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Find Hope When You Are Downtrodden

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  • 16 min read

Exodus 2:23-25 NIV 

[23] During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. [24] God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. [25] So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. 

I am fully aware that this is a very sensitive subject. 


I am also aware that it becomes extra sensitive when I mention my race and place of birth. 


I am white Scottish. I was born in the city of Glasgow. Although Scotland never had an empire (we tried and we failed), Glasgow indirectly profited from the slave trade by trading in the commodities produced in the slave plantations of the Caribbean. Its street names still reflect this, despite being a left wing city in a (largely) left-wing country. 


And that is no bad thing. We’re not proud of that aspect of our heritage. Not one bit. But at least the street names remind us of it should we ever be tempted to go down that path again. 


I’m also acutely aware of the serious injustices meted out by the British Empire while it existed. We were racist, let’s be honest. The British reputation for fair play was not deserved.


The way we treated people and even entire nations was definitely ‘not cricket, dear boy’. 

I am also acutely aware that systemic racism still exists and is an evil society ought to be rid of by now. I am married to someone who feels its sting. Often we can find good deals to fly back to Asia with airlines that fly through the Arab Gulf, but she doesn’t like doing it. In those areas, most Filipinos are in menial jobs. Despite holding a British passport, she feels like people are looking down on her. 


I want to get it out on the table now: it’s about time we believed the Bible. All men and women are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). As it says in the American Declaration of Independence: 


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 


Thomas Jefferson was absolutely correct when he wrote it. 


But when people will actually believe it and enact it is still to be determined. 


We are looking in this study at a group of people who were downtrodden. They were downtrodden as a result of their race and religion. 


It still happens now. It’s as wrong now as it was then. 


Let me get this out into the open: in the majority of Western nations, Christians are not downtrodden; those who are looking to create this narrative have a massive chip on their shoulder and are trying to manipulate you to give them power. They ought to be ignored. 

In countries where Christians are downtrodden, they are denied fundamental human rights, such as access to clean drinking water, electricity, education, jobs, promotion, the right to free assembly and free expression of their faith. These situations are dreadful.  


If you are reading this and the very fact of your Christianity has caused you to lose your basic, fundamental human rights, then my heart goes out to you. 


This study is for you. 


No-one can be in any doubt that the Israelites were enduring serious deprivations of their human rights and were being enslaved to enrich another. That much is painfully clear from Exodus 1:8-22, merely because of their very existence. There can also be no doubt that this was thoroughly undeserved and am horrific injustice. 


As is every enslavement or deprivation of human rights for no reason other than national or religious identity. They can never be justified, in any situation or by any means, no matter the group involved. 


And, it has to be said, particularly if these people are not native: 


Exodus 22:21 NIV 

[21] “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.22.21.NIV)


Leviticus 19:33-34 NIV 

[33] “ ‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. [34] The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 

There is categorically no reason in the Bible for oppressing someone or denying someone their basic human rights on the basis of their nationality. No Bible-believing Christian ought to be anywhere near it. 


And the reason why is not just because we are called to love our neighbours as ourselves, but because God’s people have the collective memory of what happened all those years ago in Egypt. 


God’s people were enslaved. God’s people were deprived of their rights. God’s people were downtrodden. 


We cannot do it to other people because we know what it looks like and some of us know how it feels. 


If you feel deprived of your rights, if you feel like you have no choice and no agency and no freedom, then please pay close attention to this study, because I have three things to say that will bring you hope. 


Firstly, God says I have seen. 

 

I Have Seen 

Exodus 2:23-25 NIV 

[23] During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. [24] God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. [25] So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. 

Exodus 3:7 NIV 

[7] The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.3.7.NIV)


In the UK there is a system where people with a disability are given a sticker to put on their car. This sticker enables them to park in designated bays close to shops and office blocks to reduce the distance they have to walk. 


But not every disability is visible. 


There were often some rather loud discussions between entitled drivers and people who didn’t seem to be disabled but had a disabled pass. 


Just like disability, our pain is not always visible. Sometimes we try to hide it from others because we are afraid of what they would think of us. At other times we’re in denial that it even exists. Often what hurts the most is that we’re in pain and we feel dreadfully alone because no-one sees it and if feels like no-one cares. 


That was how it must have felt tor the Israelites. They had been in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years – close to nine generations. The Bible states that they were enslaved for four hundred of those years (Genesis 15:13; Acts 7:6).  


Later on, during another period of intense long-term suffering, the prophet Isaiah penned these words: 


Isaiah 40:27 NIV 

[27] Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.40.27.NIV)


This could well have been said at the time of Israel's sojourn in Egypt.  


But yet – and if you're hurting right now I want you to see this – God’s response to Moses was three amazing truths about their situation and ours that simply are paradigm-shifting. 


Firstly, we see those golden three words: I have seen. 


