But fast forward a few years, and we find their descendants groaning under the tyranny of a Pharoah who did not know Joseph. All the blessings had turned to unbearable agony. And, as time passed, things did not get better, but rather grew worse. These were people in crisis who knew pain, desperation, and tension at every turn. This was an excruciating trial that affected every minute of every day.
And so, they turned to God and cried out for deliverance.
This part of the Exodus narrative hits home for all who have experienced the effects of sin. The world as it was originally created, full of harmony and beauty, now groans with the dissonance sin has brought.
What started as paradise in a garden has turned into exile in a wasteland. We, too, groan under sin’s effects: a diagnosis, broken or difficult relationships, cruelty and oppression, conflict, a feeling of powerlessness . . . We are not strangers to the pain, desperation, and tension of the Israelites.
So how do we respond when we are in this part of our story? And what does God want us to know when we find ourselves here?
Making the Choice: Crying out for Deliverance
The first thing to note is that the Israelites recognized their need of a saviour. They felt the wrongness of their plight, but knew it was beyond them to remedy it. And so they cried out to the Lord for deliverance.
Whenever we find ourselves in this desperate place in our story, a choice will present itself: will we turn to God, or will we turn away from Him?
We may choose to see that this is an expected consequence of living in a fallen world and turn to Him for comfort and deliverance. God assures us over and over again in the Bible that trials will come. The Lord Jesus himself said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33), and James gives counsel for how to respond “whenever we face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). The Bible never suggests that our lives will be like a permanent vacation.
However, we may be tempted to feel that God has failed us, and choose to turn away from Him. Is God letting us down when difficulties press in on every side?
There is a belief that, if I do my part, God should do His, and that, perhaps, I can live my life immune to suffering. But God is not an idol we barter with – He is sovereign over all creation, and over our story.
God brings us along a path that presses us closer to Him and puts His glory on display. In every circumstance He is looking for our trust and loyalty. And He promises that in every place, especially the hard ones, He will never leave us, but will always be near, listening for our cry (Hebrews 13:5,6).
So, with our helplessness front and centre, we find that this part of our story sends us crying out to God. It is right for us to rage against the fallenness of this world. It is right for us to know that the suffering we experience is not as God originally intended – but it is always God’s intent that we look to Him for deliverance in our need.
We cry to Him, and we are assured by the Exodus story, that God hears and He cares. Always remember this when you are crying out to God in your desperation.
God hears and God cares.
Waiting on God: Learning Patience
Though God heard their cry and He cared about their plight, the Israelites’ deliverance was not instantaneous. The Israelites’ cry set in motion their deliverance, but their release required a lot of patience. This kind of delay often causes us to wonder if God really does hear and care.
Notice that God took the time to develop a deliverer. We first read of Moses as a newborn in a world of cruelty and oppression, yet he would eventually lead God’s people out of Egypt as a grown man. His rescue from the drowning mandated by Pharoah for all infant boys, his education at home under his mother, his years in Pharoah’s palace, and his exile in the wilderness, all preceded his confrontation with Pharoah that led to Israel’s deliverance. This deliverer (Acts 7:35) was eighty years in the making!
And so, it is important to realize that timing is God’s business. It says in Exodus that the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt after “430 years, to the very day” (Exodus 12:41 NIV). God has the whole panorama of history in view; His perspective is wide and long, and He has a plan. When we want everything solved right now, God prefers to stick to His impeccable timing.
Furthermore, we see that although waiting is a challenge of faith, this was compounded for the Israelites by the fact that things got worse before they got better. Though they would have preferred instant deliverance, they found themselves waiting for Moses to be ready and then enduring the consequences of his confrontation with Pharoah: extra work and extra whips, ten long plagues, Pharoah’s flip-flopping word, and even an ambush at the Red Sea after they had marched off with the plunder!
Why did God do it this way? He tells us (and them) over and over again that His plan was to put His glory on display (Exodus 7:5; 14:4). Deliverance was important, but God was also going to make sure that the rest of the world would see and appreciate His glory. This is often how He works. When we think of one thing we would like Him to accomplish, He is purposing to accomplish many things, and it often requires a little more time and faith than we prefer.
Finally, we must remember that learning patience is good for us. In James 1:2-4, James tells us that we can rejoice because our trials produce patience in us, and that patience brings maturity. This is a hard truth and may be the reason he tells us in verse 5 to ask for wisdom.
Patience goes against the things we naturally tend toward: things like control and instant gratification. It requires faith and dependence, and a surrender to the wisdom of Someone far greater than us. Patience grows us in the right direction spiritually, and God knows that.
God’s Presence: Fostering Perseverance
All of this brings us to the question: How can we withstand and persevere when the deliverance we cry for takes a long time to come? How do we exercise faith and patience even as we feel our desperation?
God promises His presence, His grace, and His comfort as we wait for His deliverance from our times of crisis. It is to this part of our story that God speaks when He says:
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and . . . they will not sweep over you” (Isaiah 43:2 NIV).
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV).
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4 ESV).
When we turn to Him with our cry for deliverance, wait patiently for His timing, and take comfort in His presence, He sustains and strengthens us until the time of our release arrives. And all of this is with a view to working faith and maturity in us, while His glory is being put on display.
Our suffering, patience, and faith are not in vain.
