The experiences of our lives teach us about the reality of the Lord’s covenant promises to us. The saints who served the Lord earlier in the history of the world knew less about the Lord’s work than we do today. Babies in our church know less about the Lord than the oldest members do. The Lord makes his name known to us, not only by telling us his name but also by showing us what it means to belong to the family of God as covenant children through times of suffering.
Whatever the Lord wanted to reveal about his name through these burdens of oppression, it was hard for the people to receive. They went from bowing down and worshipping (Exodus 4:31) to angry confrontation with Moses and Aaron, even refusing to listen to the Word of God that was brought to them (Exodus 5:20; Exodus 6:9). Suffering and setback are not enjoyable, and they can bring up many different emotions in our minds. When we come to understand that the Lord is in control of everything, including such suffering, it forces us to carefully investigate our expectations of the Lord. Do our anger and frustration come because we have a false image of God that is inconsistent with his own revelation? Is it possible that our ideas about what God should look like, have made it difficult for us to accept who he really is? The Lord replied to Moses’ questions by telling him that he was revealing the meaning of his name, Yahweh, the Lord (Exodus 6:3).
22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?