I would love to be able to say that I have endured the trials and suffering in my life with joy, patiently waiting on God to carry me through or change the circumstance, confident in His love and timing. The reality has often been a much uglier picture. I am weak, unfaithful, and impatient. I fail to trust. And wow, can I get angry at God! (I am a redhead after all.)
I identify greatly with the Israelites. I read their stories and am dumbfounded that they strayed so frequently from God despite His promises to them, His miraculous deliverance and provision, and His continual forgiveness and loving-kindness. Yet, it also sounds convictingly familiar.
I was recently reading Exodus 3, which recounts the well-known story of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush. Obviously in that story the bush gets the attention. I mean a fiery bush that doesn’t burn is pretty amazing. But this time I focused on the words God spoke to Moses: “the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land…to a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (Exodus 3:7-8) At this point of the story, the Israelites had long been oppressed by a frightened Pharaoh who wanted to ensure they would not be a threat to him. They were not just slaves, but endured unbearable working conditions, beatings, even the murder of their children. They had no idea that at the moment of Exodus 3:7-8 God was putting in motion a plan for their liberation.
And in these verses, we observe four things. God SAW their affliction. God HEARD their cries. God KNEW their suffering. God REMEMBERED His promise to them.
In her book “Still Waiting,” Ann Swindell writes, “Jesus knows the suffering that each of us carries, and He knows the genuine pain and sorrow in every heart. He knows that sometimes the years of unending struggle and suffering are themselves too heavy to bear. He knows. And He cares…He sees you, and He understands your suffering. He knows the pain you’ve walked through and the days when it all seems impossible and you can barely put one foot in front of the other…God understands. No tear has been lost on Him. Not a single one. Your suffering is as real to Him as it has been to you.”
Amid your deepest valleys, when you feel you cannot bear one more thing, when relentless afflictions leave you angry and crying out to God, be confident that God is at work. It didn’t happen immediately, in fact it took plagues, a parted sea, years of wandering in the desert, and marching around city walls, but God did keep His promise. He delivered the Israelites out of slavery and into the promised land.
He SEES you.
He HEARS you.
He KNOWS your pain.
And He always keeps His promises.