"Did God forget about his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?"

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"Did God forget about his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?"
Exodus 2:23-24 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

The wording of this passage leads one to believe that God was somehow unaware of the suffering of Israel, and that he had to be reminded through prayer.  Is God only aware of things when we pray about them? Why did he have to be reminded?  If God had been paying closer attention, could he have saved the Israelites from years of slavery?

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"Why did God send bears to kill a group of 42 children for mocking Elisha?"

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"Why did God send bears to kill a group of 42 children for mocking Elisha?"
2 Kings 2:23-24 He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, che cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.

At first glance this seems to be an inordinate response to the boys' mean-spirited mockery. Did the children deserve to be killed in this fashion for mocking Elijah? Why did God choose bears for this task? Couldn't he simply strike them dead on his own and spare the boys the torture of being torn apart by bears? More importantly, did they deserve to be killed at all?

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