EXODUS LESSON 6

    In the last lesson, God had just called Moses to service for Him,
and Moses had told God that he was incapable of doing the job.  We will
continue in chapter 3 of Exodus, now, and pick up in verse 12.

    Exodus 3:12 "And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this
[shall be] a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast
brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this
mountain."

    Here, we see God's encouraging reply to Moses. God promised that He
would be with Moses. God gave even more encouragement to Moses when He
spoke of Moses bringing the children out, as if it had already
happened. He even let Moses know that he would live through all of
this, in the fact, that Moses would worship on this very mountain. There
are no "ifs" at all in any of these statements God made to Moses.
This alone should fire Moses up to go. This was God (not man) making
this promise, and that made it a fact.

    Exodus 3:13 "And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto
 the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your
 fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is]
 his name? what shall I say unto them?"

    Here we see Moses, in effect, accepting this awesome job.  He was
trying to convince himself that they might even believe him, if he
only could give them a name that would explain who this God was who had
sent him. Why Moses was asking this name is a big question.  Perhaps,
it was because the Egyptians had many false gods, and they each had a
specific name. Up until this time, the subject of a specific name for
God had not come up. "El" was one of the names used for God.
"Jehovah" was another. Actually, there are 98, or more, names for God in
the Bible. Each seems to be used according to the working of God at
that specific time. Moses wanted to be prepared, and also, wanted to
bring them something that they could not deny. In explaining who God was,
Moses would, probably, already know Him as Jehovah, which encompasses so
much. He (Jehovah) is self-existent, eternal, separate, and independent
from His creation, changeless, truthful, and faithful to keep His promises

    It is interesting that Moses would have to go to the Israelites
first. They would have to be willing to be delivered, before he could
deal with the Pharaoh to free them.  Can you see the symbolism here?
We must be willing to give up the world (Egypt), before the Lord Jesus
will deliver us. We must repent and turn from this old life of
bondage before Jesus can deliver us. The Israelites, just like us,the
believers, have to want Moses to deliver them.

    Pharaoh, in this, was symbolic of Satan.  Jesus had to deal with
 Satan, and defeat him, to save us.  Moses would  have to deal with
 Pharaoh, and defeat him, to free the Israelites.  Mankind, then or now,
 cannot be saved without their willingness to be saved.  We are a free
 moral agent. We must will to be saved.

    Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me
unto you."

    This is, probably, the most powerful statement in the Bible.  It is
a fact that God exists. There is nothing before and nothing after.
There is absolute presence. The word "AM" translated is Hayah.  This
verb means to exist, to breathe, to be. The key to the name
Jehovah/Yahweh is found in this verb. This tells us of the
timelessness of God; the eternity of God. In Hebrews 11:6, we see that
we all must believe this, "But without faith it is impossible to
please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
My translation of "I AM" is, the One who eternally exists, in the present 
tense. 
    Exodus 3:15 "And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto
you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all
generations."

    In the original manuscript, Jehovah Elohiam is the name used for
God. This means Jehovah, God of your fathers.  What this Scripture,
above, was saying, was that God is the God of the present.  It speaks of
His eternity again. This God will never die. To obtain life
everlasting, we must obtain Him, which is life eternal.

    Exodus 3:16 "Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say
unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and
[seen] that which is done to you in Egypt:"

    When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were mentioned to these elders, they
were being reminded that God had made covenant with this people; and
that God keeps His covenant.  This elder, here, was not an elder of a
church, but rather elder in age, and could be male, or female. This,
possibly, was a group of older people chosen to represent the group. The
Israelites had not been worshipping God with the use of elders. In
fact, they had no formal mode of worship at this time.  They would
know about the covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
because each generation related these promises to their children.
Moses was to tell them, that God had seen the injustice done to them.

    Exodus 3:17 "And I have said, I will bring you up out of the
affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

    Here, Moses must convince them to leave, and go to a better land.
As bad as Egypt had been, at least they had survived here; and to go
for the unknown, was a big step.  This was especially hard to believe,
in that the land is already occupied. Here, again, we can easily see
symbolism of the Christian walk. There is a world out there for the
believer to overcome. So many times people are reluctant to start a
new life in Christ, because they do not want to give up old friends
and the worldly pleasure they had together. The believer must believe
there is a promised land, and must be willing to turn his back on that
old life, and go searching for the new. There will be hardships along
the way, because we must be tried.  The first step is to decide to
leave the world (Egypt) behind.

