1 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 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. 4 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.

10 So the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 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?” 13 But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 6:1–13, ESV)

We often discuss what God is like in theological or abstract terms. He is omniscient (knows everything). He is omnipresent (everywhere). He is omnipotent (all-powerful). These excellent concepts and definitions are lifted straight from the pages of Scripture—accurate extrapolations and deductions from the text—but they are often not the straightforward way God chooses to explain himself. When given the mic, God declares himself with different words, focusing more on his role in our lives—Father, Redeemer, Shepherd, True Vine, Provider, etc. In our passage today, God will further unpack who he is as Yahweh-I AM, the one who rescues his people, hands them an identity, and gives them a purpose.

We are going to slow down today and consider three verses in the middle of this section (Ex. 6:6-8). It is clearly a well-ordered creed; perhaps it was a condensed paradigm the Hebrews were meant to repeat to themselves over and over again. In it, God is depicted as the main character. Just look at all God said he would do:

I will bring you out (6).
I will deliver you (6).
I will redeem you (6).
I will take you as my own (7).
I will be your God (7).
I will bring you into the land (8).
I will give it to you (8).

But these seven "I will" statements don't demand a seven-point sermon because they are clearly given to us in three clusters, designated at the beginning, end, and middle by the statement "I am the LORD" (6, 7, 8). I AM the LORD—I will redeem you (section 1). I AM the LORD—I will make you my own (section 2). I AM the LORD—I will give you the land (purpose, section 3).

This is what God does. He redeems or brings us out of slavery. He hands us an identity—or brings us into himself. He gives us a purpose—or sends us out to the nations. This is always what God is doing for his people.[^1]

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Yahweh, but not like this. God said an interesting thing—"I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord (Yahweh) I did not make myself known to them" (2-3). It's not that they didn't know him—Yahweh is mentioned 162 times in Genesis. They had God's promises, but they did not yet have the full presence and revelation this Exodus generation was going to receive. In the same way that we might look back to those before Jesus came and died and feel gratitude for the fuller revelation we've received, the Exodus generation got to fully see a side of God that those in Genesis did not. He redeems. He gives a new identity. He gives us purpose.

So this morning, let's slow down and consider each element of our God's redemptive plan.

1. Redemption: To Take Us Out Of Egypt (6:6)

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. (Exodus 6:6)

First, God wants to take us out of Egypt. He wants to redeem us.

Moses was to tell Israel that God would bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. They would be delivered from their slavery. God knew Pharaoh would only be moved by a mighty hand, so he promised to stretch out his arm with great acts of judgment. All ten plagues, organized in three sets of three with one massive plague of all plagues, were designed to judge the Egyptian gods and set Yahweh's people free. Forever, God wanted to be known throughout the world as the true God over all false gods.

But he also wanted to be known as the God who redeems his people from slavery. Through the exodus, everyone would know that God works hard to bring his people out of bondage to other gods—lesser forms of worship—and into a life-giving relationship with the true God. If anyone wondered what allegiance to God did to people, all they had to do was look at the before/after photos of the Hebrew people. At the beginning of the book, they are a disordered swarm of slaves busy building storage/war cities for their masters. But at the end of the book, they are an organized society of free people busy building a tabernacle where they find peace with God. But, to get to that point, they needed to be redeemed.

But maybe the best way to describe redemption is that it means someone is rebought or repurchased. God made humanity, and he especially chose these descendants of Abraham, but they had been acquired by brutal Egyptian masters. So God pays the price to rebuy or repurchase them for himself. God had sworn to his own hurt that he would come for Abraham's offspring and set them free from foreign captors, and that's what he's doing in Exodus (Gen 15:12-17).

And, of course, when Christ came, he waged the ultimate war against the powers that bound us so that he could redeem us.

Paul said that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...so that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal. 3:13, 4:5).
And Paul seems to have echoed the freedom Israel acquired at the original exodus when he said Jesus "gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Tit. 2:14).
And we will sing of this redemption forever, singing, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Rev. 5:9).

Redemption is more than taking a bad situation and using it for good—The line at the DMV took forever, but I redeemed the time and read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Redemption is also more than reversing your previous mistakes or missteps—like when Harry complements Lloyd for trading their van in for a moped by saying, "Just when I think you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this, and totally redeem yourself!"[^2] Redemption is releasing someone or something from bondage through the payment of a price.[^3]

What about us? As Isaiah said, God is "our Father, our Redeemer from of old" (Is. 63:16). In what ways is our Redeemer God trying to bring us out of Egypt? How does he want to redeem us? If we are honest, we often enter into various forms of captivity, but our God is a redeemer. His desire is to pull us out of various forms of servitude and into freedom.

