Crying out to God

     The event in the Bible when the Israelites first called out to God is ambiguous. Some theologians believe the Hebrews prayed to God by crying out, and others that they were murmuring as was their practice throughout the time in the wilderness. 

     The crossing of the Red Sea is symbolic of salvation, and when they cried out, they had yet to be saved nor were they faithful to God. Now examine the verse wherein they "cried out:"

And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. (Exod 14:10)

     Immediately after crying-out (and with no mention of praying), they looked back to Egypt. Remember that earlier, when Lot's wife looked back she was destroyed because her heart was still in sin  (Sodom). Now, the hearts of the Israelites were still in sin (Egypt). They were not God's people! For God to hear prayers, they must be the prayers of those who do God's Will:

Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. John 9:31

     "Praying" is two-way communication with God. God did not communicate with the crying Israelites. It seems that more than crying-out for God's mercy, they were shrieking at his lack of mercy thus far. In Hebrew the word is tsa-aq from the root word, meaning "to shriek." In most instances it is interpreted "to cry out." That is true... they cried out to the Lord, and likely with a shriek, but was it in prayer or to blame? In context, (Exod 14:11) they were complaining.  There is no indication that they were praying. Shrieking at God or crying out to Him is one-sided. They did not have faith in God to deliver them, so any type of crying out would be fruitless. (Many sinful people to this day still cry-out to God in whom they do not trust to respond!)
     They cried-out with some type of attitude. It seems that their attitude was not prayerful but fearful. Furthermore, scripture does not indicate that they were praying at all. Matthew Henry indicates that some prayed and others blamed. That differentiation is not in the scripture. Both verses 10 and 11 refer to the same group of Israelites. On the other hand, John Gill's commentary indicates that they were blaming God, and not praying.
     Who should they have cried out to? They should have cried-out to Moses for he was their "deliverer" (his name even means that). God ordained Moses to lead the people out of sin. By crying out to God, they had assumed the role of priests. They were not. At that time in the exodus, only Moses was to communicate with God because the people had hard hearts. Like King Saul much later, those crying Israelites assumed the role of priest when they were not. They were not authorized to pray for they were not yet God's people. Obviously, their hearts still belonged to Pharaoh for protection and nourishment as can be seen in subsequent verses. They did not even have faith in Moses because they criticized him. Their "master" was still Pharaoh, and like scripture says, one cannot serve two masters. (Mat 6:24). Therefore, they could not pray because they did not know God.
     They did, however, know Moses. It is him to whom they should have cried out as Moses was the intermediary between man and God. How is that known? In just a short time, they were complaining again. They wanted meat to eat and "complained" ('anan; mourned). They again cried. This time, they did it right! "Then the people cried out (tsa-aq again) to MOSES, and when MOSES prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched." (Num 11:2).
     Rather than God providing water, he delivered fire to the complainers. It took Moses who was ordained for that to act as intermediary between sinful people (complainers) and God. God heard their crying out (complaining) but didn't answer their crying. It required Moses to act as intermediary by praying to obtain God's response (two-way).
     In the first situation, the Israelites were not praying but murmuring as usual. In the second situation, nothing has changed but to whom they "cried out." This time, they cried out correctly to Moses. It took Moses intervention in both cases because the sinful Israelites did not yet have the faith to pray, and they knew it!
     The lesson herein is on the value of crying-out. To communicate with God requires faith in God. Those who cry-out without the faith that God will respond, cry-out for naught. The people still worshiped Pharaoh, not God. People must be a worshiper of God for God to hear their prayers. Anything less is blaming God for a bad situation. Until the tabernacle and proper worship was set up, the Israelites still belonged to Pharaoh because they had not been consecrated to the Lord. When they cried out to Moses was after they were consecrated and became God's people. Could they have prayed to God directly at that time? Not yet. Moses was still their intermediary and the priests still offered their sin and love offerings. The time was not yet ripe for Israelites to pray directly to God.
     Our Bible study was on that subject recently. I didn't quite get it why crying-out was considered as praying. I wasn't content until my concerns were allayed. The way to do that is to test all things by scripture. Of course, commentary is just that. Oftentimes, theologians see things differently, and that's okay, as long as both test it by scripture. Matthew Henry, in his commentary, seemed confused. John Gill, I believe, got it right.