In Exodus chapter two, verse twenty-three, after many years of oppression, the people of Israel began to cry unto God for help. When they turned to the Lord, He turned to them. The Israelites may have been worshipping the gods of Egypt and calling upon them for help and deliverance. However, they most likely did not receive a response to their expectations and regressed to the living God.
During this time, the king of Egypt, who sought to put Moses to death, had died. The slavery the Israelites experienced continued and seems to have gotten even worse. The people of Israel responded in two ways. First, they have “groaned,” implying an expression of pain in their slavery. They complained or made a plea, and God heard them.
Second, The Israelites prayed, and God perceived that prayer. The “crying out” from the people of Israel is an ongoing call reminding us God always hears our prayers. Further, God “remembered” His covenant. The covenant referred to here is the Abrahamic covenant. God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants. They would become great people and a nation. God would bless those who blessed them and judge those who judged them.
This covenant extended from Abraham to his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob. From Jacob came the twelve sons who became leaders of the twelve tribes of Egypt, extending God’s covenant to all the Jewish people. God’s promise to Abraham was that his descendants would live in the land where Abraham walked, the land of Israel. This promise would grasp through Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egyptian slavery toward this Promised Land.
The importance of Israel crying out to God is to form that relationship with God again. He is loving and desires to be the center of attention in our lives. However, He knows the heart of each individual and is aware if someone is serious or not when they cry out to Him. The Israelites’ cry to God was not a plan. They were experiencing hardship and knew their background.
Today, believers need to cry out to God for everything. However, our tendency to cry out o God is when we only are in trouble. We need to cry out to God for our loved ones and those harming themselves with ungodly resources. We need to cry out to God to save people from the enemy and people doing injustice to the innocent. We need to cry out to God to help us from failing Him and give us the strength daily to serve Him.