God Knows Our Pain – Shemot – Jan. 2

Pain and suffering are a part of life that we all wish would just go away at times, however, it is also an instrument of God to stir within us a desire for change.  The well-known writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis is famous for saying the following about the subject of pain:

We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.  – C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Lewis summarized well the part that pain plays in life: pain is God’s “megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  It helps to understand how God uses pain in our lives, however, one of the biggest obstacles to our pain is that it makes us feel alone.  Pain is generally individual and personal and creates a feeling of isolation.

We all face pain and suffering in life at various levels and degrees.  We are often unable to control how much pain and affliction we will receive but we are able to control how we respond to it.  At times there are choices that we can make to relieve the pain in our lives but at other times the only choice we have is to cry out to God.  This is the case in this week’s Torah Portion which begins in the first chapter of Exodus.

Affliction in Egypt

The sons of Israel suffered terribly during their years of bondage in Egypt.  They must have been crying out to God for decades, generation after generation, for God to relieve them from their suffering but God seemed far away.  There came a day, however, when their groaning and cries for help eventually penetrated heaven:

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

The cries of the sons of Israel rose up to God and God was stirred to action because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In the last sentence of the verses cited above, it says, “God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.”  This sentence in the original Hebrew is just seven words: “וירא אלהים את בני ישראל וידע אלהים.” – “va’yarei elohim et bene Israel va’yedah elohim” and is literally translated as “And God saw the sons of Israel and God knew.”  These words clearly tell us that God saw the sons of Israel but what did God know?  We don’t know exactly what the verb “knew” is referring to in this sentence.  We could assume that it refers to “the sons of Israel” since this is the object of the first verb in the sentence, but it is only an assumption.

In the context of the verses cited above, there are five reactions that took place in relation to the situation of the sons of Israel and God Himself:

1. The cries of the sons of Israel rose up to God
2. God heard their groaning
3. God remembered His covenant
4. God saw the sons of Israel
5. God knew

The first four reactions are clear, however, the fifth reaction causes us to wonder.  What did God know?  I believe the answer is found in God’s conversation with Moses in the next chapter of Exodus.

God Knows the Pain of His People

In the beginning of Exodus chapter three we find Moses settled into his daily routine in his father-in-law’s business.  One day while Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law in the desert, God got his attention through a desert bush that burned but was not consumed.  Moses went to see this unusual site in the desert.

It was from the midst of this burning bush that God spoke to Moses.  God made himself known to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then God explained why He had come to Moses:

The LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. – Ex. 3:7

God explained to Moses that He had seen the affliction of His people and that He was aware of their sufferings.  The word for “aware” in this verse is the Hebrew word “ידע” – “yadah,” which means “to know.”  This is the same Hebrew word used for “know” in Ex. 2:25, “and God knew.”  God saw His people and He knew their pain.

God is Intimate with His People

The tenderness of God’s care and concern for the people of Israel is clearly revealed in this one verse (Ex. 3:7) and is much more evident in the Hebrew.  I’d like to take a closer look at a few key phrases from this verse through the eyes of the Hebrew language.

In the first phrase of this verse, God said “ראה ראיתי” – “ra’oh ra’eiti,” which is translated as “I have surely seen…”  It is actually the same Hebrew word used twice.  The Hebrew uses double verbs to produce emphasis.  A literal translation of this double verb use would be something like “seeing, I saw!”  God was leaving no doubt that He had seen with his own eyes the “affliction” of His people.  Just as Moses saw the affliction of the Hebrews with his eyes when he was in Egypt, so has God seen the pain and suffering of His people.

The Power in Being Seen

It was important for Moses and the Israelites to know that God had seen the affliction of His people.  In seeing there is understanding and in understanding there is an appropriate response.  This is true for all of us in various circumstances in life.

Just this past week I had a situation which required my landlord to see with his own eyes something that he needed to act upon.  The water heater for the apartment of which I’m living was leaking water.  I called my landlord on the phone and explained the situation to him.  At first he said to me, “That water heater has been leaking for a long time.  It is not an emergency.”  I asked him to come and see it.  He came and looked at the water heater and saw that the leak was something that needed attention but thought that the bolts just needed tightening up.  He called his plumber to come and take a look at it and after the plumber saw it he explained that the water heater needed to be completely replaced.  My landlord was convinced of the proper response by seeing for himself the situation with the help of his plumber.

When God told Moses that He had seen the affliction of His people, He was making it known that He understood the misery of their slavey and that He would respond.  For the Israelites to know that God had seen their affliction must have reminded them that One more powerful than their wicked taskmasters was about to act.

The Comfort in Being Heard

God had also told Moses that He had “given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters.”  The phrase “given heed to their cry” is actually just two words in Hebrew; “צעקתם שמעתי” – “Tza’aktam shamati,” which is literally translated as “I have heard their cry.”   The comfort of knowing that the cries of the people have been heard by Almighty God can silence the greatest pain.