God told Moses that He was aware of their suffering – it was not concealed from Him or unknown to Him. This should not have come as a surprise: 


Proverbs 15:3 NIV 

[3] The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/pro.15.3.NIV)


Psalms 139:1-3 NIV 

[1] You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. [2] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. [3] You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 

You might carry an extreme weight of suffering that no-one knows about but you. That weight might be compounded by the fact that no-one knows and that they misjudge you because they don’t know. 


But you need to hear this: God sees. God knows. God understands. 


Your pain is not invisible to Him. 


But it is known. 


The second amazing truth is this: God says ‘I have heard’. 


Often one of the aspects that makes us feel downtrodden is that we are crying out because of our pain and no-one hears or listens to us. We are treated as if we are nothing but an irrelevance. 


But listen to me: God hears. God listens. 


Luke 18:7 NIV 

[7] And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.18.7.NIV)


God sees you and He hears you. You have His rapt attention. 


You are not alone. Ever. 


We also see this from God: I am concerned. 


God sees, hears, knows and cares for us, even when sometimes it really doesn’t feel like it: 


1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV 

[6] Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. [7] Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.5.6-7.NIV)


When we lose sight of this, it’s like an ancient mariner losing sight of the stars or the horizon: we very quickly become lost and disoriented. This is when we panic. This is when we feel stressed. 


This is when we feel alone. 


But the truth of the Israelites’ situation then was that God knew of it and God cared, even if no-one else did. 


And what is true of the Israelites is also true of you. 


So we see, then, that God sees our suffering and He is concerned for us. That’s all well and good. However, I can be concerned about situations I see on the news. It doesn’t mean I’ll actually do something about them. 


That leads us to what God does. We next see I Have Come Down. 

 

I Have Come Down 

Exodus 3:8 NIV 

[8] So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.3.8.NIV)


My in-laws live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. No-one who has visited the Philippines outside of Makati in Manila could possibly disagree with that. Its beaches and utterly unique nature are just astonishing. 


But every year there are disasters. Some are due to poor infrastructure, poor planning and endemic corruption. That much is sure. But some are utterly unavoidable. 


My in-laws have lived through several of them. We have had a few occasions when we have lost contact with them and not known of they were dead or alive – on one occasion for a whole week. 


Thankfully they have never needed it, but we are profoundly grateful for those who head to disaster zones to rescue those who are trapped or injured. They put their lives on the line for the sake of complete strangers. 


They are true heroes. 


God’s people were in the most tragic of places. Enslaved by a cruel and apparently racist overlord who was suspicious and fearful of their intent (does this seem at all familiar?), without any rights or agency, trapped into a miserable life, their plight was nothing less than serious. 


It’s nice when you’re suffering to hear that someone cares. It helps a little. It lifts your spirits, at least briefly. 


But what you want more than anything else is for someone to rescue from it. 


That was what God was about to do. 


And He was about to do it by ‘coming down’ to save them. 


The choice of words here is very striking. Look what Jesus did: 


Philippians 2:6-8 NIV 

[6] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; [7] rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/php.2.6-8.NIV)


Jesus stepped down. He came down to our level to lift us up. As John wrote: 


John 1:14 NIV 

[14] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.1.14.NIV)


And again: 


Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV 

[14] Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. [15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. [16] Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

This is a deep and precious truth. We were struggling in our suffering and pain, and the very Son of God stepped into our world, bore our pain, dealt with our suffering, so He could free us from it once and for all. 


Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV 

[4] Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.53.4-5.NIV)


There is nothing more isolating than suffering. It feels like no-one understands us. Yet that is a lie: 


Jesus understands. 


Because He came down, He stood beside us, and not just to pat us on the back and say ‘there, there’, but to bear our sin, to bear our shame, to bear our pain and to rescue us from them all. 


This is the new Exodus. 


Christian, you are not alone. You are never alone. Because God can down to earth to save you. He knows exactly how you feel. And He is there to rescue from it all. 


Apart from I have seen and I have come down, we also see God’s third statement: I Will Send. 

 

I Will Send 

Exodus 3:9-10 NIV 

[9] And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. [10] So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.3.9-10.NIV)


Often rescue comes from the most unusual places. Last week the story emerged of a woman who was very agitated and aggressive on a flight from Turkiye to the UK. A man and his eight year old boy were heading home for an urgent family matter. Any diversion to offload the woman on the way would have caused them significant upset.  


So that eight year old boy sat next to the woman and kept her calm by talking to her and keeping her entertained with card tricks. 


The other passengers hailed him as a hero. None of them wanted or needed a lengthy diversion.  


He, on the other hand, didn’t see why anyone was causing all the fuss. He felt he had only done what anyone would have done. 


The greatest heroes are usually the most unlikely ones. 


So let’s take a look at Moses. When he saw the burning bush, he was already not exactly in the prime of his life. This is what the Bible said at an event that took place not so long later: 


Exodus 7:7 NIV 

[7] Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.7.7.NIV)


So his age was not exactly in his favour. 


Neither was his past. Look what had happened forty years previously: 


Acts 7:23-24 NIV 

[23] “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. [24] He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.  

