The God Who Hears

Introduction

While we may all struggle in different ways with what it means to be people of faith, the truth is that all of us struggle. We are not in a position to look on another person’s struggle with disdain. We are not so morally and spiritually superior to look down our noses at another’s struggle and roll our eyes wondering either outloud to another (that is gossip) or as an inner voice (which is self-righteousness) “how could that person not do better.” We may wonder why the drug addict continues to return to that which may ultimately destroy life while we struggle with an inability to control our eating. We may wonder why the person who pushes the envelope morally continues to do that which diminishes the vision of God’s image while we struggle with an inability to be merciful.

The truth is we all struggle with something in our faith walk. To believe that we do not is to live in a Pharisaical bubble believing that your moral superiority makes God proud while building a wall between yourself and others. Jesus had a lot to say about this false belief and condemned it. There is one area that every person struggles in both the believer and the unbeliever and it is in the area of suffering. Physical, mental, and emotional suffering has the tendency to deplete internal resources even for the faithful. I read the writings of Henri Nouwen, C.S. Lewis, Corrie Tenboom, Elizabeth Eliott, Bonhoeffer, and others and marvel at their ability to deal with suffering in this life. I read the writings of Elie Wiesel who in his suffering rejects the love of God and know that this is the hardest question for any person who walks this earth.

The words of faith sometimes fall flat. Reassuring us that God still remains close when the physical and emotioneal pain is so raw does not always bring comfort. Trying to discover the “secret” to persevering through the suffering isn’t easily found and if there were a secret formula don’t you know that by now someone would have marketed it for a huge profit. There are those in this audience who are suffering. You are here this morning because you are weary. You are here because you have to be. Not in the sense that God will mark it against you for not being here but because in your exhaustion you are looking for energy. You have to be here because God is the only remaining possibility and even He is fading. You are here to find the strength to take another step.

We cannot through human means make something special happen. But pay close attention now today. Know this — God has not left you. He is listening to you. And today you will find strength to move forward. Not from anything we do but because through our worship we will one more time open our hearts to God and speak the words that all who walk in faith must say each day — “I trust you.” Prayer.

Murder and Exile

A common practice of ancient writings was to skip ahead in a person’s life to find the event that set the direction of person’s life. Such is the case here. We find Moses being taken into Pharaoh’s household and now he is adult. But not just any adult. The inference is that Moses was raised as an Egyptian but he has the heart of a Hebrew. As verse 11 begins, Moses is in his late thirties. The tension between future ruler in Egypt and his growing secret connection to the Hebrews is intensifying. Moses wear Egyptian clothes; has an Egyptian haircut; talks like an Egyptian; but his people are the Hebrews. And on this day he crosses the line.

The Hebrew writer tells us that this a time that Moses decides where his faith lies. But do not think for a moment that people of faith commit murder to prover their faith. According to verses 14 the implication of the murder is clear in the mind of the Hebrews. This Egyptian, Moses, thinks he is going to lead a rebellion. Quite the contrary. He is going to bring harsher punishment as it becomes clear to Pharaoh that a rebellion is bubbling up. Moses’ new overt allegiance with the Hebrews does not result in people being thrilled with their new leader. They reject him and now Moses knows that he is without any resources. The king of Egypt will want him dead and the Hebrews do not want him. He chooses life but in self-imposed exile.

He goes to Midian. A people who come from Abraham through his marriage to Keturah. He marries. He has children. He spends time being a shepherd. He assists his father-in-law who is a priest to a false god. He quits wearing Egyptian clothes and he becomes a Midianite. And for 40 years he lives in exile. He is a failure. Trying to be part of two nations and rejected by both. He is now a leader of sheep. A leader in obscurity. A man whose first child is named for his reality “an alien in a foreign land.”

A Change is Coming

Verses 23–24 tell us that something is happening. Changes are coming. Almost 40 years pass and the king of Egypt dies. The wanted posters come down in Egypt. The new king has no vendetta against Moses. After all these years even Israel has forgotten about Moses. The intensity of Israel’s enslavement is growing. We are told that Israel is crying out to God and that God is listening. And we are given some insight to God’s thinking — it is time to bring the next phase of the covenant into reality.

Questions invariably arise. Why did God wait in delivering Israel? What does it mean that God remembered the covenant? Does God get distracted and forgetful? Is God’s concern passive? Viable questions. Reasonable. Let’s start with God remembering. The word that is used here does not suggest that God was forgetful but rather it is an idiom that means that the time is right for God to act. And now we are answering the first question. God has a timetable in mind. This is where our struggle occurs. We want God’s timetable to meet ours, but God sees things differently.

Could God have used a murderer to do his will? Absolutely but Moses wasn’t ready. How do you get a person ready to do God’s will? He has to be humble. When in Exodus 33 Moses begs God to remain it is because Moses knows that life makes sense only with God. Why does God wait? Because a leader is needed. Why make the people suffer for so long? Because he is growing a leader and a people who will depend on him. The Bible tells us that the people began to cry out to God. This would not have been the first time but the text is designed to tell us that only when the people are broken are they ready to trust God.

I want to be careful here but the lesson is the same. God’s timing is not our own and as believers we must learn to trust him. This is not easy. There is nothing about this that makes the suffering any easier.

Henri Nouwen puts it this way: The dance of life finds its beginnings in grief…Here a completely new way of living is revealed. It is the way in which pain can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer, but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain.

And then he writes: When I trust deeply that today God is truly with me and holds me safe in a divine embrace, guiding every one of my steps I can let go of my anxious need to know how tomorrow will look, or what will happen next month or next year. I can be fully where I am and pay attention to the many signs of God’s love within me and around me.

This is our struggle as believers. This is common to all of us both the believer and the unbeliever. Moses envisioned a rebellion borne out of his initiative. God envisioned a humble man who knew that only God can bring about the changes that needed to take place. Israel envisioned that with each king’s death life would get easier and after decades of forced labor they cry out to God. And God begins to act so that there is no doubt that his covenant with Abraham is based on who he is. The people are ready. Moses has been humbled. And in their despair they turn to God.

I remind us that even Jesus had to learn this kind of trust. At Caesarea, when Peter is offering an alternative to the cross, he has to trust that God’s way is best. At Gethsemane when all abandon him, he has to learn to trust that God’s timing is right. And when he dies, he dies trusting that God will fulfill his promise and raise him from the dead. Like Jesus we must learn to trust in times when we do want to control the outcome. Out of our pain God can create something new. Trust him. Invitation.

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