Exo 6:1-13 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Exod 6:1-13: 6:1-13 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 )? 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 ). 6:1 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 6:1-13: 6:1-13 ^a 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 ^b)? 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 ^c). 6:1 ^d 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 ^e 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 ^f). Why does God redeem (6:6 ^g)? 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 ^h). 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 ⁱ 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 ^j, 9 ^k; 148:13 ^l). 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 ^m 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 ⁿ. The importance of “knowing the Lord” in the book of Exodus is seen in its recurrence, especially in Exod 5–18 ^o (5:2 ^p; 7:5 ^q, 17 ^r; 8:10 ^s, 22 ^t; 9:29 ^u; 10:2 ^v; 11:7 ^w; 14:4 ^x, 18 ^y; 16:6 ^z, 12 ^aa; 18:11 ^ab).
6:9 ^ac 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 ^ad 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 ^ae). But God renewed his orders.