Exodus Chapter 6
Jehovah means self existing or eternal. I don't know exactly all that happened after the flood of Noah but apparently the great grandson of Noah whose name is Nimrod, built a city and led the people away from God. They started worshipping idols and had false religion in rebellion against God. Why they did this after God saved them from the waters of the flood is something I wonder at. Perhaps Ham who was the grandfather of Nimrod was saved by the flood only because he was the son of Noah and not because of any righteousness he may have had on his own. By the time Nimrod came along, the earth was starting to get corrupt again. After they built the tower of Babel in rebellion against God, God scattered them all over the earth by confusing their language. They took their false religions with them. Abraham's descendants (sons of Shem) must have remained in the land of Babylon but later God calls Abraham out of that land and into the land of Canaan.
God may have called Abraham out of the land in which He dwelled because of the idolatry in that land. They did have idolatry but their sin was not going to get as bad as it was getting in the land of Canaan. God allowed Israel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan and take over the land because their wickedness was very great to the point when they were past repentance. One of their sins was sacrificing live innocent children to idols. When Abraham came into the land of Canaan, the sin of the Canaanites was not yet bad enough to warrant destruction. In fact Abraham living among them gave witness to the real God. God didn't allow the children of Israel to take one inch of the land until the iniquity of the Canaanites got so bad that they could not repent and change. In the days of Noah people were given a chance to repent. Evidently, they must have just laughed at Noah for only eight were saved. All they had to have done was believe and they could have boarded the ark and found salvation. However, until one repents of sin and seeks God with the heart, their eyes are blinded. When one believes in God, one believes in what God stands for. We can't say we believe in God or believe in Jesus Christ if we ignore what they have to say to us. So unless a person repents of sin, since God condemns sin, he or she doesn't really believe. Unbelief will cause one's soul to be lost. The vast majority of people didn't believe Noah and were killed by the flood. If they don't believe the Son of God, they will die in their own sins and go to hell at the point of death. We must accept Jesus' death on the cross for our sins if we do not want to face death with our sins still within us. Jesus came to take away our sins so that they are not held against us when we face God. If we do not believe that He died for our sins and died to save us from sin, we will have sin within us at the point of death. After we die, there is no other chance to be saved. No priest can utter a few words to save us after death.
Not only did God hear their groaning but he saw the wickedness that the Egyptians did in forcing such hard labor upon them. He saw the time when Pharaoh ordered the death of the male children. He didn't judge them right away but He didn't forget. Judgment was coming.
God called Abraham and made a promise to him to deliver them out of Egypt. The gifts and calling of God is without repentance. He doesn't change His mind. Israel was called out of Egypt to be God's channel of blessing to the whole world and that has not changed. He will bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel. Although Israel's troubles both past and present is caused by their disobedience to God and to their rejection of Jesus Christ, the promise still stands. He will bless those that bless them and curse those that curse them. The believing church is made part of this blessing but they never replaced Israel as God's chosen people. I use the term believing church because not all those that claim Christianity are born again believers in Jesus Christ. A person is not a real believer unless the spirit of God enters a person and changes them. Just being converted to Christianity will not save the soul. Salvation produces an inward change. The soul is saved which was once lost and on its way to hell.
Unbelief prevailed at first. This will sometimes happen when the gospel is first preached. Actually it probably is harder to preach the gospel to those who should believe but don't than the heathen who have never heard. We get so wrapped up in our own tradition sometimes that if one came preaching the same gospel Jesus preached, many would reject it because some (not all) churches have replaced the foundation being Jesus Christ with other things that have nothing to do with the original gospel. They may be meeting together in the name of Jesus Christ but they are not necessarily of Christ. Many wonder which church is the true church because there are so many. That is the wrong thing to look for. Jesus is the way salvation. There is no salvation in any other. If I would suggest a Baptist church you might go to one that has the truth but you might visit another that is totally apostate. That same thing can be said of any denomination or any that is independent. We must not look to religion, church or a person but look to Jesus Christ and then study the word to find a fellowship the closest to the New Testament church as you can find. Look for the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. This case though they were simply afraid that if they dared to believe, the taskmasters of Egypt would become harder on them. Sometimes to believe means to forsake all and follow Christ. They had to risk everything to believe Moses was really speaking from God.
I would probably react this way too if I were in his postion. He thought his own people will not believe him so why would Pharaoh?
Moses felt so inadequate most of the time but sometimes this is best because those of us who have confidence in our own selves do not trust the Lord as much as we should and often we try to rob God of His glory. Moses was one of the greatest leaders though because he relied on God and knew he couldn't do one thing without God. The one time he did fail to give God the glory cost him the right to enter into the promised land. Yet here we have the meekest intercessor and prayer warrior that ever lived. DC
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