Day #18a*: Exodus 1-2. "God Saw"

​In the book of Exodus, God’s redemptive plan shifts to focus on the nation of Israel.  We meet them hundreds of years after the time of Joseph.  They are still in Egypt, but they are no longer favored people because the new king of Egypt “did not know Joseph.”  God had been fulfilling this promise to Abraham to make his people great in number, but the large numbers of rapidly reproducing foreigners threatened the Egyptian leaders.  Pharaoh oppresses the people with hard labor and attempts to slim their numbers by killing male infants.  Moses is spared, and under God’s guidance he taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the royal court.  In the midst of the “groaning” of God’s people two heroes emerge.  First, Moses.  He is unable to deliver his people from their groaning and oppression and has to flee in into the desert.  But the second hero will have sufficient ability.  Chapter 2 concludes with these words of anticipation; “God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant… God saw the people of Israel and God knew.”
 
Reflect:  Deliverance from the oppression of Egypt is the defining act of God’s Old Testament salvation.  In this we see an important characteristic of God.  He hears the groaning of his people, he sees their situation, and he knows.  As you consider painful and frustrating parts of you own life and hold them up to God in prayer, remember that he “hears, sees and knows.”
 
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church he sought to correct a church that was distracted by great acts of power.  He reminded them that love is the greatest of all attributes that a Christian can have.  In this, we draw near to the heart of God.  But more important than knowing God, is the fact that we are “known by him.” 
 
I Corinthians 13:12-13 Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

* Note on the title "18a";  When the schedule was being made, there was a cut and paste error which resulted in one date being left out.  We didn't catch this until further plans had developed, so the easiest way to deal with this was to simply make day #18a and #18b.  I trust that you will not find this to be a huge difficulty.