Week 1 – Tuesday 8 March

“After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”

Reading

Exodus 2.23-3.8a

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

Moses at the Burning Bush

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Reflection

Oppression and injustice are not just words, they are harsh realities for real people of flesh and blood. Under Pharaoh’s rule, the people of Israel cry out in pain. The story does not say that they cry out to God. They do not argue, demand or reason. They simply groan in pain and anguish, and it is to this cry of pain that God responds. God will bring justice and liberation, but first God hears their cry and God sees their pain. 

It is compassion that moves God to act in power. When God hears and sees, God ‘remembers’ his covenant. In other words, the people’s pain puts a claim on the one who sees and hears. Who else had seen and heard but not been moved to compassion? Who else had seen and heard but refused to accept that they could not be a bystander and had to act?

Prayer

Patient God, open my eyes to see the people I usually ignore and listen to those I pass by, and open my heart to be changed by their stories. Amen.

Today’s family challenge

Try to notice every person you see or hear today

It’s easy for us to stop noticing or treating others as being human like us.
But God notices and cares for everyone.