Introduction

Greetings everyone, we begin our study of the sixth chapter of Exodus. I encourage everyone to actively and proactively read the Bible. I have read this chapter dozens of times, but I still find it perplexing. I have tried many themes, but none seem quite right. For example, God wants to save His people from hard labor and heavy burdens. But after proposing that, I wonder, is that really the theme? It doesn't seem so, because this chapter also records a large genealogy.

We need to carefully ponder this. Once we find a theme but feel it's not quite right, don't stop, keep seeking. We often encounter situations where we realize we're not quite right, but we still have to keep going. I've been saying a lot lately that it's deadly for people to know they're wrong but continue to be wrong.

It's normal if you don't understand this chapter. I also encountered difficulties when trying to find the theme. I'm just like you, not a top student. When you have the chance to meet me, you'll find that I don't have horns on my head or hair on my face. I'm neither Sun Wukong nor the Bull Demon King. And upon closer inspection, you'll find that I'm very ordinary. When I speak, I have a strong Northeastern accent, and sometimes I'm a bit vulgar.

Don't think that this one is different from me or that one is different from me. We are all the same, born from our mother's womb. No one sprang from a stone. After reading this chapter, I also found it quite confusing, and many things didn't line up. It records a large genealogy of the Levites, all the way to Moses, Aaron, Ithamar, and so on.

So what exactly is Moses trying to tell us in this chapter? Moses wrote Exodus to recount the difficult political struggles he faced. After reading Exodus and Numbers, you'll find that some Israelites often wanted to rebel on the way out of Egypt, and many said, "The leader shouldn't be Moses, it should be Korah. Let's elect one!"

I tell you, I finally found the theme of this chapter. It turns out that Moses is telling us through this chapter that bringing the Israelites out of Egypt according to their divisions was spoken to Aaron and Moses. I have been wrestling with this chapter since last week, listening and reading, and after wrestling with it dozens of times, I found this passage to be excellent!

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Bring the Israelites out of Egypt according to their divisions." These are the Moses and Aaron to whom the Lord said, "Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt so that he will let the Israelites go out of his country." (Exodus 6:26-27)

Ultimately, we must understand God's will. Although Moses said "I am slow of speech and tongue" several times, whether slow of speech or eloquent, only one thing is important: bringing the Israelites out of Egypt according to their divisions was spoken to Aaron and Moses. Why did God only speak to Moses and Aaron? Wouldn't it be better to speak to everyone? Wouldn't this cause confusion?

So we can try using these two verses, Exodus 6:26-27, as the theme. Using these two verses directly as the title is too long, so it needs to be shortened. We know that the theme of Exodus is the Lord's army came out of Egypt. Can an army be joked about? In the army, you are a general and I am a general, you are a marshal and I am a marshal. If all 600,000 people are marshals, can this be called an army? This can only be called a rabble. Even the triads are not organized like this; they also have a boss.

Looking at the previous chapter is also quite interesting. Before Aaron, Moses is as God. Our God has never created chaos and would never establish two Moseses in His army. He wouldn't say, "Today we choose a Moses, and tomorrow we'll get another one, a Mo-East. Moses and Mo-East take turns being in charge, thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river." If that were the case, it would be troublesome.

God is a God of order. I want to tell everyone that God establishes the order of His army, He will first choose a person to represent Him and exercise authority on earth. So Moses is as God before Aaron. The Israelites also have layers of hierarchical relationships, and later there were commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, etc. The God recorded throughout the Bible is an expert in management.

If a church has two heads or three heads, driving three carriages, do you think three carriages can pull the church forward? No, if that were the case, it would be troublesome! As far as I know, churches are pulled by several carriages. If there are five carriages, it's like being torn apart by five horses, tearing the church to pieces.

This chapter writes about God choosing a leader. So why did Moses write this? Because many people are challenging his authority. We must know that authority comes from God. The most important thing in an army is authority, followed by obedience. A church without authority, without obedience, without clear hierarchy, cannot become an army at all. Then why an army? Why not a society, a community, or a group? Because God wants to bring the Israelites out of Egypt and make them the army of the Lord God.

