Daniel (Greek) 13:41-46: in context

The assembly, believing the false testimony of the two elders, condemns Susanna to death. As she is led out to die, with every human hope gone, she cries out to God: O eternal God, you know the secrets and know all things before they happen; you know that they have testified falsely against me; I must die, though I have done none of the things they maliciously invented. And the text says simply: the Lord heard her voice. As she was led away to be put to death, God raised up the spirit of a young man named Daniel, who intervened and saved her.

The turning point of Susanna's deliverance comes at the last possible moment: condemned, led out to die, with no earthly hope remaining, she cries out to God, and the Lord hears her. It was not before her condemnation that God acted, but as she was being led away to death; not while there was still human hope, but when all human hope was gone. At that eleventh hour, God heard her cry and raised up deliverance, moving the young Daniel to intervene and expose the lie. There is great encouragement here for the moments when all human hope seems gone. Susanna's rescue came not early, not while there was still a way out by human means, but at the last moment, when she was already being led to death. God heard her cry when it seemed too late, and raised up help she could not have foreseen. This tells us that God is not limited by our sense of when it is too late. When we have come to the end, when human hope is exhausted, when it seems the situation is beyond rescue, God can still hear and still act, raising up deliverance at the last moment, from a source we never expected. The righteous cry, the psalm says, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Susanna cried out when she was being led to death, and the Lord heard her voice. This does not promise that every eleventh-hour cry brings the rescue we want; God's deliverances come in his way and time. But it assures us that God is able to hear and act even at the last moment, that no situation is too far gone for him, that the cry raised when all human hope is exhausted is not too late for God, who can raise up deliverance we could not have imagined. When we are at the end of human hope, led as it were to our death, we may still cry out to God, who heard Susanna at the last moment and can hear us; for the God who raised up Daniel just as she was led away is not bound by our sense of when it is too late.

When I have come to the end of human hope, when a situation seems too far gone and it feels too late for rescue, do I give up, or can I remember that God heard Susanna's cry as she was being led to death and raised up deliverance at the last moment, and cry out to the God who is not bound by our sense of when it is too late?