And it came to pass during those many days, that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and cried; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage;
The king of Egypt dies, and Israel's slavery rolls on unchanged. The people groan under the same load, their cry reaches God, and two questions open up: why had the wait been so long, and what moved God to act?
One writer asks what the king's death actually changed for Israel.
First, it tells us that the king of Egypt died, but his death brought no relief for the condition of the children of Israel. On the contrary, they "groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God." They had sunk to the lowest point. But God was not unfeeling.
The verse never says Israel prayed to God. It says they groaned, and the groan went up. One writer asks what kind of cry this was.
In His deep compassion God heard their cry. It does not appear to have been aimed at God at all. It was the cry of hopelessness and despair. There was no ray of hope to ease their sense of utter wretchedness. They expected no measure of relief and no eventual rescue from their state of deep misery and crushing bondage. They were not looking to God or counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
The next verse says God looked on Israel. One writer stops at how an older translation renders that line.
Israel's cry came up before Him because of the affliction Genesis 15 speaks of... The margin of the older translation reads "He knew them." It is a great gain for someone in affliction to discover that God is his only hope. And what comfort there is in that thought — He knows them!
God hears in this verse, yet rescue is still a long way off. One writer asks why God let it run so long.
The length of time may seem to us too great, but God's wisdom is greater than ours. He did take account of their groaning, remembering His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, the time before their deliverance would still be drawn out. They had to feel most deeply the oppression and bondage they suffered under, so that they might later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them.
A delay is not a broken promise. The writer who saw Israel at their lowest point also says why God can afford to wait.
It is impossible for God to forget His word. If He delays to carry it out, it is only for the brighter display of His unchanging grace and love.
What moved God to act was not a bargain Israel had kept. One writer points to the promise God was working from, and to when the law came.
The oppression of Israel continued, God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: His stepping in, and His redemption of Israel from the house of slavery, happened under that covenant. The covenant of law was not put forward until we reach Exodus 19.
Their misery was not something that earned them rescue. It was the need that grace answered.
Here the absolute, free, unconditional grace of the God of Abraham, and of Abraham's descendants, shines out in all its native brightness. Nothing holds it back — not the "ifs" and "buts," not the vows, resolutions and conditions of the man who tries to earn it... He had not come down to check whether the people of His promise were good enough to deserve His salvation. It was enough for Him that they needed it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs, their heavy bondage — all of it had come under His eye. Blessed be His name, He counts His people's sighs and puts their tears into His bottle.
One writer reads Israel's helplessness as a picture of every person's. The slave cannot free himself.
If we read Exodus 2:23 and 3:1-10, we see the condition of the people in cruel bondage and slavery. It is an exact picture of our own condition under the cruel bondage of sin and Satan. Their cries and groans came up to God... Think of the slave who cannot escape from slavery in any way. Such is the condition by nature of every man, whether he knows it or not. And note, the source of their deliverance was not in themselves. The source of our salvation is the love of God. God is love. He came down to deliver.
- Bondage. The king died and nothing got better. The misery was real, and God let Israel feel it fully before He lifted it.
- Cry. What went up was a groan of despair, not a polished prayer, and it still reached Him.
- Heard. God did not weigh their merit; He counted their sighs, and "He knew them."
- Covenant. The ground of rescue was God's covenant with Abraham. He acted on that promise long before the law came in Exodus 19 — pure grace, not a deal kept.
- Deliverance. The slave who cannot free himself is every one of us; the source of rescue was never in Egypt, but in the love of God.
and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob;
Exodus 2 closes with Israel at the end of its strength. The king who oppressed them has died, but nothing has improved. Their suffering rises to God as sound, not as words. What moves God here is not a change in Israel, but the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The groaning that reached God came from people who had lost the promise from view. One commentator draws out the contrast between what Israel had forgotten and what God had not.
They groaned and sighed because of the bondage; but they did not have the faith to cry to Him. Yet their cry came up to God. God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. They had forgotten that covenant, sunk for years in the darkness and idol worship of their cruel masters. But God looked on the sons of Israel and acknowledged them.
Another writer weighs how little hope was in that cry.
God in His deep compassion heard their cry. They do not seem to have addressed it to God directly or in plain words. It was instead the cry of hopelessness and despair. There was no ray of hope to ease the sense of utter misery. There was no expectation of any relief, or of any deliverance in the end, from their state of deep misery and crushing bondage. There was no looking out to God, no counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
The covenant God remembers here is older than the law. One writer notes which covenant Israel's rescue came under, and when the law arrived.
The closing verses of Exodus 2 tell of the death of the Pharaoh of those days. The oppression of Israel went on. God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: He stepped in and redeemed Israel out of the house of slavery under that covenant. The covenant of law was not brought in until we reach Exodus 19.
That covenant carried no terms for Israel to meet.
These promises had no conditions at all. God gave them, and Abraham received them, without any condition whatsoever. We find them repeated, still with no condition, to Isaac in Genesis 26 and to Jacob in Genesis 28. Then we turn to Exodus 2, when the four hundred years had run out, and there we find these promises to the fathers mentioned again.
