I Have Observed

I remember, as an eighteen-year-old, living with my aunt and uncle in Coeur ‘d Alene, Idaho, who graciously took me into their home while I awaited my move to New York to attend West Point. Norm let me drive his Ford Ranchero and paid me to move pipes and water his crops. Whenever I got in a bind, he would flash his trademark Norwegian grin, which could be translated as “You are such an idiot.” I felt like a little kid in his presence. Given my mechanical stupidity, I’m sure he wondered how I would ever make it in an engineering school. Had it not been for God’s help and classmates like Kevin Stewart, who spent hours tutoring me, I would never have survived the Academy, and I wonder what would have become of my life. Wondering can be a healthy exercise in appreciating God’s sovereignty. This surely must have been the case for one of the world’s greatest leaders.

Imagine taking someone’s life and having to flee your people and home, and then for the next forty years being left with memories of “What if?” Visualize long nights of restlessness, guilt, and absorbing the slow, relentless dissolving of any dream of mattering. Feel the relentless sunbaked days challenged by snakes, predators, scorpions, and harsh wind, trying to take care of another man’s sheep. Frigid nights, lonely vigils, captured the humble reality of life as a shepherd in the middle of nowhere. Is it so surprising then that when Moses encountered God in the burning bush, his self-image was low, and he felt like the least qualified candidate in the world to lead his countrymen to freedom?
             
Meditation
Exodus 3:7—“Then the LORD said, ‘I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.’”
 
God protected a beautiful boy from death and arranged that he live for forty years in Pharaoh’s court with the finest of education and privilege. He watched that same man as he sabotaged what he had by trying to take matters into his own hands. He knew Moses’ hardship just as He did the unremitting suffering of the Israelites under their Egyptian oppressors. God selected Moses because forty more years of insignificance built humility, an invaluable virtue, in the man He would instruct and guide to liberate Israel. 
           
​“I have observed” are three words of universal truth and application. Daily God observes you. He knows your secret sins. He understands your struggles, weaknesses, and faults, just as He knows your victories, strengths, and virtues. He hears the words that exit your mouth and the thoughts inside your brain. And in the making of your journey, this One who sees you, loves you—far beyond what you could ever imagine, deserve, or comprehend. You are an instrument for His glory each moment you choose to trust and obey Him, to be like His Son—Yeshua, to step out in faith, like Moses.  So, whether you are out in the desert with the sheep, questioning the meaning of life, or coping with some arduous challenge, never lose sight of this awesome truth that He who created you loves you, and you matter.
 
Inspiration
“God wants us all to Himself, so that He may give Himself all to us.”—Andrew Murray in Holy in Christ
 
©2026 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10—"The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.”  (Holman CSB)