Exodus 6:1  “…Now you shall see what I will do…”
Moses gave Pharaoh the ultimatum as God had instructed.  Pharaoh didn’t let the people go as God said he wouldn’t, but Moses didn’t anticipate Pharaoh increasing the oppression on the Hebrews.  When he did, the Hebrews blamed Moses.  So Moses complained to God.  God was good enough to tell him why He was doing things this way.  Just step back and see what God is going to do.

1  “…with a strong hand he will let them go…”
Not just decide, oh, I guess they can go now.  No.  He will be insistent that they leave.  Total change of heart is coming.

3  “…as God Almighty…”
How Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God.  He appeared to them and spoke to them, but never told them His name, the one reflective of His nature, His existence.  He’s more than just a God mightier than other gods.  He’s the One who is.

7  “…Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”
God did it this way to show His power to the Egyptians, but also to the Hebrews.  Their oppression would be at a maximum with supposedly no way out.  Then God would miraculously set them free from Egypt and give them their inheritance in the land He had promised their ancestors.

9  “…they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage”
Hope was coming, but their situation had them down.  Life can sometimes be very hard.  At those times, the knowledge that things will get better doesn’t remove or even lighten the pain.  All you can do is trust God and ask Him to help you bear through it.

11  “…let the children of Israel go out of his land”
Didn’t notice this at first until a commentary mentioned it.  First request was to go a few days journey out and sacrifice.  Could still be in Egypt’s territory with that.  The new command is to let the people go out completely, out of Pharaoh’s land.

12  “…for I am of uncircumcised lips”
Sounds like another excuse of the same vein as those at the burning bush.  And I wondered why the repeat.  Commentary mentioned Moses getting discouraged as the Hebrews were.  That makes sense.  We’re told they couldn’t listen due to anguish.  And Moses says they weren’t listening to him, why would Pharaoh.  Sounds like Moses is feeling personally responsible for the current problems.

20  “…Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses…”
Here we learn the names of the parents of Miriam, Moses, and Aaron.  I’m assuming Miriam wasn’t mentioned as she was a woman.  Commentary suggested only the guys were mentioned because they were the focus of the genealogy.  Commentaries also had questions about the actual familial relationship between Amram and Jochebed, perhaps cousins instead of aunt and nephew, but I see no reason to question it.  God stated no prohibition for close familial marriages until He gave the law to Moses.  Until that time, the genetic codes were probably still clean enough to combine without causing defects.  By the time God gave the law, the codes may have had too many mutations to be combined without the risk of duplicating recessive mutated traits in close familial pairs.  Even then, God didn’t prohibit many levels of connections, not as many as are customarily avoided today.

26  “These are the same Aaron and Moses…”
Reason for listing the genealogy.

29  “…Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt…”
Text is coming around again to the speaking order.  This conversation has already been mentioned to show the discouragement of the people, then the genealogy was listed.  Now we’re going back to the narrative.  This sets up why Aaron is there.

I hope you enjoy reading and studying His word.  May it accomplish what He desires.  Please feel free to comment or post questions.  Thanks for reading!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.