Meanwhile

Meanwhile…

9 letters that can hold so much truth. 

Yesterday, we decided to let the fact that God hears, sees, and knows be enough (Exodus 2:24-25). Easier said than done…I know. I equate it to telling my detail-oriented son not to worry because Mom’s got this. I may have everything under control but he’s still going to keep pestering me until I give him all the details and he decides to finally trust me. Sound familiar?

I wonder how often we treat God the same way? We groan, cry, and complain about our lives, begging for God to change our circumstances without stopping to consider that he has it all under control. We fail to see how these circumstances, this hard and terrible thing, could possibly be part of God’s plan for our lives. We forget that our story, though hard and impossible in this season, might just be setting the stage for God to reveal his glory to the lost and dying world around us.

Or maybe that’s just me. I get tunnel vision from time to time. 

In the CSB version of the Bible, Exodus 3 starts with the 9-letter word meanwhile. You wouldn’t think a transition word could hold so much weight but reading it this morning was like getting hit with a ton of bricks. According to dictionary.com, the word meanwhile means, “in the intervening time,” or “at the same time.”  So AT THE SAME TIME the Israelites were crying out to God and God was hearing, seeing and knowing, God was also INTERVENING for his children by preparing Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. And he was using a shepherd and a burning bush to do it. 

Exodus 3:7-10 says:

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

God heard, God saw, and God knew. But, God wasn’t just idly watching from his throne on high. He was working in the meanwhile.

Friends, on days when God hearing, seeing, and knowing just doesn’t seem like enough, remember this: While we’re groaning, God may yet be preparing for our deliverance.