Exodus 3:17, commentary and pictures

At the burning bush God gave Moses the words to speak first to the elders of Israel before going to Pharaoh, the most noble and righteous among the people who had long grieved in bondage, declaring that the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had visited them and had seen what was done to them in Egypt. He promised to bring them up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, a good and abundant and fruitful land described as flowing with milk and honey. This deliverance fulfilled His covenant with the patriarchs and was to be carried out through Moses, whom He called from his life as a humble shepherd and chose to break Israel's bondage.

Deliverance would come not by warfare with Moses as general leading an army, as Moses thought and preferred, but by God's own mighty power, so that He might be magnified before His people and before the Egyptians as the living God who has power to save and to destroy. God promised to bring Israel out of Egypt's oppression so they could serve Him. The elders would hearken to Moses' voice, and then Moses with them was to go to Pharaoh and demand release for a three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Pharaoh would refuse until God stretched out His hand and smote Egypt with signs and wonders, which were God's own power given through Moses to show Pharaoh that the great I AM had sent him and to secure Israel's release.

The Pharaoh to be confronted was a new king, the king who had sought Moses' death being dead, and Pharaoh was the name borne by nearly all Egyptian kings. Moses' mission to break Israel's bondage prefigured Christ's first advent, when Christ would break Satan's power and deliver people held captive by him.