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what was the broader social and political context that led the israelites to 'cry out' so often?

Adds the setting and its conversation across both testaments.

Exodus 2:23-25

“It happened in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the children of Israel, and God took notice of them.”

This passage from Exodus describes the worsening conditions of the Israelites in Egypt after the death of the Pharaoh who initially enslaved them. It sets the stage for God's intervention through Moses, highlighting the deep distress of the people.

What does it mean for a community to 'cry out' today, and who is listening?

Then — the setting

This passage reflects a pivotal moment in the formation of Israel's identity, likely written or compiled centuries after the events it describes, around the 7th-5th centuries BCE, but narrating events from roughly the 13th-15th century BCE. The Israelites were a subjugated minority in Egypt, forced into slave labor, possibly building cities like Pithom and Raamses. This 'crying out' wasn't just individual suffering; it was a collective expression of a people under systematic oppression, facing harsh conditions, forced resettlement, loss of autonomy, and even infanticide, all designed to break their spirit and control their population.

Across the Testaments

The Old Testament, particularly the Pentateuch and Prophets, frequently recounts Israel's cycle of distress, crying out to God, and receiving deliverance, establishing a pattern of divine response to human suffering. The New Testament carries this theme forward, often through Jesus's compassion for the marginalized and oppressed. While the Old Testament's 'crying out' often relates to national liberation from physical bondage, the New Testament expands it to include spiritual liberation from sin and the cry of those suffering under Roman occupation, poverty, or sickness, yet still rooted in the expectation of God's hearing and intervention.

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Deuteronomy 26:7
Moses recounts how the Israelites cried out to God in Egypt and he heard them.
Judges 3:9
During the period of the Judges, the Israelites often cried out to God when oppressed by foreign nations.
Psalm 107:13
This psalm describes God delivering people when they cry out to him in their troubles.

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