Exodus 6 – The Covenant Remembered, The Name Revealed

Exodus 6:1–5 – God Reasserts His Authority

📖 Exodus 6:1 – “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go…”

🔎 After Moses’ cry of confusion in chapter 5, God doesn’t rebuke him—He reframes the situation:

🔹 “Now shalt thou see” – This phrase carries urgency and assurance. God is moving from promise to performance.
🔹 “What I will do” – Emphasis is on God’s action, not man’s effort. He doesn’t need Pharaoh’s cooperation—just His own will.
🔹 “With a strong hand” – Hebrew implies mighty force or judgment. Pharaoh won’t be persuaded—he’ll be compelled.

➡️ Spiritual Insight: God sometimes allows situations to grow darker to make His light unmistakable. Deliverance begins when God says, “Now you will see.”

📖 Exodus 6:2-3 – “I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham… but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.”

🔎 God reintroduces Himself—but with greater depth than before:

🔹 “I am the LORD” (YHWH) – The covenant name. Not just El Shaddai (God Almighty), but the eternal, self-existent One—unchanging, present, and near.
🔹 To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God revealed His power. But to Moses, He’s revealing His name and nature.
🔹 The Hebrew structure emphasizes intimacy over identity. This is a relational unveiling, not just a name drop.

➡️ Prophetic Echo: Jesus later echoes this moment when He says, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), directly linking Himself to YHWH.

📖 Exodus 6:4 – “I have also established my covenant with them… to give them the land of Canaan.”

🔎 The word “established” is legal and binding—like setting a seal:

🔹 God isn’t making a new covenant—He’s reaffirming an unbroken one.
🔹 The land promise is not just about territory—it’s about identity, inheritance, and destiny.
🔹 By reminding Moses of the past, God is anchoring the future.

➡️ Application: When we’re unsure of what God is doing now, we must return to what He already promised.

📖 Exodus 6:5 – “I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel… and I have remembered my covenant.”

🔎 This is the heart of God on display:

🔹 He hears – God is not indifferent to our pain. Groaning has a voice in His ears (Romans 8:26).
🔹 He remembers – This isn’t recalling forgotten facts. In Hebrew, zakar (remember) means to act upon a covenant promise.
🔹 He moves – The remembrance of His covenant triggers intervention.

➡️ Theological Truth: God’s timeline isn’t driven by human readiness, but by covenant timing. When the hour comes, He acts decisively.

Prophetic Themes & Deeper Patterns

🔮 “I AM” Revelation – This deeper unveiling of God’s name is a turning point in redemptive history. The same name will be echoed by Christ in His “I AM” statements throughout the Gospel of John.

🔮 God Hears and Acts – This passage sets the tone for all intercessory theology: God is not deaf to suffering. His deliverance is a response to both His promise and His compassion.

🔮 Pharaoh vs. YHWH – The battle is not Moses vs. Pharaoh—it’s YHWH vs. false gods. And YHWH begins the fight by declaring His name, His covenant, and His timing.

Exodus 6:6–13 – Promises of Redemption

📖 Exodus 6:6 – “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out… I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.”

🔎 This verse unleashes the first wave of God’s seven “I will” promises, each revealing a layer of divine commitment:

🔹 “I will bring you out” – God initiates deliverance. They won’t free themselves—He will extract them.
🔹 “I will rid you” – Speaks of liberation from oppression—both physical and emotional.
🔹 “I will redeem you” – A powerful legal term meaning to buy back or rescue by payment—prophetic of the blood of Christ.
🔹 “With a stretched out arm” – Symbol of power and authority (Deuteronomy 4:34).
🔹 “With great judgments” – Pharaoh’s resistance will not be tolerated—God will move with force against injustice.

➡️ Prophetic Insight: These are not empty words—each “I will” is a covenant anchor, fulfilled across history, climaxing in the cross and second coming of Christ.

📖 Exodus 6:7 – “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God…”

🔎 This is the covenant center of the Exodus:

🔹 “Take you to me” – Like a marriage vow, God is claiming His bride.
🔹 “You shall know…” – Not just believe, but experience who He is.
🔹 This speaks of identity transformation: from slaves of Pharaoh to children of God.

➡️ New Covenant Echo: This language is mirrored in Revelation 21:3 – “They shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them.”

📖 Exodus 6:8 – “I will bring you in… I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.”

🔎 God isn’t just rescuing them from something—He’s bringing them into something better:

🔹 “Bring you in” – The journey ends in promised inheritance.
🔹 “For an heritage” – Not just land—but legacy, purpose, and future.
🔹 He signs the promise with “I am the LORD”—a divine signature of reliability.

