Exodus 2:23-3:12 - The Lord Will Hear Your Cry
Exodus 2:23-3:12 - The Lord Will Hear Your Cry
Read Exodus 2:23-3:12.
Introduction⤒🔗
Hal and his wife were traveling the winding roads of the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the state of Washington. Halfway up a long grade, far from anywhere, in the middle of winter, the car coughed and sputtered; it had run out of gas. Hal managed to pull off to the side of the road and there they sat, stranded, as the falling snow glimmered in the moonlight.
Hal turned off the engine; in the winter cold, the heat dissipated rapidly. Hal and his wife shivered, not only from the cold but also from the realization that their situation was desperate. They were in an isolated area, the hour was late, the weather was bad, and the traffic was light.
A car finally appeared far back down the grade. Hal climbed out and stood in the gleam of his headlights. But in his bulky overcoat, waving the flashlight and signaling frantically, his appearance was more than enough to defeat his purpose and scare off any would-be helper. In the course of an hour, several widely-spaced cars climbed the mountain road, slowed down as they approached the frantically waving man, and then sped on their way.
Hal climbed back into the car and together with his wife glumly contemplated the situation. “We haven’t prayed,” Hal finally said. He bowed his head over the steering wheel and, above the sound of the wind that whipped the car, he called to the Lord. “Father, You know our problem. You see us now. We ask You to help us.”
Before his prayer was finished, the two of them heard the faint sound of a distant engine climbing the grade. Hal turned on the headlights, jumped out of the car, and went into his routine of frantically signaling for help. This time the approaching car slowed down, pulled over and stopped.
Hal ran up to it, leaned into the open window, and explained their predicament. The driver got out and opened the trunk of his old vehicle. In the dimming beams of Hal’s headlights, there could be seen two rows of gas cans. In a matter of moments, Hal’s gas tank was replenished, they were back on the road, and enjoying the welcome warmth of the car heater. As they drove along, Hal and his wife gratefully acknowledged that they had experienced the truth of God’s promise: “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).1
The people of Israel came to personally experience the same truth when they finally called upon the LORD in the midst of their Egyptian bondage. We may be confident that when He hears our cry, the LORD will respond to His people in covenant faithfulness and mercy.
The LORD will Hear Your Cry, because He is the Faithful God←⤒🔗
When Israel cried out to the LORD, “their cry for help went up to God. 24And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Ex. 2:23-24). In Genesis 15:9-18a there is recorded for us the making of that covenant:
9And [the LORD] said to him, Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat and a three-year-old ram, also a turtledove and a young pigeon. 10Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and a horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13And he said to Abram, Know for sure that your descendants shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they shall serve the inhabitants of that land; and that nation shall afflict your descendants for four hundred years. 14But also know that I will judge that nation whom they shall serve; and afterward shall they come out with great possessions. 15But you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16And in the fourth generation, your descendants shall come back here again; because the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. 17When the sun went down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces of the divided animal carcasses. 18aOn that day, the LORD made a covenant with Abram... Gen. 15:9-18a
By personally passing between the severed parts of the sacrificed animals, the LORD was pledging Himself to be the God of Abraham and his descendants: to preserve them, redeem them, and bring them into His promised inheritance. By passing between the severed parts of the sacrifice animals, while Abraham passively observed, the LORD was personally taking upon Himself the obligation of fulfilling the covenant; Abraham's role would be that of faith in the LORD: faith in the LORD's ability and the LORD's integrity.
In Genesis 26:1-3 the LORD reaffirms His covenant with Isaac:
1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech the king of the Philistines. 2The LORD appeared to him and said, Do not go down into Egypt. Stay in the land where I tell you to live. 3Stay in this land and I will be with you and bless you; because I will give all of this land to you and your descendants—I will confirm the oath I swore to Abraham your father.
God’s reaffirmation of the covenant comes at a time of need and crisis in Isaac’s life: his father, Abraham, was dead; there was a famine in the land; and Isaac was turning to the kings of this world for deliverance. Notice, too, the gentleness the LORD displays: He does not rebuke Isaac; He comforts him by reaffirming His covenant. The reaffirming of His covenant was the means of binding Isaac to Him and restraining Isaac from carrying out his chosen course. Isaac was on his way to Egypt, the LORD’s command, “Do not go,” was reinforced by His reaffirmation of the covenant; consequently, Isaac stayed in Gerar, (which was located in the south of Canaan).
In Genesis 28:13-15 the LORD reaffirmed His covenant to Jacob:
13...the LORD said: 'I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.'
Whereas the LORD reaffirmed His covenant with Isaac when Isaac had set out on a course of disobedience and distrust, the LORD reaffirmed His covenant with Jacob when Jacob was setting out on a course of obedience—he was on his way in search of a believing wife in a distant land; he was embarking upon a threatening journey that took him out of the Promised Land of Canaan. Once again, the LORD reaffirms His covenant in order to reassure Jacob of His faithfulness to be his God.
