The genealogy of Moses and Aaron that fills out the latter half of Exodus 6 serves the purpose of authenticating Moses’ role as God’s legitimate mediator of redemption. Such authentication seems quite necessary in the progression of the narrative of Exodus at this point. With Pharaoh’s robust and brutal response to Moses and Aaron’s announcement that the God of the Hebrews has come to call for his people, Moses almost appears to be a false prophet, for he has not (yet) brought the promised deliverance but instead has brought even more trouble on the sons and daughters of Israel. But God’s consistent self-revelation in the first half of Exodus 6 and the confirmation of Moses’ legitimate role as a mediator of redemption are calculated to shore up the flagging faith of God’s people right before the real contest between God and Pharaoh begins. What is interesting about using a genealogy to authenticate Moses’ role is that it assumes that the past matters and that the past has bearing on the present. As I mention in my sermon, the development of the genealogy in Exodus 6 also appears to connect past and present with future events and mediators, namely the sons of Aaron who serve as high priests. This assumption that history matters is worth exploring a bit more because it can seem sometimes that history does not matter.
In Philosophy of Revelation, Herman Bavinck notes that history, as a subject of study, was in his day starting to be treated like a natural science. To really make sense of history, it had to be treated like a solution in a test tube, subjected to objective characterizations, and determined according to the historical equivalents of the natural laws that govern chemical reactions, for example.[1] The problem, however, is that history cannot be studied like a solution in a test tube. It is mediated by accounts that were written by humans with their own personalities and interests.[2] It does not neatly fit an evolutionary law of progressive development, either. Bavinck points out that not every successive culture has been an improvement on the last. More generally, the concept of heredity cannot be applied to society. “Learned men often have stupid children; pious parents frequently bring up godless children; the gifts of grace prove to be no heirloom. Newly acquired variations do not always continue but disappear after one or more generations.”[3] Nevertheless, it is a nearly universal phenomenon that when people consider history, somehow it has to be going somewhere. “For if history is to be truly history, something must be accomplished by it.”[4] The solution is not found by searching within history for its own meaning but rather by looking to the revelation of God as that which roots and upholds history.[5] Moreover, the revelation of Christ orders history toward a specific goal, for “Christ is the turning point of these ages. And thus [revelation] brings into history unity and plan, progress and aim.”[6]
To bring this back to Exodus 6, the fact that this genealogy means something is rooted and upheld by the fact that God has consistently revealed himself in the past and present. Moreover, the future significance of this genealogy is also more than a happy accident because God in Christ gives history a destination. The continuity of, and destination for, history is rooted and upheld by revelation. But, of course, revelation is not an abstract idea; it is a making known of God himself through word and work. And in the realm of history, it is useful to reflect on how God’s “ongoing involvement in and care for” creation can be appropriated to the Holy Spirit.[7] Through the exodus, by enabling David—even Cyrus—to fulfill their appointed tasks, and more generally by orchestrating the events of kingdoms to prepare for the proclamation and dissemination of the gospel, the Holy Spirit worked to provide meaning to history.[8] Nothing in history just “happens,” not even the marriages of Levites and Judahites that are so distantly connected to the coming of the Messiah, because God is actively working to bring all things to his glory and our good. May we find history, even when expressed through genealogies, to be a source of encouragement in our Christian walk that God is at work.
[1] Herman Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation: A New Annotated Edition, ed. Nathaniel Gray Sutanto and Cory Brock (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2018), 92.
[2] Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 94.
[3] Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 97.
[4] Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 102.
[5] Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 111.
[6] Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation, 116.
[7] Henk Van Den Belt, Geestspraak: Hoe We de Bijbel Kunnen Verstaan (Utrecht: KokBoekencentrum, 2024), 297.
[8] Van Den Belt, Geestspraak, 298.
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