God's Supreme Concern

The major and most important personality of the Bible is Yahweh or God. The "best" human beings are fragile, flawed, and transitory--including Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, the prophets, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul--in fact, every one of us. BUT God is eternal, dependable, and consistent--even when it appears to US that this is not the case.

As one enters the story of the Book of Exodus, God appears immediately: Exodus 1:15, 21 declare that the Hebrew midwives in the land of Goshen in Egypt "feared God," and Exodus 1:20 says: "God dealt well with the midwives," indicating from the context that God approved and protected the work of Shiphrah and Puah to save the infant boys born when Pharaoh and the Egyptians demanded that they be murdered.

Exodus 1:20 and Exodus 2:23-25 portray GOD'S SUPREME CONCERN for humanity on earth: to defend, protect, deliver all people who are oppressed and destitute and deprived: specifically, aliens, widows, orphans, the poor, the marginalized--and this biblical teaching of God is consistent throughout scripture.

Read Exodus 2:23-25: "After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites GROANED UNDER THEIR SLAVERY AND CRIED OUT. Out of the slavery their CRY FOR HELP ROSE UP TO GOD. GOD HEARD THEIR GROANING and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. GOD LOOKED UPON THE ISRAELITES, AND GOD TOOK NOTICE OF THEM."

THIS was God's motivation to deliver the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. GOD HAS A TENDER HEART INCLINED FOR HURTING PEOPLE. A very important law in the Book of Exodus occurs in Exodus 22:21-24:
"You shall not wrong or oppress A RESIDENT ALIEN, FOR you were ALIENS in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any WIDOW or ORPHAN. If you do abuse them, when they CRY OUT TO ME, I WILL SURELY HEED THEIR CRY; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans."

As I was growing up in my religious denomination, most of our preachers and teachers taught us that God's ONLY concern was the "convert the lost." Helping the needy, widows, orphans, aliens, the marginalized is a "social" activity, NOT a "spiritual" or "religious" undertaking. One MAY help the needy AS A MEANS OF manipulating into accepting what the helpers taught. Did Jesus approach people this way? Of course, God wants to "save" all people. But God's supreme concern is to help hurting people. What do you think hurting people naturally feel and do when God and unselfish, helping people defend and sustain and support and deliver them?

What does the Bible teach? From Genesis through Revelation, it is quite clear that God's Supreme Concern for humanity on earth is to try to help and encourage and deliver hurting people. The biblical texts are numerous and clear. To cite just on New Testament text, James 1:27 is concise and pointed:
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." [As we continue our study of the Book of Exodus, more on this subject].

John Willis