This exposition of Exodus 6:14-27 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, June 17, 2018.
Intro:
Adrian Rogers was the pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis Tennessee. Bellevue was a church with great history in Southern Baptist life. It was one of the great churches in the South. It had been the church of the great R.G. Lee a wonderful pulpiteer. Dr. Lee was one of the most sought-after preachers in the convention. When Dr. Rogers was invited to preach at the church in view of a call he was greeted by a couple of ladies after the service. The ladies were obviously “important” people. They were grand ladies of the South. They asked the young preacher, “Dr. Rogers, just who are your people?” They were checking his pedigree. They wanted to insure he was from the kind of people they would want associated with their church. Dr. Rogers smiled and said, “Well, my family has been traced back to a drunken sailor and a crooked farmer.” The ladies were shocked. Then he continued, “The sailor’s name was Noah and the farmer’s name was Adam. If you will excused me ladies.”
[sections collapse="always"][section title="Read More"]Who are your people? It is an important question. It’s the kind of question that does matter. It is helpful and good to know your history. For all of us that history is checkered. There are highs and lows. Things to be proud of and things we’d just as soon others didn’t know. When I was a kid I loved to sit with my grandmother and that shoe box full of pictures. I loved looking through all those old photographs and ask, “Who is that?” I could sit for hours and listen to tales of family in horse-drawn wagons and life on the farm. I love to watch the history channel for documentaries and biographies. Stories of individuals and families always intrigue me. However, I tend to find the genealogies of Scripture, “skipable.”
They are so low on the fascination scale. Not exactly exciting stuff. Just list of strange names that I’m incapable of pronouncing. Yet they seem really important in Scripture. I say important because there are so many of them. In Genesis we have the list of Adam’s descendants in chapter 5; the table of nations in chapter 10; the descendants of Jacob and Esau in chapters 35 and 36 just to name a few. The book of Numbers carefully records the clans of Israel while 1 Chronicles contains chapter after chapter listing the names of their descendants. The Old Testament seems to have a fascination with genealogies but then there are also those genealogies in the Gospels showing the lineage of the Lord Jesus. They must be important. They must be there for a reason. The apostle Paul said that, all Scripture is breathed of God and is profitable, but sometimes I ask, “Really?” Our text this morning is found in Exodus chapter 6.
Text: Exodus 6:14-27
At first glance this seems to be just a list of strange and difficult names but upon further examination we find that it’s a list of strange and difficult names with a purpose!
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What is the big picture in Exodus and really throughout Scripture? God is sovereignly at work, saving a special people, for His own glory. We witnessed God’s providence in preserving the baby Moses and seeing him raised in the house of Pharaoh as a prince of Egypt despite the order that all Hebrew male children be executed. We’ve seen God uniquely appear to Moses and call him as Israel’s deliverer. We are about to witness a series of miracles and extraordinary acts as God demonstrates His power and authority but first we are given a reminder through this genealogy.
Thesis: While God sometimes works through miraculous means He most often works through common, flawed, everyday folks like you and me.
This text seems like an interruption.
It seems out of place.
The story is moving along and then there is this genealogy and then back to the story.
You could remove it and the story would not suffer.
I think it is there to say to the Hebrews that Aaron is qualified in his own right as a leader. It also is there to remind us about the kind of people God uses to accomplish His will.
There are three things I want us to note in this text.
- The genealogy of Exodus 6 reminds us that God’s chosen instruments of deliverance were common men of flesh and bone.
- The genealogy further reminds us that some of those common, everyday folks gladly yield to God’s grace and serve as sterling examples of faith and faithfulness.
- The genealogy also reminds us that others refuse to yield and thus serve as a somber warning.
Conclusion:
While God sometimes works through miraculous means He most often works through common, flawed, everyday folks like you and me. Some of those common, everyday folks gladly yield to God’s grace and serve as sterling examples of faith and faithfulness. Others refuse to yield and thus serve as a somber warning. God is sovereignly at work saving a special people for His glory what role will you play?
Let me point out just one other thing quickly. Note Exodus 6:23 - Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. The key is Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon. Now turn to Matthew 1:4 - and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon…
1400 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, God was sovereignly at work in the process of saving a special people. Who are your people? It may be more important than you think and far more interesting than it appears!
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