Exodus 3:8, commentary and pictures

God spoke to Moses at the burning bush to declare that He had surely seen Israel's affliction under hard bondage, heard their cry, knew their sorrows, and had Himself come down to free them from the power of the Egyptians by His own mighty power with signs and wonders. He promised to bring them up out of Egypt to a good, large, rich and fruitful land flowing with milk and honey, then held by the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. This shows the God of heaven bending toward earth, listening to every groan and prayer, raising the fallen, befriending those who love and fear Him, and answering a humbled people by redeeming them with a stretched-out arm to take them as His own peculiar treasure and church. The same pity that broke Israel's yoke moves Him for enslaved and downtrodden peoples since, whose cries rise to heaven, undertaking their cause and laying obligation on His people to lift them, educate and ennoble them, feed the hungry, heal the sick and carry truth to all. The land flowing with milk and honey also pictures the heavenly promised land, calling those asleep to awake, refuse doubt and turning back toward Egypt, and move forward toward Canaan through obedient trust in God alone.

Setting and Promise

The words were spoken to Moses out of the burning bush at Horeb while he was leading Jethro's flocks in the desert during years of retirement training in humility, self-control and shepherd care to prepare him to shepherd Israel. The time had fully come for him to lay down his shepherd's staff and take up the rod of God made powerful for signs and wonders to deliver Israel from oppression and preserve them from their enemies. The promise of deliverance was joined to the sending of Moses to Pharaoh to bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Moses could be sent for this work only after forty years of faithful service as a keeper of sheep. His earlier place in Pharaoh's court had not fitted him for the appointed task. He first tried to do the work by force and might by slaying an Egyptian, showing he expected to lead Israel as a general by warfare and was not yet ready to deliver them. God therefore took him away for forty years to act as a keeper of sheep in the rocks, mountains and desert, hunting with patience for stray sheep, until he learned humility, self-control and tender, patient, loving, faithful shepherd care. Only then, educated and fitted for the work, did God reveal Himself in the bush as the I AM and bid him go and deliver the children of Israel.

The verse declares that God had surely seen the affliction of His people in Egypt under taskmasters after long slavery and hard servitude, heard their anguished cry and wailing by reason of their taskmasters, and knew their sorrows. He had not forgotten His oppressed people nor was indifferent to them when they were treated as if soul, body and spirit could be controlled. His care includes seeing affliction, hearing cries, and acting to rescue. In this He fulfilled His covenant purpose.

God Himself had come down to free them from the hand and power of the Egyptians by His own mighty power with signs and wonders, so that the glory would be His alone. He raised up Moses as His instrument to bring them out so they could serve Him, commissioning Moses to lead them out and sending Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh. He would redeem them with a stretched-out arm and great judgments, take them to Himself for a people, be their God, and cause them to know Him as the Lord who brings them out from under Egyptian burdens and frees them from bondage. The humble shepherd's rod would become the rod of God and a sign of God's power to deliver from oppression, preserve from enemies, and bring plagues upon the Egyptians.

The verse promises to bring them up out of that land unto a good, large, spacious, rich and fruitful land flowing with milk and honey, meaning abundance. It was the place then held by the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. God called Israel out of Egypt to lead them into that promised land of Canaan.

God's Care and Purpose

The verse shows the God of heaven in living communication with the fallen inhabitants of this world, not regardless of the world and its concerns but bending toward earth toward those deceived and annoyed and deluded by satanic agencies. He listens to every word uttered, hears every groan and every 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 and put them in distress as they endeavor to keep the way of the Lord and reach the abodes of the righteous. He had surely seen the affliction of His people in Egypt and heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for He knew their sorrows, and He came down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up to a good and large land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites, sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring forth Israel out of Egypt.

The coming down was in answer to a people who after four hundred years of bondage humbled themselves before Him, acknowledged His dealings, and cried earnestly to heaven for deliverance with promises to serve Him and obey His law if He would break their bondage. He answered in a most wonderful manner by redeeming them with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments, taking them to Himself as His people and peculiar treasure in covenant after apostasy and transgression had brought them into bondage, and making His holiness, grace and love known to the idolatrous Egyptians. His promises were sure, so that when they were faithful and obedient no promised good thing was withheld from them. By this deliverance they became His church, a people belonging to Him who represented His church in every age.

