The Lord is concerned for us...Promises from the Wilderness #14

How precious this verse is!  How relieved the Israelite slaves must have been to know they were noticed, "seen" by their God...the Scripture even says, after Moses and Aaron spoke to them:

...so the people believed, 

and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them 

and had seen their misery, 

they bowed down and worshiped.

He had seen their misery.  He knew and was now beginning to move on their behalf, exactly as He had fortold their patriarch, Abraham.  The word from which "He had seen" is translated, "raah", means "to see, consider, to experience, to observe, to look intently, to search" to name just a few.  In this phrase, the Israelites realized that He wasn't ignoring them, that they were not forgotten, but that He was intricately involved with them.  

"Raah" contains a powerful word picture; it is part of one of the names of God, Jehovah-Raah, The Lord my Shepherd!  

This deserves a Selah moment...

The Lord has been closely attending to the development of the nation, even if they hadn't seen, as a Shepherd tends His sheep.  

Not only that, but He called forth a shepherd to lead the people out of the wilderness of slavery and into an encounter of intimacy with Him...

Feeling prompted by the Spirit (and always enjoying a good search for a word's meaning), I wondered what the word "Goshen" might mean...I was anticipating maybe something like "pastures in the wilderness" or some similar thing.  But, even better, it means "drawing near".

Another Selah moment...

But it is good for me to draw near to God:

I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,

that I may declare all thy works

Psalm 73:28

 How blessed is the one whom You choose

and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts.

We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,

Your holy temple.

Psalm 65:4

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him...

Psalm 145:18

How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. - See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/drawing-near-to-God#sthash.EbW0JZOi.dpuf

How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. - See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/drawing-near-to-God#sthash.EbW0JZOi.dpuf

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt (out of slavery, out of the land of Goshen)*, 

you will worship God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:12

The time of "drawing near" comes to an end 

when we find ourselves at the foot of the Mountain of the Lord, 

or in His courts 

in a state of worship...Selah

*Parenthetical thoughts are added by myself