Exodus 2:24-25, “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.”
“…and God knew.” The Hebrew word for “know” here can mean simply “to know” or “to be aware of”, however it can also mean “to know by experience.” Now, when Moses wrote this passage, he was certainly not intending his readers to think that YHWH “knew by experience” the suffering of His people in Egypt. However, from our post-Calvary vantage point, we can say with biblical authority that our God DOES know our sufferings BY EXPERIENCE (Is.53:4, Hebrews 2:17, 4:15).
Ultimately, the people of Israel would be brought out of slavery in Egypt only because YHWH their God would endure the torments of that slavery—and far worse—in Himself, in their place, on the cross.They would be preserved through the plagues of His wrath only because He Himself would swallow up that wrath on Calvary….They would be passed over by the Angel of Death only because the incarnate Lord Himself would become the Lamb slain in their place….and they would pass through the divided waters of judgment only because their Lord and God would be crushed under the waves and breakers of divine judgment in His love for them.
Israel was redeemed from slavery because their God knew….knew their need and their plight, yes, but also because He knew by experience—in the person of Christ, slain from the foundation of the world—their slavery from the inside out and had already won the victory.
And the same is true for all those who trust in Jesus….whatever darkness we find ourselves in, it will not be the end….why? Because God knows this specific darkness….knows it in the sense of being aware of our struggle, but also knows it in the sense that He has already borne it and overcome through His death and resurrection and so will bring us through it to the praise of His name and gladness of our soul.
