God in Trouble (Exodus 2:23-25)

Confession of sin:

Galatians 4:8–9 ESV

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Assurance of grace:

John 1:48 ESV

48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Reading #1, for perspective:

Psalm 18:2–6 ESV

2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Reading #2, main reading:

Exodus 2:23–25 ESV

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Reading #3, for final effect:

Proverbs 29:2 ESV

2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

***Welcome the livestream viewers.***

Intro:

How much this morning do you want God in your “stuff?”

It’s a question our passage makes us consider.

How much this morning do you want God in your “stuff?”

As you go through life--

—maybe it’s a significant trial.

—maybe it’s a significant storm.

—maybe you’re dealing with a hardship, and it’s a burden you just can’t “shake.”

—maybe it’s a temptation, or a besetting sin.

—maybe it’s a financial weight, an unexpected bill or an expense you didn’t plan on coming.

—maybe it’s unexpected health news, a diagnosis you weren’t expecting, for you or for someone you love.

—maybe it’s a friend relationship or family relationship that’s a burden and a trial.

—maybe it’s a bully at school or a whole host of other issues that can come up in life.

—maybe it’s a longlasting grief, and it leaves a “hole inside.”

Where is God in that stuff?

And particularly, where do you want him in that stuff?

Intro.2:

In 2013—ten years ago already—the government got itself into trouble because it was in our stuff.

And what was uncovered was the evidence of widespread government surveillance. — The government, it was found out, was snooping.

The government was spying.

It was reading emails.

It was tracking phone records.

Yet, tracking emails, phones, and communication of terrorists was one thing.

But what was uncovered was that even people like you and me were being spied on.

--Americans.

--In the United States.

--At our workplaces, in our homes, and on all our devices.

--Without warrants or safeguards of any kind—the government was watching us, too.

Our emails, our phones, and who knew what else. Family photos, documents, financial records—who really knew?

And maybe especially criminal—government officials were using resources as well to track and spy on their own old romances, and they were using the data they found for personal reasons to harass those people.

The whistle blew. And a government, far removed and disconnected, was still in our stuff and was spying.

I. Israel’s broken back (Ex. 2:23)

Beloved, this morning in Exodus 2 we’re given a complete outworking of Proverbs 29:2.

Hear Proverbs 29:2 again:

Proverbs 29:2 ESV

2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

* * *

You can hear the groaning and the cry of the people in our Exodus 2 passage, can’t you?

It’s a cry and a groan so heavy, too, and so pervasive among the people of Israel—that the author of Exodus uses 4 different Hebrew words in 4 different ways to convey just how horrible and terrible the weight of Egypt’s slavery was on the people.

What does the author say?

v. 23, “The people of Israel GROANED.”

v. 23 again, “The people of Israel groaned and CRIED OUT FOR HELP.”

Then v. 23, a third time: “their CRY FOR RESCUE came up to God.”

And then finally in the first part of v. 24, “And God heard their GROANING.”

* * *

So horrid was the weight that the Egyptian enslavers put upon the people of Israel.

So horrendous was the toil and the backbreaking treatment that the people endured.

The wicked Egyptians are ruling (Prov. 29)—and the people are groaning!

--They’re wanting RELIEF.

--They’re wanting RESCUE.

Moses in his writing is emphasizing that the people are hurting and sorrowing in these days. And it makes sense!

In fact—it’s about the 284th year of Israel’s slavery in Egypt by this time.

(Putting 284 years in perspective: 284 years ago was 1739!)

Imagine:

—Moses hasn’t been called yet at the burning bush (though he soon will be…and the people don’t yet know it).

—Moses has grown up into adulthood…and he’s about 80 years old by this time.

—And Moses isn’t even in the land!

He’s away and gone, and he’s in his own exile, on the run from Pharaoh’s own death sentence on his life.

Moses hasn’t even been called yet!

* * *

So imagine you need help, you’re in a serious trouble and situation—and the help you need isn’t even in the same zip code!

Imagine you’re in an emergency, you pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1—and you find out the police, or the fire, or whomever isn’t even in the country! — It’s like they’re in Canada instead, or they’re way far out in the Caribbean and unable to get to you!

In fact—you dial 9-1-1…and you find out on the other end that the firehouse is on fire! Or the police station is overrun and being ransacked!

The rescuers seem entirely useless! --- Moses himself is in exile!

What gives with that??

Wouldn’t you cry, too, and moan and groan and go into a bit of a panic!

* * *

For 284 years on end, the people have been enslaved in the land.

