Exodus 6:4-9
I also established my covenant with them to
give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians
hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the
people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, 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. 7
I will take you to be my people, and
I will be your God, and you shall
know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring
you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession.
I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not
listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
Take a moment to take in the number of
"I will's" in this dialogue. This is indicative. This is God saying
what He is going to do. This is promise and prophecy. There is nothing for us
to do, but to listen. The imperative comes after hearing in the form of,
"believe it! bet your life and livelihood on it." That is the
command. God is going to do something. You better believe it. But they didn't
because their spirits were broken by the harshness of their situation. They
couldn't muster enough hope to imagine a life any different than the one they had.
And yet their unbelief did not keep God from doing what He said He was going to
do. His action and follow through is not contingent upon our belief.
Indicatives don't care how you feel about them. They are true whether or not
you like them, love them, hear them, or them. They are
what they are. But we are our response to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment