{"id":261,"date":"2023-09-27T19:54:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T19:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2023\/09\/26\/god-who-sees\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:15:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:15:50","slug":"god-who-sees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/god-who-sees\/","title":{"rendered":"God Who Sees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Exodus 2:23-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a moment within the great Exodus story where God works through Moses (and his supportive siblings, Aaron and Miriam) to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. There\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ve heard this one before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here\u2019s a question for you: what did the people do to convince God to help them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to give you the answer right away. Think about it for a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, let me give you a hint: up to this point in the book of Exodus, we have not seen a single person pray to God. The heroic midwives \u2014 who rescue babies from Pharaoh\u2019s murder decree \u2014 are called God-fearing, but we aren\u2019t told about any prayers (Ex. 1:15-22)<\/em>. Moses\u2019s mother sets his infant body in a basket and pushes it down the river, but we don\u2019t see her pray for his safety (Ex. 2:1-4)<\/em>. Moses kills an Egyptian, and we hear no prayers for repentance (Ex. 2:11-15)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the passage I cited at the beginning \u2014 and in similar passages that will come in Exodus 3 \u2014 we don\u2019t hear about people praying to God<\/em>. The translation is much more passive: \u201cOut of slavery their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing about them being particularly righteous or special. We might assume they\u2019re praying or remaining faithful to the God of Israel, but the Bible doesn\u2019t tell us that. All the text says to us is: \u201cGod heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people don\u2019t do anything in particular. They suffer. And their suffering makes them cry out. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The powerful verbs belong to God. God hears. God looks. God remembers. God \u201ctakes notice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this will lead to God instigating all the main action of the story: God calls to Moses from the burning bush. God spends a long time responding to all of Moses\u2019s reasons for why he can\u2019t go to Pharaoh. God empowers Moses before the Egyptian court. God sends the plagues that eventually change Pharaoh\u2019s mind (or at least twist his arm). Not to mention: God creates an escape path through the Red Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me tell you another story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one takes place only a couple of decades ago, during one of those seasons where the Black community\u2019s relationship with the police was again big in the news cycle. A friend of mine was serving as a pastor, and the news topic came up in a Bible study. One (white) man kept insisting: \u201cPolice don\u2019t pull over people just because they\u2019re black here. They don\u2019t treat people like that here. That doesn\u2019t happen in our town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally my friend spoke up: \u201cMy son gets pulled over in our neighborhood all the time. He gets asked what he\u2019s doing there all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend is white, but he and his wife had adopted two black children. Now he had a front row seat to experiences many other privileged white people never have to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many reasons we don\u2019t see one another\u2019s suffering. Sometimes we\u2019re so separate from one another that we don\u2019t have the chance. Sometimes we so desperately want a story to be false that we deny it. Sometimes our pre-judgements and assumptions get in the way. Sometimes we\u2019re just too focused on something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we refuse to see even our own suffering, much less allow it to be visible to others. We distract ourselves from our pain with work or movies or food. A survey of this year\u2019s CORE students reveals that 80% do not reach out to other people when they could use support. Among their top 3 reasons why: \u201cI think I should be strong and handle it on my own.\u201d And how often do we respond to our own hurt with, \u201cSomeone else has it worse,\u201d or even, \u201cI deserve this\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For so many reasons, we often don\u2019t see suffering. We don\u2019t acknowledge it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is not like us in that regard. God sees. God takes note.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And God \u201cremembers his covenant.\u201d God remembers the promises God has made to the people, and God holds Godself to them. Which is another way of saying God is faithful to us. Another way of saying God loves us, like a spouse who makes vows to their marriage partner and keeps them through all the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God does all this because it is who God is.<\/em> In fact, the only time we know of a human giving God a name (instead of God revealing a name to humans) is when the Genesis-era suffering slave, Hagar, names God El-ro\u00ed: <\/em>\u201cthe God who sees\u201d (Gen. 16:13).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God sees, God remembers God\u2019s love for us, and God acts. There\u2019s not a space in-between where God stops to ascertain that we\u2019ve checked off all of God\u2019s good behavior boxes. Even sin has been stripped of its power to separate us from God through Jesus Christ \u2014 whose life, death, and resurrection were the ultimate example of God seeing, remembering, and acting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord works vindication<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And justice for all who are oppressed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made known his ways to Moses,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His acts to the people of Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord is merciful and gracious,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Psalm 103:6-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Pastor Kate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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