Do you remember the story of Moses at the burning bush? It is found in Exodus 3, while Moses is doing his job as a shepherd of sheep for his father-in-law Jethro in the wilderness around Mount Horeb. Out of nowhere, Moses observes a strange phenomenon right before him – a bush is burning, but is not being consumed by the fire. That would get my attention, and I suspect yours, as well.
God quickly identifies Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” That only serves to heighten the concern of Moses for what in the world is going on. God quickly informs Moses that He is quite aware of the awful circumstances His people Israel are living in under the tyrannical rule of an Egyptian Pharaoh who did not know Joseph.
The text uses four phrases to describe their circumstances. “Misery . . . crying out . . . slave driver . . . and suffering.” (3:7) God’s compassion for His people is rooted in the verbs “I have seen, I have heard, and I am concerned.”
The children of Israel in Egypt don’t even know this conversation is going on. But God knows, and God’s plans are to rescue the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and bring them “to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” Moses is a bit slow to understand all that is going on and certainly doesn’t see himself as the ideal candidate to work with God on this project. God will identify Himself as “I AM WHO I AM.” He will instruct Moses to tell the Israelites “I AM has sent me to you.” (3:14).
The LORD – YAHWEH. The covenant name for God in the Hebrew Bible. A God whose covenant with His people will one day be sealed by the blood of His own Son.
I don’t want to remotely suggest that American Christians are suffering in any way similar to what was happening to the Israelites in Egypt. But I meet few people who don’t have a sense of discontent with the current context in which we are living. And I know there are believers in other parts of the world who have much more in common when it comes to suffering with the Israelites in Egypt than they do with you and me. What about committed believers in Ukraine? Or Palestinian Christians in Gaza? Or believers forced underground in places like China, North Korea, the Middle East, and elsewhere?
I heard N.T. Wright say not too long ago, if you have any serious question about the Christian faith, you can go to Romans 8 and at least begin to find an answer. I think he is correct on that point. Right in the middle of the paragraph 8:18-25, Paul declares, “we know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor.” (22) Among the words of promise in this paragraph are, “the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to the decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (21)
Then, in the next paragraph, we are told, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.” (26, 27) If the Spirit understands our hearts and minds in ways that we can’t put into words, and then intercedes on our behalf before God, then it seems all together reasonable for me to believe that, as He did with the Israelites in Egypt, God, the great I AM, “has heard, has seen, and is concerned.”
Then Paul reminds the Romans – who, by the way, weren’t living under the best of governmental and cultural realities – that “God works in reference to all things for those who love Him, to our good.” But we do ourselves a disservice if we read verse 8:28 without the aid of verses 29 and 30. Could it be that in these two verses, Paul is defining “all things?” That is, could Paul be saying “this is where God is constantly working in reference to our good?”
What are the five things? Five huge theological words: “foreknew . . . predestined . . . called . . . justified . . . glorified.” What better way to describe God’s new Exodus – His plan to rescue His children out of the slavery of sin and death – than to say these five verbs? Before we ever knew about God, He knew what our decision about Him would be. He provided a path (faith in Jesus) that guarantees our outcome, and through the gospel, He calls us to that path, where, through faith, He gives us a seat at His table, and at the reappearing of Jesus, will share His glory with us. (Read 1 John 3:2)
As Paul says back in 8:18, no matter the sufferings of the present – our own groaning, along with Creation – that suffering is not worth comparing to the glory He will one day share with us.
I don’t want to discount the struggles of our age. But, as I once heard Tim Keller say, in the midst of his own battle with pancreatic cancer – an awful journey I shared with my dear wife, as well, “If the resurrection of Jesus is true, then everything will be all right.”
If God rescued the Israelites out of Egypt, we need not worry that He won’t rescue you and me – His children bought with the precious blood of His only begotten Son.
Our covenant YAHWEH is not unaware of who we are and where we are on this very day.
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
Wye Huxford 