What is the theme I have been talking about for so long? Everyone can say it. I continue to guide you to think. Someone said, "Authority comes from God," that's right! Remember, we seem to be obeying a person, but we are actually obeying God. If you cannot obey the leader you can see, how can you obey the invisible God? Our God is a God of clear hierarchy and very strict management. Our God never creates chaos.

If you suddenly see someone stand up in church and say, "Pastor, step down, I'll preach." Do you think you can stay in this church? If the pastor of the church says, "Since you're up here, then come up and preach." Wouldn't that be troublesome? Saying this is to tell everyone that authority comes from God, and authority is not negotiable.

Moses' purpose in writing this passage is very clear: "Authority is not something I created myself. I declined God many times, but God still wants to use me." Look at what he's saying, Moses' level of "Versailles" is very high. He is emphasizing that authority comes from God, and the most important thing in building God's army is authority. So the theme of this chapter is: Authority comes from God.

Moses said to the Israelites, "Although I have told God several times that I am slow of speech and tongue, my authority comes from God. God commanded that the Israelites be brought out of Egypt according to the Israelite army, and this was spoken to me, Moses. What does it have to do with you?" In fact, the Israelites are quite mixed up, Korah being one of them. Whether building a church or building an army, the people you face are often quite mixed up, and this mixed-up energy comes from the devil.

Moses' Authority Comes from God

In this chapter, Moses says: My authority comes from God. God commanded me to go to Pharaoh in Egypt and bring the Israelites out. We know this by carefully reading Exodus 6:26-27.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Bring the Israelites out of Egypt according to their divisions." These are the Moses and Aaron to whom the Lord said, "Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt so that he will let the Israelites go out of his country." (Exodus 6:26-27)

Exodus was written by Moses, and it clearly states, "These are the Moses and Aaron to whom the Lord said, 'Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt so that he will let the Israelites go out of his country.'" Others should not interfere. Although I am slow of speech, plain in appearance, and vulgar in language, it doesn't matter, I am the one God has chosen. My authority comes from God! I didn't want to do this in the first place and have declined many times, but God still values me and not you, so don't try to compete with me for this, you can't win.

The chaos in the church today is caused by the confusion of authority, and the chaos in families today is also the confusion of authority. Mothers are not like mothers, daughters are not like daughters, sons are not like sons, fathers are not like fathers. What kind of world is this? So brothers and sisters need to know that authority is the most important characteristic of an army. To build an army, to bring an army out, you must rely on authority, and building a church absolutely relies on authority.

In this world, as long as you see overstepping authority, you know that Satan is doing bad things behind the scenes, which is very deadly, because the first to overstep authority was Satan. Sometimes we feel, "I gave you a suggestion, why don't you listen?" Is it your responsibility to give suggestions? If it's not within your scope of responsibility, then forget it.

Once, a top student was invited to a large company. Before he had been working for a week, he wrote a ten-thousand-word letter to the boss, suggesting how the company should operate and how it should be managed. As a result, the boss read it and immediately told him not to come to work tomorrow, saying he was a madman, had a mental illness, and didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. Even if he graduated from Tsinghua or Peking University, so what? He's just a college graduate, he hasn't done anything!

Isn't it good to give suggestions? You must also have the authority to give suggestions! No investigation, no right to speak, can you speak randomly? No! Random speaking is just talking nonsense. You say and I say, is this a vegetable market? Everyone must know that an army that is well-managed must be subject to one authority.

There was a young man who wanted to jump off a building to commit suicide, and because of my ministry, his entire situation was reversed. This young man was a bit silly, he didn't get into Tsinghua or Peking University, nor did he get into a top university. In the end, he went to a private school. After graduation, he interviewed more than fifty times and couldn't find a job, becoming an "interview king," but he felt good about himself. Although I gave him such good training here, his level was just so-so.

One day he walked into my office and gave me a suggestion, teaching me how to be a pastor. I asked him if he had ever been a pastor, and he said he hadn't. I asked him how he knew that being a pastor this way was right, and he said he didn't know either. Then I said to him, "Are you playing with me? Wielding a big knife? Go wield a big knife with Guan Gong!" What kind of brain is this? We must re-understand this matter. For example, we can manage the pastoral areas and groups that we should manage, but some people often point fingers at other pastoral areas and groups. These overstepping authority things are common phenomena in any enterprise or church.

