Divine Knowledge

God, our Creator and Savior, is scandalous by modern standards. In our day, we accuse our leaders of various crimes, asking “What did he know, and when did he know it?” In Exodus, we find God working through midwives who feared Him in chapter 1, but then we find this curious statement at the end of chapter 2:

Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

Exodus 2:23-25 NASB

The drama of this passage has been obscured by most translators throughout history. If it were to be rewritten in a more literal style, it would read as follows (same words above, but without any additional text):

Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.

Perhaps it’s a small thing, but the last phrase is typically changed to include what God knew. Only the English Standard Version seems content to not have to interpret that phrase. Think through those phrases: God heard, God remembered, God saw, and God knew. It gives me chills to recite them. It is in response to the groaning and crying out of His people, and something begins to move, to happen, to change. Something massive, and impossible to impede or divert, has started to change the course of the lives of an entire people. I suppose, technically, two peoples.

Why do we feel the need to complete the phrase, and guess what it was that God knew? Isn’t it somewhat scandalous that the Creator and God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob only remembers His covenant after the king dies? Why not before? Why didn’t He know before? Perhaps, the problem isn’t in our understanding of God, but rather, our understanding of the verb, “to know”. Look up the word used here.

It’s the basic Hebrew word for knowing something. It encompasses knowledge from experience, intimacy (including physical intimacy), conventional learning, and common knowledge. The writer here didn’t differentiate. God knew. He heard their groaning, remembered His covenant, saw the sons of Israel, and He knew. It’s supposed to sound peculiar. I think the writer is drawing all of the meaning of “to know” into this description of Yahweh’s character.

When we cry out to our Master, do we believe that He hears us? Sometimes it may seem like we have a hard time getting His attention. It may seem like He doesn’t hear, doesn’t remember, doesn’t see, and doesn’t know. From this passage, that seems what has happened to the sons of Israel while they were enslaved under the king of Egypt. But, that’s not the only option here.

All the verbs for God hearing, remembering, seeing, and knowing are completed action. The timing of the king’s death suggests that these actions were completed after the king died, but is that necessarily true? The king dies after Moses is born, after he tries to help his brothers, and after he escapes into the wilderness. It seems the wheels of God’s work are already turning, so what does this passage tell us about God’s character?

What I learn from it is that my Master already hears, remembers, sees, and knows. I may cry out today, but He has already heard my cry. I may plea for Him to remember His promises to me, but He already has. I may try to get His attention so He will see me, but He already has seen me. And the most important thing I desire of my Master is for Him to know me. And He already does.

God knew. On the most intimate, visceral, complete, and thorough level of all that word means, God already knows me. And He knows you. Do you cry out to Him? Does He seem to be ignoring you, your plight, circumstances, not hearing your prayers, nor remembering His promises to you, not seeing you, and doesn’t seem to know what’s going on in your life? Trust me, God knows, and has known. Before you cried out, before His promises, before your circumstances, God knew.

Paul claims he has learned the secret of being content in every circumstance. That’s a lot easier to learn when we are convinced that our Savior knows. So, cry out to our Master, remember His promises, and remember that He has always known.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation

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The Rebellious Daughter

I have a daughter. She used to be rebellious. I would tell her do so something, but I knew nothing. Things were different for her than when I was her age, and so on. There was a lot of helplessness as my wife and I watched her make decisions she’s still paying for. Pretty much like every parent. She was pretty much like a lot of kids. Apparently, she was also like Pharaoh’s daughter.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Exodus 2:5-6 NASB

So, daddy, the supreme ruler of all Egypt, tells all Egyptians to throw Hebrew male babies into the Nile. And they seem to do exactly that. All except for his own daughter. She took pity on the crying baby she found by the River where she went to bathe. And, come to think of that, what about that? What are the odds that it was intentional, and that this rebellious daughter was setup? Pretty good, actually:

The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

Exodus 2:2-4 NASB

His mother puts him into a water-proof basket, puts the basket in the reeds (i.e. along the shoreline), and sets her daughter to see what happens next. And if you’re still not sure that this is a setup of this wayward progeny of the king, see what happens after the princess finds the baby:

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

Exodus 2:7-9 NASB

So, instead of losing her son to the Nile, this Levite woman ends up getting paid to nurse him. Which is exactly what she wanted to do in the first place. And then, of course, he’s raised away from the chain-gang of is fellow Hebrews. What mother wouldn’t prefer that? You seriously think this wasn’t “arranged” by “mom”? It’s just an observation, but Moses, Aaron, and Miriam come from a very shrewd mother. And, I suspect they learned well from her.

But notice something else. The mother knew this was a viable option. Somehow, the daughter of Pharaoh seemed a good “mark” for this act of manipulation. How did she know? What was known about the princess that made this seem like a possibility? Not sure if there is something to that? Then look at how this story progresses:

The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Exodus 2:10 NASB

Did you notice that Pharaoh’s okay with this? His daughter suddenly has a child, a Hebrew child, a Hebrew male child. To be clear, how would anyone in the court of Pharaoh miss that? His own daughter not only disobeyed him, but that now these feared and despised people have a “prince” in the royal court. If everyone seems okay with this, then is it possible that this policy of feeding Hebrew male babies to the Nile wasn’t popular?

We sometimes forget that the Egyptians were made up of more than a king, a Pharaoh. Real people with families and pets and jobs, and in-laws, and so on, made up the people of Egypt. It could not have been easy to carry out the Pharaoh’s edict. Perhaps, it was thought that this one, saved from among the doomed, was a small token of favor toward an otherwise hopeless people. Moses may have become the sop for the guilty feelings of the Egyptians, helping them make up for the horror.

