Israel Oppressed in Egypt

BY Amanda Bible Williams

Do you know that feeling when something really emotional happens, but you aren’t in a safe place or time to process it? Maybe you’re at school or work or the grocery store, and somehow you hold that emotion in and go about your day. Until. Until you see someone who knows you—really knows you. Someone who loves you, someone who understands you inside and out. And what happens? Immediate tears. Immediate permission to feel what you’ve been trying to avoid feeling. 

I’m not a psychologist, and I can’t explain all the reasons for this phenomenon of the human experience. But for me, I think this is because the feeling of being truly seen—and still loved—is so rare. When we experience it, our defenses drop. For a moment, we embrace the type of intimacy we were created for.

When I read the book of Exodus, there are three words that captivate me every time. They aren’t found in the likely places—the stories of the burning bush, the Red Sea crossing, or wilderness wandering. They come before all of that, amid the years of oppression God’s people endured under Egypt’s heavy hand. In this seemingly endless period of suffering, we come upon Exodus 2:25: “God saw the Israelites, and God knew.”

And God knew. What a wonderful, weighty truth!

The same God who spoke “I AM” from the burning bush, who parted the sea, who rained down bread in exact measure from heaven, is also the God who knows. He knows our circumstances and our hearts, our past and our future. He sees us. He hears us. He knows us. And He not only knows, He acts! We learn from the whole of Scripture that our God is working all things together for His glory and our good—in the book of Exodus and in our right-now lives. We serve a God of response. Each new season and circumstance are new opportunities to depend on His provision.

As you journey through the miraculous accounts in the book of Exodus, put your feet on the ground with God’s people. Imagine how it felt to cry out from Egypt, from the shore of the Red Sea, from the vast wilderness, and the base of Mount Sinai. See what Scripture has to teach you about the unchanging character of the God who knows. 

As we read these crucial chapters in the redemption story, I pray we find confidence and rest in the One who created us to live in relationship with Him.