Reflections on Exodus
Exodus 6 – God’s promise of deliverance
In Exodus 6, God reveals himself as Yahweh, or “The Lord”. Previously in scripture God had revealed himself as El-Shaddai, or “God Almighty”.
This is a bit like our walk with God and ties in nicely with the book that I am currently reading; Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. Grudem puts forth in his text that all people know of God, by his majesty is revealed in nature and as a moral judge revealed by our innate desire for good over evil in our daily affairs.
This is much like what we learn in Exodus 6. We see God revealing himself (again the only way we can know anything about God is through his revelation to us) to his first followers as God Almighty. This would have tied together their knowledge of the world, and the majesty, power and grandeur found therein with their already formed beliefs of “gods and spirits”. God would take this minute yet foundational knowledge and build their knowledge of him as God Almighty upon it.
God then goes on to reveal himself to Moses as Yahweh, “The Lord”, “Keeper of Covenants”. God is beginning to reveal his traits to humanity.
It is much the same with our walk with God. We begin with a sense of God. We marvel at a sunset or a sunrise. We are awed by a thunderstorm with its flashes of lightning. We weep at the loss of a loved one and wonder that “there must be more”. This is El-Shaddai, God Almighty.
Then something happens. God comes to us (for Moses it was a burning bush, for some its a voice, and for others it is simply his words in scripture. And for still others it is the caring actions of a loved one who already knows God) and reveals himself to us as the “Covenant Keeper”. Yahweh. We come to learn that we can trust him, that there is something there beyond ourselves that piques our curiosity and instills within us a desire to know this God more.
This is Yahweh. This is the God who beckons us with the promise “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom. 10:13
