We left Moses and the Israelites discouraged after a rough first encounter with Pharaoh:

For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. (Exodus 5.23, ESV)

The “games” begin in chapter 7 – the 10 plagues – but first, in Exodus 6, God confirms the covenant…again. Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, and 17; Isaac in Genesis 26; Jacob in Genesis 28. Now Moses:

God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 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 outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’” (Exodus 6.2 – 8, ESV)

A double promise: deliverance from slavery and the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Also, a promise of a personal relationship with a powerful God: “I will take you to be my people…and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out…”

But there’s a minor problem: the Israelites don’t find the promise encouraging:

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. (Exodus 6.9, ESV)

Sometimes, if our spirit is broken, it’s hard to be encouraged by the promise. But in this case, the Israelites’ discouragement doesn’t stop God from acting. No more is said about their broken spirit. God just told Moses to get to it, and we’ll pick up the action in Exodus 7.

So the LORD said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 6.10 – 13, ESV)

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6.4 – 8, ESV)