Sometimes, God works to redeem us from a behavior or habit that has enslaved us. These disobediences or sins are forbidden by God precisely because of their harmful effects on our bodies, minds, and souls. God is not content to watch us lay brick after brick on the pyramids of worship to lust, greed, or pride. He sees when we are overcome by laziness, and he wants to set us free. He sees when we are overcome by addictions to substances or screens and wants to set us free. He sees when we are overcome by beliefs and mental patterns that are untrue and out of step with his word, and he wants to set us free.

God's redemptive work brings us back to Day 6 of creation when we were commissioned to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). Rather than be controlled by Egypt, the Hebrews needed to subdue it. Rather than be controlled by our flesh or world or spiritual forces around us, we must subdue. But, because of the problem of inward sin, we need Yahweh's redemptive hand to help deliver us. But his hand is there!

A good question to ask on this first point is what are you building? At the start of Exodus, the Hebrews built storage cities, likely outposts for the Egyptian armies. At the end of Exodus, the Hebrews built a tabernacle for God to meet with his people.

Are your words and actions building out a life and society before God, or are they building up an Egypt-like empire that is against God? Are our actions driving us further from captivity and slavery or deeper into it?

God is ready to help you build something better. God is there, our Great Redeemer, and he wants to bring us out. This is always his work.

2. Identity: To Bring Us Into Himself (6:7)

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.

Second, God wants to bring us into himself. He wants to give us a new identity.

God said he would take the Hebrews to be his people. And he would be their God. They would know him and in an up close and personal way as the Lord their God who brought them out from under their burdens.

If the first statement is all about redemption, this second one is all about identity. God would make them into his people. No longer would they trudge through their days as slaves in a foreign land but as God's firstborn son in a land of promise. God wanted them to know him, so he called them out of Egypt and gave them designs for a tent of meeting where they could learn to know him.

This identity was meant to elevate their minds and hearts and perspectives before it elevated their actions. But it would most certainly elevate their actions because what you believe about yourself always impacts how you behave.

And just as the redemption theme appears all throughout Scripture, this theme of God taking people to himself so he can be their God is also often on repeat. These two promises—"I will take you as my own people" and "I will be your God"—reverberate throughout the Old and New Testaments almost fifty times. It's like God had to remind them—and has to remind us—who we are over and over again, lest we drift.

This would be a major shift for Israel. At the beginning of Exodus, they are serving Pharaoh. By the end, they will be serving God. And so much of what we do day to day is informed by who we think we are and who we are working to please.

And we live in a time where we must fight to allow the identity God chooses for us—the very best of all identities—to be ours. Because societal foundations are rapidly being redefined, people are searching for meaning and identity in things such as "regionalism, nationalism, political parties, single-issue causes, or self-expression."[^4]

But we must find our identity in our relationship with God. Adopted, chosen by him, we are his special people called to serve our world, a kingdom of priests showing everyone the way to our God (Ex. 19:5-6, 1 Pet. 2:9). While so many are on a pursuit for "personal psychological happiness," we are meant to find our identity not by searching within, but by searching our God and his words towards us.[^5]

I mean, what we say to ourselves about ourselves is of utmost importance. I recently read that in the early 2000s, actor Jim Carrey felt he lost his identity for a season. He is a method actor, so he immerses himself in his subject, and around that time, he played real-life experimental comedian Andy Kauffman in the movie Man on the Moon. He so completely let who Andy was override his thoughts and mind, so much so that during down moments between filming and even for a few months afterward, Carrey said he had forgotten who Jim Carrey was and what he thought about the world. Examples like this should tell us something—we are capable, as we construct identities based on feelings, appetites, and desires—to lie to ourselves. We must instead hear what God has to say about us. Made in his image, we must believe we are at our best when living in line with him and his feelings, appetites, and desires.

Another way to think of God's desire to identify us with himself is to ask a question. Concerning God's redemption, we asked: what are you building? For God's desire to bring us into himself, we should ask: to whom do you belong?

If you are in Christ today, the Bible teaches that you have been adopted into God's family. As Paul wrote:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15)

If you are in Christ today, the Bible teaches that you are the bride of Christ. Through Jeremiah, God spoke of this to Israel, but his words ring true for us today:

Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest.” (Jer. 2:1–3)

Adopted and married, we have been brought into a relationship with the living God. Our identity is now completely wrapped up in him—so much so that the New Testament constantly refers to us as "in Christ." How closely identified with Jesus are we? We are in him.

If God's redemptive work brings us back to Day 6 of creation, his identity-giving work brings us back to Day 7. On the seventh day, God rested from his work, not because he was pooped but because he wanted to show us what we were made to do (Gen. 2:1-3). We were made to enjoy him, to engage with him, to know him.

