Reaffirming the covenant with the patriarchs

Exodus 6:1-4; 12/14/2025; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

Introduction

Reaffirming the covenant made with the patriarchs was the primary and essential requirement for God to restore His relationship with Moses—something both important and urgent.  As a result, when God heard Moses’ complaints, He did not rebuke him.  Let us look at the first point:

 God reveals to Moses

What was God revealing to Moses when He laid everything bare before him?  It is as if God were also asking us: What is your assurance in Me?  This presses upon our souls, challenging us to consider what kind of certainty we truly have in our relationship with God.  First, speak plainly.  To speak plainly is a rarity in human history.  In Chinese culture we even say, “When you meet others, speak only a third of your mind—never reveal everything.”  Why? Have you ever reflected on the reason?  It is because we lack trust in one another—and even more, we lack trust in God.  In the context of today’s passage, Moses had just poured out his complaints before God.  Yet we find that God did not rebuke him at all.  Instead, God opened His heart to Moses and told him, “I, the LORD, am the One you can fully rely on and trust.”  When God says, “Speak freely,” He means that we need not hide or hold back—because I am the LORD.  This is our everlasting comfort and the blessing that belongs uniquely to us as God’s children.

Second, receive God by faith.  The Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.”  Here, three important words appear: “now,” “see,” and “will do.”  Hebrew is rich with deductive logic, and this is reflected even in translation.  “Now” refers to the moment and setting in which Moses receives God’s will.  “See” and “will do” are expressed in a completed sense.  This carries two layers of meaning: For Moses, it is future and not yet completed.  But for God, the work has already begun.  Human beings, bound within our own sense of time, cannot naturally perceive the works of God that are already unfolding beyond our timeline.  God had already begun to work in Pharaoh’s heart—though neither Pharaoh nor Moses was aware of it.  Yet God calls His children to believe now in what He is doing, and to trust His leading.

Finally, behold the hand of God.  Moses might have found this unbelievable, even impossible.  To let Israel leave Egypt would be like Pharaoh cutting off his own flesh!  To Pharaoh, the Israelites were sheep to be fleeced—his property, his possession. Pure and simple.  Yet the LORD said to Moses: “By My mighty hand, he will let them go; indeed, he will drive them out of his land.”  The meaning of Scripture is this:  You can rest assured.  Pharaoh himself would not understand why he allowed Israel to leave Egypt—grudgingly, unwillingly, and in the end, forcefully driving them out!  No wonder the original text carries the sense: “God caused Pharaoh to drive the Israelites out with force.”  Now, let us look at the second point:

I am the LORD

Although the Bible contains more than a dozen names for God, among the Israelites—God’s chosen people—the most common and widely used name is the LORD.  First, the necessity of proclamation.  The term “to make known” carries the sense of declaration.  It is not only spoken to Moses, but is meant to be proclaimed to the whole world!  In this very chapter, it appears five times—in verses 2, 6, 7, 8, and 29.  This is closely related to the situation of the Israelites at the time.  After all, they had lived in the land of idols, Egypt, for over four hundred years.  The name the LORD had been introduced into the lives of God’s chosen people since Abraham—by the time of Moses, more than six hundred years had passed.  If God is to restore His relationship with Israel, it must begin with the recognition of His name.  Human memory is fragile,   and we easily forget. What can be done?  Repeated reminders, study, and memorization are necessary—but above all, the constant guidance and prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Second, speak in the first person.  When God spoke to Moses, He used the first person.  The Holy Spirit, in inspiring Moses to write the book of Exodus, revealed that God Himself wants to make this declaration personally.  In other words, God desires to proclaim directly to His people what kind of God He truly is.  I am not a stranger to you; I am the God your ancestors have long known.  Even if you do not remember Me personally, surely you remember your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The Israelites, no matter how forgetful, could not forget their own lineage.  At this moment, the chosen people may not have had direct experience with the LORD God, but they did have some historical record of their ancestors’ relationship with Him.  God uses what is familiar to the Israelites to remind and teach them what is still unfamiliar.

Finally, the meaning of the LORD.  God said to Moses: ”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.”  In other words, before Moses, the Israelites knew that there was a God, and that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Yet they knew very little about the LORD, His name, and the meaning behind that name.  They may have heard it before, and even used it directly on several occasions, as in Genesis 2:4 and 4:26.   But merely using the name did not mean that their ancestors fully understood its significance.  Even in Exodus chapter 3, when God revealed Himself to Moses, He was explaining the meaning of the name the LORD, but He did not yet make a direct proclamation: “I am the LORD.”  Now, let us look at the third point:

Keep My covenant

From today’s passage, we see that God has always revealed Himself in the first person.  The LORD God said, “I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.”   First, the covenant with the patriarchs.  In the narrow sense, the patriarchs refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   God made covenants with each of them, revealing Himself progressively.  “The covenant with Abraham” focused on three main aspects: the promise of a great nation, land (Canaan), and descendants, through whom all nations on earth would be blessed. “The covenant with Isaac” reaffirmed Abraham’s covenant and emphasized the legitimacy of Isaac’s descendants.  “The covenant with Jacob” gave Jacob the name Israel, reaffirmed the covenants with Abraham and Isaac, and established the twelve tribes as the ancestors of Israel, foreshadowing the formation of the nation of Israel.  In a broader sense, the patriarchal covenant includes the covenant at creation, the covenant with Noah, the covenants with the patriarchs, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David, and ultimately the “New Covenant”.

Secondly, the Covenant of Canaan.  What place does the Bible refer to as the land of Canaan?  There are two passages that define its boundaries: the first is in Genesis 10:19, “And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. (Gen. 10:19)”  The second is in Genesis 15:18, ”On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.  (Gen. 15:18)”  The first line runs along the Mediterranean coast from north to south, while the second line stretches from the southwest at the Nile River to the northeast near the Euphrates River.  The important point is that it includes the lands of the ten tribes, namely, ‘the territory of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites,  迦南人、 the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites’ (Genesis 15:19-21).”

Finally, the Covenant of Faithfulness.  Whether in terms of the content of the covenant between God and humans, its long history, or its transmission from generation to generation, we can see that the covenant established between God and humans does not change.  As it is written in Deuteronomy 7:9, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. (Deuteronomy 7:9)”  This is also why God does not delight in divorce, for marriage is a covenant established before God.  God keeps His covenant, and He desires that His children follow His example and live a life faithful to the covenant.

Conclusion

Thank the Lord!  Today, God led us to review His covenant with humanity, His covenant with the people of Israel, the covenant of the Gospel established with us through Christ Jesus, and the covenant of faith.

Let us pray together……

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,[a] 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.