➡️ Spiritual Insight: God’s deliverance doesn’t end at escape—it leads to inheritance, purpose, and presence.

📖 Exodus 6:9 – “But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.”

🔎 One of the most human verses in the chapter—hope is offered, but pain drowns it out:

🔹 “Anguish of spirit” (Hebrew: qotser ruach) – Literally “shortness of breath.” Oppression had suffocated their hope.
🔹 “Cruel bondage” – Spiritual trauma had conditioned them to expect disappointment.
🔹 Even divine truth can be muted by suffering—but that doesn’t make it untrue.

➡️ Application: God’s promises don’t depend on how ready you feel—they depend on how faithful He is.

📖 Exodus 6:10-13 – “The LORD spake unto Moses… speak unto Pharaoh… And Moses spake before the LORD…”

🔎 God repeats the call, and Moses still resists—but notice:

🔹 God doesn’t change His mind—He strengthens Moses.
🔹 Moses points again to his “uncircumcised lips”—but it’s not about Moses’ mouth, it’s about God’s message.
🔹 The instruction to command both Pharaoh and the Israelites shows that leaders are called to speak truth to power and to people, no matter the reaction.

➡️ Leadership Insight: Faithful leadership isn’t about eloquence—it’s about obedient repetition of God’s truth, even when no one listens.

Prophetic Themes & Fulfillment Layers

🔮 Seven “I will” Statements – Reflect God’s complete plan: Redemption (past), Relationship (present), and Restoration (future).
🔮 “Redeem with an outstretched arm” – Fulfilled in Christ’s outstretched arms on the cross (Luke 23:33).
🔮 Hearts too broken to believe – Mirrors the end-time cry: “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Even so, God is faithful.

Exodus 6:14–27 – Covenant Lineage Confirmed

📖 Exodus 6:14 – “These be the heads of their fathers’ houses…”

🔎 The genealogy begins with Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the first three sons of Jacob. But the spotlight quickly shifts to Levi, the ancestor of Moses and Aaron:

🔹 Tribal hierarchy is honored, but the narrative zeroes in on covenant function, not birth order.
🔹 This genealogy is a bridge between the patriarchs and the priests—it connects promise to service.
🔹 Each name is a thread in God’s tapestry of redemption.

➡️ Spiritual Principle: God’s promises move through generations—He honors legacy and establishes calling through family lines.

📖 Exodus 6:16–20 – “And these are the names of the sons of Levi… Amram took him Jochebed… and she bare him Aaron and Moses.”

🔎 Levi’s lineage is carefully traced to Amram, father of Moses and Aaron. This is more than ancestry—it’s divine positioning:

🔹 Levi = The tribe of priesthood, chosen to minister before the Lord.
🔹 Amram and Jochebed – Their union produced two of the most pivotal figures in Israel’s history—both born under oppression, but destined for leadership.
🔹 This also shows God’s plan unfolds within families, even in the worst conditions.

➡️ Foreshadowing: Just as Jesus was born under Roman oppression, Moses and Aaron are born under Egyptian slavery—but God is already weaving deliverance through humble beginnings.

📖 Exodus 6:23–25 – “And Aaron took him Elisheba… and Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.”

🔎 This section prepares the reader for the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood:

🔹 Aaron’s sons will become the first official priests (Exodus 28), with Eleazar eventually succeeding him.
🔹 Nadab and Abihu, tragically, will later die offering strange fire (Leviticus 10:1–2), reminding us that lineage does not replace reverence.
🔹 These names tie future spiritual authority directly back to God’s appointed leadership.

➡️ Spiritual Insight: Calling runs through the family line, but holiness sustains it.

📖 Exodus 6:26–27 – “These are that Aaron and Moses… These are they which spake to Pharaoh… according to their armies.”

🔎 This is a divine seal. God repeats their names, confirming their identity and their role:

🔹 “These are that Aaron and Moses” – Public, repeated affirmation from heaven.
🔹 “Which spake to Pharaoh” – Not just priests or prophets—they are ambassadors of God’s justice.
🔹 The phrase “according to their armies” hints at a spiritual battle formation—deliverance is warfare.

➡️ Prophetic Glimpse: Just as Moses and Aaron were chosen to confront Pharaoh, the end-time remnant will be called to confront spiritual Babylon (Revelation 18:1–4).

Prophetic Patterns & Eternal Truths

🔮 God validates His messengers by lineage and calling – Moses and Aaron didn’t just show up with boldness—they stood on covenant ground.
🔮 Priesthood preparation – This genealogy anticipates the law, tabernacle, and intercessory ministry to come.
🔮 Genealogy and Messiah – The importance of lineage points forward to Christ’s genealogies (Matthew 1, Luke 3)—each name declaring a redemptive thread.