Christian and Single: March 2013

Is God Interested in What Happens to Me?
Exodus 2:23-25
loneliness. Heartache. Bereavement. Confusion. Bondage. Tragedy. Crisis.
Bad health. Unemployment. Misunderstandings. An impossible situation. A
stagnant prayer life. A feeling of being bogged down.
The chances are very likely that if you are a human being, you’ve experienced each
of these at one time or another. You may be going through one of them right now.
The difficulties in your life may have forced you to the point where you dread
getting out of bed in the morning, or going to work. You may be afraid to answer
the phone or open your mail box, fearful of the possibility of more bad news, or
another crisis you just can’t handle.
You come to church services, but you are unable to concentrate on worshipping
God because your problems and concerns loom so large. You stand with the rest of
the congregation and sing hymns such as “It is Well with My Soul,” or “I’ve Got
Peace Like a River.” You read the comforting passages of Scripture. You hear a
few words of a sermon. But in the end you go home, back to your heartache and
loneliness and impossibilities, and in your hurt you cry out to God: “God, do you
really care about me? Are you really interested in what happens to me?”
In our Scripture passage for today, one can see every one of those problems and
more. As slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews knew bondage. They knew loneliness and
heartache. They knew bad health and crises and impossible situations of all kinds.
They, too, dreaded to face another day. And they, too, cried out in their anguish to
God.
And in these few little verses, we see truths so beautiful and so overwhelming that
you can fully believe them only if you have personally experienced them. These
truths tell us about God, and they tell us that yes! God really does care about what
happens to us. And just as God responded to the cries and groanings of the Hebrew
people in Egypt, the loving, compassionate Heavenly Father responds to the
deepest needs of our hearts today. How does He do that?
God hears, v. 24
We read in verse 23, “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out,
and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.” In verse 24,
we see the first response God makes to His children when they cry out to
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Him: “God heard their groaning….” These people were slaves, and their lives
were far from being easy and comfortable. It isn’t really clear whether these cries
were actually prayers that the people were offering up to God, or whether these
were cries of anguish—probably both—but God heard them. The original Hebrew
language tells us something beautiful about how much God really cares: God was
doing more than merely “hearing”; He was “paying attention” to their cries. That’s
what the word “heard” really means here, and it conjures up in our minds the
picture of God dropping everything else He’s doing to listen, to pay attention to the
cries of His children.
Have you ever felt as Job did? “For sighing comes to me instead of food; my
groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has
happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”
(3:24-26) Or Jeremiah? “My groans are many and my heart is faint.” Or have you
ever done what David did? “I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell
my trouble.”
Then listen to the precious words of the Scriptures: “Know that the Lord has set
apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him” (Psalm 4:3). “In
my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he
heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (Psalm 18:6). “The
righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their
troubles” (Psalm 34:17). “The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer
of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29).
Those are beautiful words, but they are more than just beautiful. They are nothing
but the truth! God hears! God pays attention to my griefs and my loneliness and
my heartaches! God pays attention and knows the problem before I am even sure
of it myself.
Sometimes we have trouble believing that, though. When everything is going just
fine in our lives, it’s easy to believe that God cares and that God hears. But when
our world caves in, our faith in God is tested and stretched to the breaking point.
It’s not as easy to believe that God pays attention then. But listen to what Marvin
Drake wrote in “The Catholic Digest”: “If radio’s slim fingers can pluck a melody
from out of the night and toss it over mountains and the sea; if the petal-white
notes from a violin are blown across the desert and the city’s din; if songs, like
crimson roses, are caught from thin blue air—why should mortals wonder if God
answers prayer?”www.timothyreport.com / © 2010 S. M. Henriques Page 3
Why, indeed? It may be because we have the attitude about prayer and the way
God answers prayer that was illustrated in a comic strip. A little girl sat in her high
chair, her head bowed, her hands folded, an angelic expression on her sweet face, a
bowl sitting on the tray before her. She prays “Abba Dabba Ahmin!” She tastes her
food, and puts her spoon down before saying once more “Abba Dabba AHMIN!”
When she tastes her food the second time, she sticks out her tongue and says,
“STILL tastes like mush!”
Friends, we have a God who pays attention, but He doesn’t change mush into steak
to satisfy our whims and desires. If it fit into His eternal plan, I’m sure God would
and could change mush into steak or anything else He wanted. And sometimes
what you and I ask for and expect in our prayers and groanings before God sounds
just as childish. We act like we think God has nothing better to do than to sit on
His great white throne and change F grades into A grades on our tests at school, or
bad decisions into good ones, or to wave a magic wand and make everything sail
smoothly in our day to day lives.
Who knows what kind of miracles God may be preparing you for? Who knows
what benefits your life will receive because you are walking through the darkness
right now? Who knows what compassion you will learn for others because you are
hurting? God doesn’t cause all pain and grief, but you and I as children of the King
can know that God hears! We worship and serve a God who pays attention!
God remembers, v. 24
The very next thing we see about how God responds to the cries of His
people is found in verse 24: “He remembered his covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac and with Jacob.” This covenant that God had made with
Abraham, and had validated with Isaac and Jacob, was the very touchstone of the
people of Israel. Everything in their lives revolved around the covenant of
faithfulness God had made with them. And all through the Old Testament, we see
the concept of the relationship between God and His people. The emphasis was
that regardless of Israel’s faithfulness or lack of it, God was always faithful. The
key idea here in this verse and throughout the Scriptures is that God is dependable.
You can count on God to be faithful!
And when we read in verse 24 that God remembered His covenant, it simply
means that God knew the time was right for the fulfillment of the covenant. It was
time for God to act on behalf of His people to give them what He had promised to
give them.
