El Shama or Yahweh Shama, while not always listed as an actual name of God, is repeated over and over again in the Old Testament: God hears the cry of His people, as individuals and as a group.
In Genesis 16: 11, Ishmael got his name (it means, "God hears") because God heard his mother's cry when he was still in the womb. Later, when he was a teenager (Gen 21: 17), God heard Ishmael's own cry in a time of need.
And so it continues throughout scripture: God hears the prayers of Leah and Rachel (Gen 29 and 30); He hears the groaning of His people in slavery (Exodus 2 and 3) and He hears their complaining in the wilderness (Ex 16 and Num 14). The writers of the psalms tell us that God hears our prayer and hears our weeping (Psalm 6), He hears our desires (Psalm 10), hears our requests (Psalm 28), hears our promises (Psalm 61). Over and over again the psalmists declare that God hears our voice.
But God isn't just hearing our voice amidst a hubbub of other sounds. If you look up šāmaʿ שָׁמַע in a Hebrew dictionary, it means to hear intelligently, to listen carefully, to pay attention to... When we say that God hears us, we mean that He listens attentively and will respond in some way.
In fact, ancient Hebrew didn't have a separate, distinct word for obey, because listening attentively was considered equivalent to doing what was heard. שָׁמַע is translated "hear" almost a thousand times in the Old Testament, but there are also around a hundred times when it is translated as "obey" or understand - especially in the psalms and proverbs.
So, in the famous "shema prayer" that Jews learn by heart and are commanded to pray even today, šāmaʿ isn't just a command to hear God, it is also a call to obey. (Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 5)
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ יְיָ אֶחָד
Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad
Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God,
the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength.
I work with a ministry that encourages young people to "hear and obey God's voice." We use two separate words in English. But for the Hebrew, šāmaʿ implied both hearing and obeying. They're not to be separated, but are to be interlinked as the only fitting response to a God who hears us and also speaks to us in reply.
God hears us; He's listening attentively and ready to respond. But the challenge to us is: how attentive and obedient are we?
