Exodus 6
v.1
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”
v.2
God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD.
v.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.
A casual reading of verse 3 might lead one to conclude that the name *Yahweh (LORD) was unfamiliar to the patriarchs, though Genesis 15:7 and 28:13 clearly suggest otherwise. It is true that El-Shaddai (God Almighty) was known to the patriarchs, and in Genesis 17:1 and 35:11 it is El-Shaddai who is connected to the aspects of the *covenant that were realized during the lifetimes of the patriarchs. In contrast, “Yahweh” is connected to the long-term promises, particularly that of the land, so it can rightfully be said that the patriarchs did not experience him (that is, he did not make himself known in that way). The patriarchs probably did not worship God by the name Yahweh, but the text does not require the conclusion that the name was foreign to them.
v.5
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
The patriarchs had only the promises, not the things promised. The fullness of time had come when God was to be known in the capacity and character of his name Yahweh, as he fulfilled what he had promised and did what he had decreed.
v.6
“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
The plagues were to be judgements for crimes as well as spectacular wonders to instill faith.
v.7
I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
These two promises will serve as two parts of the tripartite formula to be repeated in the Old and New Testaments almost fifty times.
v.20
Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.
Everything in this list suggests that God’s choosing of Moses had nothing to do with natural advantage or ability. The list stops after naming only three of Jacob’s sons—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi—for its object had been reached. Moses and Aaron sprang, not from the “firstborn,” Reuben, but from Levi, Jacob’s third son, and not even then from Levi’s oldest son but Kohath, his second son. And Moses was not even the oldest son of his father, for Aaron was older. Moses’ calling and election of God were a gift of grace and not based on rights and privileges of birth.
So wicked were Jacob’s three older sons that they each inherited a curse: Reuben lost his birthright as “firstborn” (Ge 49:3-4), and Simeon and Levi were denied an inheritance with the tribes and were scattered instead (vv.5-8). But while Reuben’s and Simeon’s descendants did morally follow in their father’s footsteps, Levi’s descendants, with devotion to God, turned what was a curse into a blessing and used their dispersion through the tribes as an avenue of blessing to all through the priesthood and service at the sanctuary of God.