A Cry for Help

A Cry for Help

Exodus 3:1-8

            After listing the sons of Jacob who emigrated from Canaan to Egypt, announcing the death of Joseph, and letting us know that the children of Israel had prospered, the sacred writer tells us, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

            Changes of leadership can be bad for some groups of people, especially those in the minority.  A country can have a significant minority population that fits well with the majority, that does very well for itself, and becomes somewhat integrated with society, but when a new leader, or political party, or governing philosophy or style arises, its minority status becomes alarmingly clear.

            Too often throughout history that minority has been Jewish.  In pre-Exodus Egypt, in Europe from the Middle Ages through the middle twentieth century, in the Middle East today, those of Jewish heritage were and are a minority either persecuted or in danger of persecution.  Are they the only minority to suffer?  By no means!  We have only to look at African-Americans or Hispanic-Americans today, or perhaps Muslim-Americans in the near future to see persecution.  Whoever the people, whatever the time or circumstance, we must realize that persecution of one class of people by another is morally wrong.  Moreover, in nations claiming to be Christian, it must be recognized as being against God’s law.

            Let’s focus on Israel in Egypt.  Things had started off well for Jacob’s children.  Because of Joseph’s service to the nation, Pharaoh had welcomed them with open arms, giving them fertile land to dwell in.  Israelites and Egyptians lived side by side in peace and prosperity.

            Then arose a king who had not known Joseph, who did not have open arms for Jacob’s descendants.  Suddenly, neighbors became strangers, not to be trusted but to be envied for their success.  It wasn’t right for them to do better than the native population.  It wasn’t proper for them to have better homes and farms than their Egyptian counterparts.  Something must be done!

            And done it was!  First, forced labor, then slavery, then genocide, until the children of Israel cried out to their God.  Perhaps, in the good years, they had forgotten about God.  Perhaps they had ceased to pray, to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Perhaps they felt they were doing all right without God’s help.  Perhaps they had forsaken the God of Israel and had begun to worship the gods of Egypt.  Now everything had changed.

            In their helplessness and distress they cried out to God, and God heard them.  YHWH—I AM—sent Moses to break Pharaoh’s heart of stone and lead Israel out of bondage and into the Promised Land.  You would think that would have been enough to seal the relationship between God and God’s people forever, but it didn’t happen that way.  Throughout history, Israel’s leadership led the people astray, or laid a heavy burden of servitude and economic inequality on their backs.  Sometimes the well-off people followed willingly, condemning their less-fortunate brothers and sisters to lives of poverty and misery.

            Whenever the people cried out to God, God sent a deliverer—a prophet, a wise king, an inspired leader.  Finally God sent Jesus Christ, the ultimate answer to the people’s cry for deliverance.

            Today people in bondage still cry out to God.  Whether that bondage is economic, social, psychological or spiritual, whatever pit humans may have fallen or been pushed into, God hears their cry.  But who will help?  Where is the deliverer who will save them?

            Every Christian must raise a hand and say, “Here I am, Lord!  Send me!”