When Moses wrote Exodus, he had to be sure that his authority came from God. How to confirm it? By God being with him. The Apostle Paul also encountered many people challenging his authority, so in Paul's letters, especially in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, he repeatedly emphasized that he was an apostle, because many people kept saying that he was not an apostle, creating chaos in the church.

This is a miraculous thing, you can't do anything without authority. Being a leader is not easy, it's very hard. The Apostle Paul and Moses encountered typical examples, it's really not easy. The Apostle Paul also said: Actually, I really don't want to do it, but this matter has been entrusted to me, so I have to do it well.

If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. (1 Corinthians 9:17)

In the sixth chapter of Exodus, it is recorded that God must first choose His leader to accomplish His great plan. We start from the first verse and look down, and finally find the theme of this chapter, Moses' authority comes from God, the purpose is to accomplish God's great plan.

Then 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 appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. (Exodus 6:1-3)

This is what the Lord God said to Moses, God did not say it to Korah. If God said it to Korah, we would listen to Korah, but now that God has said it to Moses, we must listen to Moses. Why didn't they know the name of the Lord God? Because they hadn't left Egypt yet, and the army of God hadn't been established yet. Now God just wants to let Moses know. We brothers and sisters who are chosen and raised up, your authority may also come from God, but your authority is only within your group, pastoral area, or the scope of your service.

When the Israelites left Egypt and established an army, the covenant God made with them was to give them the promised land, the land of Canaan.

Also, I 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. (Exodus 6:4-5)

How does God remember His covenant? By choosing Moses, and then preparing a person for Moses called Aaron.

“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 to 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.’” (Exodus 6:6-8)

Moses really went and said this to the Israelites, but they did not listen. You will be very surprised why they didn't listen to such a good thing? In fact, we often encounter the same situation! They don't listen to good things, and they have to do hard things!

Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. (Exodus 6:9)

The previous long passage talked about how to analyze the theme of this chapter, which is to teach everyone how to grasp the theme and grasp the key points. Without a theme and key points, there is no way to study it, you can only do a little bit here and a little bit there. The most appropriate theme for this chapter is that Moses' authority comes from God, and having authority from God is to accomplish a miraculous thing.

Why is Moses said to be a very humble person? Because God wanted him to go and speak to Pharaoh, so he went and spoke; God wanted him to go and speak to the Israelites, so he went and spoke, even though they didn't listen to him. Don't think that authority comes from God, but people don't listen, and it's the same today.

What can prove that the authority of Moses and the Apostle Paul comes from God? Miracles and wonders! Because God is with them, without those miracles and wonders, would others believe just by moving their lips? Wouldn't that be silly? God's mighty arm is manifested through Moses and Aaron, and many miracles performed by Moses and Aaron raising their staffs are closely related to God's actions. God chooses vessels and leaders, and through their words and deeds, we can directly see God, which is a seamless cooperation between God and man.

Authority, Responsibility, and Risk Go Together

Both Apostle Paul and Moses were men with spiritual authority! God performed so many miracles through Apostle Paul and Moses. Without miracles, it is indeed difficult to come up with new tricks. Some can imitate others' preaching, and some can imitate others' singing, but if you want to lead God's army to conquer and fight in the name of Jesus Christ, you must have authority from God, and God must be with you. Otherwise, if you are just playing around, you are at best a Moses of the East, North, or South, but not really Moses.

God will surely accomplish His great plan through the vessels He has chosen. Everyone must know that to do this work, you must put your life aside and not consider any risks! When Moses went to the Egyptian Pharaoh and said, "Today your GDP will be cut in half, and all your construction projects will be paralyzed because I am taking the Israelites away," wasn't that a great risk? That's no joke!

When Moses went to tell the Israelites, they were troubled by their hard labor. Were there any troublemakers among them who wanted to kill Moses? Definitely! Moses took on a high-risk job today with the authority from God. Where did he get the courage? I tell you, thankfully, God did not call some people. If He had called them, they would only like the authority, but would you really dare to use this authority? Try playing around with the Egyptian Pharaoh? Or gesticulating among the Israelites? It's scary! Don't talk about 600,000 people, even if 60,000 or 6,000 people surround you and nag you all day long, what can you use to stop them? This is a very annoying job, not a joke!

