God's Motive of Redemption
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Redemption is not a “do it yourself” project. The kind of redemption that God has in mind is one that only he can accomplish. It is the kind of redemption that leaves you speechless.
John Cartwright
The exodus shows that there is a God who saves, who delivers his people from bondage.
Philip Graham Ryken; R. Kent Hughes
23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Verse 23 begins with an important fact: “the king of Egypt died.”
This meant Moses could return to Egypt as a prophet and not as a fugitive (see 4:19).
Despite the change in government, the slavery remained severe. We read, “their cry for help ascended to God.”
Picture the intense grief, distress, and agony here in these cries (cf. Ps 130:1–2; Lam 2:18; Rom 8:26).
1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord, “O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no relief; Give your eyes no rest.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
The verbs in this section show us God’s motive for acting on their behalf.
First, consider God’s knowledge of the oppressed.
God’s Knowledge of the Oppressed
God’s Knowledge of the Oppressed
Of the many that are afflicted and oppressed, few get the good they might get by their affliction. It should drive them to God, but how seldom is this the case!
Matthew Henry
When the people cried out, He heard their cry. Not only did He hear it, He also saw or looked at their oppression, and He took notice, meaning He knew or was concerned (vv. 24–25).
God heard. God saw. God knew. God’s ability to see and to hear appears throughout Scripture.
Think of Psalm 34:15
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.
God’s exhaustive knowledge or omniscience also appears often in Scripture.
When the Scripture says that God “knew,” it means that He knew all about them. God was intimately aware of their agony. And because God knows, He acts.
We need to remember this Theological fact about the omniscience of God...
Because God knows all things perfectly, he knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, he is never surprised, never amazed.
A. W. Tozer
God knows about the oppressed and afflicted. And all fall in such circumstances must cry to Him of aid. For He is the only one that can truly redeem.
Second, “He remembered His covenant with Abraham” (v. 24).
God Remembered His Covenant with Abraham
God Remembered His Covenant with Abraham
Before we explore this point further let me say the following in regards to God’s covenant He made with Abraham.
Clearly the Abrahamic Covenant was not conditioned on anything Abraham would or would not do; its fulfillment in all its parts depends only on God’s doings.
Charles Caldwell Ryrie
God’s covenantal memory gets underlined here in v. 24. God remembers His unbreakable promise He made with Abraham. And it is now in God sovereign plan to act on behalf of the people of Israel.
To “remember” something means to bring it to the front burner and act on it.
The term “covenant” appears for the first time in Exodus here.
It appears 25 times in Genesis. The best definition of “covenant” may be in The Jesus Story Book Bible: “a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love” (Sally Lloyd-Jones, Story Book, 36).
As mentioned before, Exodus and Genesis go together.
In Genesis, God declared His intention to bless Israel and to fulfill His covenant to Abraham.
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
At the right time, God remembered His covenant to make a people from all nations and sent Jesus.
If you belong to God through Jesus Christ, you belong to His eternal covenant, “his never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”
This motive of redemption moves God toward His redemptive plan throughout the Bible.
God’s purpose of redemption and mission given to Abraham continues in Exodus.
This same God continues on the same mission of reclaiming worshipers today.