Knowing that God Knows
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. 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. (Exodus 2:23-25 ESV)
In my personal quiet time, I have been studying Exodus. I’ve just been taking my time, slowly going through and reading, pondering, exploring and studying in-depth the saga of the Israelites.
It is interesting because I know the general idea of the story. Most everyone probably does. We all know the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. We know God raised up Moses to warn Pharaoh to let the people go. We know Pharaoh resisted through all the plagues God placed on Egypt. In the end, the people were set free, but only after the terrible tenth plague of the Passover. We’ve been told about the Red Sea parting, wilderness living, The Ten Commandments, making idols and so many other deep truths of this time in History.
Yet, when I take the time to slow down and focus on what I am studying, I find all kinds of neat hidden treasures in Scripture. One of those was that has stood out to me was in Exodus 2:25. It says,
God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.
At this point in Exodus, the Israelites were suffering terribly. They were crying out to the Lord for help. Verse 23 says, “their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.” Verse 24 says, “And, God heard their groaning.”
I’m not sure what triggered these verses to stand out so much to me when I went through Exodus 2. I knew God saw their suffering. I knew God knew and I know the plan he had in place. Yet, as I read that, I tried to think about the people of Israel. They didn’t know the days, hours, weeks to come ahead. They didn’t know about plagues coming, the Red Sea parting or what the next forty years would look like. God knew.
Romans 15:4 says,
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
I love this verse because it tells us that the Lord places scripture in the bible for us to learn and to give us hope. We can sit back and read Exodus knowing what happens but we don’t know the entire story God has written for us.
No matter what our situation is, no matter what trials and tribulations are coming our way, God sees and He knows. We can look back and read Exodus and the tremendous suffering and anguish that those people went through knowing that God knew exactly what and when things would take place.
Just like the Casting Crowns song says, God is Already There. He knows where our lives will go and he is sovereign over our lives. When you cry out to him because of your circumstances or life, rest in this truth placed in Exodus 2:25 and replace Israel with your own name:
God saw (Your Name Here) and GOD KNEW.
bless you for sharing.
So thankful that I’m not alone in these wanderings I face. God is with me. Great Word today. ?
Thank you for the encouraging words, Dana. You are right; we don’t know what is in store for us, but as you said, God knows.