Genesis 18:20 – And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

Genesis 18:21 – I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

In this blog I will be looking at the word cry. It is great to follow words in the Bible, as you can learn a great deal just from tracing a particular word through the Bible. The Bible is amazing, every word is precious, no word is just filling space. In order to get wisdom, all you need is God’s word, that will furnish you with more wisdom that you could ever hope for. Don’t look to the world, other people, religious elites, or whatever else for wisdom, look to God, who the Bible says gives wisdom liberally to all who come to him and ask for it. We see from the Bible that crying is something deeper than just normal superficial communication. A cry comes from more than our minds, crying expresses things that come from deeper, from the heart, from the spirit. Crying is the earnest, determined, loud voice from the core of your being.Crying is something that is heard by God. You are heard by God today, even if it may seem not so. But what does your cry before God sound like? Is it a crying out for mercy in brokenness, humility, repentance, and faith or is it a cry of rebellion, self justification, self will and pride against the Lord?

As humans we all cry. And God hears our cry, good or bad. The word cry is first mentioned in Genesis 18 in reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said their cry was great and came before him. The Lord came himself to check it out one day. The Bible says that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great, and that the inhabitants were exceedingly wicked. God was very longsuffering with the cities of the plain, but there came a day when it was too late for them, their judgement lingered not, and their damnation slumbered not. Do not take God’s grace for granted as they did. God’s grace and mercy is not permission to sin more, it is God giving you room and space to repent, but do not think that sin will not find you out in the end. God had determined to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah long before the angels arrived in the city. 2 Peter 2:6 – And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. Jude 1:7 – Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was against God. Sodom was full of sodomites, who the world now calls more sanitized words like gay and homosexual, who the world and even Christianity has now normalized and accepted. But it still doesn’t make it right before God. Sodom was so full of lust and perversion that they wanted to rape the angels that came. Jesus said when he comes again, the world would be as it was in the days of Lot. We are in the days of Lot, the world is full of sexual perversion of every kind, and their cry is great against God. What do you think gay pride and coming out is really all about? It is open defiance to God, it is being proud of living in sin. We know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, do not follow their example, do not mistake God’s grace, mercy and longsuffering for a license to sin.

But we see different instances of crying in the Bible. God heard the cry of Israel when they were in Egypt under bondage. Exodus 2:23 – And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: 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. Exodus 3:7 – And the LORD said, 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 this is what we should be like. Before we are saved we are all in bondage in this world. Are you in darkness, lost and hopeless, are you under the bondage and oppression of Satan, your sin, your flesh?  It is Jesus that sets the prisoners free. It is Jesus that releases us from condemnation before Holy God, we are all equally doomed because of our sin and unrighteousness. If you are saved, you may be in bondage right now because of your sin, because you strayed from God, and left fellowship with him. Confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can be saved, and set free, and walk in newness of life, God has the answers for our whole life, but will you cry out to God, and what cry is coming from you before God? Do you want to be saved, and do you want to be set free? Cry unto God. God hears your cry. Is the cry of your heart towards God? Or against God? God has promised to answer the cry of someone truly seeking him. Exodus 22:23 – If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry.

There are many other instances of crying in the Bible which time will not permit for me to go through. The Bible says that there was a great cry throughout Egypt the night of the passover, when all the firstborn children in those houses without blood on the doorposts were slain. It was not a cry of repentance though, as we see that Egypt, although suffering greatly from the plagues, did not repent. Esau uttered a long and bitter cry, but did not repent and believe. Will you be like the humble, downcast, forsaken, despised, rejected leper who had to cry Unclean! Unclean! Because we are all lepers, we all need to be made clean, and only the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse and heal us. We are all no better than a leper, but do you see yourself as a leper before God? You can be a leper healed by God, and no longer a leper, because you are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God. Are you like the people in the time of the judges, who would cry to their false gods rather than THE God? Are you like the prophets of Baal who cried out to Baal in vain, and are now in hell with the eternal realization of the futility of worshipping a false god of their creation and imagination, who does not exist, who cannot hear, who cannot see, who has no power to save? Psalms talks a lot about the topic of crying, and I will finish with these verses, and may they be the cry of your heart before the Lord. You can be saved, cry unto the Lord in repentance and faith, cry for mercy, and he will hear. Psalm 18:6 – In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Psalms 61:2 – From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

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