Exodus 32

Learning to Pray With Moses (Exodus 33:12-15)

/ davidsschrock / 3 Comments

Perhaps one of the greatest ways to learn how to pray is to listen to great pray-ers.  This can and should be done in the interpersonal context of a local church, but not only there.  Scripture is another excellent place to learn how to prayer.  There, in the inspired pages, we find eminent saints who walked with God, and who held conversation with God in formal and informal settings.  Their prayers give us precious models of how we should pray.

One such example is Moses in the book of Exodus, especially chapters 32-34.  Today we will consider four aspects of his prayer for YHWH’s presence in Exodus 32:12-15.

To set the context, Moses has just been informed that God would send Israel to Canaan with the promise of safe passage, with the Lord’s angel going before them, but without YHWH in their midst (Exodus 33:1-3).  Israel was overwhelmed with grief by this news (33:4-6).  God’s dwelling in their midst was what made them distinct, and now because of their stiff-necked sin, God was pulling back.  This separation is confirmed in 33:7-11, when Moses describes the kind of distant access Israel would be subjected to, now that the tabernacle plans had been destroyed (Exod 32:19).

With the prospect of losing God’s presence fully in view, Moses throws himself before the Lord and pleads for God’s presence.  Far more than the obligatory petition, he musters all the promises God has made in the past, to recruit God to rejoin their caravan. He pleads for God’s presence, and he shows us how we ought to pray in the process.  Notice four things.

(1) He prays for God’s presence.  Moses sees the immediate need and he boldly prays for its relief–namely the return of God’s presence. Better than a prayer for safety, traveling mercies, or physical needs, Moses prays for God–nothing more, nothing less–just God.  If God is going to do anything good in our lives, it is going to be underwritten by this sort of prayer–an insatiable desire for more of God.  This is the heart behind Moses prayer, a passion that was later picked up in places like Psalm 27:8-9, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek.’  Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!”

Interestingly in Psalm 27, the Psalmist longs to see God’s face, the very thing Moses sought (Exod 33:18), but was explicitly forbidden from seeing (v. 20).  Today, we can see God’s face in the person and work of Christ in a way that Moses and David never could.  Therefore, with David we must seek God’s face in passionate prayer, prayer for God’s presence.

(2) He prays according to God’s promises.  Before he petitions, Moses reminds God of the “favor” God has already given him, and then prays based on this stated promise.  This is a model for powerful prayer. He prays from God’s grace unto God’s grace.  He requests favor, not based on his merits or his own spiritual ideas, but upon God’s earlier favor.  Thus, his prayer is according to God’s will, not his own.

So it is for us who pray in Jesus name.  We are not coming to the Father to prove our worth and to plead for assistance based on our commitments.  Rather, we pray  for favor based on God’s love for the Son.  Because of Christ’s high priestly session, we can pray boldly.  All the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen.”  Therefore, we can pray those promises back to God in all are hours of need, and know that the Father will answer them with the rich supply that Christ procured at Calvary (cf. Rom 8:32).

(3) The goal of his prayer is knowledge.  Verse 13, Moses prays that God would show his acts to Moses so that I may know you.  Moses prayer rebukes anyone who has ever said about God or his word, “Yeah, I know that…”   Such a response reveals a heart that is self-reliant and blind to the need for more of Christ.  Unwillingness to learn about God is a personal invitation to shipwrecking your professed faith.  But praying to know God more is evidence of a heart that has God’s law written on it.

Consider Moses.  Numbers 12 describes him as a man unlike any other.  God spoke to him face to face.  If anyone knew God, it was Moses.  Yet, his prayer reveals a desire to know God more.  His model of prayer shows us that those who truly know God, long to know more of God.  Indeed, prayer that is Christian always presses to know God more and calls God to reveal himself more fully to those for whom we pray.

