Exodus 2:23 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, that the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt continued, Exodus 2:23. The killing of their baby boys probably did not go on for very long. That cruelty seems to have belonged to the time around Moses’ birth, and it helped mark out that period. By now the Egyptians were satisfied to let Israel keep growing, because Israel’s labor was making Egypt richer. They wanted the people as slaves, so they cared little how many there were, as long as they kept working hard.

When one Pharaoh died, another took his place with the same hard policy. He was just as cruel to Israel as the rulers before him. If the burden eased for a little while, it soon returned with the same force. And likely, as Israel grew more numerous, they were oppressed even more. Here we should remember that God sometimes lets the wicked’s power rest very long and very heavily on the righteous.

If Moses, while in Midian, ever wished he had stayed among the Egyptian nobles, he would have needed to remember this too. His life as a shepherd in Midian was a lowering of his station, but it was still better than making bricks in Egypt. Thinking about the sufferings of our brothers and sisters can help us accept our own troubles more patiently.

Second, this verse begins the lead-up to their final rescue. They cried out, Exodus 2:23. At last they began to think of God in the middle of their suffering and turned back to him from the idols they had served (Ezekiel 20:8). Before this, they had mostly complained about the people and tools used to hurt them, while God was not on their minds. In this way, people who are stubborn in heart store up anger for themselves; they do not cry out to God when he binds them (Job 36:13).

But before God set them free, he first moved them to cry to him, as is explained in Numbers 20:16. This is a good sign that deliverance is near, when God gives us a heart to pray for it.

Then God heard, Exodus 2:24, 25. The name of God is repeated here with great force because four different acts of mercy are described. God heard their groaning, which means he made it plain that he took notice of their complaints. The groans of the oppressed cry out in the ears of the righteous God, to whom justice belongs, especially the groans of God’s spiritual Israel. He knows both the burdens they bear and the blessings they long for, and the Holy Spirit uses those groans as a kind of prayer within them.

God remembered his covenant, the promise he had made, which may have seemed forgotten, though God is always faithful to it. He did not act because Israel deserved it, but because he kept his promise. See Leviticus 26:42. God looked upon the children of Israel. Moses had looked on them and felt pity (Exodus 2:11), but now God looked on them and came to help. God also had respect for them, a kind and gracious regard as for his own people.

The repeated use of God’s name shows that something great is about to happen, a work worthy of God. His eyes, which move to and fro through the whole earth, were now fixed on Israel. He was ready to show his power and prove himself their God.