A man from the house of Levi took a Levite wife. She conceived and bore a son and hid him for 3 months. She could hide him no longer, so she made a basket of bulrushes (papyrus reeds) and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. His sister stood at a distance to see what would be done with him. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket among the reeds when she came to bathe in the river. She sent her servant woman and she took it. She opened it and saw the child crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” The baby’s sister said, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Go.” The baby’s sister called the child’s mother, and Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the baby’s mother took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older his mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because…I drew him out of the water.” When Moses was grown, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people (brothers). He looked around and didn’t see anyone, so he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day 2 Hebrews were struggling. Moses said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who mad you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. Moses sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had 7 daughters, and they came to draw water to fill the troughs for his flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Reuel. He asked how they were able to come home so soon and they said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” Reuel said, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” Moses was content to dwell with the man, and Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son and he called him Gershom, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” [Gershom sounds like Hebrew for “sojourner”] During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God (v. 23).
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. I love verses 23-25. I don’t love the suffering of Israel, but I love the attributes of God that Israel’s suffering highlights. He is omni-hearing, omni-knowing (omniscient), omni-seeing, and all of these omni’s point to his omnibenevolence and love for His people. He has not forgotten. The fear of the Lord exhibited in Puah and Shiphrah in chapter 1 is proving to be trustworthy. God knows the trials of His people. He knows what they face. This is a good reminder to me. When I despair because of the difficulties I see in this broken world it is comforting to know that God hears, remembers, sees, and knows. I know with even more certainty that this is true because of Jesus Christ. In Christ God knows my trial in an even more intimate way than I do. Most of all, He knows our trials not only of socio-political oppression, but our trial of sin. He who knew no sin, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Praise God, that He hears, remembers, sees, and knows the trials of His people. We can trust with confidence that in Christ He has satisfied His wrath for our greatest trial, our rebellion and sin against him. Praise God, that He hears, remembers, sees, and knows our trial of seeking to persevere in a world that often is buffeted by the waves of evil and depravity. He is trustworthy to save.