This model is constantly seen in Paul. In his letters, the great apostle is regularly praying for his beloved disciples to know God more (cf. Eph 1:15-22; Col 1:9-10). Ever wonder what to pray for others who you don’t know well, or members of your church whom you don’t regularly visit?  Pray that they would grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(4) Favor comes through knowledge of the Lord.  The key to receiving God’s favor and blessing is knowledge of God.  Notice the progression in Exodus 33:13: “If I have found favor in your sight” shows the way Moses prays from grace unto grace.  “Please show me now your ways,” marks the heart of the petition.  He desires to see and know God’s ways, “that I may know you.”  The “that” signifies a purpose statement of knowing God, but that purpose statement is followed by another, deeper purpose statement, namely “in order to find favor in your sight.”

In some ways, the knowledge of God is merely instrumental to finding favor.  Now, don’t misunderstand, there is nothing mere about knowing God, but surely a base, unattached knowledge of God is not the goal.  The goal of knowing God is to receive favor, to experience him personally, to have his presence.

This is what Moses prayed for, and verses 14-15 confirm, that God heard his prayer, and answered him in the affirmative.  God graciously returned to the stiff-necked people of Israel.  In the short term, Moses prayer effectively saved Israel, but in time his sin and Israel’s sin would again distance themselves from God.  Praise God, a better mediator and a better pray-er came to stand in the gap for us.

Accordingly, when we find ourselves distant from God, may we turn to him to find grace and favor in are our of need.  As we come to know him, to pursue his presence, and to petition based on his word, we will find our hearts satisfied with his very presence, the indwelling Spirit who fills us and moves to pray without ceasing.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

True Confession: When “I’m Sorry, I Messed Up” Isn’t Enough

/ davidsschrock

How often have you heard or said, “Yeah, I know I messed up. I’m sorry.  I don’t know how it happened. I’ve got issues.”

This language is typical in our day, when as a culture we have abdicated responsibility, absorbed psychology as a means of explaining sin issues, and abandoned God’s perspective on guilt and forgiveness. Sadly, this kind of thinking is just as rampant in the church as in the world.

Confession, which is an integral part of the Christian life, has become less of a transaction of offense confessed and offense forgiven.  It has instead become, or it at least it appears often, as an excuse-laiden, cross-less, appeal for acceptance.  But is this new?  Not really.  In Exodus 32, we find in Aaron the age old problem of a false confession.

Exodus 32:22-24

After the golden calf is destroyed, Moses turns his attention to Aaron and the people. Like a lawyer before the judge, Moses questions the accused. In v. 21, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” Aaron’s answer echoes that of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

Verse 22.  Aaron blames Israel for their evil. Which is true.  But it seems that he uses their wickedness as a shield from his own law-breaking.

Verse 23.  Then he recites the demands of the Israelites.  Further adding to their guilt.  Now, notice for a moment who is saying this—it isn’t a commoner in Israel; it is the priest.  The one who is supposed to remove guilt, not add to it.  Moreover, one wonders if Aaron uses the people’s words about Moses absence from camp to insinuate his own guilt in the episode.  For, if Moses had been there, none of this would happened.

Verse 24. Then finally he gets to his part. Instead of admitting the active role he had in “making” the calf, he shows surprise in how this beast was fashioned.  Paraphrased, it sounds like this “I threw the gold into the fire, and out popped this calf.”

It is easy to point at Aaron, or even to laugh at the ridiculousness of his excuse, but we should be quick to notice how similar we are to Aaron.  Paul says we are to learn from the counter-example of Israel (1 Cor 10:1-11), and thus God uses Aaron’s ridiculous confession to show us what confession is not.

Five Attributes of False Confession and True Confession

(1) Confession does not name others first; it takes the first step to admit wrong. There is no place in confession for pointing to the faults of others as contributing factors.  It is satisfied to single our self, and to deal with the Lord and others, without pulling others into the mix.  Though Scripture models corporate confessions–one thinks of Nehemiah or Daniel–personal confession has no business finding comfort in the sins of others.

