(Exodus 2:23-3:7) God Sees, Hears, and Knows.

INTRODUCTION:

The older I get,

the more there are things I wish I had known in advance.

- I think of a friend of ours who came back from the missions field for furlough,

and had no idea she would face a devastating accident.

- I wish I could have known when my grandfather and grandmother were going to pass away.

- I think of the friends who allowed sin in their lives,

and I wish I could go back and warn them of the hardship they are about to put in their life.

- Many of us lost a lot of money in the stock market in the last few weeks.

The Dow Jones dropped 25%.

All of us who have mutual funds – say ouch.

But I know a way we could have actually made money in this market.

If you had invested in Walmart just before this virus -

you would not only not lost your money,

but you would've rode an all-time high of Walmart stock.

Why didn't any of us take advantage of that investment opportunity.

Because none of us saw this coming.

A month ago we were planning spring break, summer vacations,

A month ago we had no worries about our jobs and income. Yet today 6.5 million filed for unemployment.

A month ago most of us went to town without fear of getting sick.

A lot has happened in the last month.

Why can we live the lives that are peppered with moments of - I wish I had known?

Because we are finite.

That is a biblical word that teaches us we are limited,

and in particular we are limited in our knowledge.

We don’t have foresight, we only have hindsight.

We are not always wise.

We are not always skilled enough.

We live moment to moment - and there are things in our lives we had no idea where coming.

But today we read about our God who is omniscient.

Omniscience means that God knows everything, things actual and possible, effortlessly and equally well. (Charles Ryrie)

- The Bible portrays God’s knowledge as unlimited, comprehensive, and perfect in every way;

- God is omniscient (the Latin term scientia means “knowledge,” and the prefix omni- means “all”; hence omniscient means “all-knowing”)

(Stratis, Justin. “God’s Omniscience.” In Lexham Survey of Theology, edited by Mark Ward, Jessica Parks, Brannon Ellis, and Todd Hains. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018.)

- Montgomery Boice said -

It is impossible to overstate the qualities of God’s knowledge. As Thomas Watson observed years ago, God’s knowledge is primary, for he is the pattern and source of all knowledge from which others merely borrow; his knowledge is pure, for it is not contaminated by either the object or its sin; his knowledge is facile, for it is without any difficulty; it is infallible; it is instantaneous; it is entirely retentive. God is perfect in his knowledge.

(Boice, James Montgomery. Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensive & Readable Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986.)

But this morning I want to talk about a particular part of God's omniscience.

Why does it matter that God knows everything?

It always matters,

but it especially matters when I'm hurting.

There are many truths that we can say about God's omniscience,

but one of the most comforting truths is that means God always sees, hears, and knows my suffering.

Observe in our Bibles this morning,

how God sees, hears, and knows the suffering of Israel.

Exodus 2:23–3:7 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. 1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

I challenge us to -

Believe that God see’s, hears, and knows your suffering.

Today we are going to trace three ideas that are repeated in our text.

Israel is facing incredible suffering.

They are oppressed and afflicted.

They are enslaved.

Their male babies are being slaughtered.

Up to this point in the book of Exodus

- we might consider Exodus to be a really depressing book.

We are horrified at the atrocities of the Pharaoh.

And we feel the pain of Israel.

Exodus 2:23–24 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.

CAVEAT:

Now, I want to be careful here -

because we might assume that they are crying to the Lord.

But we actually don't know that from this text.

All it says is that they are crying out for help.

- This might be just cries in desperation.

They aren't prayers to any God,

but tears of desperation.

- This might be cries to the false gods they worship.

But our text doesn't say they prayed to the Lord.

It simply tells us there Cries came up to God.

In fact, it is almost oddly missing in the way it is worded.

Nor does it say that they asked God to keep the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God just remembers the covenant.

But in the midst of this suffering,

we see a burst of hope.

Slide

Moses will repeatedly tell us that God sees, hears, and knows the Affliction of Israel.

And from this passage,

We ought to believe God See’s, hears, and knows our suffering.

First, I submit to you -

1) God see’s our suffering. (Exodus 2:25; 3:7, 9, 16)

God is described in this passage as having the sense of sight.

God created us with a sense sight ...

To help us be able to understand what's going on

and to do something about it.

Site in essence is about perception,

but sight is also what allows us to do something about our perceptions.

After all - We say

- that a picture is worth 1000 words because sight can move us to action.

ILLUSTRATION:

Many of you can remember exactly where you were when you watched on the TV the twin towers fall.

The image of that terrorist attack caused many of us to serve our country,

and made national security a top priority of elections.

And what we have described in this passage is God seeing the pain and hurt of Israel,

and being motivated to compassion.

Exodus 2:25 ESV

25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Exodus 3:7 ESV

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Exodus 3:9 ESV

9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Exodus 3:16 ESV

16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,

As we consider our sight,

We see many wonderful things through our eyes.

ILLUSTRATION

We behold the wonderful Rocky Mountains with our eyes.

We marvel at the antelope running through the valley with her eyes.

We watch our children go from little wee's to full grown adults with our eyes.

We see many wonderful things,

but we also see so much evil.

We observe with our eyes our own sin and the sin of others.

We watch other people's sin and suffering through the TV.

And we observe with our eyes the suffering of the afflicted.

