All Scripture is inspired by God. Scripture is useful to teach us and it convicts us of what is right. Scripture straightens out our thinking, and it trains us in knowing and doing what it right. (2 Timothy 3:16) With this foundation, my inspiration today comes from Exodus 3.
“Then the Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’”
Exodus 3:7-10 ESV
We are often comforted by God’s word to know that God sees our afflictions; He hears our cries; and He responds. We find comfort in this passage from Exodus that God sees, God hears, God knows, and God responds. This is undeniable, but it isn’t the primary purpose of Scripture.
If we only take away the fact that God sees us, hears us, knows us, and responds to us from this passage, we are missing the bigger picture. The purpose of Scripture is not primarily to comfort us. If you read 2 Timothy 3:16, which I paraphrased at the beginning of this article, it describes the primary purpose of Scripture, and the description does not include providing comfort to us.
Yes, Scripture is comforting to us, and we take great comfort in it as we should. That is part of having faith in and trusting God. The primary purpose of scripture, however, is not to comfort us, but to instruct us, to straighten out our thinking, to give us a new perspective, and to train us in what is right according to 2 Timothy 3:16.
In the passage from Exodus 3 quoted above, we are comforted to understand that God sees the afflictions of His people, hears their cries and knows their suffering, and God responds, but we should not miss that God responds through Moses who God calls to carry out His response. The focus of the story is God calling on Moses to carry out God’s response to what God sees, hears, and knows.
Continue reading “God Sees, God Hears, and God Responds”