    Exodus 3:18 "And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt
come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye
shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and
now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the
wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God."

    Here, God reassured Moses that these people would accept this
message of His. You see, as we said before, these Hebrews (Israelites)
have to first of all be willing to follow Moses, and then the next step
was to convince the king of Egypt to let them go.  They would go at this
slowly. Now, Moses was to gain reinforcement, and take these elders with
him, when he appeared before the king. These Hebrews really had dropped
the sacrifice, while they were in Egypt, but God was saying, go out of
Egypt, and worship again. Here, again, we see a symbol of the believers. 
We cannot serve God, while we are caught up in the world (Egypt). We must 
come out of worldliness to go and worship God.

    Exodus 3:19  "And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let
you go, no, not by a mighty hand."

    Here, He was telling Moses, it was going to be a battle.  Christians,
too, are in a warfare. Satan fights hard to keep us in worldliness,
but if we persevere, we can overcome Satan and the world, and follow
God. This king, symbolic of Satan, would fight to keep them (these
Hebrews) under subjection to him.

    Exodus 3:20 "And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with
all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he
will let you go."

    Here, we see God fighting for these Hebrews.  God does the very
same thing for us, if we will allow Him to.  Signs and wonders have
been the convincing factors throughout the Bible.  This time would be
no exception.

    Exodus 3:21 "And I will give this people favour in the sight of
the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall
not go empty:"

    It is not our place to judge God, or the commands He gives.  Many
people believe that deception takes place in this, but let us take a
really good look at what it is saying. The very first line says that
God, Himself, had put it into the hearts of the Egyptians to give
freely to these Hebrews. After 100's of years of servitude, this was
justice being done. Probably, some of the people of Egypt had grown
fond of these Hebrews. The fight was not with the people; it was with
the king. You see, we Christians, are not fighting against flesh and
blood, but against principalities. Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places." These Hebrews were not really fighting
against the Egyptian people in general, but against the hard rulership,
which made them slaves. In many cases, God had given them favor with
some.

    Exodus 3:22 "But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of
her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of
gold, and raiment: and ye shall put [them] upon your sons, and upon
your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians."

    When we see the results of the tenth plague, the loss of the first
born, we will, also, understand better why these Egyptians would give
anything the Hebrews asked, and even want them to leave with whatever
they asked for. It is not a natural thing for people to give away their
jewelry, but remember, God put it in the hearts of the Egyptians to do
just that. We will get more into this subject in a later lesson, for
now this is sufficient.


                                 NOTES
































                          Exodus 6 Questions


1.  What token of assurance did God give Moses, that he would be able
    to accomplish this job?
2.  What would make it possible for Moses to do this?
3.  Why should Moses believe this?
4.  What did Moses ask God for?
5.  Moses was trying to convince himself, that they might even believe
    him, if he gave them his ------------.
6.  Why did Moses believe this to be important?
7.  By what name did Moses, probably, already know God?
8.  Why would he have known anything about God?
9.  Describe Jehovah.
10. Who would Moses speak to first?
11. Why?
12. What must the Hebrews decide?
13. Who was Pharaoh symbolic of in this?
14. Why must we be willing to be saved, before we can be saved?
15. By what name did God call Himself in reply to Moses?
16. Why was this name so powerful?
17. In Hebrews chapter 11:6, what are we told we must believe?
18. Which three Patriarchs did God say He was the God of?
19. Who did God call Himself in V-15?
20. To obtain life eternal, what must we do?
21. What was Moses to tell the elders?
22. What was God reminding these elders of by using Abraham's, Isaac's
    and Jacob's names?
23. What land would God, through Moses, bring them to?
24. What was this promised land flowing with?
25. What must Moses convince these people to do?
26. Why is it especially hard for this people to believe God will give
    them this land?
27. Why do Christians, sometimes, find it difficult to begin a new life?
28. Who would go with Moses to speak to the king?
29. What was Moses to say to the king?
30. What symbolism of Christians do we see in the Hebrews going out of
    Egypt to worship?
31. What attitude would the king of Egypt have?
32. Satan fights to keep us in ---------.
33. What would God do?
34. What had been the convincing factors throughout the Bible?
35. God would give the Hebrews favor with whom?
36. Why was it justice for the Hebrews to spoil the Egyptians?
37. In Ephesians 6:12 we read, we wrestle not against flesh and blood
    but against what?
38. "...every ---------- shall borrow of her-----------...".
39. What shall she borrow?
40. What shall she do with them?
41. Memorize Ephesians 6:12.