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How nice it is to be remembered! When you meet someone you haven’t seen for
years, how good it is to hear that person call your name, as if he had only seen you
yesterday. When you have a birthday, it always feels good to have loved ones
remember you on that special day. You may be like the woman who wrote this
little poem, “A husband is the kind of man who drives me to a rage: he can’t recall
my birthday, but always knows my age.” Well, we like to be remembered about
most things, anyway.
Especially when we are hurting. Especially when we are lonely. Especially when
we are burdened, and the weight of our burden nearly breaks us. Especially when
we feel that no one cares, that “nobody knows the trouble” we’ve seen. That is
when we have the promise from God that He really does care about what happens
to us; He really is interested in our lives. He really does remember. He really is
dependable!
And there is nothing that happens to any of God’s children that goes unnoticed by
God. The Scriptures remind us that when Noah, his family and all the animals had
been floating in that ark for 150 days, that “God remembered Noah….” (Genesis
8:1). When God sent the angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the other
cities in the valley, we are told that God remembered Abraham and his prayer to
save Lot (Genesis 19:29). But listen to this: “But Zion said, “The Lord has
forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her
breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may
forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me” (Isaiah 49:14-16).
God remembers! We are engraved on the palms of the hands of God. Even though
we read in the papers of mothers who have tossed their infant children out in boxes
in a parking lot, or in dumpsters, even though it is possible for a mother to forget
her newborn baby, God says that He will never forget us. God is dependable.
God sees, v. 25
“So God looked on the Israelites….” God heard their cries and God
remembered the promise He had given to them. And God took notice. The
word “heard” meant more than just hearing; the word “saw” means more
than just looking. The Hebrew word here means that God was experiencing the
hurts and griefs of His people. In several places in the Old Testament we see that
the words “saw” or “see” are synonymous with experiencing something. When the
Psalms speak of seeing death, the meaning is that of experiencing death. When the
people spoke up to Jeremiah and said, “We will never see the sword of famine,”
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they meant that they would never experience death by the sword or by famine.
When God saw the people of Israel, not only did God notice them, but He was
going through their hurts and problems with them. Those griefs were His griefs,
too. God was carefully examining the situation, totally understanding what was
happening.
Hagar, fleeing from Sarai, was stopped by God and told to return to her mistress.
She said, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13). I heard someone
paraphrase this once like this: “God loves you so much He can’t take His eyes off
you.” God is vitally interested, and loves each of us so much, that He can’t move
His Eternal Eyes away from us!
Julia Ward Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” One day she was
talking to Charles Sumner, who was serving as Senator from Massachusetts. She
asked him to become involved in the case of a person who needed help from
someone influential. The Senator answered, “Julia, I’ve become so busy that I can
no longer concern myself with individuals.” Mrs. Howe replied, “Charles, that is
quite remarkable. Even God hasn’t reached that stage yet.”
Today, we can praise His name that He hasn’t. We worship a God who sees! He is
not blind, that He does not notice the troubles we face, the heartaches we endure,
the griefs we bear. He is not ignorant of the tragedies we suffer. You can know
from Scripture as well as from personal experience that God sees!
God knows, v. 25
The remainder of verse 25 tells us that God “was concerned about them.”
That is the way the NIV reads, but I don’t particularly care for the way this
verse is translated there. The KJV says, “God had respect unto them,” and I
don’t like that one, either. The NAS reads, “God took notice of them,” which
comes closer to the original than the others, in my opinion. I believe the words
used in this verse indicate that God “knew” what was going on in their lives. He
was completely aware of their situation.
Here is what I base this on. The word used here is also used in the opening
chapters of Genesis, where we read in the KJV that Adam “knew” Eve, his wife.
The word for “to know” means to experience something on an intimate basis.
Adam and Eve shared in a personal, sexual, intimate relationship. They gave all
they had to each other. And I firmly believe that whenever we read that God
“knows” us, that that means God is personally involved with us on an intensely
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intimate basis. It’s not sexual, of course, but God gives us all there is of Him. He
holds nothing back. He knows us.
God hears, God remembers, God sees—but at the crowning point of our
relationship with God is that eternal fact that God knows. He knows my trouble;
He knows my heartache; He knows the reason for my restlessness; He knows my
name. He knows everything about me. He knows—and understands—things about
me that I don’t even know or understand about myself!
When the Bible tells us that God knew what the people of Israel were experiencing
there in Egypt, that means He knew because He was experiencing it with them. He
didn’t know it because one of His top angels reported the conditions to Him. He
knew it because He was intimately involved with His people. He had entered into
their worlds, to share their suffering.
And that is exactly what God does for His people today. There is nothing that
happens to any of us that God is not aware of, or that God is not personally
involved in. We are told in 1 Peter 5:7 to “Cast all your anxieties, all your cares,
on Him, for He cares about you.” And wonder of wonders! He does care! He
knows and He cares!
That is what Jesus was trying to teach His disciples. “Are not five sparrows sold
for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of
your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many
sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7). And one of the most assuring verses in the Psalms is
found in Ps 115:12a—“The Lord remembers us and will bless us.”
The Lord knows us! And no matter what your personal Egypt looks like, no matter
where it is or how long you’ve been there, God knows your circumstances, and
even though the circumstances and the apparent silences of God may say to you
that God doesn’t care, rest assured that God knows, that God is mindful of you,
that even now He is working actively on your behalf to guide you through your
personal wilderness into all the riches of a spiritual Promised Land.
“God heard…God remembered…God saw…God knew.” That is how God
responded to His people then, and that is how He responds to His people now.
The challenge on this day is to ask you: Won’t you commit and surrender yourself
to a God who pays attention, who is dependable, who loves you so much He can’t
take His eyes off you, and who is intimately involved in your life

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