Out of Egypt: The God Who Will

We're grateful for you and for the gifts of God that you bring with you into this space. As a church, we want to live in God's unfolding story, being transformed by Jesus, learning to truly belong to each other across our differences, as God invites us into freedom, joy, and boundless generosity.

Our prayer is that whether this is your first time with us this morning, or you've been a part of our community for a while, you will feel the invitation of the Holy Spirit to join us in this vision. And if you're looking for a church home, we would love to become your church home, and I, in particular, would love to become one of your pastors.

Surveying the Landscape

We are in week nine of Out of Egypt, reading Exodus alongside Acts, because the story of a people leaving Egypt is also our story. Getting out of Egypt is one thing. Getting Egypt out of you is the work of a lifetime.

Last week we stood in Pharaoh's court and heard him ask the question that carries this whole book: who is the LORD? And we saw what happened when Moses did exactly what God told him to do. Things got worse. The foremen turned on him. And we ended with a question for you to carry home: are you serving a God who is already? A God who heard the groaning before anyone said a word. A God who was already at work in the brickyard before Moses ever walked through the palace door.

Today the story picks up in the very next breath. Moses walks out of that meeting with the foremen, their accusation still ringing in his ears, and he goes straight to God.

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.” God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. 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. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. “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. 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. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’ ” Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” (Exodus 6:1-12)

Moses Takes It to God

Listen to how Moses prays. "Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?"

That is not a polite prayer. That is a man who did what God asked and watched it blow up in his face, and he is saying so, to God, out loud.

Now notice the difference between verse 21 and verse 22. In verse 21 the foremen are angry, and they take their anger out on Moses. They point at the messenger. In verse 22 Moses is angry too, but he does not take it out on the foremen, and he does not take it out on himself. He takes it to God.

That is the difference between grumbling and lament. Grumbling turns sideways. It finds the nearest person and makes them pay. Lament turns upward. It brings the whole mess, unedited, into the presence of God and refuses to pretend.

And here is what I want you to hear: the complaint that goes to God is still faith. You can only accuse someone you still believe is there. Moses has not gone back to Midian. He has not quit. He is standing right in front of God with his questions, and that is exactly where God wants him.

The church in Acts learned to pray this way. In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are released from custody with threats ringing in their ears, and they go back to their community and the whole room prays together. They do not pretend the threats are not real. They name them. "Now, Lord, consider their threats." And then they ask God for courage to keep going. That is lament in community. That is a church that takes it to God.

God Answers With a Name

So Moses asks why. And God does not answer the question.

God does not give Moses an explanation for why the quota doubled. God does not give him a timeline. God does not walk him through the strategy. What God gives him is a name.

"I am the LORD."

Here is something I find fascinating. Most of our English translations make verse 3 sound like a correction: I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. But a well-known Hebrew scholar named Francis Andersen argued that the Hebrew reads more naturally as a question. Didn't I make myself known to them? Surely I did.

If he is right, God is not saying, "You don't know me yet." God is saying, "Moses, remember who you are talking to."

And when you read the whole speech that way, it moves through time. Look at it.

The past: I showed myself to your ancestors. I made a covenant with them.

The present: I have heard the groaning. I have remembered my covenant.

The future: I will bring you out. I will free you. I will redeem you. I will take you as my own people. I will be your God. I will bring you to the land. I will give it to you.

Seven times God says I will. And the whole speech opens with "I am the LORD" and closes with "I am the LORD."

The God Who Is Already, and the God Who Will

Last week we said God is already. God heard the groaning before anyone asked. God was already at work in Moses' life before he said, I'm not good enough. God was already sending Aaron down the road.

This week God adds something. The God who is already is also the God who will.

Already is about where God has been. Will is about where God is going. And Moses needs both. When obedience makes things worse, you need to know that God was not absent from the brickyard. And you need to know that the brickyard is not the end of the story.

Notice what is not in those seven promises. There is no "I will explain." There is no "I will make sure you understand." God does not stake the future on Moses understanding it. God stakes the future on God's own name.

That is harder to receive than an explanation. An explanation fits in your hand. You can examine it and decide it is reasonable. A name you can only trust. And right now, trusting it is exactly what Moses is struggling to do.

