# Exodus Chapter 6
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## Summarrium
God reassures Moses that he will deliver the Israelites from Egypt by his hand. Pharaoh will not only let the Israelites go, he will drive them out of Egypt. The Lord reminds Moses of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob pointing out that he intends to make good on his earlier promises and confirming that he has heard the suffering of his people.

Despite the Lords encouragement the Israelites do not listen because of their present suffering. The Lord tells Moses to speak again although Moses protests because of his 'uncircumcised lips' but the Lord reinforces his directive. A genealogy of Moses and Aaron is provided and Moses once again expresses doubt about his ability to change Pharaoh's mind.

## Meditatio
There is a peculiar passage in verse 6 where the Lord states that '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.'. Here is one of those times where something interesting is going on in the original text. In this verse God identifies himself as having appeared to the patriarchs as '*El Shadddai*' (God Almighty), whereas the name YHWH (often pronounced Yahweh) derived from the Hebrew verb *hayah* (will be)

This verse is perplexing because the Genesis accounts have the patriarchs using the covenantal name of God YHWH. What is going on then? Some have argued that this was an aspect of the Lord yet to be revealed; his covenantal relationship which is only promised to the patriarchs but finally realised in the agreement between the people of God and Moses. So whilst the patriachs would know him as a promise-maker this would be consumated in his role as promise-keeper to through the Exodus.

So we are seeing a paradigmatic shift in the way that the Lord will be perceived. Formerly the patriarchs understood him as all powerful and sufficient, whereas the Israelites will come to know him as one faithful to his covenant promises. In this way God intends to reveal more about his character to his people. It is not sufficient for them to *only* know him as God Almighty. There is a need for first hand experience of this reality.

With the PhD and other bits and pieces I'm engaged in I am finding myself coming back to the point that an important part of knowing is obtained through participation. If the intent (as I suspect) of the Lord is that individuals come to know him, there is a need for active participation. It is not sufficient to merely have propositional knowledge about him.