In fact, Moses uses the word earlier in Exodus 1 saying that the Pharaoh “afflicted” the people (Exodus 1:11).

He oppressed them, humiliated them, violated them, broke them.

Moses says,

Exodus 1:11 ESV

11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Other telling words in Exodus 1 are that:

the Egyptians were “ruthless” or harsh and cruel (1:13), and they made the Israelites’ lives “bitter” (1:14)

1:14 again, They were in “hard service” for the Egyptians, working mortar and brick and all sorts of work in the fields.

* * *

All in all, it’s BREAKING work. It’s TOIL. It’s MISERY.

The labor was forced. The Egyptians were harsh and brutal.

Moses later in Deuteronomy calls the Egyptians’ treatment pure “evil” and says Egypt’s enslavement “oppressed” Israel and humiliated them. (Deut. 26:6)

* * *

We know from the centuries of American slavery, too: enslavement is NOT dignifying!

Enslavement is NOT humanizing!

One person does not enslave another person because they’re honoring the image of God in the person they’re enslaving!

One person enslaves another, and (sinfully, wretchedly, horribly) regards the person as if they’re mere dirt or property.

Moses was right in his estimation in Deuteronomy—enslavement IS evil.

And the implementations and tools of slavery show its inhumanity and horrors, too:

—ruling by whips and threats

—restricting movement and punishing escape

There’s no gospel grace and kindness in enslavement!

The people are relegated and stuck there, generation after generation, century after century.

Born into slavery.

Dying in slavery.

“Cradle to grave,” you find yourself rendered a slave, captive to someone who owns you and controls your every move.

What hope would that give??

What would be the outlook for YOUR life, and the life of your CHILDREN??

So they “groaned,” and they cried!

* * *

Proverbs 29:2 again:

The wicked rule…and “the people GROAN.”

II. God’s attentive heart (Ex. 2:24-25)

Passages like these next two verses are why, in American slavery, slaveholders in the United States often tore out and ripped up Exodus and kept Exodus entirely out of the Bibles of the people they enslaved.

You can see it in Washington, D.C., in the Museum of the Bible. The “Slave Bible.”

(They didn’t want slaves reading Exodus and getting ideas that God would be mindful of them, too. Slaveholders were undermining the Bible to keep slaves “in check,” so to speak, and “in their place.”)

* * *

But look with me how God is a direct response to Israel, and he’s a direct affront and opposition to the horrid treatment by the Egyptians.

REVIEW:

We said Moses used how many different ways, in vv. 23-24, to express the groans and cries of the people? (4 different Hebrew words used in 4 different ways)

Now count…how many different ways does GOD ACT in vv. 24-25?

First, “God heard.”

Second, “God remembered.”

Third, “God saw.”

And fourth(!), “God knew.”

Four different actions of God! --- Corresponding to the four cries of the people!

And all the while, Pharaoh is where? --- Pharaoh is DEAD! (Recall v. 23)

Pharaoh is dead…Pharaoh cannot act…and God is going to get the final word and the glory—in chapters 3-16 especially, when he decimates Egypt, frees the people, and leaves Pharaoh’s army a total wreck!

* * *

The use of God’s name here, too, is interesting.

He is God in the text, “Elohim.” This is his powerful name, his Creator name in Genesis 1 , his name high and lifted up.

It’s his throne name—and meanwhile, Pharaoh is out of his throne, and he’s buried and lying in the pyramid tombs.

It’s God’s ruling name.

His sovereign name.

His name for dealing with the world—his name for dealing with the nations.

It’s his name for being high up (so that v. 23 reads that Israel’s cries “came up” to God)—and it’s his name for being mighty.

Or as one commentator puts it,

“When God deals with the corrupt nations (and proves he’s highest above all), look out! He usually comes as God to them (Elohim), and he comes at them with rolled-up sleeves. He might come with a world-consuming Flood, for example: and Elohim then is ready to do war and make his judgments!”

* * *

In 4 ways the people cry and groan to God—and in 4 ways God acts.

He hears.

He remembers.

He sees.

And he knows.

Egypt’s treachery has grabbed God’s attention, and it puts God to work!

But his operation with Israel seems so personal though, right? He hears…he remembers…he sees…he knows.

God is rolling up his sleeves to deal with the Egyptians, the nations. BUT when his people are crying—to them, he’s kind. He’s “human,” so to speak. He’s lowly: like a parent who tends to a hurting child.

God the Father. — And in the Hebrew text, they are literally his “children of Israel!”

* * *

I’m thinking here of when the call comes out from Isaac’s room overnight...