In Exodus 3:7, the LORD identifies the nation of Israel as “my people” and assures Moses of His intention to fulfill for them the covenant promise He originally made to Abraham, compare Exodus 3:7-8 with Genesis 15:18-21,
7Then the LORD said, I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. 8I have come down to deliver them out of 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 Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Ex. 3:7-8
18...the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates: 19the land of the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 20and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, 20and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. Gen. 15:18-21
In Exodus 3:10, the LORD informs Moses that He will send him to Pharaoh so that he may bring “my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” When Israel has been delivered out of Egypt by means of the Exodus, and as they stand on the border of the Promised Land of Canaan, Moses testifies:
Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deut. 7:9
Because He is the faithful God, the LORD will hear your cry when you face a crisis: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify me” (Psl. 50:15).
He will hear your cry when you are confronted by temptation:
13No temptation has seduced you except the kind that is experienced by all men. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear; on the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it. 1 Cor. 10:13
He will hear your cry when you are harassed by the evil one: “the LORD is faithful, he will establish you and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thess. 3:3).
The LORD will hear your cry when you wonder if you shall finally reach your heavenly destination:
23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you wholly. May your entire soul, spirit and body be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thess. 5:23-24
The LORD will Hear Your Cry, because He is a Compassionate God←⤒🔗
God looked upon the children of Israel and God “was concerned about them” (Ex. 2:25). The LORD not only recognized them as being His people, the people to whom He had covenantal obligations, He was personally sympathetic and compassionate towards them when He saw their affliction.
The LORD declares to Moses, “I have certainly seen the affliction of my people” (Ex. 3:7). The Hebrew verb, האָרָ, “to see,” may also bear the meaning, “to see with concern,” or, “to regard.” Here is a deep, true, accurate observation of their suffering, an observation that is not cold and distant, but warm and empathetic.
Proverbs 14:10a testifies, “The heart knows its own bitterness.” That is to say, no one but the man himself has a true knowledge and experience of the depths of his own personal suffering, grief and depression. But Proverbs 15:11 goes on to proclaim, “Sheol and Abaddon lie exposed before the LORD, how much more are the hearts of men?” Although no fellow human being may truly know the depths of your personal suffering, the fact is that the LORD knows. The God before whom even the mysterious place of the dead lies exposed, has full knowledge and understanding of the state and suffering of your heart.
Exodus 3:7 literally reads, “I have certainly seen [or, regarded] the affliction of my people because I know their sorrows.”
The LORD informs Moses, “I know their sorrows.” The Hebrew verb “to know” not only means intellectual knowledge or awareness, it may also bear the meaning, “to have a personal acquaintance” with someone or something—to have a personal experience and relationship with that person or thing. By way of example, Genesis 4:1 literally reads, Adam “knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to a son;” thus the intimacy of the marriage relationship is described as a "knowing" of one’s spouse.
Referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 4:15 assures us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” Our Lord Jesus has a personal and empathetic acquaintance with every situation or condition we encounter in our lives.
When we are tempted to say, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” the Lord Jesus replies, “I know. I have personally entered into your experience.”
Jesus assures us, “I know the agony of trial and temptation.” “Because he himself has suffered by being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18).
Jesus assures us, “I know the pain of rejection." Speaking of Jesus the Messiah, Isaiah 53:3 declares, “He was despised and rejected by men; he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in esteem.”
Jesus assures us, “I know what it’s like to feel alienation, isolated, and all alone.” Mark 15:33-34 informs us, “When the sixth hour of the day arrived, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' (which, being interpreted, means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’)”
The LORD furthermore declares to Moses, “I have come down to deliver them” (Ex. 3:8). It is a comfort to learn that the LORD our God sees our affliction. It is even more comforting to realize that He knows our sorrow. But it is the greatest blessing to know that He is able and willing to deliver us: “I have come down to deliver them.”
Moses saw the burden of Israel: “Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to see his brothers and he observed their hard labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of Moses’ brothers” (Ex. 2:11).
Moses sought to come to their rescue: “He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one else present, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand” (Ex. 2:12).
But Moses could not deliver them, he wound up fleeing into the wilderness of Midian alone: “Moses fled from Pharaoh’s presence and went to live in the land of Midian” (Ex.2:15).
In contrast to Moses, the LORD says, “I have come down to deliver them.” As the Book of Hebrews testifies, “Christ Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him” (Heb. 7:25).
