Exo 4:29-7:7 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Exod 4:29-5:23: 4:29–7:7 In this section, the Lord offered to rescue the Israelites. The people initially gave a favorable response but ultimately faced a crisis of faith.

Summary for Exod 4:29-5:23: 4:29–7:7 ^a In this section, the Lord offered to rescue the Israelites. The people initially gave a favorable response but ultimately faced a crisis of faith.
4:31 ^b the people of Israel were convinced: The initial response to the good news was one of faith and worship. Contrast the response of panic in 14:10-12 ^c, when they saw Pharaoh chasing them.

‏ Exodus 5

Summary for Exod 5:1-14: 5:1-14 ^d Pharaoh not only rejected Moses’ request to release the Hebrew slaves, he also retaliated by making their work harder. The arrival of the rescuer had actually made the situation worse. 5:1 ^e so they may hold a festival: See study note on 3:18.
5:2 ^f Pharaoh immediately moved to the heart of the issue. What god could possibly be superior to Pharaoh? What god could compel him to do what he did not want to do? This is a central issue for the whole human race. Is there someone or something greater than my self-interest?
5:3 ^g he will kill us: God had not said this. Perhaps Moses and Aaron were trying to strengthen their case by saying that they had to obey God or die.
Summary for Exod 5:4-5: 5:4-5 ^h Evidently the people were anticipating their promised freedom and had stopped their work.
Summary for Exod 5:6-14: 5:6-14 ⁱ Pharaoh made the work harder in retaliation for their insubordination; he also believed they had too much time on their hands (5:8 ^j). He could not conceive of a god who would reveal himself outside of the established royal system of worship, so the only explanation he could imagine for their strange religious ideas was that they had dreamed them up themselves—when they should have been working (see also 5:17 ^k).
5:7 ^l Straw is a binder to help clay and mud bricks retain their form while drying in the sun.
Summary for Exod 5:22-23: 5:22-23 ^m This was the crisis point. After the initial burst of enthusiasm (4:29-31 ⁿ), the offer of rescue produced nothing but skepticism, hostility, and worse oppression than before. Moses, the rescuer, was himself reduced to doubt. 5:22 ^o The phrase brought all this trouble could be translated even more strongly as done all this evil. Is God really good or not? Instead of rescuing the people out of their evil circumstances as he had promised, it seems that God had only made the situation worse. Is he faithful or not? Is he powerful or not? (cp. Ps 105:25-27 ^p).

‏ Exodus 6

Summary for Exod 6:1-13: 6:1-13 ^q God renewed his promises. The offer of rescue brought the true question to the fore, the question articulated by Pharaoh: Who is the Lord (5:2 ^r)? As much as the Israelites needed rescue from bondage, their greater need was to know the Lord. The climax of God’s renewed promises was “you will know that I am the Lord your God” (6:7 ^s). 6:1 ^t Now you will see: Far from being daunted by the questions being raised about his integrity, his ability, and his very character, God looked forward to the clash of worldviews that lay ahead. Pharaoh, thinking himself divine, would just be a pawn in the hand of the one true God.
Summary for Exod 6:2-8: 6:2-8 ^u Once again, God forcefully linked his promises to the patriarchs (Abraham’s family) with what he was about to do. God’s work in history shows his faithfulness. He has made promises, and he will keep them. God also wished to reveal more of himself than he had been able to do with the patriarchs. This generation would know more of God and his intentions than Abraham had, particularly regarding the implications of the covenant (6:4-5 ^v). Why does God redeem (6:6 ^w)? Why did he reveal himself to Abraham in the first place? God wanted the Israelites to be his own people, and he wanted to be their God (6:7 ^x). God’s goal is for humanity to be in a lovingly submissive covenant relationship with him, where we can be what he made us to be.
Summary for Exod 6:2-3: 6:2-3 ^y I am Yahweh ... El-Shaddai: Here the NLT transliterates the divine names Yahweh and El-Shaddai because God was emphasizing that he was now using a different name than the name by which he was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To assist the English reader, the translators have also supplied the English terms usually used for these Hebrew terms: “the Lord” and “God Almighty.”

