Day 155 · Year 1 · The Story of Scripture
God who notices, hears, knows
The exodus begins not with plagues but with a God who pays attention.
Today's passage
Exodus 3:7-10
7The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
8I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Before God sends a single plague, he tells Moses what he has been doing for four hundred years of silence: he has seen the affliction of his people, he has heard their cry, he knows their sufferings. Long silence is not the same as absence. The God of the burning bush has been watching the whole time. If you have been wondering whether your prayers have been logged, this is your text. The same God who came down to rescue slaves still pays attention to the people no one is keeping records for.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Charles Spurgeon · Puritans & Post-Reformation · 19th c. · England
Charles Spurgeon, who knew the long silences of depression personally, often preached that the God of Exodus had not stopped seeing or hearing — that delay is not denial, and silence is not abandonment.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What three verbs does God use about his people in verse 7?
- What does it tell you that God 'comes down' rather than sending help from a distance?
- What suffering of yours do you most need to know God has actually seen?
A prayer to pray
Tell God plainly what you are afflicted by. Ask him to make you certain — by his Word — that he has seen, heard, and knows.