Seder 48: Exodus 6-7---A Fuller Revelation of the Meaning of God's Name

 Moses was very discouraged when he prayed at the end of Exodus 5.  God answered in Exodus 6:1, 

"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."  

The wording in this verse may be significant.  Egyptian kings were said to have mighty arms and hands.  God is saying here that he is the real king.  A few verses later God refers to his own "outstretched arm" (v 6).  [For more on this imagery, see James Hoffmeier's paper, "The Arm of God Versus the Arm of Pharaoh in the Exodus Narratives," Biblica 67 (1986), pp. 378-387.] 

God went on to tell Moses, "I am the Lord.  I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty [Heb. El Shaddai], but by my name the Lord [Heb. Yahweh] I did not make myself known to them" (vv 2-3).  

This passage has puzzled readers, since God's name Yahweh is used often in the Genesis narrative, many times in the mouths of the patriarchs.  One explanation, championed by Australian biblical scholar Francis Andersen, is that the verse should be a question:  "Did I not make myself known to them by my name the Lord?" 

Another possibility is that God was announcing that Israel would now experience a fuller revelation of the meaning of his name.  The patriarchs had been blessed by God and had received God's promises, but the complete fulfillment of those promises was still in the future---in particular, the promise of the land.  Now Israel would experience God as covenant keeper.  (Kyle Kettering developed this theme in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on March 13, 2021.) 

God tells Moses more about the concrete meaning of his name in verses 6-8.  He announces to Israel that 

• I will free you from bondage.
• I  will deliver you.
• I will redeem you.
• I will take you as my people (in a marriage relationship).
• I will be your God.
• I will bring you into the land.
• I will give the land to you.

At this point the Israelites were too weighed down with their burdens to care much about what God was revealing through Moses (v 9).  Moses faced a problem:  How could be go to Pharaoh as a representative of the Israelites when he didn't have the support of the Israelites?  This may be part of what Moses was saying in verse 12, along with his worries about his speaking ability.  

God has a solution to this problem.  Moses would be going to Pharaoh not as a representative of the people, but as a representative of the supreme God of the universe (Exod 7:1).  

The rest of Exodus 6 contains genealogical information about the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, concentrating in particular on the Levites and the family of Aaron.  Why were the rest of the tribes not mentioned here?  One midrash says that Moses and Aaron went to the tribes of Israel, starting with Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, trying to drum up support for what they were doing.  No one was interested.  When they saw that not even their own tribe was interested, they gave up this effort.  

It is worth noting that the genealogical information in Exodus 6 is not exhaustive.  Biblical genealogies often do not include every generation.  In particular, the text just mentions four steps from Levi to Moses:    Levi--Kohath--Amram--Moses.  But there probably were a number of additional links.  One evidence of this is that in the tribe of Ephraim, there are 11 links between Ephraim and Joshua ( 1 Chron 7:23-27).