What does it mean for God to know? It means that God is actively engaged in your story and mine. Continuing the thought from Monday, check out Exodus 3:7-10. Here we see how God responds to the misery and suffering of his people:
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Too often, I think people associate God knowing with a sense of shame, a desire to hide. (Think Genesis 3!). But consistently, God’s knowing, whether it is the knowing of sin or the knowing of suffering or the knowing of glory, leads God to respond. Look at God’s response in Exodus 3:7-10. Amazing grace, how can it be?
“I have seen…”
“I have heard…”
“I am concerned…” (the only non-verb response)
“I have come down…to rescue…to bring them up..”
“I am sending”
In the next few days, we’ll look at some of the verbs, and what they tell us about God and what they mean for us. For now, spend some time thinking about a story. How might “God knows…” make a difference in this situation? Write a prayer centered around these four verbs.