So brothers and sisters must know that to build God's army, God's army must come out of Egypt with organization, discipline, and clear levels. It must not be a mob. You can't be commanding Moses all day long to go east, south, north, or west. Otherwise, with one wave of your hand, 100,000 people will go in each direction, and it won't work. The most challenging job in the world is the President of the United States, and Moses' job was much more difficult than that.

Today, the most important thing in fighting spiritual battles is authority! Moses trusted God. Although he said he was slow of speech, he clearly understood that the authority was given to him by God. He did what God told him to do, risking his life and laying it down to serve God. That was like pulling whiskers from a tiger's mouth, risking his life!

Brothers and sisters must know that when you become a Christian, no matter how many people you shepherd, you must be serious. Because you are fighting with the most powerful enemy in this world—the devil. We are not diminishing our own prestige, but we must know that the devil is really powerful. Today, we must do this work with our heads held high, putting our heads on our belts. If you don't have faith and don't understand what it means to live, but want to build a church, that's playing with fire, and you don't know where it will lead. And you must be like Moses, saying what God tells us to say, and saying it to whomever He tells us to say it to!

If you say it's not good to say it to someone, but you have to say it to the Egyptian Pharaoh, who can escape death if the Pharaoh wants someone to die? How much risk did Moses have to take! Authority, responsibility, and risk go together, and authority comes from God. If authority comes, but you are not serious, you are an enemy of God; if you are serious, you are an enemy of the devil. This is not an easy job! If you are a "fence-sitter" and don't want to offend either side, you will be beaten by both sides, and that will be troublesome.

The church is God's army, and there is only one way to go, which is the way of victory. Either kill the devil or be killed by the devil. Killing the devil and being killed by the devil, with just one word difference, the results are worlds apart. Today, on the road of serving God, we must know this sentence:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

Don't be afraid of the devil who kills the body, but be afraid of the God who can kill both the body and the soul. The Pharaoh can only kill the body. We have already seen through this life. Moses was a shepherd in his father-in-law's house, and there was a tigress in his family, so life was not easy! He also faced three million Israelites and six hundred thousand fighting adults, and his daily work was very tedious. Today, who beat whom, tomorrow who stabbed whom, the day after tomorrow who grabbed whose hair, who stole whose things... This job is not easy either! Moses calculated that neither of these two lives was easy.

We must know that authority, responsibility, and risk go together. Many people just want authority but don't want responsibility. Moses was a very hardworking person, and his service was serious. Exodus Chapter 6 is to let the later Israelites know that authority comes from God and that all authority in the world comes from God. When you take up authority, you take up responsibility; when you take up responsibility, you take up risk. You only have one way to go, and that way is to fear God.

Honor Authority and Be a Faithful Person

In the latter part of Exodus Chapter 6, Moses wrote about how the Levites came to be, and he wrote about Levi's two older brothers, and then he recorded Levi, thereby leading to Moses, because Moses came from the tribe of Levi.

These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The length of Levi’s life was 137 years. The sons of Gershon, by their clans, were Libni and Shimei. The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The length of Kohath’s life was 133 years. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi according to their generations. Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. The length of Amram’s life was 137 years. The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zikri. (Exodus 6:16-21)

Moses counted his genealogy like counting treasures. It turned out that Korah was Moses' cousin. Although Korah and Moses had such a relationship, God did not speak to Korah, but God spoke to Moses and Aaron.

The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these were the Korahite clans. Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levitical families, according to their clans. (Exodus 6:24-25)

Does everyone know what Moses was trying to express by writing this passage? There is a person here named Korah, who always wanted to rebel. Relying on his identity as a Levite, he fooled many people and often stirred up trouble, saying, "Why should Moses lead us out of Egypt? What ability does he have? Look at him, he even stutters. Can a stutterer lead us to the promised land? If he has the ability, cure his stutter for me to see!" Moses was speechless!

So on the road out of Egypt, whether it is building a church or anything else, authority is a big issue. The people under you will definitely want to compete with you for authority. This was the case in the time of Apostle Paul, and it was also the case in the time of Moses. In Paul's letters, you will often see: You are an Israelite, and so am I; you are circumcised, and so am I. They are always arguing about these issues. Because these are all issues of authority. If you want to build a church, you will directly face the issue of authority. Does everyone understand?