Moses had left Egypt as a fugitive and a murderer (Exodus 2:11-15). 


So we are dealing with a man who grew up in Pharoah’s palace for forty years, then was a fugitive and a shepherd in the desert for forty years. 


What’s more, he wasn’t either rich or influential. Notice Exodus 3:1 – even the very flocks he shepherded were not his. 


How many of us would pick such a man for a highly responsible role to lead a million restore people to freedom? 


Somehow, I doubt it. 


Yet this is what God does, as Paul explained: 


1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NIV 

[26] Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. [28] God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, [29] so that no one may boast before him.  

And again: 


2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV 

[7] But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/2co.4.7.NIV)


Yes, Moses had experience in dealing with the Egyptian authorities – he’d lived in the royal palace for forty years. Yes, this had reached the extent that his own future wife mistook him for an Egyptian (Exodus 2:19).  


But that was forty years in the past. By this point Moses was a fugitive from justice and an old man shepherding someone else’s flock. He was a nobody on the wrong side of the desert. 


Yet when God needed someone to save His people, He called on Moses.

 

Now, in your situation, everything might seem utterly hopeless. The Israelites would more than likely have felt this. They had suffered for way too long and nothing had changed. 

Moses himself likely felt like it. Forty years from his own people, spent shepherding sheep in the Sinai Peninsula. 


Yet despite all that had happened, God knew about the Israelites’ suffering, He came down to relieve it and He chose Moses to be His vessel to achieve it. 


Could God be choosing you to be the same? 

 

Conclusion 

Exodus 3:7-10 NIV 

[7] The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. [8] So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. [9] And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. [10] So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.3.7-10.NIV)


I was never a fan of gym class. It was always a prick to my ego. And trust me: my ego was about as inflated as a burst balloon. 


Waiting to be picked for a team was always the worst. The nerdy people like me were always the last. The captains always picked the people most likely to win them the game. I don’t blame them for that. I knew I was bad at sports. I didn’t need someone to remind me.  


But they did. Often. 


I rejoice that God is not like those team captains. He always chooses people that we would take a look at and say, ‘Really? You?’ 


Which a church leader once said to me when my application for missionary support was being processed. I’ve not gone to him for encouragement since then. 


Because that’s just it. We sometimes find ourselves in very difficult situation, where we are being downtrodden and oppressed by people with wafer thin egos and an intellect to match, who have to belittle others to make themselves feel good because they just aren’t good at anything else. 


That applies to school bullies just as much as it does to governments and leaders who persecute Christians. We respect them not because they deserve it, but because we are commanded to do so. 


Often reactions against us are not reasonable or thought through, but deeply irrational responses to something other people do not understand and cannot control. 


So how do we get out of these situations? 


Well, we have to recognise firstly that there be some benefit to us being there. I know that’s hard to hear, but look at these verses: 


1 Peter 1:3-7 NIV 

[3] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, [5] who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. [6] In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. [7] These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.1.3-7.NIV)


Romans 5:3-4 NIV 

[3] Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; [4] perseverance, character; and character, hope.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.5.3-4.NIV)


No-one should ever seek to be downtrodden or persecuted. That would be crazy. But they are often tools God uses to refine our character. We should ask God what purpose they serve long before we seek for the quickest exit from them. 


But if God’s purpose is best served by us being out of that situation, He will find a way. As we have seen? He is not indifferent. He loves us. He cares for us. And as we see elsewhere: 


Lamentations 3:31-33 NIV 

[31] For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. [33] For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 

The God who sees and knows is also the God who came down to earth to save us. 


Often His plan to lift us out of the circumstances we are in now does not depend on some dramatic, miraculous intervention as much as it does facing our situation with Him. The willingness to not run away from reality, but to stare it down and seek His help is often the first step to getting out of it. Regardless of whether it is a health, safety, financial, addiction or other kind of situation, we need to realise three essential things if we are followers of Jesus Christ: 


  1. We will get out of this situation. It is not forever. It is only temporary. 

  2. We can get out of this situation. We are not captive to it. We have been set free (Galatians 5:1). 

  3. We should seek to get out of the situation and do whatever we can to limit its impact on us and find a way out. 


Moses’ situation was tough. His people’s situation was tougher. It would seem to any casual observer that there was no way out. 


But God will always have the last word and no-one else. 


And His Word will always be for our good. 


So whatever your situation, my friend, take courage: your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed (Romans 13:11). 


It may seem like your oppressors have the upper hand, but God is righteous and God is just. 


And God is in control. 

 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, You know my situation better than I even know it myself. You know what I need. Help me, I pray, to not lose perspective and to realise that it is not forever. I trust You. Show me what I should be learning now and how I can get out of my situation, I pray. Amen. 

 

Questions for Contemplation  

  • What words of comfort and consolation did God have for Moses and the Israelites I’m their time of suffering? How can they comfort and console us? 

  • Would you say Moses was someone you would typically choose to liberate a million people? Why / why not? 

  • What can you do to change both your perspective of your situation and the situation itself? 

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