“MOMMY!!!”

And what happens? — It’s the progression of these verses, isn’t it?

From the other room, Isaac’s call might find us groggy and woken up out of a full sleep. But:

We HEAR Isaac’s call to Stef.

We REMEMBER he’s our son, and instinctively we remember we’re his parents and we care for him. (We remember Isaac is our “charge,” our commitment, our privilege who needs our care.)

So we go to his room, and we SEE what the matter is.

And, fourth, then we KNOW what the actual matter is for the call (because we ask him, and he tells us)—and naturally, knowing and finding out the reason for the call, now we act.

* * *

So it is with God here in our text, to an extent.

Although we have to ask: did God NOT “know” Israel’s suffering and pain until he heard it, until he remembered and he saw?

Was God oblivious and unknowing to that point, of his people’s cries and their hurt?

(We as parents won’t know what Isaac’s point of calling us is, until Isaac tells us. Is that how it is with God, too?)

As Matthew Henry notes, with God asking of Adam “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9)—it’s not a question of “In what place are you?” But it’s a question instead of “In what CONDITION are you?” In what circumstance? In what pain?

And how devastating it was that, in Genesis 3, the man and woman HEARD God walking in the garden—and rather than turning to him in that moment, instead hearing God they hid in their misery and they tried running away!

They heard God…and they wanted nothing to do with him!

They wanted him out of their stuff!

***

(God, too, will continue hearing his people as Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy continue on—but it’s interesting that what God hears every time, after the liberation from Egypt, is he hears the people GRUMBLING.)

Conclusion

So to start closing:

Bill Clinton famously said in his 1992 campaign for President, “I feel your pain.” --- And where you stand on the issues and how you vote, that probably determines whether you believed Bill Clinton or not, that he felt your pain or not.

But today—you have to step back as you read our passage too, and you have to ask yourself—What does GOD feel?

Does God know?

Does God see?

Does God care?

Is he compassionate? Is he kind?

* * *

And we who are able—do we reflect God to those around us. In their pain, do we take the time to hear, to really see, to really know their struggle, and to act at its most pertinent need?

* * *

Jesus Christ cried out as well (Matthew 27:46), and he cried out “with a loud voice,” the Gospel writer notes: “saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?”

Was God kind there, at the cross, at Calvary, at Jesus’ darkest and most excruciating moment?

Was God compassionate?

Did he hear? Did he remember? Did he see and know? The agony…the pain…the defeat?

* * *

We’ll return to that question—because here is the compassion and kindness in that life of OUR Lord Jesus:

Luke 7:13, “13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.””

Matthew 9:2 “2 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.””

John 5:6,8, “6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”” “8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.””

And:

John 6:64 “64 (Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)”

* * *

And in the closing words of the Bible, the RISEN Jesus says to each of his seven churches: “I know…I know…I know…I know.”

To Ephesus: I KNOW your works…your endurance.

To Smyrna: I KNOW your tribulation…your poverty.

To Pergamum: I KNOW where you dwell.

To Thyatira: I KNOW your works.

And it’s four times there, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea:

I KNOW your works…I KNOW your works…I KNOW your works…I KNOW your works.

* * *

He is the RISEN Lord who says those words. And he’s the CONQUERING Lord.

It’s the beast, the dragon, and Babylon whom he has defeated—no longer the Pharaoh. (Pharaoh by then was long laid out and long just a memory and a story for the history books, as he is today!)

He’s the risen Lord—and “On the third day, GOD RAISED HIM from the dead.”

Is God kind? Is God compassionate? Was God at Calvary??

The same Jesus who cried to God at the cross of Calvary—GOD RAISED HIM.

And God raised him as our rescuer, our deliverer, and our restorer!

No more tears, no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain. “And God will wipe away every tear.”

Israel’s groans—and our own groans—have received an answer!

* * *

And Jesus says to you, wherever this morning you want him in your stuff:

John 14:17 (ESV)

17 even the Spirit of truth—You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

In Jesus…God HEARS you, he REMEMBERS, he SEES, and he KNOWS…because ultimately he is FAITHFUL.

And you can depend on him, for all you need.

Amen.

Parting blessing:

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Translation/notes:

23.

And it happened in those many days that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned/sighed/gasped/mourned/wailed from slavery/bondage and they cried out/wailed/complained (for help, in distress, in agony). And their cry for help (for assistance) from slavery/bondage went up/ascended to God.

24.

And God heard their groan, and God remembered his covenant to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (“Jacob” <— —> “Israel”)

25.

And God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.