Moses brought out the genealogy to argue that although I and Korah are cousins, we are both from the Levi family, but I still want to tell you that my authority comes from God, understand? Whether it comes from God or not is not a joke. If it does not come from God and you insist on grabbing it, the result will be very miserable. So there will be very serious problems in the church if there is strife and grabbing of authority.

There was a church where three leaders grabbed authority from their pastor and made the pastor suffer a lot. After a few years, one of them died of cancer, another was killed by a car, and the remaining leader was trembling with fear all day long. Finally, he went to his pastor and apologized and begged for forgiveness. The whole story is circulating among us. I want to tell everyone that authority is not a joke.

In Chapter 6, God's army came out of Egypt, and the first thing that was discussed was the issue of authority. If you cannot be a good subordinate, it is difficult to become a good superior; if you cannot be a soldier, it is difficult to be a general; if you cannot be a general, it is difficult to be a marshal. God will never prevent you from entering the promised land just because you are not Moses. The later Joshua and Caleb were not Moses, nor were they Korah, let alone a Moses of the East, but they entered the promised land.

Following God wholeheartedly and honoring authority are the most important qualities in God's army. You will never lose God's great plan for you because you honor authority, understand? It is not that God only chose Moses, God chose all of us to bring us to the promised land, but many people died in the wilderness, and some died in the wilderness because of rebellion. Moses' cousin Korah was the one who had the ground open up and swallow him alive.

There were a total of 250 elders following Korah, and their power was very strong. If there was an election, Korah would definitely be elected, and Moses would definitely not be elected. But God's authority does not come from elections, it comes from God's calling, so honoring authority is a very important thing in the church.

I don't understand why these people want to grab authority from Moses, and I don't understand why these people would do such a stupid thing. The result was that the ground opened up where they were standing, and then they fell in. Think about it, even if you have a lot of leadership, a lot of influence, and can fool a lot of people, your eloquence is better than Hitler's, and your mind can surpass the smartest people in this world, but if you don't know that authority comes from God, then it is really annoying.

I don't encourage everyone to confuse authority. I have seen many strange phenomena with my own eyes, including some people who follow pastors from who knows where while being in this church. Isn't that a mess? The confusion of authority is the most confusing thing. Many people don't know and don't understand how dangerous this thing is.

Last year, I went to attend a friend's funeral. He was only in his forties. He just wouldn't listen to what I told him, and in the end, he died suddenly and lay in the coffin. I need everyone to know that I am not talking nonsense. Running to different churches and being spiritually confused is definitely not pleasing to God.

You can't be this person's husband today, another person's husband tomorrow, and then find someone else the day after tomorrow; you can't be this person's wife today, another person's wife tomorrow, and then find someone else the day after tomorrow. Isn't that a mess? When you go to university, you can't attend a class at Tsinghua today, a class at Peking University tomorrow, and a class at Shanghai Jiao Tong University the day after tomorrow. What are you doing? The credits you earn don't count, and when they ask you to take the exam in this exam room, you insist on going to that exam room, and they won't let you in either.

Many people are confused about authority, confused about life, and confused about interpersonal relationships. Behind this confusion is all the power of darkness. Do you understand now? I have been discussing for a long time and have given many examples about authority. Obedience is very important. Our church rarely talks about the word "obedience." I almost never mention it. God's army must follow the order of authority. The things that belong to you, the things that are within your authority, you do them well; the things that are outside your authority, forget about them, there is his Lord, you don't need to worry about it.

Brothers and sisters, learn to be a faithful and good servant. Under the authority that God has arranged for you, all that is brought to you is good! You say, "My pastor always discerns good and evil." You must know that your pastor's discernment of good and evil does not affect you at all, nor does it affect God's great plan for you. Moses stayed in his father-in-law's house for forty years, did it affect him? It didn't affect him.

So brothers and sisters, don't think that "heaven has endowed me with talents for them to be useful" and rebel. I encourage brothers and sisters to learn to submit to authority, including learning to submit to the government. We learn to follow the authority in the world, and this will not affect God's great plan for you.