Exodus 2: To Know . . .
Monday, March 10, 2025
This chapter of Exodus tells us the story of Moses in much the same way that folktales of that era recounted the origin of a hero, especially of Sargon of Akkad in the late eighth century before Christ (Meeks 80). Today’s story ends in an interesting way in the NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: [God] saw the Israelites and knew . . .
Notes from the HARPERCOLLINS STUDY BIBLE point out that the meaning of the Greek word know can have various connotations just as in English. We can know something and care about it, we can know it and be indifferent, or we can know something and then act upon what we know. The NEW AMERICAN version with the ending ellipsis leaves us with something to ponder. [God] saw the Israelites and knew . . .
God – being God – knows all. God knows all before it happens, God knows all presently, God knows all there will ever be to know, and God knows it eternally. God certainly heard and understood the plight of the Hebrew people who had gone to Egypt with Joseph, and later Jacob, the rest of his sons, and all of their families. God knew and comprehended their circumstances. So when the enslaved people groaned and cried out, God heard, understood. God knew they were suffering and God chose to act upon this knowledge. God knows all people in this way. God knows us in this way now.
God saw the people and knew . . .
Tomorrow, knowing God and acting.
Meeks, Wayne A., Gen. Ed. HARPERCOLLINS STUDY BIBLE (NRSV). New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1989. Print.
Adapted from a reflection written on February 24, 2010.
Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tissot_Moses_Laid_Amid_the_Flags.jpg
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