Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 3:7 (New Living Translation)

7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.

This is part of the (hi)story of God bringing the people out of oppression in Egypt. God ends this statement with, “I am aware of their suffering.”

Stub your toe? God is aware. Gasping for breath after a heart attack? God is aware. Just watched you spouse die? God is aware.

But why the suffering? That is life in a sinful world. Sin brings suffering. I don’t like that, at all, but that is life in a sinful world.

And as we see with Moses and the people, God addresses the suffering. Uh, but God, 400 years of suffering? Couldn’t God have done something a little sooner, like after one weekend? God’s time is not my time. Okay, I understand that, until I am the one suffering, and then I don’t want to hear this, “a thousand years is like a day” stuff. I hurt now. I suffer now. Come on God, be aware and do something now.

There are parts of this life and my relationship with God that just don’t seem right. Sigh. I am not God—God is God.

Know that God is aware. God is next to me as I suffer.