Peter Barnes: Exodus 6:1-30
(23 December 2018)
SERMON NOTES : GOD WILL FULFIL HIS PROMISES (Exodus 6:1-30)
In Exodus 5 everything seems to unravel. Moses was a man in need of some spiritual comfort and bolstering before the task ahead.
1. The wonderful comfort of the sovereign God’s ‘I wills’.
– 6:1-8. God has declared: ‘I will.’ God will overrule Pharaoh, and He will accomplish what no man can accomplish.
(a) This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – 6:2-3. If in doubt, go back to the God of the covenants.
(b) This is the God who empathises with His people – 6:5. See Ps.56:8. Athanasius called the Psalms ‘the emotions of the soul’.
(c) God is all-powerful – 6:3. ‘God Almighty’ is El Shaddai e.g. Gen.17:1. ‘YHWH’ is found 148 times in Genesis, but the full meaning is being brought out here.
– 6:6-8. This is what O. Palmer Robertson calls ‘the Immanuel principle’, that God is with His people.
– John 6:37-40. All the ‘I wills’ are fulfilled in the promises of Christ.
2. ‘Faith’ easily dissipates.
– 6:9. Not long before this, many of these same people would have been rejoicing – 4:29-31. What happened to their faith? Calvin: ‘there is no greater curse than to be rendered heavy and dull, so as to be deaf to God’s promises.’ Proverbs 17:22; 18:14. And see Ps.34:18.
3. Even the man of faith is crushed.
– 6:10-12. He may be saying what he said earlier in 4:10. But it is usually connected more with sin than disability – Deut 10:16; 30:6. Moses seems to be saying something like Isaiah – Isa.6:5.