Is there anyone we can believe anymore? As different news outlets put opposing “spins” on stories, how can we tell who is telling the truth? And as Mississippi prepares for yet another election season, we’ll hear all sorts of candidates making sometimes improbable promises. For whom should we vote? And once they get into office, how do we know they’ll be able, or even willing, to do what they’ve said they would?

It’s easy in times like these to fall into cynicism, to believe that everyone is lying. And the more times we are disappointed, the harder it is for us to believe that anyone can be trusted. That seems to be the situation in which the Israelites found themselves in Exodus 6:9 – their spirits had been broken to the point that they couldn’t muster up any hope in Moses’ promises of deliverance.

But the good news is that when God makes promises, we can believe Him. And why? Because of Who He is – the Lord. The name God uses for Himself means something like, “The One Who Is,” or “The Self-Existing One.” God’s existence doesn’t depend on anyone or anything else because He made everything else that exists.

And this Almighty Creator has made promises to people throughout history. In verse 4, He reminds the people of His pledge to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the mention of their names should have given the people hope for the future. For after all, God had told those Patriarchs that He would make their descendants into a great nation – and by the time of Moses, the children of Israel had indeed come to comprise 600,000 men, not counting women and children (see Exodus 12:37). They themselves were thus living proof that God is faithful to His Word.

And God would go on to keep the rest of the promises He made in today’s passage. He would release the people from slavery in Egypt, by accomplishing mighty miracles (v. 6). And He would bring them to the land of Canaan, just as He had told Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would (v. 8; see Genesis 15:13-21; 26:24; 28:13-15). Yes, ours is a promise-keeping God, a God we can trust.

And that’s important because of the last promise He made to the people – that He would take them to be His own people, and that He would become their God (verse 7). That is a promise He still extends to all who will shake off our cynicism and trust in Him, accepting the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf and bowing the knee to Him as Lord.

So today, will we take Him at His Word, and follow the One Whose word never fails?

Exodus 6:2-9 (NASB)

2 God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD;
3 and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.
4 “And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.
5 “And furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.
6 “Say, therefore, to the sons 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 their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
7 ‘Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 ‘And I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.'”
9 So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.