Exodus 6:3

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For ^awith a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand ^bhe will drive them out of his land.”

2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am¹ the Lord.

3 ^aI appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as ^bGod Almighty, but by My name ^cLord I was not known to them.

4 ^aI have also established My covenant with them, ^bto give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, ^cin which they were strangers.

5 And ^aI have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.

6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: ^a‘I am the Lord; ^bI will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will ^crescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with¹ an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

7 I will ^atake you as My people, and ^bI will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out ^cfrom under the burdens of the Egyptians.

8 And I will bring you into the land which I ^aswore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’ ”

9 So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; ^abut they did not heed Moses, because of ^banguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

10 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
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What Does Exodus 6:3 Mean?

Exodus 6:2-8

God says He is going to do all this, which has a direct connection to why we eat unleavened bread. "I, I, I, I"—all uttered by God about what He will do. But the Israelites did not agree because the persecution that they had received just prior to this had put fear into them. So what does God have to do?

He could have thrown up His hands, but He said He would do these things. He had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bring Israel into the Promised Land. Since God does not go back on His word, He decided to do it anyway, even though they do not agree. So God, in His mercy, began to work in a way to bring them into agreement with what He wanted to do. He did not give up, even though they were resisting Him stoutly at this time.

God had set His mind. Do we think God has made His mind up to save us? We had better believe He has! Nobody can resist Him! He will save us! But He will not save us until we come to the place where we really know that we did not do it. As hard as we might think it is, the part that we have to do—so tiny in comparison to what God does—He gave us the power to do! That is what Pentecost is about.

We have to come to understand that God is our Savior. All we have to do is cooperate! When we cooperate with His will, it works! His way of life works, and what He is creating in us will be created. As we see here, Israel dragged its heels, just as we do from time to time, resisting Him.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unleavened Bread and Pentecost

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What Does Exodus 6:3 Mean?

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