Exodus 6, verses 2-8. Let's pray. Lord, this is such a big passage. Too big for me to preach. I just pray that You would bring it. and that you would help the people, including me, help us to hear. Help us to see the power, to see the wisdom, to see the beauty of all that you are in all of your ways. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Everything seems to be falling to pieces. It seems to all outward appearances, to all outward appearances, that Moses is being proved right, and God is being proved wrong. After initially believing God's Word delivered to them through Moses, and bowing down in worship, Now the people of Israel have rejected Moses and actually called on the Lord to look on Moses and judge him. Ever since Moses arrived in Egypt, rather than get any better, things have only become much, much, much, much worse. If the people were suffering before Moses came, then now they are suffering all the more. And Moses himself is at this point disillusioned. So he turns to the Lord and says in chapter 5 verses 22 to 23, Oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people? That's a pretty strong question. Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all." We saw last week that the mistake Israel had made, and Moses too, the mistake he's made, is thinking that this promised deliverance that Moses had come announcing, and that all the people had so joyfully received this message, that it was primarily about them. When in reality, it is not about them, primarily. It is about God and the revelation, the displaying, the revealing of how awesome He is. in and through the salvation of God's people. The order and the relationship between God's glory and your salvation is absolutely essential. It changes, as we saw last week, it changes literally everything, every way we think, how we approach all of life. So rather than give Moses the kind of answer he was looking for, God, explain this to me in some way that's humanly rational. Rather than give Moses the kind of answer he's looking for, God gives him the only truly satisfying answer there is. The answer that should have already been abundantly clear to him, he says in verse 1 of chapter 6, Now you shall see what I will do. Now, Moses was really asking, why now? Why not already? And God doesn't answer it. He just says, Moses, now is the time for me to show you my glory in the salvation of my people. There is more at stake here than just Israel's deliverance. What is at stake here is the glory of God in and through Israel's deliverance. But is this then to say that Israel is just a disposable tool that God doesn't really care about. God uses Israel, even Israel's salvation, for His glory, but does God truly love Israel? And that answer to that should be obvious, but because of our sin, sometimes we see a disconnect between the glory of God and our good and His love for us. This morning we're going to reflect on the verses in which God answers that question, in which He really shows us how our salvation relates to His glory. Indeed, in fact, these are some of the most formative, just to set you up, these are some of the most formative and the most foundational verses for our understanding of the rest of the Bible, the rest of Scripture. So we begin in verse two of chapter six, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am Yahweh. And right away, of course, we're reminded of that big moment at the burning bush in chapter three. Then Moses said to God, verses 13 to 15 of chapter three, if I come to the people of Israel, and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what's his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. Yeah, I am and he said say this to the people of Israel. I am yeah Has sent me to you and God also said to Moses say this to the people of Israel Since it wouldn't be right to refer to God as I am as a name You can tell them Yahweh He is Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus, I am to be remembered throughout all generations. I was going to review a little bit of that, but it's so good. It's on the website. We're going to skip it now. So now, that was back at the burning bush. Now time has passed, Moses has gone through his big struggle, whether he's even going to go or not. Finally, he arrives and it's disaster. And Moses comes back to God, no longer at the burning bush, but now in Egypt, and he says, God, this is a disaster! Why is this happening? And God brings him back to the burning bush, to what he already said, and says, Moses, I am Yahweh. You read that and you kind of think this is the idea you get. It seems that God thinks that should be sufficient. Somehow, apparently, God believes that His name should be enough for all of our questions. That His name should be enough to provide the solution for all the riddles and confusions of this life. God said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh. Oh, I'm sorry, I got confused. I was still quoted from Exodus chapter 3. This is my name, that is who I am. When God gives us His name, it's the revelation of who He is, and so who He is should make all the difference in our lives. But have we come to see this truly and fully? It's the question. When God keeps coming back to it, I keep thinking, okay, maybe this is even a bigger deal than I thought. Maybe I haven't really understood who God is and how that solves every problem in my life, not in the way that I think or expect, but the way that's truly most satisfying. Now God goes on then to spell out even more clearly than ever the true meaning and significance of His great name. Verses 3-4, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name, and I spelled it that way purposefully, but by my name Yahweh, I did not make Myself known to them. