Mountains of Assurance for Molehills of Doubts

Title: Mountains of Assurance for Molehills of Doubt
Text: Exodus 5:20-6:30

We’re going to cover a very large portion of scripture today. And the first thing I want you to notice is that the whole section is bookended by people doubting God.

You can see that in this first slide. We have the people’s doubts and Moses’ doubts – which we read last week. Then in 6:2-8, we have a section where God reassures Moses and tells him to go to his people once again.

Then in vs. 9 we have the people unable to hear or believe because of their broken spirits.

God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh, and again Moses doubts. Verse 12 – But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Then in verse 14, we have a genealogy dropped on us. That continues through vs. 27. This is followed by more doubts.

In vs. 28 – On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

I’ll bet every one of us has some doubts about God. I find that my doubts are usually hidden from me. I don’t even know they’re there until the Lord shows me. I’m assuming the room is full of various kinds of doubts.

And the main point today is as we will see in our text, our doubts are like molehills compared to the mountains of assurance God offers.

I want to broadly cover this whole section. Let’s start with the genealogy.

What is a Genealogy For?

Even the genealogy is a kind of assurance from God. And you know, there are 25 of these genealogies in the bible. I think the average Christian gets to those sections and thinks, “um, what am I supposed to do with this?” So let’s talk about that.

God communicates assurance through three categories: I am, I will, I have

Personality (this is what I’m like)
Past Performance (this is what I have done)
Promises (this is what I will do)

And genealogies fit in the “Past Performance: This is What I’ve Done” category of assurance.

You can think of genealogies as brushstroke theology. Here is a painting by Van Gogh, I chose it because the brushstrokes are very visible – and also because this is likely Van Gogh’s attempt at the Last Supper. You have Jesus in the center waiting on the tables. 11 disciples seated. Judas in all black lurking at the door. The window directly behind Jesus has a cruciform pane structure.

But my main point is to suggest that you can think of the people who appear in the biblical genealogies as brushstrokes. God is painting a masterpiece and he uses people.

I actually wrote out a little prayer that you can pray when you come to a genealogy in the bible.

Lord, you knit each one of these people together in their mother’s wombs - cell by cell. You knew every hair on their head. You knew every thought in their head. You knew their goings out and their comings in. These people were, without exception, sinners and by nature, wanderers going their own way. And yet, in a level of orchestration that goes beyond my ability to conceive, You providentially directed their lives in such a way as to accomplish Your particular purposes and tell Your story. The names on this list are like brushstrokes that you perfectly laid down on the canvas of history in order to show the world that you are God.

So that’s a quick comment on genealogies. God exhibits his trustworthiness in three categories of evidence. I am. I have. I will. And genealogies are part of God’s “I have” category of evidence.

Now let’s get into the main part of the text. Verses 2-8

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord 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. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 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. 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. 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.’ ”

You can see all three categories of evidence here.

We have multiple “I am” statements – usually appearing as “I am the Lord” or more specifically, I am Yahweh.

We have multiple “I will” statements – 7 of them actually.

And then you have several references to God’s past faithfulness. Several “I have statements.”
Let’s stick in that category – let’s keep talking about God’s past faithfulness. I said a moment ago that there are 25 big genealogies in the bible. But you know, the phrase “Abraham, Issac, and Jacob” is also a genealogy – a very short one – but a genealogy nonetheless. And it appears hundreds of times.

When it appears, the point being made is almost always something to do with trusting the Lord. We are called to review God’s past faithfulness to these patriarchs and infer God’s present trustworthiness based on his past performance.

This seems to be a formula understood by saints throughout the Old Testament. For instance, when Elijah is having his showdown with the priests on Mt. Carmel, he prays –

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. – 1 Kings 18:36.

Psalm 105:5-15

Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones! He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!”

And then when we get to the New Testament, we learn two surprising things about Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

New Testament Developments:

Firstly, when God says, “I am the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob” he isn’t saying, “I was their God.” He is saying, “I am their God.” That would never have occurred to me if Jesus didn’t explicitly point it out in the gospels. In Mark 12 we find Jesus talking to the Sadducees. They don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus corrects them by saying the following:

And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (Mark 12:26-27)

Again, God didn’t say, “I was the God” of these fellas. He says, “I am” the God of these fellas. And Jesus’ point is – these guys are still alive.

And I don’t know if that does anything for you. But it kinda hits differently when you realize that even as God is reassuring Moses about his past faithfulness to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob – that Abraham, Issac, and Jacob are there in God’s presence as he is saying these things.

And as he works to free the people from their enslavement and send them into the land flowing with milk and honey, he is keeping a promise to these patriarchs who are right then in his presence.

The second surprising development we find in the New Testament is who God counts as descendants of Abraham. Who stands to benefit from God’s promise.

