Now we come to the issue of the conflict caused by God’s demand and Pharaoh’s resistance. The first aspect of the issue was that Israel suffered more cruelty (5:10-21). The greater the conflict, the more God’s chosen people suffered. This is the enemy’s strategy. Do not think, however, that increased suffering is a negative sign. Actually, it is a positive sign, for it indicates that God’s negotiation with the enemy is taking place and that we are affected by it. Our suffering is a sign that God is in the process of delivering us.
Verses 22 and 23 indicate that Moses was bothered and discouraged. Moses even asked the Lord why He had sent him. Furthermore, Moses said to Him, “Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” Many of us have had similar experiences. The more we ministered Christ to others, the more they suffered. This caused us to become troubled and discouraged. Our concept is that if we minister in a proper way, others will be blessed. We expect the dead to be resurrected, the sick to be healed, the weak to be strengthened, and the poor to be enriched. However, the situation is often the opposite of what we anticipate.
I can testify of this strongly from my experience. Many times I have been disappointed, just as Moses was. Sometimes I went to the Lord and said, “Lord, what happened? You told me to minister this matter to Your people. It seems to me that You should bless them and put Your seal upon my ministry. But the more I minister to the people, the more difficulty they have. Lord, am I wrong in some way? I don’t understand what is happening.”
After Moses expressed his discouragement and bewilderment to the Lord, Jehovah God came in to reconfirm His name and His covenant (6:1-8). God said to Moses, “I am Jehovah: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God All-sufficient; but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers” (6:2-4, Heb.). What is more precious than the reconfirmation of God’s name and His covenant? By God’s reconfirmation, Moses was strengthened and encouraged both to go back to Pharaoh and to speak again to the children of Israel.
In brief, the Lord’s name is what He Himself is, and His covenant is His word spoken with a promise and confirmed with an oath. A word spoken in an ordinary way is not a covenant, but a word spoken with a promise and confirmed with an oath becomes a covenant. (See Life-study of Hebrews, Message Thirty-six.) God spoke to Abraham; then He spoke with a promise concerning the good land, a promise that was confirmed again and again. Finally, there was an oath, so that there was an agreement, a contract, made by God between God Himself and Abraham; the promising word of God became a covenant (Gen. 15). Circumcision was a token of this covenant (Gen. 17).
Today we may experience God’s reconfirming His name and His covenant. Sometimes after I have complained to the Lord, He has confirmed His name to me with the reminder that He is the I Am, the unique self-existing One. At such times of reconfirmation, the Lord seems to say, “I can never fail. I mean whatever I say. I am, but the sufferings are not. Do not believe in your situation—believe in what I am.” In such times God also reconfirms His covenant to us.
In 6:6-8 the Lord gave Moses some very encouraging words to speak to the children of Israel. He wanted Moses to tell them that He would bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, redeem them with an outstretched arm, take them to Him for a people, and bring them into the land which He promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nevertheless, verse 9 says, “And Moses spoke so unto the children of Israel; but they hearkened not unto Moses from shortness of spirit, and from cruel bondage” (Heb.). Their spirit had been exhausted by their sufferings. Hence, they would not regard God’s word to Moses. In their shortness of spirit, God’s people were like a car without gasoline. When we are short of spirit, we cannot bear any kind of bondage or suffering. Therefore, we need to pray that our spirit will be preserved and supplied. We need to ask the Lord to keep us from ever being short of spirit.
In this message we have seen the conflict between God and God’s enemy, Pharaoh, who symbolizes Satan objectively and the Satan-possessed and usurped self subjectively. God wants us to take a three days’ journey into the wilderness so that we may hold a feast unto Him and sacrifice to Him. But Satan and the self rise up to deny God and to refuse to let us go. Nevertheless, because of the Lord’s full salvation, many of us have been delivered from bondage in Egypt and are now in the wilderness enjoying the feast and offering sacrifice to our God.