He Won’t Fail.
God is always — always — doing more than we see or know.
I’ve entered into Exodus in my morning communion time with God, and something I read a few mornings ago still grips me.
The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor,
and they cried out,
and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning,
and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
And God saw the Israelites,
and God knew.(Exodus 2:23b-25, Christian Standard Bible)
The first thing that struck me were the powerful descriptions of a people in deep suffering and pain. Listen to how Moses stacks up the words so that you feel it along with them: “groaned,” “difficult labor” (twice), “cried out,” and “cry for help.”
I’m sure you can remember a time when you were going through pain to the degree that such words were on your lips, or such cries were rising from the deepest parts of you, even if sometimes they were inaudible.
Or, someone you’ve loved and cared for in ways you didn’t think possible was going through something tearing them apart in this way. And you were — or are — right there with them, feeling all the feels.
That’s what first struck me, heavily, in this passage.
But then I realized I was missing the main point of the text. Namely, that we’re not meant to focus primarily on the suffering and pain of the people in this text, and our response to it.
Rather, we’re to focus on God’s response.
And it’s powerful.
God heard…
God remembered…
God saw…
God knew…
The best thing I can say in response to these four statements is that you should take at least a few minutes to just ponder them. Think over how God is responding in these four ways to a people in suffering and pain. Meditate on the reality that he hasn’t changed, and that he’s still responding to people in suffering and pain, in exactly the same ways.
Further, to really drive this home for yourself, take a few moments and write down what you think it means that God responds like this. And how it makes you feel.
And then, when you’re ready, keep reading…
As I moved on in the story of Exodus, I was so intrigued to read the very next words:
Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
(Exodus 3:1a)
“Meanwhile….”
I love this!
So, first we’re invited into the heavenly realms, where we learn about God’s awareness of the suffering and pain of his people.
And then, we’re transported, even as that is happening — “meanwhile” — to another place in the story, a part of the story we’re very familiar with, the famous event of Moses and a burning bush. And what we hear in this “meanwhile” event are the following words from the God who heard, remembered, saw, and knew.
Then the Yahweh said,
“I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
(Exodus 3:7-10, Christian Standard Bible)
Do you see what’s happening here!?
In other words, even though the people of God, in their suffering and pain, have no idea that it’s happening, God is already on the move to do something about it. He’s got a plan to rescue them. The cries for help have not fallen on deaf ears.
God hears, remembers, sees, knows, and God acts.
This passage is deeply encouraging because it is remarkably revealing.
It shows us something stunning about God, our Father.
Namely, when we — or someone we know and love — are in suffering and pain, God hears, remembers, sees, and knows. And God has a plan to rescue us from the powers of darkness making life hell for us.
We don’t know the timing on that,
but we know and can trust the reality of that.
God is there.
God is planning.
God is mighty to save.
And God will not fail you.
(if you don’t see the video for “Firm Foundation (He Won’t)”, click here)
