Exiting Egypt Chapter Two P4

Exiting Egypt: Chapter Two –

When We’re Most Like God

By Dennis Lee Part 4

Now comes that portion of Scripture that brought me to the title of today’s message, ‘When We’re Most Like God.”

Read Exodus 2:23-25

There was a man who worked downtown in a large city. Everyday he rode the commuter train from his suburban home to the inner city, and everyday he would look out the window as it went through an impoverished area of the city, past decaying tenements, dilapidated public housing, and dingy streets.

Everyday, as he looked out the window of the train he would also see the bleak faces of those who lived in that part of town. He could see the unemployed gathered around a fire in a vacant lot, hoping for someone to come by to pick them up for some day labor. He would also see the kids as they skipped school to play on run-down basketball courts.

While at work he would often catch himself staring off into space thinking about what he continued to see out his train window. It became something that haunted his dreams at night. And so he decided that something needed to be done, and so what he did was pull down the shades of the train so he wouldn’t have to look out on such a depressing environment. He thinks he’s at peace, but is he? If he is, a terrible price will have to be paid.

Now, keep that picture in your mind as we look at what God would want to tell us in these last verses. Here is a description of God that defines the very nature and character of God, and it is wrapped up in the four action words that God takes.

But before we get to these four words, I want us to notice one more thing, and that is from the time of Moses’ exile in Midian to the time of his return to Egypt was forty years (Acts 7:30). What was God doing during that time?

Well, the Pharaoh that had so oppressed the Israelites died, paving the way for Moses’ return. Further, the people were now more than ever before ready to get out. But more than anything, God was preparing Moses for the great work he was about to do.

The silence of God doesn’t mean that God is unconcerned or inactive. Instead God is at work on our behalf, which is something Moses learned when God confronted him in the burning bush.

But back to our four words, the first,

God Hears

Their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning (Ex. 2:23b-24a)

Now, this wasn’t some articulate prayer on the part of the people, rather it was more like groaning that may not be able to be put into words. It was misery blended with some anguish with pain mixed in because of their oppression.

Have you ever just groaned over the pain that you are experiencing in life, something that no words could or ever would adequately describe? Well that was what it was like many times over for these Jews.

Well, the beauty of this passage is that God hears our hearts, not so much of what comes out of our mouths, but what comes out of our hearts. F.B. Myers said that tears have a voice that only God can interpret.

God Remembers

And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob (Ex. 2:24b)

What we see throughout the Bible is a God who remembers and keeps His word and His covenants. God is faithful, even though God’s people may not be.

God Sees

And God looked upon the children of Israel (Ex. 2:25a)

It says in Psalm 34: 5 is that the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and that His ears are open to their cry. Now, the Hebrew word for “looked upon” has the deeper sense of knowing, that not only does God see, but knows.

In fact, this is at the heart of one of God’s names, Jahovah Jireh, or the Lord our Provider. In the Hebrew this title literally means, “The Lord will see,” and because he then sees, according to Abraham, God will provide, as He saw Abraham’s faith and therefore provided a ram for the sacrifice.

God Knows

And God acknowledged them (Ex. 2:25b)

Now, the Hebrew word here for acknowledge is the word “yada” which means to know in an intimate sense. It is used of a husband and wife. It is also used in our statement of faith from Proverbs where it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”

(Prov. 3:5-6).

We are not to just acknowledge God as our understanding of the word goes, but we are to know Him on an intimate basis, only then will we know His voice and guidance.

Why go through all this if my premise is when we are most like God? You see, God sees, knows, hears, and remembers His promises to us. But how about us?

Go back to Moses life, when he saw, he didn’t hide himself from the problem, instead he remembered that he was one of them, he was a child of God, and that He was a human being that was made in the image and likeness of God, and when he saw injustice and harm done to that likeness through brutality, he had to act, he had to do something about it.

Moses was now grown, as we are grown, and when we are most like God is when we act most like God, when we see, hear, remember and know, and then act.

In 1984, bishop Leontine Kelly, the fist black woman and the third woman to be elected a bishop in the United Methodist Church. She tells a story of growing up when her father, a Methodist preacher was given a beautiful church in Cincinnati. It had been an all white church, but the neighborhood had changed where it had become a mostly black congregation.

The church had beautiful polished wood and a huge crystal chandelier. But not only was the church impressive, but so was the parsonage. Now the parsonage had a cellar that was a dark and dingy place.

One day her brothers were down in the cellar playing when they found a hole behind the furnace that seemed to lead to a tunnel. When they told her she told her father. After seeing the hole, he took them over to the church next door and found behind the furnace some old boards, and behind those boards they discovered other tunnels.

That night, Kelly’s father sat his children down and told them the story, and she never forgot what her father said,

“Children, I want you to remember this day as long as you live. We’ve found a station on the Underground Railroad. The greatness of this church is not its gothic architecture, its beautiful furniture, or its crystal chandelier. The greatness of this church is below us. We are on hallowed ground. These people dared to risk their lives to become involved and care about the poor, the frightened runaway slaves, and that was a mark of their greatness.”

And with that we hear the words of Jesus saying,

Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' (Mt. 25:34-40 NKJV)