Started in on Exodus this morning. Who woulda’ thunk? When those boys sold Joseph into slavery . . . when Joseph interpreted that dream and was placed over Egypt’s “feast and famine” program . . . when the brothers were reunited . . . when Jacob & Co. moved down to settle in Egypt . . . when the family of Jacob grew into the nation of Israel — fruitful, multiplying, growing exceedingly strong, filling the land (Ex.1:7) . . . who woulda’ thunk that it would have ended up in ruthless slavery and oppression(1:13-14)? Cue your standard Sunday School answer . . . God!

“. . . 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.” (2:23-25)

Times were tough . . . beyond tough. The people groaned . . . they sighed and gasped in pain and grief. And they cried out for help . . . turned their faces heavenward . . . to what likely seemed to be a silent sky . . . and with whatever mustard seed of faith was left, they called out for rescue. And then, these observations about God . . . God heard . . . God remembered . . . God saw . . . God knew.

Now, they didn’t know that. Only from the vantage point of the divinely inspired Scriptures do we get this insight to another “dimension” at play. And these things were “written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

Situation? . . . Apparently hopeless. Gas left in the tank of endurance? . . . Running on empty. Number of ways out? . . . About zero. Course of action? . . . Cry out! Basis for course of action? . . . That God is unchanging . . . the same yesterday, today, and forever . . . and so, He hears . . . He remembers . . . He sees . . . He knows.

God knows. How much comfort is there in that alone? Not that we presume on what God will do and when He will do it . . . but to be reminded that our Father knows, should be, in and of itself, such a source of encouragement. In our “dimension” it can feel overwhelming . . . no escape apparent . . . no end in sight. But to be reminded that God knows . . . is familiar not only with the details . . . aware, not only of the degree of affliction . . . but also intimately knows how we are wired and what we can bear . . . working all things together for his purposes in our lives. That’s the other dimension . . . God knows.

The Israelites would be delivered from Egypt. There would still a bit of “process” to work through . . . some doubts to deal with . . . frustrations . . . more burden . . . but delivered they would be. And sure, it would involve some time in the desert . . . some correction along the way. But God, who hears . . . God, who sees . . . God, who is faithful . . . God, who remembers His promise . . . God, who remembers His people . . . God, who is powerful to save . . . the God of Jacob . . . my God . . . this same God . . . knows the sufferings of His people and will “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:7-8).

Oh, to be reminded this morning that God knows. To be aware of that “other dimension” as we deal with the realities of “this dimension.” To not lose heart . . . but to cry out to the Him who hears, sees, remembers, and knows . . . and to know then, a peace that passes all understanding (Php. 4:6-7).

For our perseverance . . . for His glory . .