Exodus 2:23 -25 “During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”
One of the things I like about being a parent is the responsibility that comes along with it. The responsibilities of good parenting are countless. One of them is that good parents tend to think about the future of their children a lot. They did not only think about it, but they also act to ensure that their children will have a better tomorrow. Most of us here we are working hard and saving a lot of money, we buy expensive insurance; we go out of our way, forget our own comfort and buy stuff that we do not need just to ensure that the future of our children is good.
Unfortunately, not all of us are ‘so' good parents. A retrospective look at our (my wife and me) childhood experiences make us want to give our children the kind of life that we never had. Just like most of the parents here, we make hard decisions, sacrifices and give up our comfort to ensure that this dream we have is realised. However, what is interesting here is that most of the time the children themselves have no idea of what the parents will be going through, they are not aware of the fact that they have a tomorrow that must be prepared for. By this, I am not suggesting that they should. Actually, it's okay for them not to, for me that is the beauty of parenting.
Some time ago we had to make a sacrificial decision for our daughter who was four years old by then when she was about to start school. Out of curiosity, I checked with her just to see if she was aware of what was happening. That’s when I realised that she was living in a world of her own. I remember my wife looked at our daughter and said to her, “don’t worry sweetie, Daddy is on it!” Immediately my daughter went to play. It became clear that this was my problem to deal with. While we were stressed and worried about her future, she was playing, smiling, laughing, making noise, and running up and down in the house. Eventually, she ended up going to a very good school in the area, and she liked it very much.
As I was trying to get my mind around this, I realised how nice it can be to have parents because sometimes they carry the burden of your future and worry about the things you don't even know you need. The unfortunate thing is that not all of us do have earthly parents. However, the good news is that we all have a parent in heaven. Jesus said when you pray, say, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be Your name." (Matthew 6:9). This means when we pray, we don't pray to a God who is merely waiting to judge and punish people, but we pray to a loving God who plays the role of a father, of a parent in our lives. Just like I was sitting in front of my daughter, asking her questions about her future that she totally had no idea what I was talking about, maybe life is sitting in front of you asking questions about your future that you cannot answer, and as a result, you are worried and stressed out. Please be reminded through the text we read today that our Heavenly parent does not only think about our future, but He also acts on it before we are even aware of our future needs. I want to encourage you today with the same words my wife told our daughter that day, “Don't worry sweetie! Daddy is on it!”
In the Old Testament, God has always identified the nation of Israel as His chosen people. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 14:2, referring to the nation of Israel, "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.” So, at every point in history, God related to them in light of this text. The text we have read is about God's chosen people, His own possession. It began by saying, “During that long period, the king of Egypt died.” This clearly indicates that the story starts from somewhere else. The question we should ask then is during which long period.
We have just read a short passage from a much bigger story, I would encourage you to go and read Chapter one to three to get the full picture. However, I will mention briefly what it is all about. Chapter one of the book of Exodus tells us that the nation of Israel, God’s own chosen people were living in Egypt. Life seemed to be good until there arose a King of Egypt who did not know Joseph. When this Pharaoh looked at the children of Israel, he was afraid of how the Israelites were growing and multiplying. He said to the people of Egypt, come let us deal with the Israelites. Otherwise, if war breaks out for us they may join our enemies and fight against us. So, Pharaoh began to oppress them with hard lobar as they build cities for him. He also instructed the midwives who were serving the Israelites during childbearing to kill all baby boys at the point of birth so that this nation will not continue to grow.
Chapter two, then shifts focus from the crisis that the nation was experiencing to the birth of an individual. A certain woman had a baby boy and when she saw that there was something about the baby that made him look very fine, she hid him for three months until she could not hide him any more. She quietly put the baby in a basket and place it on the bank of the Nile River. Eventually, this baby was picked up by Pharaoh's daughter, she named him Moses and declared him her own. When Moses was a grown-up man he eventually runs away from Pharaoh's house to live in Midian after Killing an Egyptian who was ill-treating an Israelite.
So, after a period of about forty years, the king of Egypt died, the one whom Moses was afraid of. Then, the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out to God for help. This means even when the Pharaoh who was oppressing the Israelites dead, things did not change for them, and they continued to suffer under an oppressive system. Maybe they thought the death of the King who was oppressing them will see their slavery coming to an end, but it did not. Then, they began to feel the pressure and the pain of their slavery, the Israelites turned to God and cried for help. The Bible says that and “God heard their groaning and He remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.” God had told Abraham long before he had a child that his children will be strangers in a foreign land, and He promised to deliver them from their misery (Genesis 15:13). If you continue with the story to chapter three, you will see God engaging Moses to send him back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from their slavery, just as He promised to Abraham.
