Indeed...So Now, Go

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. " (Exodus 2:11)


Moses had grown up in Pharoah's palace, removed from the suffering of his own people.  This tells us of the moment that Moses saw that suffering with his own eyes.  We know he was angered by what he saw because the next verse says that he killed the Egyptian.  This is the incident that led him to flee from Egypt into Midian where God would later speak to him.


Cue the burning bush.


"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.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 3:7-10)


This may be one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  The first thing that catches my intention is God's use of the word "indeed".  "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt."  It gives me the feeling that Moses had passionately questioned God about whether he had any idea about what was happening to His people in Egypt.  Moses had seen it.  Had God?  Did He care?  Why wasn't He doing anything about it.  I think these questions burned in Moses' heart the whole time he had been in Midian.  They were probably questions all of the Israelites in Egypt had asked at some point in their lives.  And here's God's answer:  I have indeed seen.  I have indeed heard. AND I AM CONCERNED!


Now here's the kicker!  God tells Moses that He has come down to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and bring them to a good land.  And then He tells him, "Ok, now go, 'cause I'm sending you to go do all this."  With His help, of course.


Perhaps before Moses asked God if He saw, if he heard, if he cared, God was asking Moses the same questions when he allowed him to see the suffering of his people.  Perhaps when we learn of some injusticeand it burns in our hearts and we ask God those questions He is asking them of us.  Perhaps He is revealing His heart to us and preparing us for a time when He plans to do something about it through us.  But He needs us to go into it with a heart like His.


Have you ever had that feeling?  Do you have it now?  Are you open to joining with God in doing something about it in whatever way He leads you?