The last couple weeks, I have had a new experience. Prolonged pain. I’ve experienced prolonged discomfort when I’m sick and temporary pain for cuts or other injuries. But for a week and a half, I had pain every day, and pretty much all day due to some teeth issues. It got to the point that I was either thinking about the pain, or thinking about not thinking about the pain. As if that wasn’t enough, the emotional pain of a loved one passing added to it all. And I became numb. It was as though I lived behind a glass wall. I saw people around me, knew they loved me, and still felt isolated. I cried to God; I saw and heard His reply, but somehow my heart couldn’t receive it. His tender words of comfort seemed to hit that glass wall and fall, so close and yet so very far away. And then on Sunday morning, as I listened to the Sunday School lesson, that wall began to break (slowly at first); and then in a wondrous stream, God’s comfort flowed into my breaking heart.
The passage we were reading out of was Exodus 6, and it speak of how the children of Israel were in bondage and sore affliction. In their despair and grief they cried to the Lord. And the Lord called Moses to go to Egypt and deliver His people. So Moses goes down and tells Pharaoh God’s message, “Let my people go.” But Pharaoh’s response is to make the work even harder. All this took time, and all that time the children of Israel were still in pain, both emotionally and physically. To them, it didn’t seem that God heard their cries, and it didn’t seem like anything was changing for the better. Then, in the midst of their grief and pain, God sent a wonderful message to His people. He said, “I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptian keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant [promise]. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land, concerning which I swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, Nd to Jacob; and I will give it you for any heritage: I am the Lord.”
The Lord is promising His people that He will deliver them out of their current situation. He is letting them know that, despite what it may seem, He has heard their cries. He is not standing idly by, indifferent to their pain. He has heard and He is working His plan. He will deliver. He will redeem. He will make them His people, and He will be their God. He will bring them out in a mighty way so they can see that it is really His work: the work of Almighty God. But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.” As I read those words, I realized that they had gone numb, too. In their grief and pain, God’s message of comfort and deliverance was hitting a glass wall, so close to them and yet so far from their broken, aching hearts.
But the best part is that our feelings or our numbness does not change what God is doing. Just because the children of Israel felt that God had abandoned them did not negate that God did hear their groanings. And when they could not receive His loving message of hope and deliverance, God didn’t suddenly decide that He would give up on His working of deliverance. Rather, God remained faithful. He didn’t let the frailty and faithlessness of humans change who He is. And He still doesn’t today.
Friend, we may not be in physical bondage to physical people. In fact, most of the people I know who will read this are not. But we can still be in “anguish of spirit” and “cruel bondage.” There are so many situations in life that bring anguish to our hearts and overwhelms us. And there are do many kinds of bondage. There is bondage to any number of addictions, from smoking, to drugs, to pornography, to eating, to self-harm; and the list could go on. Some are in bondage to fear. Others are firmly bound in the cruel grip of hate and bitterness. Others are chained in shame and self-pity. And so, in our affliction, our bruised, broken hearts groan to God. And He hears. He promises deliverance.
The road to deliverance may not be comfortable. It may require vulnerability. It may require “surgery of the heart” in which God removes the things we have chosen to love more than Him. The road to recovery may be long and painful. But God did not promise an easy road or an instant fix. He didn’t promise to remove all traces of heart-break, all the effects of sin, or all our weaknesses. But He did promise to set us free through His Word, the truth. He did promise that He would never leave us, nor forsake us. He did promise that He would restore us, and make us fit for His service.
Dear friends, you may be in the depths of anguish of soul and under cruel bondage. You may feel that these promises are just beyond your reach, that they can’t quite reach your heart or your situation. But I encourage you to keep crying out to God, keep looking to Him for help, keep seeking Him with all your heart. Because our God is faithful. Whether or not you feel it, He is there. He hears your cries, sees your struggles, reaches to you and gently guides you as you seek Him; even though you feel alone. He is working out His plan, for your good and to His glory. Cling to His promises.
Hope in truth 