Ep. 7 | God Is Near (And Here!)
Text: Exodus 2:23-25
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
CONFUSING CIRCUMSTANCES: False Expectations
Prolonged Wait (“During those many days…”)
Placement of hope (“the king of Egypt died…”)
Public declaration
CONCERNED CRIES: Frantic Entreaty
The PLACE of PRAYER in our life (when we pray for it)
The PROBLEM is not that we call out to God in DESPERATION. The problem is that we fail to realize we are ALWAYS desperate for HIM.
The PATTERN of PRAYER—both in the passage and in their PROBLEMS
We can appeal to him because of HIS PROMISES
We can appeal to him simply because of our PREDICAMENT
The PURPOSE of PRAYER (what we pray for)
The PRESENCE of GOD
COMPASSIONATE COVENANT: Faithful Entrance (God comes near)
SPURGEON: I wish I knew how to preach on this verse. He looked on the children of Israel, and he did not remember their sins—their practically becoming Egyptians, their loving Egypt and Egypt’s idols—but he did remember his friend, Abraham. He remembered Isaac. He remembered Jacob whom he loved, and he remembered how he had promised to bless them and to make them a blessing—not because of any merit in the Israelites but for the sake of those whom he had loved and honored. For the sake of the covenant that he had made with them, he said, “I will break the power of Pharaoh, and I will bless my people; I will bring them out of bondage and set them at liberty.” If God were to look on a sinner for all eternity, he could not see anything in him but what he is bound to punish. But when he looks on his dear Son whom he loves—and remembers how he lived and loved, and bled and died, and made atonement for the guilty—and when he remembers his covenant with his well-beloved, he says, “I will bless these people whom I gave to him by an everlasting covenant. I promised that he would see of the travail of his soul, and so he will. I will break the power of sin, and I will set these captives free to the praise of the glory of my grace. And they will be accepted in the beloved.”
