In this passage God is continuing to speak to Moses from out of the burning bush. He has revealed his name, I Am, to Moses and now He gives instructions to Moses as to what he is to say to the Israelites and to Pharaoh. He also tells Moses what the initial response will be from both parties.
One of the things emphasized to Moses is the prominence of God’s promise. He repeats in verse 16 what he had said in verse 15. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Israelites are to realize God is acting on their behalf because he is fulfilling his covenant promise to Abraham. In Genesis 15 God told Abraham that his descendants would be given the land where he had been living. First, he would rescue them from the bondage they would inevitably go into at the hands of a great nation.
Now God, according to his own timing, is acting on his promise. The promise is emphasized to learn of God’s nature, unchangeable in his promises or warnings, and for his people to learn their rescue is purely of grace. God does not choose Israel for his people based on their credentials or righteousness but because of his own purposes and grace. If he was obligated in any way it would not be of grace, and they would have some ground to boast. As it is, they are to rejoice in God’s grace and give themselves fully to God.
This intentionally points to the New Testament and the grace given to sinners in Christ. We are given easy terms in Christ. He provides everything we need to be blessed forever in a right relationship with God. He provides cleansing from sin and clothing of righteousness to meet God’s holy standards. He requires sincere faith but also gives his Spirit to provide that. His people are to exult in his grace and glory, eschewing any grounds for boasting within themselves.
Christians are to marvel at God’s great salvation and grace. Nevertheless, they are to remember God’s unchangeable nature and that while every promise is certain in Christ, so the warnings to hypocrites or unbelievers will be realized in full as well. When Paul says to Christians to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, he means to remind Christians that the world is treacherous and to put your hand to the plow and not look back. We must pause and examine our hearts periodically.
Along those same lines we learn in this passage the futility of life outside God’s covenant. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.” This is bad news for Pharaoh. An enemy of God’s covenant people is an enemy of God. This is a direct confrontation from God. Pharaoh is a pattern of sinful mankind. He will resist God no matter the threat confronting him. And he will continue on and on until he is destroyed.
Egypt is a standing warning to men. Egypt had remarkable cities; engineering feats that still baffle modern scientists. They seemed to have an orderly, civil society. Yet if you were to go beyond the outward veneer and into the midst of daily activity, you would see all manner of depravity. There you would see the idolatry, scheming, estrangements, jealousy, hate, perversions, selfishness, and all that characterizes sinful men.
To all men, Jesus said, “You must enter by the straight gate” meaning by Him. To enter you must leave the world. This doesn’t mean a physical isolation, but a spiritual seismic change or conversion. In Christ, men still can do remarkable engineering projects or utilize whatever gifts for the public good, but without resistance to God’s will. Now it is for God’s glory, not self-interest.
In my opinion, William Plumer wrote the best commentary on the Psalms, though Charles Spurgeon’s is excellent, too. In one place he writes on the wisdom conversion bestows on a person: “In many things God gives his people wisdom: to put truth before error, eternity before time, saints before sinners, the spirit before the flesh, but the height of his wisdom is preferring God’s will to his own, God’s favor to that of men, and God himself to the universe beside.”
Man’s view of himself is man’s. God’s view of man is God’s. God says we need grace. In the end we will all either be like Moses called by God and given grace, or like Pharaoh, resistant to God and bitter over it.