God's move toward Israel did not turn on what Israel deserved.
He had not come down to check whether the people He had promised to bless were in a fit state to deserve His salvation. It was enough for Him that they needed it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs, their heavy bondage had all passed before Him in review. Blessed be His name, He counts His people's sighs and puts their tears into His bottle. He was not drawn to them by any excellence or virtue of their own.
God hearing is not the same as God acting at once. One writer finds purpose in the delay, and the same purpose at work today.
He took account of their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, the time would still be drawn out before their deliverance. They had to feel very deeply the oppression and bondage they suffered under, so that they might later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them. God deals the same way today with sinners He has awakened. He puts them through experiences that make them realize that bondage to sin is a dreadful thing. Then, when He delivers them, they have learned to hate sin so well that they never want to go back to it.
One writer reads this remembering as a pattern for what is still ahead.
All had come to pass according to God's Word. They had gone down into Egypt, and been afflicted there in a land that was not their own. The four hundred years were expiring, and their affliction was at its height... God will just as surely remember that same covenant, for that same people, in the far deeper afflictions still ahead of them.
- Groaning. Israel's cry was despair, not prayer. Yet it came up to God, because His covenant was the ground of hope, not their faith.
- Remembered. Israel forgot the covenant in the darkness of Egypt. God did not forget it, though He let the bondage press them longer before He acted.
- Covenant. God rescued Israel under the unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The law came only later, at Exodus 19.
- Grace. He did not come down to check whether they deserved rescue. Their need was enough. He counts His people's sighs.
- Still standing. God remembered this covenant at the height of their affliction. He will remember it again for the same people in deeper trouble yet to come.
and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged [them].
Four short verbs carry God's part in this chapter: He heard, He remembered, He looked, and He knew. Then the chapter stops, leaving us to ask why the wait was so long, on what ground God moved, and why His answer starts with knowing.
God speaks no promise here, and the rescue has not begun. One writer points to the tenderness of these lines and dares the world's famous historians to match them:
Their bondage drew out sighs and cries. But their cry, as we are told with touching simplicity, "came up to God because of the bondage… and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God took notice." You who boast of Herodotus and Thucydides, of Livy and Tacitus, produce any sentence from those classic historians, or from any since, down to our own day, for words approaching these in tenderness.
The verse ends on two words: God knew. Older translations put it "God had respect unto them." A note in the margin goes further:
The margin reads "He knew them." It is a moment of great gain for someone in affliction when he discovers that God is his only hope. And what comfort there is in that thought — He knows them!
The text never says Israel prayed. One writer weighs what their cry actually was:
God in His deep compassion heard their cry. It does not appear to have been directly addressed to Him. Instead, it was the cry of hopelessness and despair. No ray of hope eased their sense of utter misery. They expected no relief and no eventual deliverance from their state of complete wretchedness and crushing bondage. They were not looking to God or counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
God acts here on the ground of a covenant made long before with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Two things follow. First, the terms of the rescue:
The oppression of Israel continued. God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: He stepped in and redeemed Israel out of the house of bondage under that covenant. The covenant of law was not put before them until we reach Exodus 19.
Second, the nature of those promises:
These promises had no conditions at all. God gave them and Abraham received them without any condition whatsoever. He repeated them, still without condition, to Isaac in Genesis 26 and to Jacob in Genesis 28. By Exodus 2 the four hundred years had ended, and there we meet these promises to the fathers again.
God takes notice here, yet the rescue is still far off. One writer treats the delay as deliberate:
He took account of their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, a long time would still pass before their deliverance. They had to feel the full weight of the oppression and bondage under which they suffered. Then they would later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them. God deals the same way today with sinners He has awakened. He puts them through experiences that show them how dreadful bondage to sin is. When He then delivers them, they have learned to hate sin so much that they never want to go back.
These closing verses are best read not as the end of Moses' story but as the opening of the rescue:
The end of the second chapter is a short preface. It really belongs with the third chapter, and it reveals the ground on which God was acting for the redemption of His people… They had sunk as low as they could go. But God was not unmoved… Their condition touched the heart of God and drew out His pitying mercies. Yet the ground on which He acted was His own sovereign grace… It is impossible for God to forget His word. If He delays in keeping it, the delay only shows His unchanging grace and love more brightly.
What God remembered once, He will remember again: "God will just as surely remember the same covenant, for the same people, in the far deeper troubles that still lie ahead of them" (W. Trotter).
- Heard — their groaning was despair, not prayer, yet it reached God. He hears the cry that has given up hope.
- Remembered — the rescue rests on the unconditional covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It does not rest on law, which comes only in Exodus 19.
- Looked — their misery moved His pity, but the ground of His action was His own sovereign grace.
- Knew — the margin reads "He knew them." The comfort of the afflicted is not that God will act soon, but that He knows them now.
- Waited — He took notice long before He delivered. The weight of bondage taught them the greatness of the grace that freed them.