Where is God? (Exod 2:23-25)

Most of us have wondered about God’s timing at one point or another. Sometimes it seems perfect and everything falls into place. At other times, we are left confused when tragedy hits unexpectedly or we struggle in a tight spot without a sense that God is there. This is how the Israelites must have felt as they cried and cried to God, yet their bondage nevertheless continued for several generations (Gen 15:13, 16). Where was God?

It is hard to fathom at times what God is doing and we often seek rational explanations to cope. We may speculate that God was preparing His own people for the exodus by helping them see their desperate circumstances. Sometimes a situation has to become unbearable before we are willing to risk change. Even so, as Israel experienced the insecurity of their wilderness wanderings, they viewed Egypt through rose-coloured glasses and remembered the plentiful food rather than their enslavement (e.g. Exod 16:3; Num 11:4-6). Some lessons have to cut deep before they are engraved in our memory. Thinking further about God’s timing, Moses had to be prepared as leader. From another aspect, God was perhaps persevering with the Egyptians giving them the benefit of the doubt before bringing judgement on them (cf. 2 Pet 3:9). These may all be valid reasons, but we are only told one small detail, namely that the king of Egypt died (Exod 2:23), which allowed Moses to return there without repercussions (Exod 4:19).

While we may be seeking answers to the ‘why’ and ‘how long’ questions, Scripture teaches us that we may not get any, as the Israelites didn’t. Instead, our eyes are directed to God’s presence. The first two chapters of Exodus imply that God was there and at work in the fruitfulness of Israel. He noted and rewarded the courage of the midwives and He began the process of preparing a deliverer in Moses. Most importantly, the Israelites’ cry rose to God (Exod 2:23). Translations often cut out the repetitions and obscure a little the two-fold emphasis in these verses. My rather wooden translation below helps highlight it. On the one hand, we see the depth of suffering:

²³ …And the sons of Israel groaned because of the labour and they cried out and their cry for help from their labour rose up to God. ²⁴ And God heard their groans…

On the other hand, we are made aware of God’s perceptions and motivation:

²⁴ And God heard their groans; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.

When God remembers, it always involves His response to the commitment He had made. God is also fully conscious of His people’s experience. It strikes me that God was not only seeing the people’s suffering, but He saw them. They were not merely objects of pity as victims, but He saw them as persons. The last expression (in Hebrew ‘God knew’) is re-phrased in most translations to include an object (e.g. God took notice of the Israelites or was concerned for them or God knew it was time to act). ‘To know’ in Hebrew is sometimes used for the deep, intimate knowing such as a husband and wife experience in their physical intimacy (Gen 4:1). While knowing need not imply a deeper dimension, given the emphatic description in vv. 24-25 and that the subject is God, it makes sense to see it as something more profound here than an everyday, even superficial kind of knowing. By leaving the phrase open-ended, Scripture also allows us to ponder what God knew. He knew His people and their limitations. He knew the depth of their suffering, their hurt questions, their pain, deeply, intimately, as if He were suffering with them. In Christ, He did just that.