Young theological students glory in learning and saying the “omnis” of God: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. I know; I was one of them. But loving those words as abstract concepts is oceans away from knowing and loving the God who is everywhere present, knows all, and is almighty.

The children of Israel who were slaves in Egypt did not study academic theology. They probably had no terms equal to our “omnis.” But they were soon to learn them, not as abstract concepts, but as rubber-meets-the-road action. We read this in Exodus 2:

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

At the burning bush, God tells Moses,

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.

God heard…God remembered…God saw…God knew. And then God acted powerfully. What a marvelous and potent sequence.

One and a half thousand years later another exodus, another rescue, began. God’s people, under a yoke of slavery, cried out to him. God heard…God remembered…God saw…God knew. And God acted powerfully—omnipotently if you please—by sending his Son to bear our yoke of slavery for us and set us free.

This is Advent: God with us and the dawn of a new Exodus.