And then when we get to the New Testament, we learn two surprising things about Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

Namely that God was counting who belonged to Abraham, not by blood by by faith. This is forecasted early in John 1:9-13 —

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. How are they his own? This is according to the flesh, their Abrahamic genes.

But then there’s a second kind of belonging found in the subsequent verse.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The first kind of belonging has to do with having the Abrahamic genes. The second kind of belonging has to do with having the Abrahamic spirit. The one that believes God. The spirit that is made righteous by faith.

So you have in John 1 the old way – physical descendents. And also the new way – spiritual descendents.

And the apostle Paul sharpens this revelation when he simply says –

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:6-8)

And in Galatians 3:24-29

24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

And so put together you have something pretty remarkable. Firstly, God made promises to Abraham. Even right now, Abraham is in the presence of the Lord. He is watching God fulfill his promise. Those promises are extended to all who are in Christ.

The thing God is doing in Exodus for the ethnic people of God is but a whisper and and a shadow of the thing he does for the spiritual people of God in the new covenant.

Going back to our main passage, we have the 6 “I Will” statements made by Yawheh in Exodus 6:6-8

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. 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. 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.’ ”

Those I Wills have greater fulfillments in the New Covenant than they did in the Old. We are redeemed from a greater slavery for a greater freedom in a greater land. And maybe we can talk more about that next week – but for now we need to begin wrapping up.

Intelligent Design: The Bible’s Architecture

Now before we move on from the “what God has done” section — I want to draw your attention to something else in this section that speaks to God’s sovereign power and perfect skill.

I noticed the other day that Brett Weinstein — who is an evolutionary biologist conceded that the field of intelligent design is cutting edge science and that it has raised questions that evolutionists have been unable to answer. And he’s referring specifically to Stephen Meyer — who did the Joe Rogan show some time ago. Intelligent design in the biology is based on the observation of irreducible complexity within living organisms. A complexity which cannot be explained by randomized mutations — no matter how much time you give to the process.

Most people don’t know that all over the Bible — all over this very ancient book (with the newest sections being 2000 years old) — all over this ancient book we find literary architecture that appears to have been designed by a highly advanced mind.

I am by no means an expert in this stuff. But our text today affords an opportunity for me to try to explain a little sliver of this textual architecture or design.

In vs. 2-9 we have what is known as a chiastic structure. Let me try to explain chiasms to you with a series of visuals.

Look at this pattern. What’s going on here? What order are the colors arranged in?

Let’s add numbers to it. So you have 1-6 and then you have 7 in the middle. Then 6-1. This is also called introverted parallelism.

Now let’s look at the text.

A. God spoke (2) Moses spoke (9)
B. I am the LORD (2) I am the Lord (8)
C. I appeared to Abraham, to Issac, and to Jacob, as God almighty (3) I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (8)
D. But by my name the LORD (3) and you shall know that I am the LORD (7)
E. I also established my covenant with them (4) I will take you to be my people (7)
F. I have heard the groaning of the people… whom the Egyptians hold as slaves (5) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery (6)
E. The central truth usually stands alone, here is the repetition of the 1st and 6th — “ I am the LORD”

Here’s a cleaner visual depiction.
Here’s the another way.
Here’s another way.

This kind of thing happens hundreds and hundreds of times in the Bible. the Bible text itself has a temple structure — always progressing into the holy of holies.

Can I ask you something? Is your faith a little stronger than it was 35 minutes ago?

Brushstoke theology – God’s perfect use of imperfect people throughout history to paint his picture

God’s ongoing fulfillment of promises he made to Abraham – who is even right now in God’s presence watching him fulfill the promises made to him so long ago?

Your inclusion in those promises in Christ?

The masterful orchestration of God – not only in history – but in the actual architecture of the biblical text.

We’ve all got our own molehills of doubt. But consider the mountains of assurance God offers. And we’ve only looked at one tiny sliver of one category of God’s evidence – his past faithfulness.

Let’s close by looking at vs. 2

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.

I never told them this special name — Yahweh. They only knew me as El Shaddai. There’s a good chance that means, “God of the mountains.” But the point I want to leave you with is that when he moved through Abraham, Issac, and Jacob — he gave them one name. El Shaddai. And now that he’s about to move his people out of Egypt, he’s revealing this new name, “Yahweh.”

Now this isn’t a situation where God is saying, some people call me El Shaddai, others call me Yahweh. No, he is progressively revealing himself. God is more clearly seen as Yahweh than he was as El Shaddai. And this all terminates in the New Testament with Yeshua — Jesus.

He is the full revelation of God.

Hebrews 1:1-4

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

I’ll leave you with something Jesus said in John 8:55

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.