The LORD will hear your cry, because He is a compassionate God:
15...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Heb. 4:15-16
The LORD will Hear Your Cry, When You Call upon Him←⤒🔗
Israel’s cry referred to in Exodus 2:23, was not simply a crying out in the night, a desperate crying out to the stars and the wind. On the contrary, it was an earnest and conscious calling upon the LORD their God. Note the report given in Numbers 20:16 and 1 Samuel 12:8,
16...when we cried out to the LORD, he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Num. 20:16
8After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the LORD for help, and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place. 1 Sam. 12:8
Note, too, that it was Israel’s cry unto the LORD that set in motion the events of divine deliverance that follow: "I have heard them crying out... 8I have come down to deliver them” (Ex. 3:7-8).
In Psalm 50:15 the LORD declares: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.” This is a divine invitation that only can be made by the living God who is able and willing to come to our rescue. By way of contrast, note 1 Kings 18:26, a passage that describes the pagan worshipers of Baal futilely calling upon their god: “they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, 'O Baal, answer us!' they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered” (1 Kgs. 18:26).
At the same time, Psalm 50:15 is also a divine commandment that the LORD must issue to His people when we are reluctant to look to Him for divine help and deliverance. Due to guilt, or unbelief, or spiritual neglect, or self-confidence, we oftentimes fail to call upon the LORD in our time of need. (Recall from the Introduction the example of Hal and his wife, who neglected to call upon the LORD as their first resort of deliverance.)
The LORD will hear your cry, when you call upon Him.
18The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in truth. Psl. 145:18
16As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD will save me. Psl. 55:16
Conclusion←⤒🔗
On a snow-swept winter’s night in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Hal and his wife personally experienced the truth of God’s promise: “While they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).
Many centuries earlier, the children of Israel experienced the same truth when they called upon the LORD in the midst of their Egyptian bondage.
This is the confidence that is offered to every Christian: When He hears your cry, the LORD will respond in covenant faithfulness and mercy.
Discussion Questions←⤒🔗
1. What causes Israel to cry out to God? See Ex. 2:23 Although they had been in Egypt for a very long time, it appears that this is the first time they actually cry out to God for deliverance (note Num. 20:16). Do we tend to neglect God, only calling upon Him as a last resort? Was Israel’s increased peril providentially ordained by God to inspire His people to call upon Him? Should we not consider the plights we face in the light of God’s providence and His good intentions for His people?
23In those many days [i.e. In that long period of time], the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned because of their bondage and they cried out, and their cry for help because of their bondage went up to God. Ex. 2:23
16...when we cried out to the LORD, he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Num. 20:16
2. How does God respond to Israel’s cry? What motivated Him to do so? See Ex. 2:24-25 How does God express His concern for His people? See Ex. 3:7-8 What has God done to meet our greatest need? See Rom. 5:8; Jn. 3:16.
24And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25So God looked upon the children of Israel and God was concerned about them.Ex. 2:24-25
7Then the LORD said, “I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. 8I have come down to deliver them out of 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... Ex. 3:7-8
8...God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom. 5:8
16...God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Jn. 3:16
3. What assurance does God give to His people in Exodus 3:8b? On what was this promised based? See Ex. 2:24; Note Gen. 15:18-21 What great assurance does God give to the Christian? See Lk. 22:20; Jn. 6:37-40
8I have come down to deliver them out of 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 Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Ex. 3:8
24And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Ex. 2:24
18...the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River—19the Kenites, the Kenezzites, and the Kadmonites; 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim; 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.' Gen. 15:18-21
20Likewise, he also [took] the cup [of communion] after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.' Lk. 22:20
37All whom the Father gives me will come to me; and he who comes to me I will by no means reject; 38for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but should raise it up at the last day. 40My Father’s will is that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. Jn. 6:37-40
4. By the grace of God, Abraham came to realize that the land of Canaan was merely a “down payment,” a type (i.e. a prophetic model), of what far greater inheritance? See Rom. 4:13 What do the Scriptures inform us about the Christian’s inheritance? See, for instance, 1 Pet. 2:9 and, also, 2 Thess. 2:14.
13...the promise that he would be the heir of the world [was] not [given] to Abraham or to his seed through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. Rom. 4:13
i.e. the righteousness of Christ received by faith
9...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people appointed to be [God’s] own possession, so that you might display the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Pet. 2:9
14...[God] called you by our gospel for the [purpose of] obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. 2:14
5. Throughout this passage of Exodus, what personal terms are used to express the LORD’s relationship with His people? See Ex. 2:25; 3:7,10 Do you appreciate the fact that the LORD’s covenantal relationship with you is not merely contractual, but also deeply personal? Note such passage as Isa. 40:11; Psl. 139:17-18.
25God looked upon the children of Israel and God was concerned about them. Ex. 2:25
7Then the LORD said, 'I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows...10Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.' Ex. 3:7, 10
11He will tend his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead the nursing ewes. Isa. 40:11
17How precious also are your thoughts about me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18[If] I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Psl. 139:17-18
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