I am convinced that Exodus 2:23-25 presents the story from a human and natural point of view. From this perspective the Israelites cried to God, when God heard their cry, He remembered his covenant with Abraham. To put it in other words, it is the cry of the Israelites that reminded God of the covenant He made with Abraham. Inasmuch as this is humanly understandable because that is what is written, there is also another point of view I wish to point out here, the divine and supernatural perspective. From this perspective, God was not remained of His covenant by the cry of the Israelites. Actually, He had already started working on their deliverance before they even cried out to Him. It was not their cry which made God remember His covenant with Abraham, but because of His character, at the right time, He started working out their deliverance.
When the unexpected began to happen for the Israelites in Egypt, God had already started working out the plan He had in His mind. As the Egyptians were oppressing the Israelites, God had began to prepare a man called Moses for the deliverance of His people. Moses was not born a day after the Israelites cried to God, he was born way before that. Moses was born at a time when baby boys were not allowed to live. But, because God had a plan for His people, He persevered Moses for the mission He had in mind; the deliverance of His people. Moses was even walking among the oppressed people, meeting them in their suffering, but they never knew that he was the man God was preparing so that when they cry out God, God would then use Moses to bring the deliverance they wanted.
What does this have to do with us? According to the New Testament, you and I are God’s chosen people in Christ. The Apostle Peter calls us a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's very own people called for a purpose. (1 Peter 2:9). God always deals with us in light of this text. We are the people of God and God is our father, I may not know what you are going through, I may not understand the pressure and the pain you are struggling with now, but there is one thing I know, we have a Father in heaven who does not wait for problems to overtake us. Before things began to go wrong in our lives, this loving Father of ours do already have a plan of how to get us out and ensure a good future for us. I am here to say to you, “Don't worry sweetie, Daddy is on it! God our Father said in his word, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). God is always working in ways that we cannot see or even detect. This unseen work He is doing moves all people under the sun towards His goal that He has ordained before the foundations of the world.
Think about the order of event as they are narrated; how Moses was perceived and prepared for the work God had in store for him. Pharaoh actually looked after Moses without knowing that Moses will be the one to lead the Exodus of God’s people. In other words, the answer to Israel’s cry was raised by the enemy, God used the same Moses to bring deliverance to his people. This shows us that God is in control of our lives, including all the incidents and accidents that may happen to us. It amazing how God works in the universe. Even when we are under pressure and in pain, disappointed and things are not going our way, we should remember that God is able to make all thing work together for the good of those who love (Romans 8:28). So, you don’t need to worry, God is working on it. I saw an interesting sticker one day and it was written, Don't worry about your tomorrow Jesus has already been there."
From the example I gave about my daughter earlier on, what I could not understand was how she could be so relaxed and yet there is a situation that must be dealt with. I think God wants us to do the same, relax when confronted with uncertainty. One may argue that what makes it easy for children to relax and be happy is that they are not aware of what is happening, but for grown-ups, it is difficult because they are conscious of their surroundings and what is going on there. This is very true, however, in the case of the grown-ups, this is where faith in God comes in. Whether we are aware of the danger that surrounds us or not we need to trust in the character of God. Trusting in God's character means that we know we can rely on him to do what He says He will do. Therefore, we are willing to expose our vulnerability in confidence that all will be well. We can be happy even when our future is over-clouded by uncertainty because we know our Father in heaven is Holy, just, faithful and loving. So, “Don't worry sweetie about your future, your heavenly Father is on it!” all we need to do is to simply trust God that all will be well with you.
Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)
It is about his character, it's not that we know how to pray sweet and irresistible prayers, NO! God takes care of us. Sometimes God would just bless us and do things for us when we have not prayed because He wants to be true to his character, true to who He is. God did not deliver the Israelites because they were such a good people, No! They just like all of us they had their own issues they were struggling with. When, God comes to deliver us from our situations. We should always remember that it has nothing to do with how good we are. The reverse is also true, even if He does not come to deliver us, we should always remember that it has nothing to do with how bad we are. God does things for us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is. God reminded the Israelites of the same thing when He said in Deuteronomy 9:5, “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” I do not always do good things for my daughter because she always behaves. Why, because she does not always behave. However, I sacrifice for her because I respect my parental responsibilities. I want to be true to who I am. You have a Father who cannot be compared to me in any way, He is not human, He is far indescribably holy, caring, loving and just, so. “Don't worry sweetie! Daddy is on it!”
My prayer today is that God will make us become like children. That we can always relax, smiling, be happy, and running up and down in life without a worrier for the future because we know that whatever is in this cloud of uncertainty, our Father is working on it. Jesus said unless you become like little children you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. As you go to your home, to your school, to your work and to business remember you have a parent who is constantly thinking about your future before it even comes. Amen