We all have seen and heard babies or young children cry.  Children cry because they have a need or a want that they cannot meet on their own.  They want attention and they want to be attended to by someone.  Acknowledging the cry of a child by looking them in the eye, calling on his or her name, or taking them in one’s arms often comforts the cries of a child.  A child wants to be heard and acknowledged.

God wanted Moses and the people of Israel to know that He had heard their cry.  God had seen their pain, God had heard their cry, and He was attentive to their need.  There was surely a great sigh of relief when God said, “I have heard their cry.”

The Peace in Being Known

The final phrase of Exodus 3:7 is “for I am aware of their sufferings.”  We looked at the word “aware” above but I would like to look at this phrase in more detail.  In Hebrew this phrase is as follows: “כי ידעתי את מכאביו” – “ki yadati et mahkovav” and is literally translated as “for I have known his pains.”  God wanted Moses and the people to know that He knew their pain.

Who can know the pain of another?

Who can know the pain of another?  Pain and suffering are generally something internal that one endures until there is relief.  Pain reminds a person that life is not as it was meant to be.  Pain reminds a person that something good is missing from life.  Pain tells a person that there is a dangerous situation that needs attention.  Pain is personal and it hurts.

It is worth noting that in this phrase, “for I have known his pains,” God switched from using the third person plural to the third person singular.  All along God had been speaking about “their pain” and “their cry,” in this last phrase, however, God made it even more personal as he spoke of “his pains.”  God knew the pain of the people of Israel as the pain of one person.  Pain is personal and God wanted Moses and the Israelites to know that He knew their pain as the pain of a son before his father (Ex. 4:22).

God was declaring in these few words that He knew the personal pain of His people and that He would act on their behalf.  God saw the affliction of the Israelites, God heard the cry of His people, God knew their pain, and He was about to act.

A Longing to be Seen, Heard, and Known

Every one of us, from a new born baby to a 95 year old person, can identify with these natural desires to be seen, heard, and known in a time of pain.  It doesn’t matter if a person is an introvert or an extrovert, Chinese or British, black or white; we all desire to be seen, heard, and known especially when we face obstacles in our life that are totally out of our control.

Whether it is to a parent, a friend, a spouse, a boss, a judge, or to God Himself, we all desire to have our pain and suffering acknowledged and relieved.  We want to know that someone acknowledges our situation and is willing to do something about it.

How long have you been suffering in your pain?  How long have you been crying out to God and feeling like you haven’t been heard?  Do you feel like God has abandoned you to your misery?

It is easy to feel alone and abandoned in our pain and suffering just as the Israelites did.  We don’t know exactly how long the Israelites suffered as slaves in Egypt, although we do know that they were strangers in Egypt for a total of about 400 years (Gen. 15:13).  The oppression of the Egyptians upon the Israelites could have started soon after the death of Joseph or right before the birth of Moses.  We don’t know exactly.  What we do know from the Bible is that the Israelites endured heavy oppression as slaves for at least the first eighty years of Moses’ life (Ex. 7:7).  Eighty Years of slavery and oppression!  Eighty years of pain!

God’s Plan of Deliverance

God told Moses that He had seen the affliction of His people, He had heard their cries, He knew their pain, and He then told Moses that He was about to act:

So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. – Ex. 3:8

God had a plan to not only relieve the oppression of their slavery but to totally set them free from under the bondage of the Egyptians.  God was about to do a miracle that would shake heaven and earth as He Himself would come down and display His power on earth.

Understanding Affliction & Pain

I can’t imagine being a Hebrew slave in the land of Egypt during those days.  We only read of some of the atrocities, for example when Pharaoh ordered all of the Hebrew male babies to be killed.  It was surely hell on earth for the Israelites living at that time.  They must have continually cried out for deliverance and wondered where was God!

We don’t always understand the reason for affliction, pain and suffering, however, we can learn from this week’s study that God has a plan even in the midst of heartache and misery.  Just as God used the affliction of slavery in the lives of the Israelites in Egypt to ultimately display His power on earth, so God allows us to endure affliction and pain in life that is often beyond our comprehension to accomplish His own ends.

God Knows Our Pain

Let us also remember that we are never alone in our times of affliction.  We read in the book of Isaiah that God identified with His people Israel in their affliction:

In all their affliction He was afflicted,

And the angel of His presence saved them;

In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,

And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. – Isaiah 63:9

God does not abandon His people in their affliction but suffers with them.  There is great comfort in knowing that God is with us even in our times of greatest pain.

Whatever pain or affliction you are enduring in life, don’t give up and don’t lose hope!  God is not detached or unconcerned for your welfare. He just has a different plan for you than you think that He should have for your life.

God sees you, God hears your cry, and God knows your pain!

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Ex. 1:1 – Ex. 6:1

Hafatara: Isaiah 27:6-28:13. 29:22-23

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