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners." Okay, so let's put it together. When God revealed Himself, and that's the only way we know God, right? Is if He shows Himself to us. When God showed Himself to the patriarchs, He revealed Himself to them by this name, El Shaddai. And there's still actually some debate about what Shaddai actually means. But if we go back and look at how God used that name in Genesis, I think we can get a pretty clear idea of the basic point. So let's look at it. You do your homework as we read this. What is the significance of God's name? The Lord appeared, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, I am El Shaddai. I will establish my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly. And I will be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. So I ask you, who is El Shaddai. Well, in these verses, he's the God who makes promises. He's the God who promises that one day, one day he will multiply Abraham's descendants and be God to them and give them the land of their sojournings for an everlasting possession. That's who El Shaddai is. Let's read the next one. God said to Jacob this time, not to Abraham, to Jacob, I am El Shaddai. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you. So I ask you again now, who is El Shaddai? He's the God who makes promises. The same ones, in fact, that we just saw to Abraham. So Genesis 28. Isaac called Jacob and said to him, now God never says this to Isaac that we hear of, but Isaac knows because he calls Jacob and said to him, may El Shaddai bless you. and make you fruitful and multiply you. May He give you the blessing of Abraham. May He give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. Who is El Shaddai? Yet again, He is the God who makes promises of blessing to His people. In this case, land, Seed, descendants, blessing. Genesis 48, Jacob said to Joseph, now another father, to his son, El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make of you a company of peoples and I will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. And so now, We come to Exodus 6 and we're not surprised. What do we read in Exodus 6? I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as who? As who? El Shaddai. I also established, and we're not surprised he goes on now to say, I established my covenant. My covenant promises with them. I said that I would give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived, as sojourners. Now if you read in your translations, you won't see El Shaddai, at least not in most of them. You'll see God Almighty. That's how we've translated it. El is God. Shaddai, most believe, means Almighty. And so then God's point seems to be this. In revealing His name to the patriarchs, He is showing them that He is the God who is powerfully able to make, to establish, and to keep all His promises of blessing. And how did God reveal this name to them? Do you think He just came to them one day and said, now, learn how to say this name. It's pronounced El Shaddai. And here's how you spell it. Is that how God reveals, is that what it means God reveals His name? Like if I, you ask me, what's my name? I said, well, it's Timothy. How do you say that? Timothy. And it's spelled like this. Now you know my name, right? This is not how God reveals El Shaddai to the patriarchs. God reveals his name by causing the patriarchs to experience, personally, the reality of this name in their lives over and over and over again. In other words, God didn't even just say, now here's my name, here's how it's pronounced, and here's how it's spelled, and he didn't even just tell them, and here's what it means, here's the definition that you'll find in the dictionary. He said, let me show you my name as I live it out, as you live it and experience it in your lives over and over again. And all you have to do is read the book of Genesis and you'll find that while the promises were not fulfilled to them, God proved himself over and over again that he was a God powerfully able to make and to establish and to preserve and to ultimately keep those promises one day. God revealed himself in Genesis as El Shaddai, the God who is able. And then he goes on to say now to Moses, but by my name Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. Now all of a sudden, you get this big sense, this sense of something big coming. Now we know that the patriarchs were fully aware that Yahweh was God's name. They knew the spelling and the vocalization of the name Yahweh. They knew how to say it just as well, if not better than they knew the spelling and vocalization of the name El Shaddai. Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew that God's name was Yahweh. They knew that. They referred to God as Yahweh. Lamech, Noah, Abraham, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Laban, and probably others I missed. They all knew that God's name was Yahweh. They all knew that. But once again, there is a difference between knowing how to pronounce a name and knowing its dictionary definition, and knowing intimately through personal experience, the fullness of all that that name reveals about God. So Genesis tells the story of how the patriarchs came to know God intimately and through much personal experience as El Shaddai, the God who is able to make and to establish and to keep his promises. But in Exodus, Though God does not set aside the name El Shaddai, it's still one of His names. His plan is now to cause the people to know Him more deeply, more intimately, and through much personal experience. Personal experience that the patriarchs never had as Yahweh. God's plan is now to make the people know Him, know Him in a new and an even more wonderful way as Yahweh. In Exodus, God's plan and desire is that His people should come to know Him even more deeply, more truly, more fully than they ever had before. And I'm not just saying that. God reveals that that's His heart for His people. This was already very clearly hinted at in chapter 3, but we ask, how will it come to pass? If they already knew His name in Genesis, and they probably already knew the dictionary definition in Genesis, then how is it that now in Exodus, God plans to help His people experience the reality of that name as they never had before? Exodus chapter 6, verse 5, Moreover, God continues, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. And here's our first massive clue. You see, in these words, God moves suddenly from this arena of promise to this arena of fulfillment. We saw that when he says that he has remembered his covenant. But this won't just be any old fulfillment of covenant promises. See, that's the thing we've got to see. What did God promise them? People, a land, right? Blessing. Okay, so just give it to