Exodus 2 Devotional
by Pastor David Groendyk

Following the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus shows us that our Creator God is also our Redeemer God who keeps the covenant promises he made to his people. Already we’ve seen that Israel has become fruitful and multiplied greatly (1:7), just as God said they would. Now we see the beginnings of God rescuing his people from their enemies. Chapter 2 is the origin story for the human deliverer that God had chosen to rescue his people—Moses.

Both in Moses’ early childhood and adult life, we see God’s providential hand upon him in big ways. Although the baby Moses ought to have been killed as soon as he came out of his mother’s womb (1:22), neither the midwives nor any Egyptians were able to find him. After being strategically hidden in the river, Moses is found by Pharaoh’s daughter who has pity and compassion on the child rather than having the desire to carry out her own father’s orders. And it just so happened that Moses’ sister was nearby and able to offer Pharaoh’s daughter assistance in nursing and raising the child. Then, many years later, when Moses murders an Egyptian who was abusing a fellow Hebrew, God spares Moses’ life from the angry Pharaoh by allowing him to flee to Midian. What’s more, God had even orchestrated this eventual leader of the Hebrews to be raised in the home of an Egyptian, which would surely serve Moses well when he acted as mediator between God/Israel and Pharaoh/Egypt. God is sovereignly and providentially preparing his deliverer for the work he’ll accomplish, just as he did with Jesus 1500 years later. But just as his own people did not accept Moses or understand that God was bringing salvation through him (Acts 7:23–29), so many people remain blind, obstinate, stiff-necked, and hard-hearted to the salvation that Jesus Christ provides (Acts 7:51–53). It truly does take a new birth and a regenerated heart to know, receive, and love Christ. What do Moses’ and Jesus’ rejections tell us about our propensity to not listen when God is speaking? In what ways do you see yourself rejecting the God-sent deliverer, ruler, and judge?

Closely related to the preparing and sending of the deliverer are the words we read in verses 23–25. These are some of the most beautifully heart-rending verses in all of Scripture. Anybody who has spent significant time pouring out their hearts before God in the midst of hardship knows the hope-giving attraction of these verses. God hears your groaning. God remembers his own promises. God sees his people. And God knows. He knows the sufferings and the cries for help. He sees all of it that has ever happened to you. And he promises that he has not abandoned you in the midst of it. So many times when we’re hurting, we feel terribly alone in what we’re experiencing, like no one else has a clue what it’s like to be me, and we just want someone to be able to know and understand. As lonely as you might feel, God assures you over and over again in Scripture that he knows and understands (Psalm 139:1). His ear is always turned towards you to hear when you call. He knows and understands more intimately than you can imagine. He knitted you together while you were in the womb (Psalm 139:13); no one can know you more intimately than that! But it’s not just an understanding that looks in from the outside. God actually took on flesh, experienced the suffering of temptation, and underwent every sort of weakness that a human could go through, up to and including death itself (Hebrews 2:14–18; 4:14–16). He has personally invested himself in your groanings and sufferings. And that’s why he sends a Deliverer and Redeemer in the first place. He hears, remembers, sees, and knows your helpless estate, and he sends a rescuer to fill you with new life and revive you. How does meditating on God sending his Son to earth help you remember that God does not abandon you in your suffering? What is it in your life that you need to remind yourself that God hears and sees and knows? For what difficulty or hardship do you need a fresh reminder of God’s power and never-ending presence? Take it to him in prayer now.