We are in chapter six of Exodus. If you remember God is answering Moses who is struggling with why things are worse instead of better all because they did what God told them to do. We’ve looked at the three things God says he will be doing: bringing them up out of the burdens of the Egyptians, delivering them from slavery, and redeeming them. Our word for today is one of the two ways God is going to do these three things. Let’s look at our word for today which is actually a phrase. בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה outstretched arm. It is used 12 times in the Old Testament. It is used for the first time in the Bible in our chapter. Exodus 6:6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. What is interesting is that God uses this exact phrase in the other six out of seven uses to describe his delivering his people out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 4:34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an וּבִזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? Deuteronomy 7:19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and וְהַזְּרֹ֣עַ הַנְּטוּיָ֔ה outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. Psalm 136:10-12 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever. and brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever. with a mighty hand and וּבִזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֑ה outstretched arm; His love endures forever. The only two times he doesn’t use it as a direct reference to the Exodus from Egypt is in Ezekiel and 2 Chronicles. We see Solomon make use of our phrase during his dedication prayer of the temple. 2 Chronicles 6:32-33 As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your וּֽזְרֽוֹעֲךָ֖ הַנְּטוּיָ֑ה outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. And Ezekiel refers to our phrase when addressing the exiles in Babylon. Ezekiel 20:33-34 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an וּבִזְר֧וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֛ה outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered—with a mighty hand and an וּבִזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. This time God is referring to what he will do in the future instead of looking back to what he has done. But because this exact same phrase is used it has to be an indirect reference to God’s power displayed in the past over Egypt. This is a great encouragement to those in Exile that God will bring his people back to the land with his outstretched arm.
I’ll close with the great application that God makes with what he did for his people and how we can also respond to what God has done in our lives in the past and our need to teach our children. Deuteronomy 11:1-3 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his וּזְרֹע֖וֹ הַנְּטוּיָֽה outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country.
