God Knows Their Suffering: The Call of Moses

Devotional

Day 1: God Hears the Cries That Break Through Silence

When voices long stifled by empire finally erupt, they carry the weight of generations. The Israelites’ wordless groans under Egyptian oppression become their first act of resistance, a raw sound that pierces heaven. God’s response isn’t detached observation but intimate knowing—a relational recognition of their pain as heirs of the covenant. Liberation begins when the silenced find their voice and the divine ear bends low to listen. [00:24]

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. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. (Exodus 2:23-25, ESV)

Reflection: When have you stifled your pain to avoid being “problematic,” and what might shift if you let your groan rise as holy protest?

Day 2: Holy Ground in the Thorn Bush’s Fire

Divinity chooses the scrubby, flame-scorched thorn bush over cedars of Lebanon. Here, God inhabits the unremarkable and marginalized, mirroring a people burned but not consumed by oppression. Holiness emerges not in pristine temples but in the grit of wilderness spaces where power structures lose their grip. To approach this mystery demands removing sandals—the trappings of productivity and control—to stand vulnerable before sacred fire. [01:00]

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:2-5, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you overlooked “holy ground” because it looked too ordinary or thorny to host the divine?

Day 3: The God Who Is Present in the Act of Becoming

“I AM WHO I AM” refuses to be boxed into past tense or predictable roles. God’s name pulses with active becoming, a promise to show up as what liberation requires in each moment. This unsettles Moses, who wants a static deity to name-drop, but frees the Israelites to expect God’s presence in their unfolding story. The ground of being moves with them. [03:23]

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:14-15, ESV)

Reflection: How might embracing God as “the one who is becoming” reshape your approach to uncertainty?

Day 4: When the Unforeseeable Shatters Your Foreseeable Path

Moses’ resume—prince, murderer, shepherd—seems useless until God’s call repurposes his pain into purpose. The invitation to confront Pharaoh isn’t a career move but a disruption that reorders his identity. Divine calls often arrive as holy interruptions, cracking open our small stories to make space for collective liberation. Resistance is expected; transformation is guaranteed. [24:52]

“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10, ESV)

Reflection: What unforeseeable invitation have you been resisting because it doesn’t fit your self-narrative?

Day 5: The Liberation That Begins With Noticing Faces

God’s awareness of Israel’s suffering isn’t statistical but intimate: “I have seen…heard…know.” Liberation theology starts here—not with abstract justice but with the particular ache of individuals. Moses’ calling emerges from seeing Hebrew backs bent under whips, Egyptian fists, and the bush’s stubborn flame. To join God’s work requires first letting others’ pain imprint our souls. [29:51]

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” (Exodus 3:7, ESV)

Reflection: Whose specific face—not just “issue” or “group”—haunts you with the urgency of holy disruption?

Sermon Summary

Exodus begins Israel’s liberation not with a dramatic act of power, but with human bodies that can absorb only so much before they cry out. Israel finds its voice under slavery, and that cry breaks the definition of reality imposed by empire. God hears their groaning, remembers the covenant, looks upon Israel, and knows. God’s knowing is not mere information. In Hebrew, to know is to be in relationship, to sympathize with suffering, and to be moved to act.

God’s long silence raises the hard question the text does not answer: why four hundred years? The Psalms know that same fear, that God has turned away or failed to hear. Yet God’s presence may have been working toward a moment when Israel could respond and when Moses could become the person able to confront Pharaoh. Moses has courage, a passion for justice, education in Egypt, and knowledge of both Hebrew and Egyptian worlds. Moses lacks a relationship with God, and the wilderness becomes the place where that relationship forms.

The burning bush brings God’s presence into an ordinary thorn bush, not a cedar of Lebanon. The bush identifies with the lowliest people, and it also pictures Israel: tormented by the fire of slavery but not consumed. Moses turns aside because he sees that this common bush burns with God. Holy ground appears when God calls Moses by name, roots him in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and gives a stranger in a strange land his true identity.

God sees misery, hears crying, and knows suffering. God comes down to deliver Israel, not merely from something, but toward something: a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey. The promise gives enslaved people a real historical hope, even as the later use of this land promise demands serious moral attention in a world still marked by displacement.

God’s call to Moses reveals that God acts through human response. Moses asks, “Who am I?” and God answers, “I will be with you.” Moses asks God’s name, and Yahweh answers, “I am who I am,” or “I will be what I will be.” God cannot be controlled, predicted, or reduced to a formula. Yet God is the One who is, the real God of oppressed people.

God’s call still interrupts the foreseeable with what had not been imagined before. The royal consciousness teaches numbness, cynicism, and excuses for suffering. God’s call gives suffering a human face, awakens compassion, and begins with the simple but costly work of noticing, knowing, hearing, grieving, and staying present.