Those delivered were in blindness and ignorance, their minds beclouded in faith and almost destitute of knowledge of God, degraded by associating with a nation of idolaters and corrupted by practicing idolatry, until long association confused and corrupted their faith and oppression left them unable to keep the Sabbath. Yet many among the downtrodden were righteous and steadfast. Because merciful deliverance had been given in answer to anguished prayers after great suffering under overtaxed labor and the putting of their children to death, and because the large and good land had been surely promised, to anticipate death by hunger for themselves and their children on the way was criminal unbelief. To faint at suffering on the way, to murmur against Moses, and wickedly to wish to have remained in Egypt showed unwillingness to endure in God's service what they had endured in Egyptian bondage. Through disobedience and rebellion their entry was delayed so that they journeyed in the wilderness forty years, and only two of the adults who left Egypt entered Canaan.

The promised land was meant to give abundant reason for rejoicing and to establish them there as a healthful, strong and mighty nation if they followed His requirements, with the wilderness journey and simple healthful food preparing them for life there. Unlike Egypt where seed had to be irrigated by foot like a vegetable garden, it was a rich, large and fruitful land of hills and valleys drinking water from the rain of heaven, a land He cared for with His eyes always upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year, where they would never suffer for lack of rain. Its richness and fertility are described as a land flowing with milk and honey. The promise of the long-looked-for Deliverer bringing Israel into such a land was taken to mean making Judea an earthly paradise satisfying every desire, breaking the power of the hated Romans, delivering Judah and Jerusalem, healing soldiers wounded in battle, supplying whole armies with food, conquering the nations, and giving Israel the long-sought dominion.

Pattern for the Oppressed

God's seeing of affliction, hearing of cries, knowing of suffering, and coming down to deliver the Hebrew slaves stands as the pattern for His concern and action toward enslaved people in the United States, whose physical freedom was to be followed by His purpose to educate, refine and ennoble them, to guide them to know Him, and to teach them reverence and obedience.

The same pity that broke the yoke of Israel's bondage in Egypt and placed Moses at their head to lead them through the wilderness to the promised land moves Him for the colored people in America. Though freed from outward slavery they remain in the slavery of ignorance, sin and degradation, degraded, downtrodden and suffering in the shadow of Christian doors under cruel wrong, enforced ignorance, debasement, disregard of marriage and breaking up of families. He looked upon Israel while still under cruel Egyptian oppression and called them His son and undertook their cause by coming down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land, and He cares no less for the souls of the African race in the South. He undertakes their cause no less than Israel's, and lays obligation, even greater obligation toward those less favored who name His name, to take up the long-neglected work of lifting them and saving sinners. That work is earnest missionary work among them of all classes and especially the colored race, carrying the truth to them after Christ's example of going about doing good, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and putting the whole soul into the effort, for they have souls to save as well as white people and may be won to serve Him.

The verse shows God intervening to deliver people held in slavery and bring them out of oppression when their cries and suffering rise to heaven, acting against those who keep them in bondage. The commission to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage and bring them toward the promised land looked hopeless by human judgment, but God was able to accomplish it through Moses as Moses trusted and obeyed Him. Israel's wilderness hardships taught them to depend on God alone for relief and deliverance.

That call to take charge of His people to deliver them and bring them up out of Egypt came after God directed Moses to obtain experience in care-taking, in thoughtfulness, and in tender solicitude for his flock, so that as a faithful shepherd he would be ready for the work. Ministerial fitness requires such preparatory shepherd experience, and the same preparation is essential for those who preach the truth to lead souls. The promised spacious, fertile land flowing with milk and honey expresses abundance and also pictures the heavenly promised land, where fruits never fail and the trees are immortal. Those asleep at their post must now awake and trim their lamps, entertaining no doubt about the truth for this time while Satan's hypnotism is shown in its true bearing, refusing to turn back toward Egypt and moving forward toward Canaan the land of promise.