Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Remembering God's Promises | Torah | Exodus 6

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Where do you turn when life gets hard? Are you prone to focusing on the hardships of life? Are you quick to forget God's promises? In today's episode, Jensen shares an encouragement to remember God's promises in the midst of hardship. Don't miss this episode on Exodus 6. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Passages: Exodus 6 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair, and right now we're going through Exodus. A few years back, my husband and I started our familiar 13-hour trek down to Destin, Florida, to visit my parents. This time, though, the first two hours of our drive were some of the most anxiety-inducing hours I've ever had in a car. We left really early, and as soon as we crossed over into Illinois, a dense fog settled on the roads. You couldn't see anything but the road right in front of you. My anxiety was at an all-time high. And although I knew that the road continued beyond what I could see,

my brain kept warning me that I couldn't be sure we weren't about to drive directly into danger and off of a cliff. If you've ever driven in fog, you know it's scary and it's really disorienting. You know the road still exists more than the 20 feet you can see. You know there's signs telling you where to exit and how many miles to go until you reach your destination. You know that highways don't just randomly end in cliffs. But when the fog is dense enough, it's impossible to see anything but what's right in front of you. And if you're like me, your brain gets distracted by the fog and it forgets the reality of the situation. For me, this is a good picture of what happens sometimes in my life.

Hardships or difficulty come into my life and sort of descend over me like a fog. And suddenly all I can see and focus on is the presence of the fog. I hyper focus on the bad, spiral into anxiety, and forget the reality of what is still good and right and true. Instead of remembering the road is still there despite the fog, I get scared that all is lost. Maybe you're often like me, or maybe you're the eternal optimist like my husband. But I think in the hardest of life situations, it's human nature to have a hard time seeing past the fog of hardship and remembering what is true. In today's passage, that's exactly where we see Moses and the Israelites.

In Exodus chapter 5, Moses stood before Pharaoh and asked him to let the Israelites go. Rather than having the desired effect, Pharaoh sets harsher labor over the Israelites and doubles down on his oppression of God's people. And the Israelites, despite having believed that God had seen their affliction in chapter 4, Well, they become angry at Moses and Aaron for bringing this intensified hardship upon them. The next chapter ends with Moses crying out to God. I want to read that verse now just to get context for our passage today. Moses returned to the Lord and said,

Why, Lord, why have you brought this trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people. and you have not rescued your people at all. This is a desperate cry. God was supposed to have seen his people's affliction, to deliver them after years of harsh slavery, and instead, his plan has caused greater trouble.

We can understand it, can't we? When we face incredible difficulty and all we can see is the pain and the heartache, well, it's easy to question God, to blame him. God must not be good if he lets his people go through trials. God must not be faithful if he isn't delivering me from this agony. We get so clouded by what is in front of us that we forget who God is. And in doing so, we become even more desperate, even more hopeless.

Lucky for us, God knows the human heart. He knows our propensity to focus on the fog, and rather than rebuke his people for their questioning, he reminds them of what is still true, no matter how dense the fog becomes. Chapter 6, verses 1 through 8. 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 appear to Abraham. to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty. But my name, the Lord, I did not make myself fully 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 into 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. God reminds his people of who he is. Back in chapter three, God reveals his name to Moses. He tells him who he is. He is Yahweh, the great I am. He always has been and always will be. He is all powerful, all knowing and always is. He is steadfast and faithful. God of Moses's fathers, he has been faithful to redeem his people in the past because he cannot be anything else. The Lord is telling Moses, despite what it looks like, despite the fog, despite the hardship, I have not changed. And he reminds him that he will be faithful to what he has promised to do for his people. He does this with I will statements. There are seven of them in this power.

passage. You may have caught them, but I want to go back and read through them. In this passage, God says, 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 as a possession. Now, people much smarter than I am have pointed out that God has shown three overarching ways that he will be faithful to his people. One, he will redeem them. Two, he will be in relationship with them. And three, he will provide for them

through the land of Canaan. And in verse seven, we learn that God will do these things so that you will know that I am the Lord, your God. He is reminding the Israelites of the covenant he has made with them. He will redeem them, buy them out of slavery and give them a new life. He will be beside them in the difficult and in the good. He will not abandon them, but live with them and dwell among them. And he will provide a promised

land for them to dwell in. And he does so so that they and all the nations of the earth will know that he is God because of what he has done for his people. We see the steadfast nature of God here, despite the human heart's failure to see beyond the hardship before them, despite our questioning and blame, he is faithful to remind his people of who he is and what he will do in their lives. God's faithfulness is the bigger story of reality. He is at work and these promises that he made to the Israelites, they're true for our lives as well.

He has redeemed us and made a way for us to live in relationship with him. He has promised to provide a kingdom for his people, one that is good and just and never ends. And he wants to use the testament of his faithfulness towards us to bring more and more people into that kingdom. God is calling each of us to remember that the fog doesn't change the bigger reality, no matter how hard it works to conceal the truth. We have to fight to remember his promises to us. He will redeem us. He will be with us, and he will provide his coming kingdom.

Unfortunately, in Exodus 6, the Israelites failed to see beyond the hardship before them. We're told that when Moses tells them what God has said, they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Now, from our perspective, knowing that God is faithful to deliver them from Egypt, it's easy to judge them. But we need to have empathy. You and I, we do this in our own way every day. We keep our eyes horizontally focused on all that is before us and let it overwhelm us, consume us, make us anxious and worried. And God is reminding us to remember that his bigger story is still there. His promises

cannot be broken and no hardship or difficulty in this life has the power to take away his presence in our life. The truth of who God is doesn't change whether any of us acknowledges it or not. God is with us. He is faithful. We know from Scripture that God is faithful to do what he promised to the Israelites. And we have that same hope that our same God will ultimately redeem us, be with us, and provide for us in ways that we cannot even fathom. So when the fog seems dense, when the life is overwhelming when you can't see beyond the heartache of today, lift your eyes and remember who your God is and what He has promised you. He will redeem you. He will be with you. He will provide his promised kingdom. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter.

Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in the time. your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.