We return to our study of the book of Exodus. As we do let me remind you
that if you are going to benefit from this study you need to remember that
as you look at Israel you are looking at yourselves. The story of Israel
here is the story of the Church. It is our story. God is providing us with a
different perspective on our situation, and He does this so that, as we
understand better what is going on, we might serve Christ better.
As you open the book the first thing that you encounter is conflict. Pharaoh
feels threatened by Israel and so he responds by oppressing them. Conflict.
This makes compete sense. After all, the Bible is a book that is filled with
conflicts: Joshua against the Canaanites, David against Goliath, Jesus
against the Pharisees. And the reason that we find so much conflict in the
Bible is that its very theme is about conflict. At the beginning, in
Genesis, we read about enmity being established between the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent. And at the end of the Bible, in the book
of Revelation, an overview of the life of the Church, we find the dragon
making war on the saints. Conflict! And so, right away, there is a lesson
that we must grasp. Conflict is of the nature of life for the Christian.
Peter writes to saints confronted by conflict and he says, ‘Beloved, do not
be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as
though something strange were happening to you.’ [1 Peter 4:12] The
conflicts that you are now involved in are not to be seen as ‘something
strange’. Conflict is at the heart of being a Christian. Too often we are
surprised when we encounter some level of conflict. We shy away from it, and
we excuse ourselves by saying, ‘Well, I don’t like confrontation.’ Like is
or not, it is a part of faithful Christian living. You see it in the story
of Israel. You see it in the story of the Church. You see it in the story of
your own life.
Now, let’s get a sense of this particular conflict that Israel was
experiencing. Their situation was especially hard. Listen again to the text.
‘Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy
burdens. … So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves … and
made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all
kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work
as slaves.’ [Exodus 1:11,13,14] Did you catch some of those words: ‘afflict’
, ‘heavy burdens’, ‘ruthlessly’, ‘made their lives bitter’, ‘made them work
as slaves’. But go beyond the words. Think about what they are pointing to.
Think about the physical struggle of working day after day after day. Think
about the beatings. Where there is slavery there is always a whip nearby.
Beyond the physical costs, there are also the emotional ones. Remember,
their infant sons were threatened in all of this. And all of this went on
for years. Imagine a lifetime as a slave, suffering in these sorts of ways.
You’re born, you suffer and then you die, all as a slave. That was their
situation.
That leads to the question that I imagine at least some of the Israelites
asked themselves. ‘Where is God?’ These are His people. Why doesn’t He do
something about this terrible situation? Where is He when you need Him? Has
He forgotten His people? Does He ignore them when they are in need? Where is
God!?! Anyone who answers these questions poorly will find himself consumed
with a deep bitterness of soul. And this bitterness will show itself in
things like a great rage that lashes out or in a spirit of hopelessness that
is impossible to change. Through the millennia many different people have
found themselves in similar situations, and they have asked these same
questions. ‘Where is God?’ And so, along with the physical and emotional
struggles, there is also a spiritual struggle. And there have been many who
have wrestled with this and have ultimately turned away, enraged at a God
who acts like this. It is a basic claim of our religion that our God never
neglects His people. He never forsakes them. Never. Is that true even here?
Where was God when Israel was suffering so? Where?!?
There is an answer to that question – and a full one too. First, you must
remember that God had told Abram that this very situation would happen. He
laid it all out centuries before. ‘Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for
certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs
and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred
years. "’ [Genesis 15:13] The plight of Israel was not some surprise.
Nothing had gone awry. God was not neglecting His own. In fact, all was
going according to plan. It always does. The conflict with all of its
affliction and ruthlessness and bitterness, was a part of the plan. God had
warned Abram.
But some might respond by saying, ‘This is all very good, but I don’t like
conflict. I don’t like suffering. It’s just too hard.’ But who said that it
would be easy? Jesus didn’t. ‘For the gate is narrow and the way is hard
that leads to life…’[Matthew 7:14] Jesus has warned us. Hardship should be
no surprise. But also remember the big picture. Israel was – and we are – in
the midst of a war that transcends the cosmos, the war between the seed of
the woman and the seed of the serpent. The point of the war is not that you
get to heaven. The goal of the war is to defeat the serpent and to do that
for God’s glory. So, there will be times when things don’t make a lot of
sense. Life gets hard, and it just doesn’t seem fair. And God isn’t to be
found anywhere – or so it seems. But Jesus knows what He is doing. He sees
the whole picture while we see only the part that is right in front of us.
The story of Israel was going exactly according to plan. In due time, their
enemy would be defeated – utterly defeated. Our God knew what He was doing.
The key, for them and for us, is whether the saints will trust their God as
the plan unfolds.
And that leads to this. Along with the warning to Abram, God gave His
promise. ‘But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and
afterward they shall come out with great possessions.’ [Genesis 15:14] That
was God’s word to Abram. He renewed that promise to Jacob as he was about to
journey to Egypt and to Joseph. ‘I am God, the God of your father. Do not be
afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I
myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again…’
[Genesis 46:3-4] Hope. Jesus has promised to care for us, to crush our
enemy, to restore us to our true home. The real question is whether the
people of God will believe His promises and trust Him when life gets hard in
the process.
There is one more part to the answer to that question, ‘Where is God?’ He is
quietly at work. You can see it in our text. First, there is the
fruitfulness of Israel according to the promise of God. That is a blessing
in itself. But it is more. It is a sign that Israel has not been forgotten.
God is not far away but near. Then notice how Pharaoh’s attempts at crushing
the life out of Israel failed. Plan A was to oppress them – and thus to
suppress them – with slave labor. That didn’t work. Plan B was to use the
midwives to destroy the boys at birth. That didn’t work. Plan C was to throw
all the boys into the Nile. That didn’t work. Are these failures just a
matter of the luck of the draw? Is Israel just a very fortunate nation or is
something more going on? God is at work, quietly. And by this quiet, hidden
work He raises up a savior. That is true in the story of Israel. It is true
in the story of the Church. It is true in your story.
So, the situation is not what it seemed to be at first. Yes, there is
conflict with much suffering. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. That is the
nature of life here for the Church in every age. But no, God is not gone. He
has not forgotten His people. All is going according to plan. God is at work
in the situation – but quietly. The day of justice is coming. There will be
vindication. Victory is assuring. Jesus has promised.
So, should Israel have responded differently? How did they respond? It doesn
’t say here, in today’s text, but it does a little later. ‘During those
many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because
of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery
came up to God.’ [Exodus 2:23] Their response was groaning and praying. And
that is the exactly right response. They groaned because of the suffering,
because of the physical, emotional and spiritual struggle. And why not? It’s
just a matter of being honest. ‘Lord, this is hard. It really hurts.’ We are
not to be stoics who face life with the same bland expression regardless of
what is going on. Faithful living is hard. And there are times when you will
need to groan with the weariness of it all. But with the groans are to be
the prayers, the crying out to God for rescue, for encouragement, for help.
The book of Psalms is filled with this kind of prayer. Without prayer you
will fail. Groaning and praying, that is a need of our day.
And so, a maturing faith rests in the knowledge that our God is always at
work, appearances notwithstanding. A maturing faith looks to Him to meet the
conflicts of this life. A maturing faith patiently endures the bitter
aspects of this life because it trusts the God who makes promises. And a
maturing faith depends on grace to be such a faith. What is striving to live
this way but following our Savior whose life I’ve just described.
