Exodus 6:20, commentary and pictures

Exodus stands in its history division of chapters 1 to 18, in a book whose name means going out and refers to Israel's departure from Egypt. It belongs to the detailed story of the great deliverance of Israel, grown more and mightier than the Egyptians, from bitter bondage and oppression into a nation with thorough organization, efficient leadership, a complete code of laws, and an established form of worship. It traces Moses from rescue from Egyptian malice in infancy through wonderful experiences as the chosen leader of Israel.

Aaron and Moses belonged to the few descendants of the nomadic patriarch Abraham who came to Egypt for supplies from its granaries and stayed there with Joseph. While Joseph, raised from captive slave to prime minister, taught Pharaoh to store grain in plenteous years for famine, made a good land law with easy combined rental and taxes, governed, and was honored in living memory, Egypt prospered and flourished and these people living in Egypt knew no oppression. The verse stands at the opening of Israel's deliverance when Israel is in oppression and bondage with the whole power of Egypt set against them, before the song of triumph beyond the Red Sea with Egypt's host overthrown. That deliverance shows God's mighty saving work as creative power never done in the saving of any other nation.

Amram took Jochebed his father's sister as wife and she bore him Aaron and Moses, with Aaron the eldest son, and the years of the life of Amram were 137 years. Jochebed was Levi's daughter and Jacob's granddaughter, and Amram stood in the Kohathite line of Levi, linking the priestly family of Aaron and Moses to the tribe whose descendants served at the sanctuary. Through Jochebed's instruction of Moses in his early years, he received before leaving Pharaoh's court to join the Hebrews in slavery the truths passed down from Abraham through the generations linking him to Jacob's family. Amram provides the link between Joseph and the leaders of Israel showing that a short chain of people could transmit the Sabbath institution from the earliest generations to Moses and Aaron, an argument that does not draw on the statement of Amram's age.

Moses as the son of Amram is one particular man, not just any Israelite. That specific name refers to a specific person just as the Sabbath day refers specifically to the seventh day of the week and not to any day chosen as one day in seven. Amram and Jochebed were God-fearing parents in humble circumstances who made the home the school above all others that sways the future and is the most potent factor in the making of character. They laid the foundations of a liberal education and of strong Christian manhood by training their children for Christian work and leadership. Jochebed as the mother of Moses was a humble mother without a college education who told Bible stories to her children in an effective manner, and her humble effort to train her child is an example of right training whose result deserves attention.