Exodus 6

The Lord answers Moses (vs. 1-14)—After the multiple complaints that ended chapter 5, the Lord speaks again. In verse 1, He repeats His promise to bring the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage “with a strong hand.” In verses 2-5, He identifies Himself again, specifically mentioning that He had appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them” (v. 3). They did know the name Jehovah, but they did not understand the significance of it. As I discussed in chapter 3, the name “Jehovah” has reference to His covenant nature; He did, of course, make a covenant with Abraham, but the full extent of it, through Moses, was not revealed to the earlier patriarchs. The Lord reiterates the land promise in verse 4, thus the necessity of bringing Israel out of Egypt. Moses was to go back to the children of Israel and tell them of God’s promise (v. 6). Moses does so, “but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit of cruel bondage” (v. 9).

The Lord then commanded Moses to go into Pharaoh and tell him “to let the children of Israel go out of his land” (vs. 10-11). Moses, weakening in faith, replies “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?" (v. 12). But the Lord told him to do it anyway (v. 13); in this verse, exactly what He said to Moses is not revealed. It wouldn’t be surprising if He was a little peeved at his continued lack of faith and excuse-making. Well, as noted earlier in these chapter summaries, even the great men of God had weaknesses and weren’t always exemplary in their relationship to Him.

The descendents of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (vs. 14-25)—We have here recorded the children of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, with special emphasis on the latter because he was the ancestor of Moses and Aaron. These three sons were the oldest of Jacob. Even though Reuben and Simeon really aren’t important in this section, Moses mentions them probably in deference to the custom of that time of “primogeniture” and respect for the oldest sons. The three sons of Levi are emphasized: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. They will be important later on, as we shall see. Amram, the father of Aaron and Moses, was a descendent of Kohath. The genealogy of the other sons of Kohath are also listed, but only because such details were very important to the Jews, and they do give more solid historical support to the Biblical record. The important person here is Eleazar, the son of Aaron, who will play a role in subsequent Israelite history. His son, Phinehas, will also come up for mention in a rather significant event in Numbers 25:7-13.

The Lord again speaks to Moses and Aaron (vs. 26-30)—Actually, verses 26 and 27 identify Moses and Aaron. These two are the sons of Amram and Levi, as just noted, and “These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, ‘Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies’" (v. 26). Tribes, clans, and families are extremely important in ancient societies, so exact identification was expected and virtually a cultural necessity. The fact is emphasized even further in verse 27. The chapter closes with what appears to be a repetition of the conversation between God and Moses as recorded in verses 10-12.