• I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them: The name Yahweh in fact appears frequently in Genesis (translated “the Lord”). Two solutions are possible: (1) The name Yahweh was not known to the patriarchs, but Moses, the author of Genesis, was inspired to insert that name in those places in Genesis where God’s grace and his nature as covenant-keeper were apparent. While the patriarchs might have known the name Yahweh, it is possible that they had never seen God’s nature displayed as it was in the Exodus and the Sinai covenant. In Hebrew, a person’s name has a broader significance than it does in English. People’s names were intended to reflect their character and nature, not just serve as a label (see, e.g., Pss 8:1 ^z, 9 ^aa; 148:13 ^ab). Here reveal is a Hebrew word often translated “to know,” which implies intimate knowledge and experience. In this case, the patriarchs knew God’s name, but they did not know and experience his nature fully as he revealed himself in the Exodus.
6:7 ^ac Then you will know that I am the Lord: The Hebrew word translated know is always based on experience and relationship. The same word is used to describe human sexual relations. To know God as Yahweh is not just to know abstract facts about him, but to be in a relationship with him in which we are always learning who he is and what he wants us to do. This is the only true rescue from the human predicament of sin described in Gen 3–11 ^ad. The importance of “knowing the Lord” in the book of Exodus is seen in its recurrence, especially in Exod 5–18 ^ae (5:2 ^af; 7:5 ^ag, 17 ^ah; 8:10 ^ai, 22 ^aj; 9:29 ^ak; 10:2 ^al; 11:7 ^am; 14:4 ^an, 18 ^ao; 16:6 ^ap, 12 ^aq; 18:11 ^ar).
6:9 ^as The crisis deepened as the people refused to listen to the reaffirmation of the promises. They had not anticipated that their initial faith would produce greater problems for them.
Summary for Exod 6:10-13: 6:10-13 ^at The crisis hit bottom. Even Moses was back to the situation on Sinai, where he had first responded to God’s call with protests of inadequacy (3:1–4:13 ^au). But God renewed his orders.
Summary for Exod 6:14-30: 6:14-30 ^av This genealogical interlude places Moses and Aaron among the families of Israel. That it is an interlude is clear because 6:30 ^aw is a repetition of 6:12 ^ax. There is a recurring emphasis in Exodus on Yahweh as the God of the ancestors, both explicitly (from 3:6 ^ay on) and implicitly (from 1:1 ^az on). What was about to happen was not an unrelated action by some new god who was devaluing impotent older gods (a typical theme in ancient pagan literature). Unlike pagan gods, whose only purpose is personal power, and who are in constant conflict among themselves, the true God has a single, overarching purpose: He wants his creation to find its fulfillment in proper relation to him. Although he enacts that purpose in ever-expanding displays of creativity, the new activities are always consistent with what he has already revealed of himself. Moses and Aaron did not suddenly appear out of the unknown, but were an integral part of that same people to whom God first revealed himself and through whom he was about to give an even grander revelation. The genealogies of Jesus have a similar purpose (Matt 1:1-16 ^ba; Luke 3:23-38 ^bb).
Summary for Exod 6:14-16: 6:14-16 ^bc The genealogy works its way through Jacob’s first and second sons to the third, Levi, the ancestor of Moses and Aaron. Having reached Levi, it dispenses with the other nine sons.
Summary for Exod 6:16-20: 6:16-20 ^bd This genealogy of Levi’s descendants focuses on Aaron and Moses; four generations are given in the genealogy from Levi to Aaron and Moses (cp. Gen 15:16 ^be). Since the people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years (see Exod 12:40-41 ^bf; Gen 15:13 ^bg), this genealogy skips numerous generations. In Gen 46:11 ^bh, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are listed as the actual sons of Levi who moved down to Egypt with their father and the rest of Jacob’s family. Amram’s wife, Jochebed, gave birth to his sons (Exod 6:20 ^bi). This is very concrete language, so there is no reason to believe that there were unnamed generations between Amram and Aaron and Moses. This suggests that the unnamed generations were between Kohath (son of Levi) and Amram (father of Aaron and Moses).
6:18 ^bj The descendants (literally sons) of Kohath included Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel: The Hebrew word for “sons” can also mean “descendants,” which accommodates the possibility of unnamed generations.
Summary for Exod 6:20-25: 6:20-25 ^bk The descendants of Kohath’s sons now become the focus of the genealogy. The families of Aaron son of Amram and Korah son of Izhar are given a more detailed listing (6:23-24 ^bl), followed by one of Aaron’s sons, Eleazar (6:25 ^bm). The focus is clearly on Aaron’s line through Eleazar, who received the high priesthood. The fact that Aaron and Korah were cousins makes it easier to see why Aaron’s elevation to high priesthood was so galling to Korah (see Num 16:1-3 ^bn); family rivalry is nothing new. The later rebellion might explain why Korah and his sons are given particular mention in this genealogy.

‏ Exodus 7:1-7

Summary for Exod 7:1-7: 7:1-7 ^bo In this final scene in the offer of rescue, the Lord once again answered Moses’ fears of not being able to speak eloquently. He would allow Moses to speak through Aaron (see 4:16 ^bp), but Pharaoh will refuse to listen regardless. God’s power, not Moses’ eloquence, was the important factor. Moses and Aaron then took the step of faith and did what God had commanded. The first crisis (see study note on 5:22-23) had passed.
7:3 ^bq The Lord would use miraculous signs and wonders to convince Pharaoh, just as he had promised to use signs to convince the Israelites that they should follow Moses (3:12 ^br; 4:5 ^bs, 8 ^bt, 9 ^bu).
7:5 ^bv my powerful hand: A further revelation of God would take place in the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, revealing God’s incomparable power.
7:7 ^bw Although eighty seems old to us, the typical age of Moses and Aaron’s ancestors at death had been between 130 and 140 years (see 6:16 ^bx, 18 ^by, 20 ^bz).