Some of you have listened to Jason Morriss’ presentations on credentialing and leadership development.
In my early morning study time, I was reading through Exodus 2 and studied particularly the Hebrew nuances of the last paragraph. In that I noticed some intriguing things about the final two verses specifically. In the NIrV Exodus 2:24-25 reads, (verse 24)-“God heard their groans. He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (verse 25)-“So God looked on the Israelites with favor. He was concerned about them.”
What struck me was the explanations of scholars noted that Moses had pity for the people, but God definitely had something more powerful- God heard (verse 24) and saw (verse 25)”them. But, it was not a benign hearing and seeing. The use of Yada and Elechem together in this context means not only that God “noticed” them and had “favor” on them, but respected them. The summary statement (last part of verse 25) that draws attention to the antecedent (first part of verse 25) puts together the real meaning behind “seeing” and “noticing” or “favoring”, it means that God “respected them.” Deilitzsch, KFB, Young and Henry all go to lengths to make the point that this was more than “seeing”, “remembering” and “favoring” the people with whom God had made covenant. It was also more than a measure of concern that he had for their distress. He was looking at them with respect for them, their plight and his promise. That respect resulted in a commitment to make things right.
Simply put, this kind of seeing is not a scientific kind of observation that an objective, disinterested psychologist might be using to diagnose a patient. Instead it is more like the seeing that a parent does who so intimately loves his/her child as to look at their child with eyes that combine love, an awareness of their vested interest in their child’s well-being and a measure of respect for them as one worthy of their best efforts to help them grow.
For those of us who look and listen to people who have potential to do something great or who are suffering unimaginable grief, our seeing and listening should be more than the observations of a distant person. Our seeing and listening should be as one who is concerned, favorably interested in and fully respecting the person. It should be our ultimate desire to help them find answers, grow and flourish. And, as a result, our hands and feet will engage as much as our eyes and ears.