Scripture describes God in the same way.

But we only see that any a limited sense.

We only see a finite amount of good and evil.

But God sees all.

Psalm 139:1–4 ESV

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Hebrews 4:13 ESV

13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

In this passage we see the omniscient sight of God seeing the afflictions of Israel.

It describes our God and having the full capacity to see the intimate details of every Israelite,

Which means he inherently sees the injustice, pain and suffering of Israel at the hands of Egypt.

The great comfort that we can take from this passage is that we know God sees our suffering.

God sees the intimate details of our lives, which means he inherently sees the injustice, pain, and suffering in our lives.

God is omniscient because he can see every thing.

And further,

2) God hears our suffering. (Exodus 2:24; 3:7, 9)

God is described here with sense of hearing.

Eyesight is important,

but so is hearing.

- Hearing allows us to know what's going on even beyond what we can see.

ILLUSTRATION:

For example,

On Saturday we are outside of the family.

And suddenly we heard all loud boom, boom, boom.

I don't know what made that big loud boom,

but because all of us could hear -we stopped to hear what was going on.

Hearing allows us to perceive what's going on beyond what we can see.

- Hearing is also important for communication.

We know some missionaries in Haiti who serve at a death Academy,

Because those who can't hear have no way to communicate.

Our passage today describe God hearing the afflictions of Israel.

Exodus 2:24 ESV

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 3:7 ESV

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Exodus 3:9 ESV

9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

If God can hear the intimate details of every Israelites a life, you can understand why the groanings of Israel came up to God.

God would've been able to hear every time the Egyptians beat the Hebrew slaves.

Got have been able to hear every time an Egyptian spoke down to or cursed a Hebrew slave.

He would've heard the cries every baby being killed by the pharaohs order.

And he would've heard every cry from the moms, and dads, and siblings, and grandparents who lost a Hebrew baby to pharaohs wicked law.

He would've heard every groan and desperate plea that every Egyptian was making under the oppression

It describes our God and having the full capacity to HEAR the intimate details of every Israelite,

Which means he inherently HEARS the injustice, pain and suffering of Israel at the hands of Egypt.

Combine God's hearing with God's sight,

he would've literally heard and saw the sightes of the oppression.

The great comfort that we can take from this passage is that we know God HEARS our suffering.

God hears the intimate details of our lives, which means he inherently hears the injustice, pain, and suffering in our lives.

God is omniscient because he can hear every thing.

If you combine seeing and hearing – what do you have?

Knowledge.

Finally,

3) God knows our suffering. (Exodus 2:25, 3:7)

I said sight gives us perception to know what is going on and do something about.

I said hearing gives us perception to know what's going on and to do something about it.

Hearing and Sight complement each other,

because sight gives us the visual picture,

while hearing gives us the sound of what's going on.

We were created by our Creator to intuitively perceive and know what's going on,

with the idea that if I know, I can do something about it.

Moses tells us -

God not only saw what happened

God not only heard what happened,

but because God sees and hears all - God knows all.

God is omniscient.

Observe in our text how God knows intimately the sufferings of Israel.

Exodus 2:25 ESV

25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Exodus 3:7 ESV

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Throughout the section God makes the point that

>>>> he sees and hears the affliction and oppression of Israel.

He sees what Egypt is doing to them.

But these two passages communicate something extra to us.

God knows what is happening to Israel.

God knows how each Israelite is

- suffering

- and groaning

- and hurting

- and crying.

We can almost say this logically

- if God sees and hears, then he certainly knows.

So why does Moses explicitly tell us he knows?

Because it adds another layer to the point that Moses is making.

They are not alone in their suffering.

They may feel like no one is listening, but the ruler of heaven and earth is listening.

And he knows they are hurting.

The great comfort that we can take from this passage is that we know God KNOWS our suffering.

God knows the intimate details of our lives, which means he inherently knows the injustice, pain, and suffering in our lives.

God is omniscient because he can know every thing.

Finally,

4) God Delivers us from suffering. (Exodus 3:7-8)

ILLUSTRATION:

We have a saying- "knowledge is power”

Why do we say that?

Because if you know something

you can do something about it.

God knew the suffering of Israel.

God knows our suffering.

And he knows so intimately because he sees and hears it all.

But

Why does Moses tell us that God knows?

Because God’s character and essence demands that God deliver the oppressed and the hurting.

Exodus 3:7–8 ESV

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

- The character, attributes, and essence of God teach us that God will not allow us to suffer greater then we can stand.

- The character, attributes, and essence of God teach us that God will not allow us to suffer without one day bringing justice.

In fact, Scripture teaches us that God has a special place in his heart for those who are oppressed and afflicted.

Consider the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12.

APPLICATION:

I said at the beginning -

The older I get,

the more there are things I wish I had known in advance.

But

What comforts me.

What gives me peace and joy - even through trials.

Is that I know god see’s, hears, and knows my troubles … and his character demands him do something about it.

[יַּ֥רְא], [שׁמע], and [ידע]

These Are ordinary Hebrew words,

See, Hear, and Know

but in this context they are words of comfort, hope, and peace.

As we go through life,

May we remember we have an omniscient God,

who see’s, hears, and knows the exact details of life.

May we leave rejoicing at the Omniscience of God.