Clearly, we don’t know, no one does. There are a host of other options, many much simpler than this one. Yet, this one is a possibility too. Sure, one among many, but still, a viable possibility. Let’s pretend for a moment that it’s the right one, it’s true. What would that reveal to you about the character of your Savior? What does His use of guilty feelings in a people opposed to Him tell you about His work in your life?

We see people opposed to us as enemies. Yet, our Savior calls us to pray for our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who persecute us. Paul says that it “heaps burning coals on their heads.” (Romans 12:19-21). How is that possible if they have no “feelings of compassion”? If they don’t care, it won’t bother them. The only way this works is if they have the capacity for compassion, and can feel remorse.

That this rebellious princess exists, that she’s allowed to rebel this way, should tell us that there is hope for the Egyptians. Think about that. These people have mercilessly oppressed the Hebrews, yet, for Yahweh, there’s hope for them. There’s at least the capacity for Him to use their compassion for His own purposes and ends. No one can’t be used by our Creator. It’s just a simple biblical truth. But some have a capacity to be use to accomplish extraordinary things, like saving the chosen deliverer of the sons of Israel from the Nile. You just never know.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation

Exception-al Hebrew

Have you ever known someone for whom the normal rules of humanity don’t seem to apply? It’s not necessarily that they get special privileges, as much as they seem to be able to escape the consequences. The ones I find most frustrating are those who aren’t doing it intentionally, they are mostly oblivious to the incongruity.

Moses is one of those, sort of. He is supposed to die as a Hebrew boy as soon as he is born. The Egyptians are supposed to throw him into the Nile, possibly feed him to Nile crocodiles. And yet, instead, he is placed in a basket, and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. Now, keep in mind, this whole time, everyone knows he is a Hebrew, and that he’s escaping the normal fate of other Hebrew boys:

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Exodus 2:5-6 NASB

An exception is made for Moses, almost immediately. He is a Hebrew boy who is allowed to live, and allowed by the very people killing all the rest. It’s obvious, but it’s not fair. Not is it obviously not fair, but both Hebrews and Egyptians seem okay with this. So, it is doubly not fair. Not to add insult to injury, but the Creator of the universe is also okay with it, so perhaps it becomes triply unfair. Yet, this exception to the rule is part of His purpose.

It’s possible that if this were the only exception Moses receives, it would be merely interesting, but not obnoxious. The exceptions don’t stop here. Remember that everyone knew he was a Hebrew? It wasn’t like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments, it was a well known fact that Moses wasn’t an Egyptian. Notice the entire absence of any “discovery” by Moses in the passage below:

Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.” Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

Exodus 2:9-11 NASB

These paranoid Egyptians, who want to subjugate the Hebrews for national security reasons, then allow an entitled one of their own to move among them. So, what happened to the national security issue? It seems an exception was made to their paranoid policy in the case of Moses. Perhaps these Egyptians figured they had “bought Moses off” with the riches of his entitled adoption as “grandson of Pharaoh”. But it’s clear they hadn’t “bought him off” at all. Moses commits murder on behalf of his people, leading to another exception.

He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” But he said, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Exodus 2:13-15 NASB

Here Moses intercedes, knowing which one of the two is the offender. That’s the first surprise, but the second is the extortion used by the offender (making him truly offensive – pun intended). He knows Moses killed the Egyptian, and uses that knowledge against this powerful grandson of Pharaoh. But notice Moses notices the matter has become known, but doesn’t run until Pharaoh finds out. Did you miss the “exception”?

It can’t be that only this offensive Hebrew knew of the death of the Egyptian. The Hebrews apparently knew, but said nothing. Were they hoping that Moses would do more? Were they waiting to see if he would lead them against Egyptians? We don’t know why only that they made an exception in the case of Moses, and didn’t inform their task masters about him.

Well, obviously, the secret eventually was made known to Pharaoh, and he sought to kill Moses, and Moses flees (again, not so much like the movie). Which leads to the next exception. Why wasn’t Moses pursued? I’m pretty sure the paranoid Egyptians wouldn’t tolerate a loose murder from the Hebrews being allowed to roam free. And yet, they do, and he does. And the exceptions are allowed to continue. Only the next one isn’t necessarily in his favor.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “Why have you come back so soon today?” So they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and what is more, he even drew the water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why is it that you have left the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.”

Exodus 2:16-20 NASB

It seems the heroic Moses was left behind by the very people he helped…again. First the Hebrews sell him out, meaning he has to flee. And then the daughters of the priest of Midian leave him behind after he defends them, and waters their sheep. It seems that sometimes exceptions don’t always work in our favor. Some consequences are good, and sometimes those consequences are excepted as well.

Hopefully the lesson here becomes obvious to us. In the economy of our Master, we don’t always get the consequences of our actions, good or bad. Grace works in God’s favor, for it is His favor that grace contains. In so many ways, we too are exceptional, in that we receive exceptions to the normal rules from our Master. It’s not that everyone is okay with that, but that we become okay with it, both as we discover it about ourselves, but also as we find it in others.

And, to continue the application, we are to treat others with the same exceptions we receive from our Savior. His mercy and His grace we so freely receive from Him, this becomes the content of our communion with our fellow disciples. Sometimes these exceptions work in our favor, and sometimes, we need to let our Master define the favor for us. And so, our fellow disciples may misunderstand us, and we may suffer for the good we do them. This too becomes an exception we receive from the hand of our Master, who was also misunderstood, and suffered at their hands.

Who is more exceptional than our Savior, He who gathers plain people and makes exceptions for them, transforming them into exceptional people? Pretty crazy, huh? Or is it just extraordinarily exceptional?

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation