REINTRODUCING THE GOD WHO SEES

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” —Exodus 3:7

However we measure it, the Israelites were in slavery for a long time. It sees the passing of enough generations that only the most important stories of a people’s history are still remembered; even a national ruler like Joseph can be all but forgotten.

Although we see a few examples of faith maintained among the Israelite people, it is also a long time for God to seem silent, perhaps unconcerned with the suffering of the people. In the telling of the story, it is suggested that even God might have forgotten His people in some sense: “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (Exodus 2:23–25). God had to reintroduce Himself to the people of Israel. He did this in a way that was both distant and dramatic, meeting the fugitive Moses at a burning bush in the wilderness. To Moses—and through him, to the people—God reintroduced Himself as “the God who sees.” Yes, He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but He was also the God of Hagar, adopting the name she had given Him when He saw her distress. The Israelites were reminded of the old stories and the promises God had made to their ancestors, but the more important message was that God had seen, that He cared, and that He would intervene.

“When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped” (Exodus 4:31).