He Hears and Sees His

Do you feel unseen, unheard? Perhaps you’re walking through a difficult season in life that others don’t see. Consider the plight of God’s people during their oppression in Egypt.

Context: Exodus Chapter 1 Berean Standard Bible explains the Israelites’ situation:

11So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

13They worked the Israelites ruthlessly 14and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.

Exodus chapter 2 introduces the reader with Moses and sets the stage for God’s call through a burning bush in chapter 3. Life was harsh for Joseph’s descendants. Pharaoh orders the midwives to kill the baby boys. When this doesn’t work, he orders the male babies to be thrown in the Nile.

Pastor David Guzik in Enduring Word Bible Commentary writes:

“In the midst of their cruel and harsh service, life must have seemed hopeless to the children of Israel, and the idea that God was working out His plan must have seemed very far away – yet it was true nonetheless”.

Exodus Chapter 1

This image–God is the Light that looks down upon the ancient city. He sees the sorrows and sufferings of His people in this desert city.

God Hears, Sees, and Takes Notice

God Hears the Cry of the Israelites

23After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

24So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25God saw the Israelites and took notice.

God is faithful to His promise. God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:

13Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. 15You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

God has a plan and a time (vr.16). In God’s plan, in the right moment He delivers His people and judges the Amorites. God is giving the Amorites 400 years! Consider the truth that perhaps all is not as it might seem:

In the bloody, sweaty, tearful, agonizing experience of slavery, it would have looked like God had forgotten.

He had not. He knew. He had foreknown. And he knew just what he was doing.

Jon Bloom God Knows

God knows your sorrows. He knows how you feel. He is aware of your tears, and yearning for all things to be made right. He knows the painful ache of loneliness and helplessness that we face in our valley experiences. The Israelites were powerless against Pharoah and his armies, yet God has a plan.

Even in the darkness, His Light of Grace shines forth onto our lives.

Take Notice

Key word in verse 25: Hebrew Word way·yê·ḏa‘ or to take notice:

Christianity.com explains this term: emphasis mine

“The word “know” that is used in Exodus 2:25 is derived from the word used for sexual intimacy. Way·yê·ḏa‘ means “took notice of,” “saw,” “beheld.” The Lord is omniscient — he knows everything — and omnipresent. He sees into hearts and sees what we do. He is also personally with us in our struggles; so close, sometimes, that we don’t see him.”

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/what-does-it-mean-that-god-knows.html

God Knows: This Is What Matters!

Jon Bloom explains “God Knows“

The reality expressed in the words “God knows” is a well of profound comfort and peace for us in our afflictions. Yes, there remain unanswered questions. No, they do not themselves remove our pain.

Full Article:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-knows

One Day It Will Make Sense

Your affliction has a purpose. You likely don’t know what it is yet, but someday you will.

And your affliction has a timeline. You likely don’t know what it is yet, and likely it already seems too long. But someday you will understand.

And you will understand that the purposes for both your affliction and how long you were required to endure it extended far beyond the range of your perception. And then it will make sense.

There is meaning to your sorrows! While it’s not apparent, one day it will be clear in the Light of His Presence when we arrive home. May these thoughts encourage you in your moment of need!