them, right? No, not just any old way will do. This fulfillment is going to be specifically within a context of groaning and slavery. I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and now, now is the time I have remembered my covenant." See, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, think about it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob led fairly charmed lives. Charmed is not, I know, really the right word, but it captures, maybe, what I'm trying to say. I mean, if you read the stories, they were all rich, right? They were all wealthy. They all lived to a full ripe old age and died in peace. Now, it's not to say they didn't have their trials and their struggles and the things that God was using in their lives to teach them. But for the most part, they lived full and prosperous lives as they looked forward to the day when one day God would keep his promises, fulfill them. So, if you were to base things on the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if you were just to look at their lives and say, okay, how's things gonna go? How is God gonna fulfill the promises he made to them in the future? Well, you might expect an easy, natural, painless transition into their inheritance of the land of Canaan and their experience of the fulfillment of God's promises. But already a long time ago God had said to Abraham very clearly in Genesis 15, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted. for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you will not know this affliction. You shall go to your fathers in peace." You shall be buried in a good old age. You know what? It was because Abraham never knew that affliction that he never came to know God as his descendants would, by his name Yahweh. Abraham is to know that when it comes to the fulfillment of all those promises God has made to him, It's not just going to be any old fulfillment. It will be a fulfillment specifically in the context of cruel slavery and affliction. And so now it's coming to pass. Israel has been groaning, they've been crying out in slavery to the Egyptians for hundreds of years now, and now, now even more so than ever before. So what happens? Now you answer this in your own mind. What happens now? See, God promised blessing. Land, seed, blessing. What happens when God enters this world? This context? of groaning and slavery, finally bringing the fulfillment of all those promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What happens? Suddenly, suddenly we see it. The long-awaited fulfillment of all God's promises becomes nothing less than this. Salvation. The salvation and the redemption of all God's people. And so now God goes on to say to Moses in verses six to seven, say therefore to the people of Israel, I am Yahweh. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people. And I will be your God. I will. I will. I will. I will. I will. I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. I will take you. And so here for only the second time in Scripture, the other time being the same context, God uses the word for deliver. Only the second time in Scripture. Here for the very first time in all of Scripture, God uses the word for redeem. Here for the very first time ever in Scripture, God speaks of taking someone to Himself as an adopted child. He says Israel is His firstborn, but now He speaks of the adoption. Here for the first and only time in Scripture, All four of these descriptions of the coming exodus, they're all gathered together into this one verse, all packed together. And the effect in your handout is that of a crescendo building and building and building toward this finale of what? Of unbelievable, quiet, tender intimacy. But you think about it with me. To be groaning under heavy burdens and then to have Yahweh come and break the bars and bring me out from under those heavy burdens. To be crying out in the bondage of slavery and then to have Yahweh come and deliver me, deliver me from that slavery. to be oppressed by a cruel master, and then to have Yahweh show up and redeem me with His outstretched arm of might and power, and with His great acts of judgment, and to think That God would bring us out from under those heavy burdens and deliver us from that slavery and redeem us with that outstretched arm and great acts of judgment, all so that He might take us to Himself. So that we might be His people and He might be our God. Okay. But as awesome as all that is, If that is where we stop, then we have completely missed the point. What is the point of bringing us out and delivering us and redeeming us? What is God's ultimate final purpose and desire and goal in all of this? God himself answers that question. Then you shall know that My Name is Yahweh. Then you shall know that I am Yahweh, your God. who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. See in verse three, we saw that by his name, Yahweh, God did not make himself known. to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But now, now, today, God's people will know. As Abraham and Isaac and Jacob could not have known, now they will know that He is Yahweh. the God who revealed Himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, the God who is powerfully able to make promises, to establish those promises, and to keep all His promises of blessing, He will now reveal Himself even more fully, even more wonderfully, as Yahweh, the God who fulfills all His promises to His people, but doesn't just fulfill them. He fulfills them by becoming their Savior, their Redeemer. What is God's point? in bringing His people out, in delivering them, in redeeming them, in taking them to Himself. What is His desire and goal? It is that He should be known and loved and worshipped, not just as El Shaddai. but even more fully and more deeply and more intimately than ever before as Yahweh. And then as if there could be any doubt still remaining. The God who first spoke to Moses in verse 2 and said to him, I am Yahweh. and who then told Moses to say to the people of Israel, I am Yahweh. Now he says one more time at the very end of his speech, of his message to Moses, I am Yahweh. This is God's self-revelation to you and me. And so what we see is God's zeal. Know this about God. God's zeal