Exodus 5

v1-5: Those “who do not know the Lord have low thoughts of him,” and so see no reason to “obey his voice” or “do anything for him.” Though “God must rule,” they “do not want to be ruled.”

v6-14: We have pictured for us how miserable it is to be enslaved to sin, and why “we have to be thankful to God” that in Christ, “we are free, not oppressed.”

v15-23: It is discouraging, when we see our “attempts to convict and convert people only… confirm their prejudices, harden their hearts, and seal them in their unbelief.” The danger is that then we lose heart. But “we should not allow disappointments… drive us from our God.” Instead, they should drive us to God.

Exodus 6

v1-9: When we are discouraged and downcast we can miss “the comfort we might receive from God’s word and from his providence.” Our God is the LORD who keeps His promises, and who completes the good work He has begun.

v10-13: Don’t give up calling people to leave their sins. Keep doing this “whether they will listen or not.” Even “God’s professing people” will need to hear this.

v14-27: Reuben was remembered for his incest, “and Simeon and Levi for their murder of the Shechemites,” yet here they are honoured by Moses, by the inclusion of their genealogies, which magnifies “God’s mercy in their repentance and forgiveness, as an example to those that would later believe.”

v28-30: We need “the whole counsel of God,” proclaimed to us, that is, everything that the Lord has told us.