The relationship between God and his people is often described in parent-child terms. We are to look on him as our Father. Certainly, having God as a Father causes us to have some big expectations of him. This is God we're talking about! Real life, however, makes us doubt God and makes us wonder if God truly is our Father, if he truly is someone who will, like any good father, follow through on what he promises us. Do we really have a God who notices us, pays attention us, and acts in accordance with what he promises us? Exodus 2 will go long way to showing us that we do indeed have this kind of God.
When Exodus 2 begins the situation remains desperate for the Israelites. Pharaoh the king of Egypt has instituted a nationwide program to drown every Hebrew boy. Into these horrible circumstances a baby is born. We would think that this baby would immediately be killed but the baby is miraculously saved and in fact adopted by one of the daughters of Pharaoh. This boy gets named Moses, and he grows up in the royal court getting the finest education a person could get back then. By v.11 he is full grown adult man, 40 years old according to Acts 7:23. Moses seems like the person in perfect position to save the Israelites from their slavery and oppression under Pharaoh. In just one act, however, everything falls apart. Moses kills an Egyptian who was beating one of Israelites and the word gets out on what he did. Moses is forced to flee the country and go to Midian. There he gets connected to a family, marries one of the daughters of the family, and settles in for the next forty years working as a shepherd.
So Moses for the time being is out of the picture. Exodus 2:23 tells us that the king of Egypt then dies – perhaps now things might change? Sadly, they do not. The people of Israel remain enslaved and oppressed. Things seem to be over for these people. But the truths contained in Exodus 2:23-25 tell us differently. These people will survive and be set free, and it's because of the relationship they have with God. Here are a few things to note from these verses:
1. God's people must cry out to God. When a kid gets hurt they immediately cry out for the parent. This cry can be very loud at times and probably even a bit over dramatic. But what parent would have it any other way? The cry of a child to their parent is a cry that invites, that begs, for the parent to come into that child's experience. It's a cry through which the parent is able to bring healing if needed ("Here's some bandages Johnny"), encouragement ("You're going to be okay!") and context ("It's really not that bad. Look, you don't have any scratches on you.")
In prayer, we are able to cry out to God as a child cries out to their Father. And in so doing we will see the Lord move towards us to bring the healing, the encouragement, and the context we need for whatever situation we are in. The problem today is that too many of us are crying out to everything but God for help. Israel had this problem later on when instead of crying out to God they began to cry out to other nations for help. People today cry out for help to trendy self-help books, to horoscopes, to alcohol, to drugs, to various relationships or people. The problem inherent in all this is that none of these things can really give us the outside unbiased perspective we need on life since they all are themselves deeply part of the life of this world. But even more importantly, these things are unable to give real transforming help in and of themselves. In fact, I would argue that no matter what we do or where we turn it all largely ends up back in our laps, with the onus on us to deal with things on our own strength.
God gives us a much better direction to turn to – one that can give us real help. God invites us to turn to himself. See for example Ps 18:6 and Ps 121:1-2. Real life, with all its fears and doubts and anxieties, is a unique opportunity to connect with God. It is a regular means by which we can really see how powerful it is to have God as a Father. Indeed, to live and grow as a Christian means regularly crying out to God saying, "God, my Father! Help me every day!"
2. God hears the cries and responds to the cries of his people. Notice the words used to reinforce this for us in Ex 1:24-25. We are told that God heard and God saw. Like any good dad, God's senses are specially tuned to his kids. In fact, before we could even give attention to ourselves God was giving deliberate attention to us. As we are told in Eph 1, God "choose us in him before the foundation of the world," and "predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ."
We are also told that God knew. The idea here is that God entered into the situation of the Israelites. He didn't just know about what was going, God personally resonated with what they were going through.
This of course is not the only time God has done this. Indeed, the story of Jesus is the story of God entering into our world and knowing us, knowing what we go through, knowing why we cry out and what it is to cry out. There's nothing that anyone has experienced - no rejection, no depression, no heartache, no trial, no illness, no temptation, nothing! - that God can't resonate with at some level.
Finally, we are told that God remembered his covenant. Here is the key phrase. This phrase tells us that we have a God who will ACT. He will always follow through on his promises. To say that God "remembers" is not to say that he had forgotten about Israel and all of sudden needed to have his memory jogged a bit. Rather, to say that God remembers is to say that he always does what he promises to those he is in relationship with. The whole history of God in relationship with his people can be described as a series of promises and fulfillments. God promises, then he remembers and acts at the right moment in fulfillment of his promises.
Thus, in Exodus 2 we see God remembering the promises he made way back when to Abraham (cf Gen 12:2-3, 15:13-16), which got passed on to his son Isaac, then to his son Jacob, and finally all the way down the line to the Israelites in Egypt. God remembered them, which is to say that God would now begin to accomplish the great things he had promised to do for them.
But an even better example for us is Luke 2:25-35. There we read about an old man named Simeon who was waiting for God to remember the biggest promise of all. This was a promise to bring a salvation for all peoples. It was promise whereby God's people would be made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Simeon knew and rejoiced that God had in fact remembered his promise the moment he set his eyes on baby Jesus.
Jesus provides the way by which we become part of God's people and can now look to God as our Father. In Jesus we can cry our hearts out and know that God will hear us, see us, know us, and respond to us. Because of this, we can know that if we have Jesus in our life we have a Dad who will give us the healing, encouragement, and context for every struggle and oppression and difficulty we face. This can, and should, release us to cry out boldly to God every day for his help and to live boldly for God every day, leaning on his help.
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