Lord! Why Do You Permit Such Evil?Sample

God Hears the Prayers of the People

“The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.” (Exodus 2:23)

When God made a covenant with Abraham, He promised that Abraham’s descendants would live in the land of Canaan. However, Abraham’s grandson Jacob moved to Egypt with his children during a famine (as we read yesterday), and they stayed there for generations. Their numbers increased, and the Egyptians started to treat them badly. God had already foretold Abraham this would happen: “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13). However, the Lord also promised: “But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” (Genesis 15:14).

In Exodus 1, we read about this “affliction.” In Exodus 2, we read how God started His rescue plan … when He heard the prayers of the people. On the one side, God perfectly knew what happened and had already made known to Abraham that He would intervene. On the other side, the Bible says God “remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” when He heard the people’s groaning. Their prayers played an important role in His plan!

Do you believe your prayers really matter?