“I Will Redeem You with a Stretched Out Arm, and with Great Judgments”
Exodus 6:6–9
6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord.
9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
Elder Mark E. Petersen wrote:
“. . . God knew what He was about. There was purpose in all He did, and as He permitted Pharaoh to resist, He also was teaching the monarch that the God of Israel was mightier than the gods of Egypt. This lesson was not alone for the Egyptians, either, for the Israelites themselves had to learn that great fact, inasmuch as many of them had become worshippers of the Egyptian deities.
“The Lord was under covenant to bring His people out [of Egypt], and He would keep His word, so He said to Moses:
“‘Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
“‘And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
“‘And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord’” [Exodus 6:6–8].
“But when Moses carried that message to the people, ‘they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage’ [Exodus 6:9].
“Between the complaints of the people and the resistance of the king, Moses had a difficult time.”
(Moses: Man of Miracles [1977], 61–62.)
