Seven Promises in Two Verses

Exodus 6:6-7. Moses has just complained that everything has gone wrong, and God answers with a cascade of first-person promises. I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people. I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God who brought you out.

Count the I wills. The entire deliverance is framed as God's action, and Israel's part is to be brought, freed, redeemed, taken, and finally to know. There is nothing here for them to accomplish. That is not because they are passive in the story; they will have to walk, pack, and eventually cross a sea. It is because the outcome does not rest on them.

Sunday is a good day to read these verses aloud. They are the shape of the gospel before the gospel: God sees, God comes, God redeems, God claims a people for himself. Whatever went wrong this week, the promise stands in the first person.