“God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” (Exodus 2:25)
When Jacob, also known as Israel, was 130 years old, he and his entire family moved to Egypt. His descendants grew into a great nation there. Unfortunately, the Pharaoh of Egypt decided they were getting way too great, so he had them enslaved and tried to kill all their male children. But God was watching over His people, and Pharaoh’s plans failed spectacularly. One Israelite child—Moses—was even adopted by Pharaoh’s own daughter. When Moses lived in Egypt until he was 40, at which time he left and became a shepherd. But when he was 80, God called him back to Egypt. God had heard the cries of His enslaved people, and He was going to rescue them. He chose Moses for this job, to be the deliverer of the children of Israel. Their long torment was about to come to an end.
Like the Israelites, we’re often going to find ourselves in tough situations. Though none of us will hopefully ever experience a 400-year slavery, the fact remains that life is hard. It can be easy to wonder where God is in all of this. After all, if He’s really in control, why won’t He put a stop to these troubles? Doesn’t He love us?
As a matter of fact, God does love us. What’s more, He’s also able to do something about the problems in our life. When we call to Him for help, He hears us—and He always answers. That answer may not be what we want; a lot of times, God says “no”. But that doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us. What it means is that He loves us enough to make us wait for just the right time, the time when His plan can be carried out perfectly. He sees us, and He always knows exactly what’s going on in our lives. When the time was right, God called Moses to free His people. In the same way, when the time is right, He’ll do something about your problems, too. The answer will probably be something unexpected. I’m certain the Israelites weren’t expecting Moses to be their deliverer. But he was the one God had chosen to do something incredible. He’s waiting to do something incredible in each of our lives, too. We just need to be patient and trust Him, knowing that He sees our troubles and loves us enough to do something about them.
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