God Knows What You’re Going Through (Exodus 2:15-4)
Have you ever felt like God doesn’t understand what you’re going through? This was certainly something many ancient Hebrews wondered as they struggled for centuries in Egyptian captivity.
Exodus 2:15-4
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Have you ever felt like God doesn’t understand what you’re going through?
This was certainly something many ancient Hebrews wondered as they struggled for centuries in Egyptian captivity. Keep in mind that in Genesis 15:13-14, God said to Abraham,
13 “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.”
This tells us that falling into Egyptian captivity did not catch God by surprise, and God sympathized with the pain of his people. Exodus 2:23-25 says,
23 “The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the Israelites, and God knew.”
These last two words, “God knew,” tell us something about his character. As Christopher Wright says, “God is alert to the plight of the ejected, and in his sovereign providence (even when it is hidden) God works to ensure the protection of those who will play their part in God’s story.[1] Unfortunately, it’s easy to lose sight of this reality.
After trying to take matters into his own hands, Moses escapes to the wilderness, and after forty years, he has a unique encounter with God. In keeping with a common theme of God’s presence being manifested in fire, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and says these powerful words in Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Out of common ancient Near Eastern reverence, Moses is told to remove his shoes, and Yahweh makes himself known to Moses—likely for the first time. This is a life-altering moment for Moses. After forty years of tending sheep, he finally experiences God intimately.
In return, all God asks of Moses is obedience and to use what he has in his hand—a shepherd’s staff. After throwing it on the ground, God turns this staff into a snake. This was “likely because the snake represents a sign of Egyptian royal authority (think of a pharaoh’s cobra-like headdress worn as a symbol of his authority).”[2] Moses will use this same staff to part the waters of a sea.
This story teaches us three valuable lessons. First, God knows what we are going through. Second, God keeps his promises. And third, we delay the work of God in our lives when we take matters into our own hands. Just as God taught Moses what it meant to walk in step with him, so he does the same with us. God sees our situations, hears our prayers, and will come through in perfect timing.
A Meditation to PRAY
Praise | You are the God who sees all and knows all. I praise you for your power and authority.
Release | I release my desire to know every step you have laid out before me. I trust you to guide me.
Ask | Show me my next steps and help me walk in step with you.
Yield | I commit to trusting your timing—thank you for your provision just as I need it.
A Challenge to Act Like Christ
The parallels between Moses and Jesus accumulate as we read Exodus. In Exodus 4:19, God tells Moses, “Return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” This is almost identical to Matthew 2:20, where an angel of God tells Jesus’ father, Joseph, a similar message.
Another parallel we should highlight is Moses’ suffering. Hebrews 11:26 tells us Moses “considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward.” What does this mean? Brevard Childs says, “the phrase indicates an actual participation by Moses in Christ’s shame in the same way as the saints who follow Christ later also share.”[3] Moses suffered in anticipation of Christ’s suffering, while we suffer today looking back on what Christ accomplished on the cross.
This is a significant point because it highlights that “Christ was always present among God’s people.”[4] But their view of him was different than ours is today. Childs notes:
Moses, in other words, foreshadows both the redeemer and the redeemed. He first experienced Israel’s rejection and became an outcast and alien before he himself became worthy to be her redeemer. Christ, too, became like us before he could deliver us (Heb. 2:17). But he did not simply descend from the comfort and prestige of an Egyptian palace, but from heaven itself, becoming not only a man but a despised man—for our sake. As Moses became Israel’s savior by truly embodying her suffering, Christ from highest heaven took onto his own body the sin of humanity. He is the Savior through suffering.[5]
This is significant and helps us understand the nature of Christ’s sufferings. It also leads us to one final, more technical but powerful quote from Childs that helps us understand the nature of Christ’s suffering and how it links to those in the Old Testament. Childs writes, “There are many ways in which Christ fulfills the Old Testament. There is, for example, the well-known triad of prophet, priest, and king, each of which is ultimately realized fully in Christ. But there are other ways as well, reflected in his person and work.”[6]
Childs goes on to say Christ not only fulfills the ideals of certain individuals (e.g., David) and offices (e.g., priest), but of Israel as a whole. Christ is the embodiment of Israel’s experience. This is what lies behind Matthew’s unexpected (at least for us) citation of Hosea 11:1 (cf. Matt. 2:15): “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[7]
So the next time you hear someone use a seemingly trite phrase like, “Jesus understands what you’re going through,” pause, breathe a silent prayer to Jesus, and thank him that he really does.
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[1] Christopher Wright, Exodus, The Story of God Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021).
[2]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 109.
[3] Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary, ed. Peter Ackroyd et al., The Old Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 37.
[4] Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary, ed. Peter Ackroyd et al., The Old Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 38.
[5]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 88.
[6]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 88.
[7]Peter Enns, Exodus, The NIV Application Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 88.
