Three Observations in Exodus 6

Three things stick out to me in this first part of Exodus 6 (read it here), before the genealogy. First is the way God identifies Himself. It never really stuck out to me, but God often identifies Himself throughout the Bible as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I think this little detail says a lot about God Almighty (Exodus 6:3).

Other false gods, gods created by human beings, are often the "god of" something. Venus is the goddess of love, Mars the god of war. These gods have power that is specialized and limited to a certain area, often an aspect of culture (Dionysus, the god of wine). Sometimes they are simply the personification of an emotion (Cupid).

The true God is Lord over all emotions or aspects of culture, Lord over all of creation. He controls the seasons, the weather, the planet's rotation and orbit, and He makes the crops grow, and on and on. He has a claim to any number of titles for Himself - any number of ways He can identify Himself to Moses, but He chooses two.

1) "I am that I am" (Exodus 3:14). God chooses not to say I am the God of (fill in blank). That right there would seem powerful enough. A god who controls volcanoes would be pretty powerful. But for God, the real God, that association alone limits His power. He is not just a God who controls volcanoes. He does much, much, much more than that and His power is far, far greater. The best way God can describe His greatness is by simply saying "I am who I am." Beautiful and incomparable.

2) God reveals Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God associates Himself with people. This is incredible! This says volumes about who God is.

First, we see humility. God is far greater than Abraham, yet He identifies Himself with him. This kind of humility is a part of who Jesus is.

Second, we see God's grace. Who were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the God of the universe identifies Himself with them? They were nobodies! They were sojourners in a distant land (Exodus 6:4). Abraham likely worshipped the moon and other false gods before meeting the true God. Then there's Isaac, a man who makes the same mistakes as his father with his wife (Genesis 26) and we see him playing favorites with his children; Jacob is so messed up that he doesn't get married until he's seventy - which he does after stealing his brother's birthright and tricking his father into a deathbed blessing. These guys were messed up and evil.

And yet God changed them. Because of God we who are in faith are called children of Abraham. The nation of Israel is named after Jacob. These men are some of the most famous men who ever lived because God changed them. When God says He is the God of Abraham, ISaac, and Jacob not only can MOses connect that this is the God of his ancestors but also that this is the God who took these messed up guys and made them into men of God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their changed lives are a testament to God's wonderful, all-powerful grace.

So when God says He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob He is choosing what He will be identified as having dominion over. Now, unlike false pagan gods He does have power over everything, but He chooses here to show that it's people He cares about and His dominion is over their hearts. Praise God!

"I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." (Exodus 6:7)

This is the second thing that stuck out to me. Here is another big difference between all the world's false gods and the one true God. God is the only God who has ever said, "I will be your God." What an invitation and a promise! Here we see that God is not a distant, uncaring force to be discovered, He is a loving Creator inviting His children back to Him. "I will be your God." He says this throughout the Bible, often talking about the change that happens when we believe in Christ, are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and changed from the inside out (Deuteronomy 30:6, Ezekiel 36:26-29; 37:23; 37:27). God initiates, we respond. We don't search for God, nobody truly does! It is only by God's Holy Spirit that we come to God, only by His promise that He will be our God that we become His people. In other religions you have to make up your god and appoint them head over you. But with God it's the other way around. He appoints us under Him and as His people.

The last thing I noticed was something I underlined when I first read through Exodus:

But Moses said to the LORD, "Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?" (Exodus 6:12).

I wrote down near it 'God is patient'. Moses has already presented this fear to God. Sometimes the same things and fears come back, but God is very patient. We won't realize just how much until we get to heaven. But even now God's patience is seen in the dawning of each new day - because really the world should be destroyed for its evil but -

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Thanks God for these revelations of Your character in Your word.

Romans 4

In order to better understand Romans 4, I've tried to find the main ideas in it.

Abraham is the father of our faith, both the Jews and Gentiles. His faith, a gift of grace, makes him the "father" of the gentiles (4:11) and his circumcision makes him the "father" of the Jews. Once again, the points seems to be that God's plan is for all, not only for Jews, not only for Gentiles, but for both.

This makes God's promise to Abraham all the more deep and incredible. "I have made you the father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5). To Abraham, this was a good promise, something he would've been excited about. My assumption, though, is that all he expected from it was to have a lot of kids. This was especially incredible because the guy was older than eighty with a barren wife. But God was faithful to Abraham and he did have a son, and then thousands of years later we see God is still faithful to that promise in a way different than Abraham had thought: using Abraham's life as an example of faith. He became the spiritual "father" of many, to those who would be justified by faith in Jesus Christ. God takes what already sounds like a good promise and does incredible things Abraham could never have dreamed.

I love how Paul finishes this section. Throughout this chapter he has been quoting Genesis:

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)

Paul changes it to apply to us:

"It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for or trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:24-25)

My whole life I found I heard and knew the above: Jesus died for my sins and rose again. But I always had a hard time believing it. Nobody just rises from the dead. They stay dead. It's harder to believe a guy two thousand years ago rose from the dead when you can't see him or talk to eyewitnesses.

One of the best things I ever prayed for was faith. In this passage from Romans Paul is revealing that it is faith that buries us and raises us with Jesus. We think of faith as something we have to exert, a level of belief we have to muster up ourselves. This is what I had trouble with, mustering up enough faith, and it's not what Paul is asking us to do - because that would be a work in itself, a way in which we had to earn our relationship with Jesus. No, we are helpless, we need to just give it up to God. Jesus said,

"Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24)

Sometimes we need to pray for more faith. After I did God answered my prayer within two weeks. I remember going to bed one night, stopping on my way to bed after I had turned the lights out. It's hard to describe, but I knew in my bones that God is real and He was with me right then and there. I felt at peace, that my joy was full. I had been put right with God and had become his child. But I didn't do any of it, Jesus did, and through believing the Bible's testimony we can grow in certainty of it - because the gospels were written by and from eyewitnesses: we can hear their voices still today, in the Bible. They proclaim the love of a man from Nazareth who was murdered and mocked - only to rise again, mocking and destroying death, sin, and Satan. Thank Him and love Him!