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« Thursday Mashup - January 17, 2008 | Home | Journey through the Scriptures - Exodus 5:21; 6:9 »
Journey through the Scriptures - Exodus 2:23c-25
By jason | January 17, 2008
Scripture
Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel - and God knew.
Observation
In this statement I think we can make several important observations. First off to this point the Israelites have been enslaved and god has done very little about it. It must be said also that to this point the Israelites haven’t been crying out for rescue either. But a questions that comes to my mind is, “Why did God not do anything about their suffering to this point?”
The second observation I have is that Israel’s enslavement isn’t the response to disobedience of some sort It doesn’t seem you can point to their enslavement and say it’s due to their unfaithfulness to the covenant.
So in this passage I think we see an instance where the people of God, who are living for him, experience pain, suffering, and trials. It’s not because they are disobedient, it’s presented in the normal course of life.
Application
This is important because so many today explicitly or implicitly assume that if you’re following God pain, suffering, and trials won’t come. Or to say it differently, if you’re following God everything will go as it ought (in our favor). And therefore, pain, suffering, and trials are a result of sin.
This isn’t a new concept. We see it Job’s “friends.” We see it in the question asked by the disciples in response to a man’s blindness, “Who sinned this man or his parents?” So it’s not a new phenomenon to link suffering to sin, as the only explanation.
But here we find the people of God experiencing these things not as a result of their disobedience. And I think this should cause some cognitive dissonance for those today who want to link pain, suffering, and trials to sin today.
Not only that but I’m reminded of Jesus, who was the only one to ever perfectly live out God’s will for humanity, he was the only one without sin. And yet he was torturously beaten and executed. If pain and suffering and trials don’t come to the obedient then why did Jesus suffer and die?
I suppose someone could say it was abnormal and he was merely fulfilling the plan of God for redemption. But Jesus himself said, “A servant is not above his master. If they persecuted me they will persecute you” (John 15.20).
So I think we have to realize that pain, suffering, and trials come to the people of God just like everyone else. But we don’t have one who cannot empathize. In the midst of life’s circumstances we have a God who is concerned for us. We can call out to him and he will hear us. And ultimately he heard the cries of those enslaved and sent his son, Jesus, as a ransom for many.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your son, Jesus. Thank you that you have always heard the cries of the enslaved. Thank you that you did something about it decisively in the life and death of Jesus.
Topics: Spiritual Growth, The Scriptures |