Affliction swarms around us like unsettled bees hunting for nectar. And unless tethered to the tree of life, distress can destabilise, disorient and depress, sniffing out the joy and—if unchecked, ultimately—the life of the afflicted.
I just saw an NBS story on Facebook of a Makerere University student who jumped to his death due to his tuition related worries. Another headline by Campus Bee speaks of a UCU student who drowned in the swimming pool, having battled depression.
You should have met affliction either in your home or on that road you often take via your neighbour’s and friend’s, either by name or experience. You even may have waged war with it.
Many an atheist posit pain and suffering as the reason they disbelieve. ‘If God is real,’ they say, ‘then why suffering?’
Now, this article is not a theodicy. I will not attempt to condense a long discussion, about the nature and origin of evil, into a short piece.
What I want to say here is that the Book of Exodus reveals a God who knows the afflicted—as if He Himself was afflicted in or by their affliction (3:7).
Like a thriller series, the action-packed Exodus story stylistically starts with the demise of Joseph (Ex. 1:1) and the ascent to the highest seat in Egypt of a king who, for some reason known to himself, could neither remember Joseph nor the things he had done in and for Egypt (1:8).
Joseph’s death and the ascent to the throne of a new king who had no knowledge of him should have caused descent through disaster and doom for the-now-surging Israel.
The king, fearing that the numerous Israelites might join Egypt’s enemy (the Hyksos) at the slight sight of war threw the Jews into death’s jaws, afflicting them with hard labour (1:10).
The story speaks of how Pharaoh made their lives bitter (1:14), death by drowning of all Jewish boys being the king’s decree (1:22).
You could smell the scent of distress and dread as Israel cried out for help. They could not dissent without risking demise. The dusk of despair and depression hang around them like a gravestone, and they cried.
Help for the afflicted came as their cry ascended to God (Exodus 2:23-25).
What happens in two verses (Ex. 2:24-25), as a result, is a roller-coaster, with four verbs used in quick succession to describe God’s reaction: God heard, God remembered, God saw, and God knew. In what follows, we will walk through those four verbs.
God Heard
First, God heard. Crucial for us to remember, especially in hard times, is that God’s ear is attentive to the cry of the afflicted.
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him, He heard. —Psalm 22:24
Exodus reminds us that God’s ears are actively open to the cries of the afflicted. Our cries ascend to His ears. What comfort!
Now, the question to you then is whether you continually cry out to God. Do you call upon His Name, not merely in affliction, but always? I heard that if you only pray when you are in trouble, then you are in trouble!
God Remembered
And yet, the text does not end there, for when God heard, He remembered. That is crucial. Paradoxical as it sounds, the all-knowing God of Israel remembers. What God remembers—His covenant—is as crucial as His act of remembering.
The cries of those who suffer bring to remembrance God’s covenant with and commitment to His people (Ex. 2:24).
And while Pharaoh conveniently chose to forget Joseph, God committedly chose to remember Israel. O, the contrast!
God’s covenant is His basis for remembrance. Herein lies the question for the reader: are you bound to God by an unbreakable bond? Are you inescapably tethered to Him as a goat to the tree of life?
If not, you cannot ultimately conquer affliction. Depression will drown and devour you. It may not be in this life, but it will, finally.
Now, though there is a sense in which God acts benevolently towards all, yet He distinguishes between His covenant people and the rest. And for those not in covenant with Him, their suffering— for them— is, ultimately, wasted.
But for His children, there is a continual blessing, not despite, but because of, and through the trials. We read in Ex. 1:12 that Israel multiplied and grew under his affliction.
The more they were afflicted, the more Israel increased, since, the God who cannot forget hears the cry of His afflicted and decidedly acts upon His Word, for His people.
I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word. —Psalm 119:107
God Saw
Not only does God hear the cry of the afflicted and remember His covenant, but He also sees them in their affliction.
We can endure suffering if we consciously live in the sight of God. By this, I do not mean that then affliction afflicts less, but that Christians believe in a God who actively works through their tribulations because He sees them.
Oh, how scary a thing it would be if our afflictions escaped the gaze of God! For even His seeming silence is an active silence, to show His might on behalf of His own in the day of His power.
Thanks be to Him who sees all things, yea, who has His eyes on you, even in your pain, affliction, and depression!
If you trust in Him, your suffering will not be wasted.
God Knew
So, God hears, God remembers His covenant with His people, and He sees them. And finally, God knows/acknowledges the afflicted.
O brother, O sister, what a comfort, that God knows! Often the sufferer wonders “does anyone know what I am facing now?’ Many a miserable comforter come; friends of Job they are. And as some speak, you wonder, ‘do you truly know my state?’
Such is not the God of Israel. He hears. He remembers and sees. And crucially, He knows.
He regarded their affliction when He heard their cry —Psalm 106:44
There is something sweet that meets the eye when we contrast Exodus 2:23 with 3:7-8. As the cries of His people ascended to God (2:23), God descended to meet them and deliver His people from their suffering (Ex. 3:7-8)! God comes down when prayers go up to Him.
Therein is the Gospel— God, in Christ, descended upon hearing humanity’s cry for help, walked and lived among His afflicted people to deliver them from their bondage!
In Jesus, we see a God who descended because of the cries of humanity. In Him, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, saw our plight, and acted (Matt. 14:14).
But more than that, in Jesus, we see the God who truly knows affliction, as one who was Himself afflicted, suffering with and for those who suffer.
Surely, He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. —Isaiah 53:4
He truly is God-with-us— Emmanuel, a God who knows your affliction. So, I ask, do you know Him as your Lord and Savior? For:
In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged. We walk every day on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities. —C. S. Lewis, Weight of Glory