God's Sovereign Stationery: Exodus 6:14-27
Introduction: The Divine Interruption
We come now to a portion of Exodus that many modern readers, trained in the art of the fast-paced narrative, are tempted to skim. It appears to be a sudden interruption, a genealogical speed bump on the highway of redemption. God has just recommissioned Moses, promising deliverance with a mighty hand. Pharaoh's heart is about to be hardened, the plagues are on the horizon, and right when the action is about to start, the inspired narrator hits the pause button and gives us a list of names. "These are the heads of their fathers' households."
But in the economy of God, there are no throwaway lines, no inspired marginalia. When the Holy Spirit includes a genealogy, He is not simply filling space. He is laying a foundation. He is showing us that salvation is not an abstract, floaty idea. It is historical. It is concrete. It happens to real people, with real fathers and real sons, in real time. This is not mythology; it is history, and the God of history is a God of intricate detail. He knows His people by name.
This genealogy serves a crucial purpose right here. It is a divine credential check. It establishes the legitimacy and the identity of the very men, Moses and Aaron, whom God is anointing to be His instruments of deliverance. In a patriarchal world, your lineage was your resume. This list anchors Moses and Aaron firmly within the covenant family of Israel, and specifically within the tribe of Levi, the tribe God has sovereignly chosen for His priestly purposes. It is as though God is stamping their file with His official seal before sending them into the throne room of the most powerful man on earth. This isn't just a list of names; it's the letterhead of the King of Heaven. It tells us that the men who are about to speak are not self-appointed revolutionaries. They are ambassadors, sent with the full authority of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Furthermore, this list is a quiet sermon on divine election. God's sovereign choice cuts right through the middle of human expectations and merit. He passes over the firstborn, Reuben. He passes over the second-born, Simeon. He sets His electing love upon the third son, Levi, and out of Levi, He plucks the very men who will lead His people. This is a story of grace from top to bottom, and this genealogy is the fine print of that grace.
The Text
These are the heads of their fathers’ households. The sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari; and the years of Levi’s life were 137 years. The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families. The sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel; and the years of Kohath’s life were 133 years. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their generations. And Amram took his father’s sister Jochebed as a wife, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the years of Amram’s life were 137 years. The sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri. The sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri. And Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, as a wife, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph; these are the families of the Korahites. And Aaron’s son Eleazar took one of the daughters of Putiel as a wife, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites according to their families. It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom Yahweh said, “Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their hosts.” They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring out the sons of Israel from Egypt; it was the same Moses and Aaron.
(Exodus 6:14-27 LSB)
The Passed Over Sons (vv. 14-15)
The genealogy begins not with Levi, but with his older brothers, Reuben and Simeon. This is deliberate.
"The sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon." (Exodus 6:14-15)
Reuben was the firstborn. By all natural rights and cultural expectations, the leadership should have come from his line. But we know the backstory. Reuben defiled his father's bed, sleeping with his concubine Bilhah (Gen. 35:22). As a result, his father Jacob on his deathbed declared him "unstable as water" and said, "you shall not have preeminence" (Gen. 49:4). Here in Exodus, the Spirit gives a nod to Reuben's position as firstborn, lists his sons, and then moves on. The scepter has departed from Reuben. His sin had generational consequences. This is a sober reminder that while God's grace can cover any sin, our actions in this life have real, historical ripple effects.
Next is Simeon. He and his brother Levi were partners in crime, infamous for their hot-headed, violent retaliation for the rape of their sister Dinah (Gen. 34). They slaughtered the entire city of Shechem. Jacob's prophecy over them was a curse on their anger: "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel" (Gen. 49:7). This was fulfilled as Simeon's tribe was later absorbed into the territory of Judah. The text here simply lists Simeon's sons and then, again, moves on. Notice the detail about Shaul being "the son of a Canaanite woman." This is not an incidental detail. It's a quiet warning about the dangers of assimilation and intermarriage with the pagan nations, a problem that would plague Israel for centuries.
The point is clear: God is not bound by primogeniture. He is not bound by human tradition. His sovereign purposes are not derailed by human sin. He writes straight with crooked lines. He passes over the first and the second to get to the third, the one of His choosing.
The Chosen Line of Levi (vv. 16-25)
The narrative then slows down and zooms in on the tribe of Levi. This is the main point of the list.
"These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari..." (Exodus 6:16)
Levi, the third son, shared in Simeon's curse of being scattered. But God in His mysterious wisdom turns this curse into a glorious blessing. Levi will be scattered throughout Israel, not as a fragmented people, but as God's designated priests and ministers, teaching the law and tending the tabernacle. What was a judgment on his anger becomes the vehicle for his tribe's holy vocation. God redeems the very consequences of our sin for His own glory.
