Exodus 2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Did your dad ever forget a promise he made to you, or have you as a parent ever forgotten a promise you made to your children? A dad says, “Hey, on Friday night we’ll have ice cream,” and then he forgets. Well, he may forget, but his kids won’t. There is many a thirty or forty-year-old who remembers a promise that was never kept. So, we go into life thinking sometimes that God is a Father who forgets. We think that God is dragging His feet or has forgotten our needs.
That was certainly true when it came to the children of Israel. They felt as if they had been forgotten. The Bible says in Exodus 1:8, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” This king did not remember Joseph. Not only did he forget Joseph, but I would suppose that over time many of Joseph’s descendants forgot Joseph. Israel was within a whisker of being absorbed by Egypt, becoming Egyptians, and losing their identity and distinction. We know that even after Abraham and Lot had left Egypt there was still some of Egypt in them. When the children of Israel left Egypt, Egypt had not completely left them.
So, God was keeping His promise. This story is a continuation of His promise to Abraham. Slavery was actually a part of God’s big picture. God did not forget His promise; slavery in Egypt was part of God’s keeping His promise. God was going to incubate a small family into a large nation.
Many years passed and the Bible says, “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died.” Now process of time is what this is all about. It’s the in-between of a promise and the fulfillment. It is, in fact, waiting. Maybe Israel herself forgot God’s promise.
The Bible says in Exodus 2:24, “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.” So, God heard, remembered, looked, and saw. When the Bible says he “had respect,” it means “to assess, to ascertain by seeing.” Many times I look at things but don’t see them. I was looking for a book yesterday on my desk. It was sitting right in front of me, but it happened to be open. I spent a minute getting frustrated that I misplaced my book, and then I realized that it could have bitten me on the nose. It was right in front of me. God both sees and is aware.
So, here is Israel waiting. Maybe that’s where you are today, waiting. I want to tell you that if you really are following God’s leading to the best of your knowledge, you only have to wait for the perfect timing. That is to say, if God has you in a holding pattern, it’s because there is perfect timing ahead. So, wherever you find yourself, whether it is too much action or not enough action in your estimation, remember that God knows, sees, remembers, and cares. God’s guidance is worth the wait.