Is god paying attention?

Read these verses and think about what you are reading.  Exodus 2:23 says, “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.

2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

2:25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.”  Doesn’t it sound like god isn’t paying attention?  Their cry came up to god by reason of the bondage?  They had been toiling for the entire rule of the last pharaoh and god didn’t hear them suffer and cry?  He has to hear this to jar his memory of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?  I thought god knew everything?  He respects them for being slaves?  Shouldn’t a god protect his creations from becoming slaves?