The genealogy then follows the line of Levi down, focusing particularly on the clan of Kohath, because it is from this branch that Moses and Aaron will come. We are given the lifespans of Levi (137 years), Kohath (133 years), and Amram (137 years). These are not random numbers. They demonstrate the historical reality of these men and show the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that his descendants would be afflicted for 400 years, but that He would sustain them.
The central point is verse 20: "And Amram took his father’s sister Jochebed as a wife, and she bore him Aaron and Moses." This is the bullseye. The entire list has been leading to this. These are the men. This is their pedigree. The marriage of an aunt and nephew would later be forbidden by the Mosaic law (Lev. 18:12), but here it stands as a historical fact before that law was given. God worked through the messy realities of human history to bring about His perfect plan.
The list continues, branching out to include the cousins of Moses and Aaron, like Korah. The name Korah should ring a bell. He is mentioned here as a legitimate head of a family, but later in Numbers 16, he will lead a wicked rebellion against the very authority of Moses and Aaron that is being established here. This genealogy, then, also sets the stage for future conflict. Not everyone in the chosen line remains faithful.
The focus then shifts to Aaron's line, the priestly line. We see his marriage to Elisheba, from the noble tribe of Judah, linking the priesthood to the future royal line. We see his sons, Nadab and Abihu, who will tragically be struck down for offering strange fire (Lev. 10), and Eleazar and Ithamar, who will carry on the priestly succession. And then, a final, crucial name: Phinehas, the son of Eleazar. Phinehas will be remembered for his righteous zeal in Numbers 25, when he acted decisively to stop a plague by executing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman who were openly defying God. For this act, God would grant him a "covenant of perpetual priesthood." This genealogy is packed with the seeds of Israel's entire future history of worship, rebellion, judgment, and grace.
The Divine Summary (vv. 26-27)
The passage concludes with a powerful summary that circles back and hammers the point home.
"It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom Yahweh said, 'Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their hosts.' They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring out the sons of Israel from Egypt; it was the same Moses and Aaron." (Exodus 6:26-27)
The Spirit repeats the names twice, "Aaron and Moses" and then "Moses and Aaron." This is not sloppy editing. It is a deliberate emphasis. The order is likely reversed in the second clause because while Aaron was the older brother and the designated high priest (hence listed first in the genealogy), Moses was the primary leader and mediator of the covenant. They are a team, divinely appointed and commissioned.
The phrase "it was the same" connects the men in the genealogy directly to the historical task. The names on the parchment are the men on the ground. The one who was born to Amram and Jochebed is the one who will stand before Pharaoh. The one whose lineage is traced back to Levi, son of Jacob, is the one to whom Yahweh spoke. This repetition serves as the final, authoritative stamp. There can be no doubt about who these men are and from where their authority comes. It comes from their covenant God, who works through covenant families, to fulfill His covenant promises.
The Gospel in the Names
Why should this matter to us? Because this is how God has always worked, and it points us directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. This entire passage is a testament to the fact that God's salvation is not a vague sentiment, but a historical, genealogical reality.
God's sovereign grace runs through this entire list. He chooses Levi, the violent man. He chooses Moses, the hesitant speaker. He chooses Aaron, who will later fashion a golden calf. He includes in this holy line men who will rebel, like Korah, and men who will sin grievously, like Nadab and Abihu. This is not a hall of fame of perfect specimens. It is a testimony to a God who delights to use weak, broken, and sinful people to accomplish His glorious purposes. He does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
This meticulous attention to lineage finds its ultimate fulfillment in the New Testament. Why does Matthew begin his gospel with a genealogy? "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1). He does it for the same reason Moses does it here. To show that Jesus is not a myth. He is the historical fulfillment of all God's promises, rooted in the real family tree of Israel. He is the true firstborn who did not sin. He is the one from the royal tribe of Judah, yet He is also our great High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, not Levi.
The entire Levitical priesthood, established here in seed form, was a placeholder. It was a shadow pointing to the substance, which is Christ. Aaron and his sons offered sacrifices that could only cover sin temporarily. But Jesus, our great High Priest, offered Himself once for all, a perfect sacrifice that removes sin permanently (Hebrews 9:26). The authority of Moses and Aaron was delegated and temporary. The authority of Jesus is inherent and eternal.
And just as God knew every name in this list, He knows your name. If you are in Christ, you have been grafted into this covenant family. You are a descendant of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:29). Your name is written not on an ancient scroll, but in the Lamb's Book of Life. God has a history for you, a lineage in the faith, and a role to play in His unfolding plan. This genealogy is not a dusty record; it is a declaration that our God is the God of history, the God of the family, and the God who saves real sinners by His sovereign grace, all of which finds its ultimate Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ.