God Hears His People (Exodus 1-2)

Bible Passage: Exodus 1-2

In this first part of the Exodus story, we encounter some of the big issues that flow through the book as a whole, and it would be good to set the scene with some vision for the series. God dearly loves his people, but as we pick up the story those people are in captivity in Egypt. Through this book we will see God acting in power to rescue his people. This freedom is all connected with worship, and the book ends with the glory of God descending and his very presence being with his set free people. This story of freedom to worship is a clear echo of the salvation that we have in Christ, and many find the Exodus story a helpful illustration for how God delivers us from a whole host of issues that we may struggle with.

Multiplication and Mistreatment: Exodus picks up where Genesis left off, with Jacob and his sons relocating to Egypt. Over the following generations, we see the number of Israelites increasing, as they are described as ‘being fruitful’ and ‘multiplying greatly’ (see Genesis 1:28; 9:1). The Israelites are fulfilling their creation purpose, and in doing so are seeing the promise to Abraham of many descendants fulfilled (Genesis 15:5). However as a new generation of Egyptian leadership emerged, the Israelites were seen as a threat and so were made into slaves. They were forced to carry out harsh labour, and it was ordered that any baby boys born to them were put to death. Again there are echoes of Genesis here, this time the curse of Genesis 3 with both physical work and childbearing becoming difficult. It is also an echo of the brutality of Herod in the Christmas story (Matthew 2). Sometimes Christians can emphasise the blessings that we see, and other times we can emphasise the difficulty and opposition. The opening of the Exodus story show us that we should expect to see both God’s blessings abundantly poured out, and harsh opposition from this brutal fallen world. Both of these things exist side by side, and neither should surprise us when we see them.

Trusting God or Trusting Ourselves: In these chapters we see two different examples of people resisting the oppressive rule of Pharaoh, and they go about things in very different ways. First, there are the midwives. Despite the orders given to murder the baby boys, we are told these midwives feared God (1:17) more than they feared Pharaoh and so they did not comply with the order. Often standing up to evil takes great courage, and it is sometimes done through quiet acts of defiance. The other example is Moses, who also was moved by the issues he saw. He was grieved at seeing an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrews, and also at some Hebrews fighting among themselves, and this is commendable. Unlike the Midwives, however, Moses attempted to sort things out in his own strength. There is no mention of Moses fearing God, or looking to God for guidance. Moses’ leadership is rejected, and he ends up fleeing into the wilderness. As we are confronted by challenging issues in our day, the lesson here is to take what we have seen to God and look for his direction and help as we seek to make a difference.

God Heard: When the people were mistreated, they groaned and cried out (2:23) to God. This is normal. All of us face hard situations at times that lead us to cry out, and we can sometimes wonder whether those cries are heard. Here we see that they were (2:24). God hears the cries of his people, and not only did he hear but he had compassion on them. It is this compassion that led God to act, and this sets in motion the events of the Exodus. God also hears our cries, and his compassion moves him to act in our circumstances too. He has given his Spirit to help us cry out to him (Romans 8:23), he intervenes to answer our prayers, and ultimately he sent his own Son as the one who can rescue us from our own bondage to sin and death.

Potential Applications:

• The passage speaks to all those who are experiencing bondage of any kind. It offers encouragement that God sees and has compassion.
• There is a challenge for how we try to address the issues we see in our world. Will we rely on our own strength like Moses did, or will we trust in God like the midwives.
• You could offer the opportunity to pray with people if they resonate with the theme of bondage and long to be set free.