Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

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Background

He Sees Our Plight

3:7–10.

land of milk and honey.

The land of Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.”

This refers to the bounty of the land for a pastoral lifestyle, but not necessarily in terms of agriculture.

Milk is the product of herds, while honey represents a natural resource, probably the syrup of the date rather than bees’ honey.

A similar expression to this is found in the Ugaritic epic of Baal and Mot that describes the return of fertility to the land in terms of the wadis flowing with honey.

Egyptian texts as early as the Story of Sinuhe describe the land of Canaan as rich in natural resources as well as in cultivated produce

Verse 7 summarizes the plight of the Israelites in their forced labor with four terms: “misery … crying out … slave drivers … suffering.”

With three verbs God announced his compassion: “I have indeed seen … I have heard them … I am concerned.”33

The first of these, “I have indeed seen” (rāʾōh rāʾı̂tı̂) involves the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction, which connotes the sense “I have carefully watched” or “I have paid very close attention to,” thus by itself indicating the intensity of God’s interest in the misery of his people.

Note also that God called Israel “my people,” echoing but also more grandly superseding Moses’ reference to “his own people” in 2:11.