. However it wasn’t in my moms budget so I didnt have real expectations that I would get. But my mom being the loving and relentless mother she is sought every resource And then my great grandmother who is very well off told my mom that she would get. That news brought the biggest smile from ear to ear and I knew I was going to have the best birthday yet! All of that to build up to my grandmother telling my mom the day before my birthday that she changed her mind because the “Lord told her not to get it for me”. This weighed so heacy on me as a kid that I had my sights set one goal once I could afford it, to buy myself a Mac.

Promise Maker

Context:

In Exodus 5, Pharaoh responds arrogantly to Moses and Aaron’s plea for Israel to be released to go and worship God in the wilderness. He responds with dismissing God altogether and then manipulates their request by suggesting that they are requesting to go worship their God because they don’t have enough work. Pharaoh then imposes harsher working conditions for them so that it would be impossible for them to complete all their tasks. As a result of this the people of Israel place the blame for their harder working conditions on Moses and Aaron’s request. Moses then find himself again lamenting that the very thing God sent him to do and that Moses set out to do has backfired and only made the situations worse. Such that Moses accuses God of not delivering His people at all in verse 23.

Exodus 5:22–23 (ESV)

Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 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.”

Moses’ accusation comes as a direct charge against the character of God, and God is going to demonstrate himself faithful to fulfill his promise.

Why? Because God is a promisemaker.

God has been making promises since the beginning of creation:

Remember God’s promise in Genesis 2:17 if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil you will surely...

God promised Cain in Genesis 4:7 that his sin was going to rule over Him if he gave in to temptation to anger and bitterness...

God Promised Abraham that he would give him a son in Genesis 17:16...

Needless to say God is in the promise making business, and in all of those promises he fulfilled them

God’s response to Moses is to reiterate His promises and His command to Moses to go and tell the people and Pharoah all that he has said and promised.

God is not like the insecure kid on the playground trying to convince everyone that he’s brave enough to do a backflip off the monkey bars for a bag of Hot Cheeto’s.

No, God response is to put his character on display in response to a challenge of His character.

God could have justly responded with how dare Moses make such an accusation against the God of heaven, but God chose to just prove who He is so that it could never be said of God, he promised to do something and he didnt do it!

So YHWH just reiterates exactly what he is going to do and tells Moses “Just watch”(v.1)

God’s Promises To Israel:

He will deliver Israel from slavery to the Egyptians, and redeem them (v.6)

He will bring great acts of judgement on Egypt (v.6)

He will make Israel into a nation for Himself (v.7)

He will bring Israel into the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (v.8)

To A Faithless People

Remember in 5:23 Moses accuses God of not doing anything he said he would do.

In verse 9 (Exodus 6:9) we see that God’s people were driven to faithlessness in their despair

In verse 12 (Exodus 6:12), Moses faithlessness appears again as he responds to God’s commands to go speak to Pharoah, with arguing for his own inadequacy. After all Israel wasn’t even listening to Him let alone the Pharoah who just dismissed him & God, and made life even worse for Israel

God still made His promises, despite his people having little to no belief that he could actually do what he promised he would do.

It was God making them the biggest promise ever and them shrugging it off like sure, imagine how that would feel, you promise someone something amazing and they’re like “yeah right”. How many of you would still want to do whatever you promised?

But praise be to God!

God is faithful to faithlesspeople.

To be clear, God is not pleased with our unbelief, as the scriptures tell us

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

However God is not depending on your faith to show himself faithful, rather God is after growing your faith and just as the helpless father in Mark 9:21-24

Mark 9:21–24 ESV

And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

His cry was acknowledging his struggle of faith, and Jesus grows this man’s faith by doing the very thing this man struggled to believe God for.

And so God, knowing the weakness of His people to believe, still holdsfast to his promises. How often is that us?

Promise Keeper

Spoiler Alert!

Not only is God the Promise Maker, But He is also the Promise Keeper!

Its not in our text tonight but if we fast forward through this narrative a bit we see that God indeed delivered Israel and God indeed brought Israel into the land promised to their forefathers.

See:

Exodus 12:51 (ESV)

And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

Joshua 5:10–12 ESV

While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

God is so unlike us, when we are prone to be fickle and flaky in the most trivial of ways, God has not once ever failed to fulfill his promises.

Numbers 23:19 ESV

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

God has never failed to keep His promises!

Our God will always do what He has promised, and we can expect him to and we can cry out to Him and call on Him to act according to all that He has promised

And what has God promised you?

God has made promises to you that he is faithful to fulfill:

If you call on His name, he will save you (Romans 10:13)

If you depend on him, he will care for you (Matthew 6:33)

He will never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:8)

He is near to you when you are broken (Psalm 34:18)

If you live for Him, he will reward you (Hebrews 11:6)

If you resist sin, you will know joy (James 1:12)

If you reject him, eternal punishment awaits us (John 3:36)

Entrust your soul to the faithful God, who fulfills every single one of His promises!