God Redeems

In Exodus 6:9-13 we find an interesting vignette that provides a window into the way that God works with man in the process of redemption. God used the burning bush to get Moses’ attention and chose Moses to do this incredibly intimidating and dangerous thing. He told Him to go back to Egypt to set His people free. Moses raised a number of objections, but God countered them all. God even warned Moses ahead of time that Pharaoh would refuse and that things would get worse before they got better, but that in the end the Israelites would “pillage the Egyptians” when they were finally released to leave. So, Moses obeyed and headed back to Egypt. Aaron met him along the way, and together they showed the Israelites the powerful signs that God had shown them. Everything seemed to be going well. Then Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh for the first time only to be rebuffed by him, resulting in more work for their Hebrew brothers and sisters. The leaders of the Israelites immediately turn on Moses and Aaron and Moses cries out to God. The Lord responded by reminding Moses about what and why He was moving things forward in this way and commands Moses to explain these things to the Israelites.

So Moses told the people what the LORD had said, but they wouldn’t listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the increasing burden of their slavery.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go back to Pharaoh, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave Egypt.”
“But Lord!” Moses objected. “My own people won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I am no orator!”
But the LORD ordered Moses and Aaron to return to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to demand that he let the people of Israel leave Egypt. (NLT)

God had a plan and Moses had a message! God told Moses to deliver His message of good news to those enslaved by an evil king. A king who neither knew nor feared the LORD God. The response of the king is not shocking, but the response of the people is disappointing. The people wouldn’t listen to the message or the messenger. From Moses’ perspective the response of the people was deeply discouraging and was apparently a major barrier to accomplishing the will of God; so much so that Moses returned to one of his original objections to being a messenger of God. But their failure to respond to opposition and oppression with faith did not derail God’s intent and plan to redeem them. God instructed Moses to push ahead. He would draw His people Israel out of Egypt and He would do it through the one who was drawn out of the river of Egypt. They would be saved not through their own agency any more than the baby Moses was in control of his salvation from the river.

God ordered Moses and Aaron to continue with the process of redemption even when those they were working to save wanted nothing to do with them. The work of redemption is not ultimately about the people. It is about the character and nature of God. God reminds Moses in the first part of chapter 6 that He is saving them because of the promise that He gave to their forefathers. God keeps His promises. That does not lessen His compassion for the people, but rather puts it in the proper context. He is moved to save them and He will save them even if they are unwilling or unable to cooperate in the process.

Notice that God does not do this work of redemption independent of man. He raised up men, Moses and Aaron, to be his messengers. He used them to take His message to both the ones being saved and the ones holding them captive. He gave them wonder working power to demonstrate His power to save. He has called us to be His servants, His messengers. He will accept no excuses from His servants, but will be with us and WILL REDEEM His children!