A daily, 32-day Lenten Devotional Series by Rev. Dave Brown
A more substantial hope for release took place when Moses came of age and made the monumental decision to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. (Acts 7:23) However, when he took matters into his own hands and sought justice against the oppressors, Moses became a sojourner (an exile) in a nearby foreign land known as Midian. There he married and had children.
Forty years later, the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. Finally, the focus was on God. The Hebrews waited for God. How would God respond? Four action verbs spell out the truth about God’s concern.
God heard their prayers. The prayers may have been nothing more articulate than “groanings too deep to be put into words.” (Romans 8:26) Sighs, pain-filled cries, agonizing tears. Maxie Dunham writes, “There are times when we cannot speak. Our pain and grief cannot be expressed in words. So, in our anguished silence we lay our lives before God…and God hears the voice of our groanings, even though that groaning …does not issue in a sound.” (Dunham:53)
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and with Jacob. One of the great words of the Bible is Hesed, often translated faithfulness or steadfastness. Jeremiah once wrote: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is they faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23) God had made a promise to the patriarchs which he never broke. He intended to settle them in the land of Canaan and to make them a means of blessing to the entire world. The writer was reminding his readers: you can count on the Covenant-maker!
God saw the people in their plight. The word implies experiential knowing. He looked upon the people of Israel and saw the extent of their problems.
God knew. He knew their problems intimately, but he also knew his plans to liberate them from Egypt.
In the midst of another dark time of exile in Israel’s history, Jeremiah recorded God’s compassionate words:
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Reflections: Are you waiting for God? Or have you caved into the hopelessness of the culture, so piercingly portrayed in Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. Godot never comes. Existentialist hopes come to nothing. But the God who hears and sees, knows us intimately, and remembers his covenant promises. He comes!