So, to whom do you belong? When God told Moses how to design the clothing for the Levitical priests, he said they needed to wear a turban with a gold plate attached to the front of it. Engraved on the gold plate was the phrase, "Thug Life"—sorry, "Holy to the LORD." I'm not suggesting we actually wear gold plates on our heads that say "holy to the Lord," but I am suggesting that we need to remember who we belong to—our identity is wrapped up in him.

3. Purpose: To Send Us Out To The Nations (6:8)

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.’ ” (Exodus 6:8)

Third, God wants to send us out to the nations. He wants to give us a purpose.

The last thing God said to Moses here is that he would bring the Hebrews into the land that he swore to give their ancestors. He was going to give it to them for a possession.

But the land is about much more than the land; it's about what they were supposed to do with the land. They were meant to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They were meant to broadcast to the nations the name of Yahweh. And through the plagues, God was sure to put them on the front page of every paper—everyone's phone dinged with the urgent news alert: Israel's God defeated Pharaoh. God built them a platform—partly with the land he'd reserved for them—from which to tell everyone about him.

He was not going to redeem them merely for a personal relationship—devo time up in the tabernacle—but for a mission. The book of Exodus starts with the Hebrew people serving Pharaoh's mission but ends with them on God's mission.

In a sense, you could say God gave them and gives us purpose here. This purpose was highlighted in the genealogy right after this passage; it is the genealogy of the Levitical priesthood, all the way past Aaron to grandson Phinehas. He became a total stud in God's kingdom. But they had all these priests because they were called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, different from all other nations, a living, breathing signpost to Yahweh (Ex. 19:5-6). Like Christ's church, they were given a purpose as God's lighthouse, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

Our God wants to take as many people as possible through this redemption-identity-purpose cycle. As Paul said, "God our savior...desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). And God gives us this mission.

Question 1: What are you building?
Question 2: To whom do you belong?
Question 3: What is your mission?

We must remember this purpose—our lives are meant to be lighthouses. This does not mean we need to broadcast the light of moral perfection to people—that is impossible and dangerous and Pharisaical and a total dead end that will destroy you and others. But we are to broadcast the light of the mercy and grace of God that we have received from God.

But a Christianity which would use the vertical preoccupation as a means to escape from its responsibility for and in the common life of man is a denial of the incarnation, of God's love for the world manifested in Christ. — John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World[^6]

This mission brings us right back to Day 6 of creation—humanity was told to be fruitful and multiply, exactly what the church is to do.

Everything we've thought about today—that God gives us redemption, identity, and purpose—helps explain the transformation the Hebrews went through in the book of Exodus. God pulled them out of Egypt into himself to send them to the nations. He does the same for us—he redeems us, gives us an identity, and gives us a purpose. Let's join him in his work!

Study Questions

Head Questions:

What stood out to you about God's 3-step plan for his people (redemption, identity, purpose)? How does this pattern show up throughout Scripture?
How does God describe himself in this passage? What attributes of God do we see on display here?
What were the key Old Testament verses mentioned that connect to this theme of God's redemptive work? How do those verses help us understand Exodus 6 better?

Heart Questions:

When have you experienced God's redeeming work in your own life? How did that make you feel about God and your relationship with him?
What false identities compete for your allegiance today? How can you fight those and rest in your identity in Christ?
Do you currently feel a sense of purpose from God? What gets in the way of living in light of your God-given mission?

Hands Questions:

What are some practical ways you can cooperate with God's redemptive work in your life right now? What sins or struggles might he want to set you free from?
How can you remind yourself daily of your true identity in Christ? What practices or rituals reinforce that you belong to God?
Who is one person you can share the light of Christ's love and redemption with this week? What small step can you take to live on mission for God?

Resources

Alec Motyer, The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage.

Christopher J. H. Wright, Exodus, ed. Tremper Longman III, The Story of God Bible Commentary.

John D. Hannah, “Exodus,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures.

John Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary.

Kenneth L. Barker and John R. Kohlenberger III, Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

Kevin D. Zuber, “Exodus,” in The Moody Bible Commentary.

Michael L. Morales and Benjamin L. Gladd, Exodus Old and New – A Biblical Theology of Redemption.

T. Desmond Alexander, “Exodus,” New Bible Commentary.

Some scholars—like Elmer Martens in his book God's Design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology—even think of it as the most important passage of the Old Testament, a framework for who God is. Thanks, Elmer.
So, so sorry, everyone.
Lau, Peter. “Redemption.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.
Sayers, Mark. A Non-Anxious Presence. Moody Press, 2022.
For a highly detailed look at modern man's struggle with identity, see Trueman, Carl R. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Crossway Books, 2020.
I really like John Stott's ministry. Seems like he was a voice in the wilderness who combatted errors on both extremes, especially in this book: Stott, John R. W. Christian Mission in the Modern World. Inter-Varsity Press, 2014.