Spring 1975
God Heard!
Bobbi Adkins
Pinecrest Staff

Before God appeared to Moses to commission him for the work he was to do, something happened of tremendous importance in the sight of God.

Exodus 2:23-25, “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.” The Amplified Bible says, “The Israelites were sighing and groaning because of the bondage. The kept crying, and their cry, because of slavery, ascended to God. And God heard their sighing and groaning, and He saw the Israelites and took knowledge of them and concerned Himself about them.”

The next event is recorded in Exodus 3:2. Moses, on the back side of the desert, came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him as fire out of the midst of a bush. When God saw that Moses turned aside to see, He called to him out of the midst of the bush. After identifying Himself, He said to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians have oppressed them. Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable that they ought always to pray and not faint, or turn coward, lose heart and give up. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary. And for a time he would not help her; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man, yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming to me.” Then the Lord said to listen to what the unjust judge said. “And will not our just God defend and protect and avenge them speedily! However, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith in the earth? The Amplified Bible reads, “When the Son of man comes will He find persistence in the faith on the earth?” In other words, the Lord asks if He will find this kind of persistence in the faith on the earth. Will He find those who are persistent in believing that He will hear their continual crying to Him day and night and come down and defend, protect and avenge them? It was the cry of the people that touched God’s heart and caused Him to say to Moses, “I am come down to deliver My people.”

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: yet that make mention of the Lord, (or, ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers) keep not silence and give Him no rest till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Or, You who are His servants and by your prayers put the Lord in remembrance of His promises, keep not silence and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62).

Are God’s people a praise in the earth today? Is His righteousness going forth as brightness, or are His people still in the bondages of darkness under the ways of Egypt, the world? Is His righteousness being established and His standard lifted up, or are His people seeking to establish their own “righteousness” according to the standards of man and the whims of flesh? Are we being build together by God as a holy temple, a holy habitation in which God can dwell or are we trying to build an edifice according to our own concepts and blueprints?

There are answers to these questions! There is indeed deliverance in Zion! The Lord says further in Isaiah 62, “Go through, go through the gates; Prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; life up a standard for the people. Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold His reward is with Him and His work before Him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken.”

But the question is still before us. When the Son of man comes, shall He find faith on the earth? Shall He find the persistence in faith that trusts in and totally depends upon God, the faith that leans completely upon the faithfulness of God? Will He find the faith that knows God and is strong and does exploits? Fellowship, communion and knowing God is the parent and basis of faith. Shall this faith be found among His people? God grant that our answer to Him be “Yes Lord, our hearts desire is that You find that faith among Your people. Yes Lord, with Your help I will be one of Your ‘remembrancers.” Yes Lord, we have neglected real prayer, therefore we have neglected You, and now we cry to You to bring forth Your righteousness as brightness to shine as the noonday sun in our darkness. Establish Your people in Your ways and make us a praise in the earth, for Zion's sake. Amen.”