and God's purpose and God's desire that He should be fully known. Now, I said it that way, that He might receive all the glory, but now we must say it this way, so that we see the obvious other side of the coin. God's zeal and purpose and desire is that we should know Him fully. What a wondrous, amazing thought that is. In Genesis, the patriarchs came to know God intimately and through much personal experience as who? The God who is able to make and establish and keep his promises. Then in Exodus, and throughout, in fact, the rest of the Old Testament, God is at work and in the process, though he doesn't set El Shaddai aside, he's in the process of revealing himself to his people even more deeply and more fully by his name, Yahweh. The God who fulfills all his promises to his people, not just any old way, but by becoming their Savior and their Redeemer. But in the end, God's passion that He should be known, that we should know Him fully, it was that passion that led Him to take not only another name, but human flesh as well. For all that Israel, here's the thing, For all that Israel could come to know of God as Yahweh, it was only through the name of Jesus that they would ever come to know God intimately. And through personal experience, in your handout, in all, all, And that word, all, that has a whole new meaning when you're talking about God. In all of His unbounded, limitless, fathomless glory, power, and beauty. And what does the name Jesus mean? You know that, right? It just means Savior. So we ask, Jesus suffered, Jesus bled, Jesus died on that cross 2,000 years ago in history, in the land of Canaan, the land of Israel. Why? It was an order that God might be fully known. It was that we might know God fully. Because God is never more fully known in all of His attributes, in all of His glory, than when He is known as our Savior. See, when God moved from El Shaddai, the God who makes promises, to Yahweh, the God who not only fulfills promises, but fulfills them as Savior, His passion for His people was that they might know Him as Redeemer, as a holy God, who makes provision in the end for sin, who calls us up to be His adopted children, we who were His enemies. This is how we know Him fully. El Shaddai, Yahweh, Jesus. The Apostle John then writes in these familiar verses, but maybe now more understandable than ever, the Word became flesh. and dwells among us. And we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side. He has made Him known." Do you want to know what God is like? The first thing that the Word tells us that we can know about God is that He is a God who shows us what He is like, and who throughout history has been in the work and in the process of continually revealing to His people more and more and more of who He is, and it has all culminated in Jesus Christ. God's passion and zeal is that He be fully known, that we know Him fully. As the great I Am, Jesus said before Abraham was, I Am, Yahweh, come in the flesh to save, to redeem His people. Jesus therefore revealed God in every single thing He ever did and every single thing He ever said. And these are the things, some of the things He said, revealing God to us. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way and the truth and the life. I am the vine. You are the branches. And so I ask just this simple question this morning. Have you come to know Him? Jesus said, see, this is so important. If I ask you, why did Jesus suffer and bleed and die? We could say, it was to save me. And indeed it was. But even further back, even more ultimately, even more foundationally, if I ask, why did Jesus come to suffer and bleed and die? We could answer, It was so that God might be fully known. That's why. So John 17 3, Jesus says it himself, this is salvation. This is eternal life that they know you. in all of your glory, beauty, and power, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. If the answer to this next question is yes, I hope you won't just say, yeah, yeah, I got that. I hope you will say yes. I love to be able to say it. Have you come to know God? through faith and trust in Jesus. And His suffering and His death on the cross in the place of people who are in bondage and slavery and cruel affliction and oppression to death, to Satan, to sin. Will you trust in Him this morning? And secondly, are we seeking? We know this now about God, but if we know that God's passion is that He be fully known, and that we know Him fully, then what's our place? It is to seek always, to know God always more, and more, and more, in the face of the one whose name is Jesus. So we read in 2 Corinthians, God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And where do we see His face? We see it here on every page of Scripture. And so in Christ, our Savior, All the promises of God are fulfilled. As the Apostle Paul says, all the promises of God find their yes in Him. My brothers and sisters, God wants you to know Him for His glory. and your everlasting, eternal happiness in him. He began by revealing himself as El Shaddai, and then he came in that moment, in that grand, big, glorious, bigger-than-life moment, when Moses is thinking all is lost, and God says to Moses, now is the time for me to show you even more of who I am. I'm not just the God who makes promises. I fulfill them by becoming your Savior. And then in the fullness of time, this El Shaddai, this Yahweh, took to himself human flesh and the name Jesus. Through Jesus, we know God fully. Lord, we just pray now that you would help us to seek to know you, the God who we cannot know of our own imaginings, we cannot know by our own approaches to you, but you, O Lord, have condescended to us to tell us your name. Help us, Lord, as those who have experienced, not only do we know the definition, Not only do we know how to say the name, but as those who have experienced your name in our great salvation, through this experience, through this salvation, that you are daily working out in our lives. Help us, Lord, to know you, and that in our knowing of you, as you have revealed yourself, you would be greatly honored and glorified in us, and that in that would be our eternal life, our abundant life, our true happiness. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.