Too Breathless to Hear

So Moses does what you do when God speaks. He carries the word to the people. Seven promises, rooted in a name that has never failed.

And here is what happens. They do not listen. The text tells us why: "because of their discouragement and harsh labor."

That word discouragement is a pale translation. The Hebrew is Kotzer ruach. It means shortness of breath. Short of spirit. Picture someone so compressed by weight and exhaustion that they cannot take a full breath. They are not refusing the good news. They are not being stubborn. They are gasping. And you cannot receive a promise when you are gasping. You can only get through the next minute.

Here is what I want you to notice. The text does not shame them for it.

The narrator does not say, "If only they had more faith." God does not take the promises back because the people were too broken to receive them. The seven I wills do not come with fine print that says, "Offer void if not received with enough faith." The promises stand. They stand over people who cannot lift their heads to see them.

God's faithfulness does not wait on your ability to feel it.

Some of you are in a Kotzer ruach season right now. Good people are speaking good news over you, and it is not landing. Not because you are failing. Because you are carrying something that has pressed the breath out of you. Hear me: the promise is not contingent on your ability to receive it today. Let this room hold it for you. That is part of what the church is for. We believe on each other's behalf when one of us is too breathless to believe alone.

The Text Turns and Looks at Us

And now the text turns and looks at us.

Read verse 9 again. They could not listen because of their broken spirit and harsh labor. Harsh labor. The text names the cause. Their spirits did not break by accident. Pharaoh's system broke them. The broken spirit is what the brickyard produces.

Which means this: if we want people to hear good news, we cannot ignore the conditions that are crushing the breath out of them.

It is too easy for churches to stand at a distance from people who are exhausted, overworked, afraid, or being hunted, and say, "Why won't they just believe?" Verse 9 will not let us do that. You do not get to preach the promise and ignore the brickyard. The people who cannot hear are not the problem. The system that took their breath is the problem.

So when we see families living in fear of a knock on the door, when we see neighbors working two and three jobs and still not making rent, when we see people so worn down that hope sounds like a foreign language, we do not blame them for not hearing. We carry the promise for them. And we get to work on the conditions. That is what it means to be the people of the God who will.

Remember Paul and Silas from last week? Acts 16. They freed a young woman from the people profiting off her, and for that they were beaten and thrown in prison. That is where we left them. Here is the next verse: around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

Nothing had changed yet. They were still in the cell. Their backs were still bleeding. And they sang anyway. And the people around them, the ones who had no reason to hope, were listening.

That is what it looks like to hold the promise for the people who are too breathless to hold it themselves. You sing it in the cell. You sing it before anything changes. And the others are listening.

Sent Anyway

The chapter ends with one more objection from Moses. God tells him to go back to Pharaoh. And Moses says, in effect, "If my own people won't listen to me, why would Pharaoh? I speak with faltering lips."

It is a fair question. It is honest. And God sends him anyway.

That is how this God works. God does not wait until you feel ready. God does not wait until the people around you are ready to hear. God does not wait until Pharaoh softens. God speaks a name over the wreckage, makes seven promises to people who cannot hear them yet, and sends a reluctant man with faltering lips back into the most powerful court in the world.

Next week we go back into that court with Moses and Aaron, and we will see what happens when a staff meets the power of Egypt.

But for today, here is what I want you to carry home. Last week I asked, are you serving a God who is already? This week I want to add one thing. Are you serving a God who will?

The God who heard the groaning is the God who will bring you out. Even if you cannot hear it yet. Even if your breath is short. Even if obedience has made things worse.

Let us pray.

Faithful God, you are the LORD. You were already in the brickyard before we said a word, and you will be faithful long after our strength runs out. We come to you the way Moses came, with our questions still on our lips. Some of us are too short of breath to hear good news right now. Hold the promise for us. Let this community hold it with us. Give us the courage to sing in the cell before anything changes. Make us a people who will not blame the breathless, but will carry them, and who will not ignore the brickyard, but will work to tear it down. Send us, even with faltering lips. And be, for us, exactly who you said you are. Amen.