We are still in Exodus chapter two with our word for today and like yesterday we have two words translated the same way. זָעַק cry, call for help, summon, raise a battle cry, to utter aloud a request for help with intensity. It is used 73 times in the Old Testament. And also שַׁוְעָה call for help, scream, cry, cry for help or assistance in a desperate situation. It is used 11 times in the Old Testament. Our first word זָעַק is used in the sense of uttering aloud a request for help with intensity. 2 Chronicles 18:31 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat וַיִּזְעַ֤ק cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him. 2 Chronicles 32:20-21 King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz וַֽיִּזְעֲק֖וּ cried out in prayer to heaven about this. And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. 1 Samuel 12:8 After Jacob entered Egypt, they וַיִּזְעֲק֤וּ cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place. This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 2:23-25 The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and וַיִּזְעָ֑קוּ cried out for help. Their שַׁוְעָתָ֛ם cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. Our second word is also used in this same sense throughout the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 22:7 and Psalm 18:6 are the same recording David’s cry for help. In my distress I called to the Lord; I אֲשַׁ֫וֵּ֥עַ called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my וְ֝שַׁוְעָתִ֗י cry came to his ears. Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their שַׁוְעָתָֽם cry. God does hear when we cry out to him in prayer but we have to remember that it is not in our time but in His. God’s people were slaves in Egypt a long, long time. Exodus 12:40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. This reminds me of Jesus’ parable that he told. Luke 18:1-6 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 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? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” I remember this parable this way. Always pray, don’t give up, you can trust God, can God trust you. If persistence works on ungodly people who have power over us in this life then how much more will it work on God who is all about brining goodness to us and those around us 24/7. So I need to be persistent in my prayers and crying out to God because he is committed to goodness and he is waiting to see how committed to goodness I am. I’ll close with this great reminder of God’s faithfulness in hearing our prayers. Psalm 145:17-19 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their שַׁוְעָתָ֥ם cry and saves them.
