Almost ten years ago our family moved from Texas to Oklahoma to start a church. We knew no one in Oklahoma and not too much about it but accepted the “call” from our denomination. There was a small group on the ground, excited we were coming. From what we gathered from those sending and receiving us we expected the church might take off quickly.
I could write a book about everything that has transpired since then. Suffice it to say, it has not been fast and definitely not easy. We have often felt confused by what God was doing/not doing, and quite frankly bitter toward Him and others.
“Lord, what have you done to us? Have you brought us out here to die?”
So thought the Israelites after God brought them out of Egypt but still short of the Promised Land. And so thought we!
Considering this year I’ve been writing, editing and preparing to launch a book in Exodus, the irony is not lost on me! You would think though that the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness and 400 as slaves before that, when we’ve endured less than ten, would put things into perspective. But just like the Israelites, we’ve doubted God’s goodness and wondered if He would come through for us – both for our family and church.
Surely you too know the feeling of being stuck in a seemingly never-ending trial, or forced to wait. But even when we are in the Israelites’ shoes, feeling forgotten by God, Exodus tells us that God hears his children’s cries and does not leave us alone.
“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 2:24-25
In the Bible’s original language the verbs – heard, remembered, saw, and knew – are derivatives of the word “yada,” which means “to know intimately or to be concerned about.” This is not random! These verbs were used very specifically to tell us God had not forgotten the Israelites. And it wasn’t that he remembered they were slaves in a foreign land only after 400 years went by. No, remembering his covenant means that now he is ready to act on his promise.
In the book of Exodus, God sends Moses to be Israel’s rescuer, a pointer to the true Rescuer to come—the Promised One—we now know as God’s Son. At the appointed time when our Rescuer had done all He had come to do, He also cried out. Only his plea was:
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).
As we know, the cup did not pass from him. Jesus went to the cross, not because God didn’t care or hear his cry. No, like with the Israelites, the Father saw Jesus’s pain and knew intimately what he was going through. But remembering his promise is why the Father turned down his Son’s prayer.
His prayer being turned down was the only way God could answer yours! Not your prayer for a problem-free life, but a guarantee that he will never leave you.
We are freed from sin’s bondage and the consequence of death because Jesus did everything necessary to permanently redeem all of God’s people for all time. God hears your cry. He knows your pain, and he did something about it by giving you Jesus.
Jesus left heaven and took on flesh in order to save us. In experiencing all the sin and suffering of this world means he fully identifies with us in ours. So though we don’t always feel his presence, Jesus is always with us and understands us completely. Amazingly he doesn’t even hold our grumbling and doubting against us.
He is faithful though we are not.
So during all the years of frustration over the one-step forward, five steps back of our church when we blamed God for what we saw as inaction, He kept faithfully working in and through us behind the scenes. Who we are today – my husband and me and our family, and our church – is not who we would’ve been had the church gone quick and easy.
God had not forgotten us, he’s been preparing us in many seen and unseen ways for where He is leading us now. Just writing these words bring tears.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
God has not left me or you. Like Israelites our hope is found in the Rescuer that God provides.
***For expanded lessons like this, preorder The Gospel-Centered Life in Exodus. It officially releases July 23rd.***
