Why did God only hear the Hebrews' cries during the service of the king's death?

[Blue Bird]

Hello everyone,

Like I said in my intro, I'm reading through Exodus and posting questions here as I come upon them. I came upon my first question at Exodus 2:23-25:

23 And it comes to pass during these many days, that the king of Egypt dies, and the sons of Israel sigh because of the service, and cry, and their cry goes up to God, because of the service; 24 and God hears their groaning, and God remembers His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; 25 and God sees the sons of Israel, and God knows.

I've known for a while that the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt for about 400 year and I remember the saying of God "I have heard their cry"--meaning that he knew they were enslaved. So I wondered, why did God wait for 400 years before emancipating them? This passage may answer my question but it's a little odd. It suggests that only upon crying at the service did God hear them, and only because it was a service (a religious ceremony). So is this saying that God can only hear the cries of his children (their prayers, their thoughts, their communications) if it's done within the context of a specific set of rituals or ceremonies? That God didn't hear their cries until now because this is the first time their cries occurred during a religious service?

Hello gib65 and welcome. I'm not Jewish and I don't know the Jewish tradition. Maybe someone with insight can answer your question as to why God waited 400 years until he rescued his people. They have suffered a lot in their history and the answer is probably not an easy one.

I'm not sure what bible translation you have and how you came to the conclusion that God heard the cry of his children during a religious service. The text itself doesn't imply a spiritual service but hard labour that they had to do for the Egyptians. 

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9863