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The Desolate Souls

What Happened to the Israelites Inner-Fire?

"These [patriarchs] all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." -- Hebrews 11:13

Bible Study Article Covers :  Exodus 6:9-12

In the last article, we learned that God had made a statement in regards to His name "Jehovah" when He spoke to Moses: "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord [Jehovah] I was not known to them." -- Exodus 6:3 

We took a look at how this statement by the Lord could easily be confusing to most, being that the statement could cause one to ask the questions: How is it that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not know the Lord by this name? And didn't they have a close relationship with God? And if they had a close relationship....?" 

Well, hopefully, you see where I'm going with this and how it could be confusing when one first comes across it?"

Now, we took a closer look at what God had said, and upon doing so we'd noticed that this statement had nothing to do with Moses' forefathers knowing God by this name "Jehovah" in a personal sense.

But the statement dealt more with the fulfillment of the "promise covenant" that God had made to Abraham, which was affirmed later to Isaac and Jacob.

We must remember that God had told Abraham that he would become a father of many nations and that his seed would become great:

"As for Me [God], behold, My covenant is with you [Abraham], and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." -- Genesis 17:4-8

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Their Days Would End

Before the Promise Was Fulfilled? 

And like I stated earlier, this "promise covenant" would be somewhat repeated to Isaac and Jacob as a reminder of what's to come. Understand that God wanted them to know that what they had to endure, sacrifice, and suffer through because of their faith. He wanted them to know that their unwillingness to compromise wouldn't be for naught. Because of this, these patriarchs had pressed forward, and they stayed faithful to the Almighty God. 

But unfortunately for them, their days on this earth would end before they were able to see any fulfillment of what the Lord had told them when it came to the promise He had made:  "These [patriarchs] all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." -- Hebrews 11:13

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As For Moses?

Let's fast-forward a bit from the patriarchs and go back to Moses' account. At this point, we begin to notice that Moses is now in a very fortunate position to see the first chapter of this fulfillment when it came to the "promise covenant" that God had made to Abraham. This is what the statement by God said: "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord [Jehovah] I was not known to them."

We now see that the Lord was telling Moses that the time was now, and when his forefathers couldn't witness the fulfillment of His promise, Moses surely will. However, let's move forward.

Now it's at this point that we find that Moses was being encouraged by God. So, therefore, he went back and told the Israelites about the things that God had just shared with him: "So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage." -- Exodus 6:9

But the Israelites wouldn't be too enthused to hear from Moses at this point, for we can see that the passage revealed that the Israelites did not listen to Moses. There's also a good chance that they no longer believed in the mission that the Lord had placed before him as well, judging by their attitude towards him.

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They're Were Shackled to Pharaoh's Statement

Now let's keep in mind that all the Israelites knew at this point that ever since Moses and Aaron had gone before Pharaoh and made their request. A request to where they could go out in the wilderness, to worship their God, they'd noticed a significant increase in their workload, and the Egyptians greatly afflicted them. And it probably didn't help that Pharaoh had blamed their increased workload and affliction on Moses and Aaron:    

"And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words." -- Exodus 5:8,9

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I For One Can't Blame Them?

Needless to say, we can probably understand why the Israelites didn't want any more trouble from an already angry Pharaoh. Could one blame them for wanting to "coexist" at this point with those who ruled over them? You know, to go along to get along? And to make matters worse, they didn't have God's written Word at this time in their lives, something that they could go to and be encouraged by. The one person (who was Moses) that God was operating through at this point was somewhat set apart from them as well. 

I, for one, can't hold it against the Israelites or criticize them for being limited in their expectations when it came to the God of their forefathers. They had no idea of how privileged they were to be in a covenant with the Almighty God. They had no clue when it came to the great things that God wanted for them. For the Lord didn't want them to be the slaves of a great nation, God wanted them to be a great nation. The Lord had promised this, and as they would soon learn, the Lord always keeps his promises.

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God Wanted the Best For Them

Anyway, we now find that Moses had gone back to God, and it's at this point we can see how he was now frustrated and discouraged, being that the Israelites would not heed to what he had to say when it came to the Lord:

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.' And Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, 'The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?'" -- Exodus 6:10-12

Now notice how the Passage has revealed to us that at this point, we now find Moses once again, back to making excuses, while lacking confidence and completely unsure of himself, when it comes to him being the one that the Lord had chosen?

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So we just learned that we have Moses trying to change from the path that the Lord had placed him on. Will the Lord let him give up? Will God find another way to encourage Moses when it comes to him carry out his divine calling? 

May God blessings be upon you, and thank you for your support

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Current Bible Study Online Series:

155) Moses Confronts Pharaoh

156) Pharaoh Makes the First Move Against God

157) The Egyptian Deities that Reaped the Wrath of God

158) Pharaoh the Unjust & Unreasonable

159) Moses Has a Talk with God

160) What's Going On God

161) Moses Know that I Am Jehovah

162) <-CURRENT BIBLE STUDY ONLINE PAGE->

163) Moses Do You Know Who You Are?

164) Moses A God Amongst the Egyptians

165) The Battle for the Souls of Humanity

166) Moses and the Egyptian Magicians

167) The God of Israel vs. Hapi the god of the Nile

168) For Seven Days the Nile River Bleeds

169) God vs. Heket the goddess of Fertility

170) God vs. Geb the Earth god

171) God Releases the Swarms of Flies

172) Israel Set Apart

173) How Far Are You Willing to Go

174) Seeing the Invisible God

175) Although Exempted - The Israelites Still Had to Endure

176) Go & Serve Your God - Wait A Minute...

177) The God of Israel vs The Egyptian Bull Cults

178) Pharaoh's Hard Lesson

179) The Plague of Boils

180) Pharaoh's Plagued Heart

181) God tells Pharaoh - You Owe Me Everything!

182) Pharaoh's Sympathizers