“The Lord said, “I have
indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out
because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering… the
cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are
oppressing them…I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites
out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7-9
Atlanta,
GA started their school year this week with the terrifying arrival of a heavily
armed gunman intent on ensuring yet another long series of sleepless nights for
parents across the state.
The
voice of victims of the massacre in Afghanistan at the hands of Army Staff Sgt. Robert
Bales revealed the dark details of the night when he massacred 16 civilians in
two different villages. One victim, Haji Mohammed Wazir, took the stand to
lament the loss of 11 relatives including his wife, his mother, two brothers, a
nephew, and six of his seven children.
The
Egyptian military attacked Muslims. Muslims attacked Christians.
We
were given a view of those living inside the confines of North Korea as
prisoners in camps full of starvation, sleep deprivation, rape and abuse.
Chemical
weapons in Damascus left hundreds of civilizations dead in the streets while refugees
are huddled in tents by the thousands, packed full of people driven from their
homes by a war they never asked for.
And
we can add to these stories the less global tales that have exploded into the
lives of individuals who have lost a job, a family member, experienced a
divorce with a bitter custody battle, or heard the news “it is cancer” this
week and the sheer volume of human suffering can become absolutely paralyzing.
This
month I have been working my way through the book of Exodus. There is a reason
it is has gained such a central place in our theology as “people of the book.”
Exodus is the tale of freedom from bondage, rescue for exiles living in a
foreign land, redemption for slaves, and new life for the oppressed. It is the
ultimate foreshadowing of a new Moses who will come and offer an eternal Exodus
for an enslaved world.
And
amidst this week of particular brutality it struck me in profound ways that the
book of Exodus portrays God in exceptionally human ways. He is a God who hears,
a God who sees. He is not ignorant, aloof, or apathetic to the cries of his
people.
God
says “I have seen the misery of my people…I am concerned about their suffering.”
And
twice he declares” “I have heard them crying…and now the cry of the Israelites
has reached me.”
To
the cynic and the bitter these portions of Holy writ seem to support their
long-held bias that God may hear and see, but he is clearly powerless to act.
But
there is simply too much evidence to the contrary.
I
saw a retired doctor and his wife on a stage this summer being commissioned as
missionaries to Afghanistan where they will commit to living out the final
years of their lives serving as one of a handful of doctors dedicated to
birthing children in a country with one of the highest infant mortality rates in
the world.
During
this same conference we recognized the work of a ministry called Christian Friends of North Korea who declare that
their calling is to reach into the darkness of that country and “respond in the only
name that matters, Jesus Christ.”
A
bookkeeper named Antoinette Tuff was the only one left standing between the
students at the school in Atlanta this week and the shooter armed with 500
rounds of ammunition. She convinced him to surrender before anyone was hurt.
Ministries like World Relief and Friends of Refugees are working
exhaustibly long hours each day to ensure that those who are exiled from their
homes can begin life again on foreign soil.
Admittedly, few of these stories make the nightly news, which is
often bent on focusing attention on what is wrong rather than what is right. Because
of this we all need to heed the grave warning that much of the rest of the book
of Exodus reveals, the danger of forgetting. A wise mentor once exhorted me “never
doubt in the darkness what God has revealed in the light.”
How might the story of Israel played-out if they simply continued
to hold fast to their first reaction when Moses appeared? How might our
stories?
“And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and
had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped” (Exodus 4:31).
