Tag: Heard Their Cry

40.s. “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them”

 

 

Exodus 3:7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. 

 Psalms 22:24   For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

 Psalms 34:4   I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

 Psalms 34:6     This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

 Psalms 106:44    Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry.

 Psalms 145:19    He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

 Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

400 years, or close to it, God’s chosen people were oppressed.  Think about that.  We declared our independence from England 246 years ago. Add another 154 years to our history and have us living under oppression this whole time and this would be the life of Israelites for generation after generation.  400 years.  During these 400 years of oppression, God knew what was going on. God saw it. Year after year it continued.  If you had not known freedom and this was the only life you knew, would it make it bearable? No. However, it might make it seem like this is just the way things are, always have been, and always will be.  What hope would you have for the present? What hope would you have for the future?  It would seem hopeless for life any better.  

400 years.  I still have a hard time putting this into perspective. The Bible is filled with example after example of God’s protective and mighty hand defending and bringing rather quick resolution. It is also filled with examples of His seeming delays.  Of course, we can look to and trust God when He answers immediate prayers. What kind of faith can wait year after year, knowing the promises of God, claiming these promises, believing them, trusting in them, but not seeing tangible evidence of them?  This kind of faith keeps eyes, heart, mind, and soul focused on God and not the circumstance or situation.  This kind of faith knows without a doubt that God is able and limitless in what He can do. This kind of faith says; “God is able, but if in His plan and purpose I do not see His hand at work I know He is watching over me. He loves me. He will strengthen me. He is God.”

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  

5.g. The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

Job 11:4   For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God’s eyes.’ But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.

Ezra 9:13     And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved

Psalms 103:10     He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

Psalms 106:43-46     Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.  Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry.  For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Lamentations 3:22    The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

The word of God contains truths of God.  From early on in our journey of being drawn in by God, His Holiness and our sinfulness and need for forgiveness unfold.  Our heart is softened and with our mind starting to be opened to the understanding of the mystery of His unfailing and steadfast love for us, we intentionally choose to confess, repent, and fully trust in and rely on, and cling to Jesus Christ.  We believe in His sacrifice for our sin and God the Father washing our sin stains away, forever gone.  As we read more and more of God’s Word with a heart, mind, and soul-deep desire and seeking, we see our sinful nature and wonder how it is that God does not repay us according to our sins.  We see the battle that wages within our soul between sinful self and the new creation, rebirth, being born again self that occurs when we confess, repent, believe, and trust in Jesus Christ.  We understand more and more each day how self wants to put self ahead of humbly serving, honoring, glorifying, trusting, following, obeying, and relying on Jesus Christ.  We become aware of those things we know we ought to do but don’t and those things we ought not to do but do.  In this understanding of our sinful nature, we can only wonder and be awed by the grace, mercy, and love given to us through Jesus Christ.  When we commit, (intentionally choose) to seek and desire wisdom and understanding from and through time in His Word, we will continue to mature and grow in our understanding of God’s mercy, grace, and love.  Our heart, mind, and soul will continually be moved by this and we will become more and more humble, honoring, serving, and obeying, in our life walk with Jesus Christ.

It is never too late to make this heart, mind, and soul commitment of living each moment of every day in service to our savior Jesus Christ.  It is never too late to confess and repent of neglect and complacency.

It is, however, always to late to waste another minute being self-centered, self-serving, self-helping, self-satisfying, and self-seeking.  Choosing to live and walk apart from God.

130. The LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

2 Samuel 22:7 “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.

Psalms 116:4    Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Psalms 120:1    In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.

Exodus 3:7    Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Psalms 34:6     This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psalms 34:15-17     The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.  The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Psalms 18:6     In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Who has not been in distress?  Who has not been beside themselves for the trial that they are having to walk through?  It is not as though we go looking for trials and troubles, though at times I think some people do, but more like they find us when we least need to be having it.  They come up out of nowhere,  They hit us from the blind side.  They hit us where we thought we were strong.  They can leave us in a very anxious, fearful, wanting, and desperate state.  God’s word is full of promises and testimonies of His steadfast and ever-present help.  We need only to lay our trials and troubles into His hands and trust His unchanging and unlimited love.

“In my distress I called upon the Lord”, “He answered me”, “The Lord heard him”, “The Lord saved him”, “to my God I cried for help”, “The Lord hears and delivered them out of all of their troubles”, “He heard my voice”, “my cry to Him reached His ears”

1. Because He is God

Exodus 18:8   Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.  Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

Nehemiah 9:9-15    “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea,  and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.

Psalms 66:16    Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

Psalms 71:17-20    O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.  So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.  Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?  You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

Psalms 105:1-2     Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

Psalms 145:4-12     One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.  On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.  They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.  They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.  All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,  to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

When we choose to intentionally commit to know and understand God and begin to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, follow, and obey Him we will see new wonders, mighty deeds, awesome power, steadfast love, and being witness to these, we speak rejoicing.  We speak joy.  We speak love.  We speak hope. We speak kindness. We speak reliance. We speak about trust and faith.

“Come and hear…. I will tell what He has done for my soul,” “One generation shall commend your works to another,” “Proclaim your might to another generation,” “Make known His deeds,” “I will proclaim your wondrous deeds”

We rejoice in times of plenty and in want.  Why? Because God has become our rock, refuge, and hope.  In Him and His purposes and plans, we confidently place our faith because He is God.

450 Years

And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges.

Judges 2:16
Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not

Psalms 106:43
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

Did you take note that the time from when the Israelites took possession of the land until the time of Judges was ~450 years.  During this 450 years many times the Israelites were under God’s punishment for not following Him.  We can look back at this and see the first place of not obeying God was when they took over the land God had given them.  They did not put away all of the people as God said to.  They did right by what was in their own eyes and this lead to a continuous falling away from God.  I remember shortly after I was saved,  my pastor who was discipling me, said “one thing he saw and it troubled him greatly was the fact that the church seemed to always be 10 to 15 years away from whatever the current culture accepted.”  What was deemed not in alignment with God’s word by the church now seemed to be ok or severely watered down within 10 to 15 years.  Spend some time to think about this and see if it is not true.  We ask for revival but are we willing to put away all that causes us to stumble?  Have we lost sight of what God would have us do and replaced it with what the culture says God would have us do?  The only way we will ever get on top of this is to personally spend time in God’s word with the intent of allowing Him to speak the truth of it into our mind and lives.  If we think for a moment we will get this type of understanding from a sermon once per week we fool ourselves and will only continue to drift away from God while running full speed ahead to that which is neither God honoring or beneficial for our lives.  Purpose to read daily and desire/expect God to breath life into these words in your heart, mind and soul.

Remember God

They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them

Nehemiah 9:8
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

It is good to be reminded of who God is and what He has done.  Do we believe it?  He created the heavens, earth, and everything on it.  He split the Red Sea and the people went across on dry ground. He gave mana from the sky each day.  He gave water from a rock.  He gave them good statutes and commandments.  He led them by day and night.  He made their 40 years in the desert so that that their clothes did not wear out.  These are a few of recorded acts of God that were communicated to the people in a time of confessing, worship and understanding.  It is good to be reminded of who God is and what He has done.  Over time families and then generations forget and do not remember God and drift away.  They forget who He is, what He has done, and the purpose of living for Him.  I don’t see much difference from the time of Nehemiah to now.  We don’t spend time in His word. We don’t live each day with awe and wonder of what His hands have made.  We don’t live in His power.  We worry about things rather than give them to God.  We are closer to the culture around us than to being a light for it.   God open our eyes to how far we are from living for you and guide us in a path that brings honor and glory to You.