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Key Takeaways

1. God knows suffering relationally God’s knowledge of Israel is not distant observation. God knows their pain as the covenant God who is bound to them in relationship. God’s compassion becomes action because divine knowing refuses to leave suffering unseen. [08:10]
2. Empire depends on silent slaves Israel’s cry publicly rejects the reality Pharaoh’s system imposes upon them. Empire prefers suffering to stay private, manageable, and unnamed. The cry for justice becomes the first break in the world that oppression tries to make permanent. [06:36]
3. Holy ground appears in ordinary places The thorn bush is not grand or impressive, yet it burns with the presence of God. Moses sees that the common world is “crammed with heaven” when God opens human attention. Holiness requires more than curiosity; it calls for reverence, surrender, and a willingness to be interrupted. [14:38]
4. God calls beyond predictable conscience Conscience often repeats what a person already knows, but God’s call can bring an unforeseeable demand. God’s call shatters settled assumptions and creates a new perspective on suffering and responsibility. The kingdom becomes visible when people give flesh and action to that call. [28:25]
5. Compassion begins by noticing people Compassion fatigue can tempt people to become numb before the countless cries of pain. God does not demand an instant solution to every wound, but God does call people to notice, listen, know, and grieve alongside those who suffer. Presence is not a lesser response when it refuses to look away.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[04:02] - Israel Cries Out Under Slavery
[07:37] - God Hears, Remembers, Looks, and Knows
[08:25] - Why Did God Wait So Long?
[09:56] - Moses in the Wilderness
[12:41] - The Burning Thorn Bush
[14:55] - Yahweh Calls Moses by Name
[17:48] - God Sees and Knows Israel’s Suffering
[18:48] - A Land Flowing With Milk and Honey
[21:16] - Moses Receives God’s Call
[22:37] - I Am Who I Am
[23:42] - God’s Call and Human Response
[25:27] - The Weakness of God
[28:46] - Alternative Consciousness and Justice
[30:25] - Noticing Those Who Cry Out

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

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. [00:13]

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [00:24]

25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. [00:31]

Exodus 3:1–15

1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. [00:47]

2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. [00:55]

3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” [01:06]

4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” [01:14]

5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” [01:27]

6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. [01:37]

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” [01:50]

8 “And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” [02:03]

9 “And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” [02:22]

10 “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” [02:29]

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” [02:39]

12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” [02:55]

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” [03:07]

14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” [03:19]

15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” [03:30]

Luke 4:18–19

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,” [05:24]

19 “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” [05:26]

Observation questions

What four things does God do in response to Israel’s groaning in Exodus 2:23–25, and what does each action reveal about God’s attention to his people? [07:37]
In Exodus 3:1–6, what does Moses do before God speaks to him, and how does his response change after God identifies himself?
What details in Exodus 3:7–10 show that God’s plan is not only to free Israel from slavery but also to lead them toward a new future? [18:56]
What are Moses’ two questions in Exodus 3:11–13, and how does God answer each one?

Interpretation questions

Israel’s cry makes suffering public rather than silent. Why might systems of power prefer suffering to remain private, unnamed, or ignored? [06:36]
God says, “I know their sufferings.” How does understanding God’s knowing as relational compassion change the way God’s response to suffering is understood? [08:03]
God appears in a thorn bush rather than in a grand tree. What does this picture suggest about where God may choose to meet people who are overlooked, wounded, or considered unimportant? [13:38]
Moses asks, “Who am I?” but God’s main answer is, “I will be with you.” What does this reveal about the basis for responding to a difficult call when a person feels inadequate? [21:52]

Application questions

Israel cried out when slavery had become unbearable. Is there a grief, injustice, or burden in your own life that you have kept quiet? What might it look like to bring that cry honestly to God and to trusted people?
God hears, remembers, sees, and knows. Who is one person near you whose pain may be easy to miss—at work, in your neighborhood, in your family, or in this church? What is one concrete way you could notice them this week? [31:21]
Moses turned aside to pay attention to an ordinary bush. What routines, distractions, or assumptions make it hard for you to recognize holy moments in ordinary places? What could help you “turn aside” and pay better attention? [14:38]
Moses had a strong concern for justice, but he still needed to know God more deeply. Where might passion, ability, education, or good intentions need to be joined with prayer, humility, and a closer relationship with God? [10:39]
God’s call may lead beyond what feels predictable or comfortable. Is there a need, relationship, or act of courage that you have felt drawn toward but have resisted because it was not part of your plan? [28:11]
Compassion fatigue can make people numb, cynical, or overwhelmed by so much suffering. When you feel unable to solve a problem, how could you still offer the first faithful steps of listening, sitting with someone, grieving, and letting them know they are heard? [31:15]
Jesus announces good news for the poor and freedom for the oppressed. Where does your small group have an opportunity to make that good news more visible through practical care, advocacy, generosity, or faithful presence?

Sermon Clips

57s

“We can be sure that God notices people who are crying out today. We can notice them too. We don't have to try to fix their problems, not right away anyway. A first step is simply to notice them, get to know them, let them know we hear them. We sit with them and grieve with them. We can't skip skip this step immediately and move on to trying to fix the problem. We need to shake off the numbness that dulls us to other people's pain. We need to be filled with passion for people who are suffering and be with them.”

56s

“God responds with four action verbs. God hears their groaning. God remembers the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looks upon the sons of Israel. And finally, God knows. So I said many translations they took notice of them, but the more literal reading is god knows. To know in Hebrew is a relational term. To know someone is to be in relationship with them. God knew their suffering and their pain and sympathized with them. God knew that these slaves were the heirs of his promise to Abraham, and because God knew, God had to act.”

59s

“By crying out and making their pain public, the Israelites break with the definition of reality imposed upon them by the policies and values of the empire. The empire prefers silent slaves, just be submissive to avoid public embarrassment over their cruel policies. The liberation narrative in Exodus, and that's what we're covering, the liberation narrative in chapters one through 15 that ends with the crossing of the Red Sea. It begins not with God, but with human bodies that can absorb only so much before they assert their own humanity and rebel.”

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