Exodus 3:7, commentary and pictures

God spoke these words to Moses at Horeb out of the burning bush, calling him by name to send him to lead His people out of bondage. He declared that He had truly seen the affliction of Israel in Egypt, heard their earnest cry under their taskmasters, and knew their sorrows, for He is not indifferent, forgetful, or regardless of His oppressed people. Because the full time had come, He Himself would come down to deliver them by signs and wonders and His own mighty power, not by warfare or human force, so that the glory would be His alone. His purpose was to bring them up to a good land flowing with milk and honey, to free them to serve Him and take them as His peculiar treasure and church. That same seeing and hearing belongs to His continuing character toward all the suffering and oppressed, as verily shown in the slavery in the United States whose cries reached heaven and whom He wrought to free, and it lays obligation on His workers to labor first for the most neglected and degraded.

Context and Promise

The Lord spoke these words to Moses at Horeb, the mountain of God, out of the midst of the burning bush while he was leading the flock in the desert, calling him by name, Moses, Moses, and revealing the divine presence as the I AM, Christ the Light of the world. That encounter marks the beginning of his mission to lead the people out of bondage, the commissioning word that sends the man trained as a humble keeper of sheep to become a tender, faithful spiritual shepherd of erring, straying Israel. The staff of the shepherd was there exchanged for the rod of God for the work of deliverance from Egypt.

The words declare that God had surely seen the affliction of His people Israel in Egypt, had heard their earnest cry by reason of their taskmasters, and knew their sorrows. This shows that the Lord God of heaven stays in communication with the fallen inhabitants of this world, bends toward those deceived and troubled, listens to every word uttered, and observes the movements of everyone to approve or condemn. He is not indifferent to His oppressed people, nor forgetful nor regardless of them and their concerns, but hears every groan and every prayer caused by oppressors, raises up the fallen, befriends all who love and fear Him, and will punish and reprove all who oppress them or lead them astray from safe paths.

Their hard servitude under cruel abuse and deprivation caused anguished lament and wailing unto God over their affliction. That oppressive yoke had come upon them as punishment because they had departed from the worship of the true God and transgressed His law. When they humbled themselves before God, acknowledged His dealings, and cried earnestly for deliverance with promises to serve Him and be obedient if He would break off their yoke of bondage, their cries reached heaven.

That seeing and hearing was the ground for action, for the time had fully come for Him to come down Himself to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. He answered in a most wonderful manner by His own mighty power through signs and wonders, preserving them from their enemies and bringing plagues upon the Egyptians through appointed representatives, Moses and Aaron, with angels of God with those men enabling them to execute His will. That preservation and judgment proved false their later claim in the wilderness that it was well with them in Egypt.

Deliverance would come not by warfare or force of arms or human strength and learning as Moses first supposed when he slew the Egyptian, but by God's own mighty power through Moses as he trusted, obeyed, recognized his helplessness, and depended on God's power and loving purpose, so that the glory might be ascribed to Him alone. By that deliverance His holiness, grace, and love were made known to the idolatrous Egyptians, and Moses was appointed to show that Jehovah is superior to every false deity. In this way God Himself delivered the enslaved Israelites from Pharaoh by His mighty power.

His purpose was to bring them up out of Egypt to a good, large, spacious land flowing with milk and honey. He raised up Moses to deliver them so they could be free to serve Him. He answered their prayers by taking them into covenant with Himself as His peculiar treasure, making them His church, purchased and belonging to Christ, a representation of His church in every age.

Moses Prepared and Sent

Moses at first hurried to begin the work and tried to deliver Israel by force and might, when he slew an Egyptian who was fighting with an Israelite and hid him in the sand, expecting Israel to know and recognize him as their deliverer. He was not ready, and he expected to win their freedom by force of arms.

God therefore sent him away for forty years in Midian as a faithful keeper of sheep in the rocks and mountains and desert, keeping Jethro's flocks and patiently seeking and hunting for stray sheep. Caring for the flock with thoughtfulness and tender concern taught him self-control and humility, and made him a tender, patient, loving and faithful shepherd. That long preparation trained and humbled him and fitted him to lead, so that the humble shepherd of sheep was prepared to become a tender spiritual shepherd of erring, straying Israel.

Only after that preparation did God reveal Himself to Moses in the burning bush as the I AM and commission and send him to Pharaoh to bring Israel out, bidding him go and deliver the children of Israel. The commissioning word exchanged Moses' shepherd's staff for the rod of God, sending the man trained as a humble shepherd of sheep to become a tender, faithful spiritual shepherd of God's erring, straying sheep Israel. God had seen Israel's suffering in Egypt and chosen Moses to lead the people out of bondage, telling him that He would use him to bring about their deliverance.

The deliverance came through Moses as he trusted and obeyed the Lord, not through human strength or learning. He had to recognize his helplessness and depend on God's power and loving purpose. The Lord's ways of dealing with people are higher than human ways and may surprise.

Care for Oppressed Today

The declaration that God has surely seen affliction, heard the cry caused by oppressors, and known sorrows reveals that He stays in communication with the fallen inhabitants of this world and is not regardless of the world and its concerns. He bends toward earth toward those deceived and troubled, listens to every word uttered, truly sees suffering, poverty, degradation and neglect, hears every groan and prayer, observes the movements of everyone, and approves or condemns every action. He raises up the fallen, befriends all who love and fear Him, and will punish and reprove everyone who oppresses His people or dares to lead them astray from safe paths into distress as they conscientiously keep His way to reach the home of the righteous.

What was true of the Hebrews in cruel Egyptian bondage is as verily true of the vast number of human beings held in slavery in the United States of America. God looked upon its foul blot of slavery, marked the sufferings endured, saw the affliction, heard the cry by reason of taskmasters, knew the sorrows, and heard groanings and agony reaching heaven as coming to the ears of the Lord of hosts. That bondage was an evil for which the nation was punished, and He moved upon the hearts of men to work for the cruelly oppressed until the Southern States became one terrible battlefield thick with graves of American sons who fell giving their lives to proclaim liberty. Thus the Lord wrought in freeing the Southern slaves by coming down Himself to deliver them, being not indifferent to their oppression.

The same pity that broke the yoke of Israel's bondage and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land is not indifferent to the colored people in America who though freed from slavery in one sense still live in sin and degradation in the slavery of ignorance. He undertook Israel's cause while they were still degraded, downtrodden, and suffering all that power could impose to make life bitter and destroy them, and He called Israel His son even then and did not wait until they went forth and stood in triumph on the shores of the Red Sea. He sent Moses to Pharaoh with the demand to let His son go that he might serve Him, and that call now summons those who name His name to take up the long-neglected work of lifting the oppressed. His further purpose, as with the children of Israel, is to educate, refine and ennoble a terribly degraded people through Christ working with appointed leaders, keeping them separate, directing and counseling them until through a correct representation of the divine character they come to know God, reverence and obey His commandments.

He therefore calls His workers to do first the work appointed in the manifestly neglected field, and He rebukes taking the means that should advance the work there and appropriating them to make a good showing in more pleasing and promising fields that have less necessity and will reveal no better results. His care for Israel in Egypt means He cares no less for souls of the African race that may be won to serve Him, for they have souls to save as well as others. Because they were held in servitude, kept in ignorance, debased and brutalized, forced to disregard marriage, broken in families by tearing wife from husband and husband from wife, and made degraded and repulsive in habits and manners, much is due to them after so great a wrong. There is even greater obligation to labor for the colored people of the South than for those more highly favored, requiring far more missionary work among people of all classes and especially the colored race, earnest effort to lift them up, and carrying the truth to them.