(2) Confession does not blame-shift; pointing out the sins of others.  It points to self. It is not looking for a scape-goat or an external reason for the moral failure or relational offense.  There is no need to load our sins on anyone else, because for Christians, Christ has already taken that sin on the cross.  Thus confession gives us another reason to rejoice in sin pardoned.

(3) Confession does not simply claim that wrong was done; it is admitting your part. Unlike Aaron, who passively recounts the events of the golden calf, true confession steps up and says, “I am the man. Forgive me.”

(4) Confession does not aim to save face; it is looking to see the face of Christ again. With Christ and his cross in view, it always sees the penalty of sin as a bloody cross; but it also remembers that the greatest sin has been covered by the greater grace of God in Christ (Rom 5:20).  Thus, it frees us to confess even the most miserable and atrocious sins, because in Christ they have been fully forgiven.

(5) Confession is not a lame ‘yeah, I’m sorry,’ It demands a spirit of contrition & brokenness, and willingness to do anything to bring about reconciliation. It abandons personal rights, and is willing to suffer hardship to make-peace.

(6) Confession does not simply retell the shame, it agrees with God that the act, thought, speech, motive, pattern, etc was a sin, and then it boldly claims the blood of Christ as the once for all atonement for that hell-deserving sin.  

Confession that is true reiterates our belief that we are more sinful than we ever knew, and that Christ as our mediating high priest is more sufficient than we ever imagined. It is prompted by the Spirit and leads to forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).  It comes from a heart that has seen sin the way God sees sin; it cannot be manufactured, it is a gift from God.

In short, it is part and parcel of the Christian life, one that is illumined by God’s word and directed by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.  For truly born again Christians, it should not be an irregular activity or something initiated by a pastoral reminder.  It should be a daily, even moment-by-moment offering to the Lord.

Still, with all that said, I wonder how many Christians do confession much like Aaron. I am concerned that many “Christians” play church–that confession, repentance, and reconciliation are not part of their daily lives.  And thus, their professed Christianity is nothing like the real thing.  Instead of a genuine relationship with Jesus, programs and platitudes have sufficed.

Ask yourself: How often do I make confession to the Lord, and to others?  Is it a regular practice of my life, one stimulated by the Spirit?

Jesus is clear. Those who are forgiven will forgive; and those who are convicted will confess. This is not optional; this is the normal Christian life.  God’s love confronts us and calls us to regularly confess sin and seek restoration with God and others, and Aaron’s errant confession teaches us that “I’m sorry, I’ve got issues,” just doesn’t cut it.

Lord pour out a Spirit of grace and pleas for mercy on your church and on me.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

 

Arguing With God: Prayer That Is Based On God’s Promises

/ davidsschrock

Exodus 32:1-10 sets the context for Moses’ intercessory prayer in verses 11-14.  Israel’s rebellion invokes the wrath of God, and now YHWH’s appointed mediator, Moses, steps into the gap between God’s holy wrath and Israel’s rightful destruction.   He “implores” God for mercy. But what is striking is the way he does it.

He does not plead leniency based on Israel’s ignorance, or relative goodness.  He doesn’t minimize the sin.  He doesn’t offer some kind of obnoxious statement like: “Deep down they are good people.”  That kind of speech has no place in the mouth a Bible-believing Christian.  Israel is not good.  Like the rest of humanity (Rom 1:20-32), they are covenant-breaking, rebellious idolaters.  They deserve death, and so do we.

So what does Moses say?  How could he possibly gain the hearing of God, when his law has been violated and his wrath is smoldering?  The text records that Moses pleads for mercy based on God’s character and covenant faithfulness.  In his prayer, he teaches us how we should pray and intercede before God’s throne. Notice three things:

Moses argues for God to finish his work of redemption (v. 11).  Whereas God distances himself from his people in verse 9, Moses (in a manner of speaking) reminds the Lord that Israel is “his people” and that no matter what they have done the Sovereign Lord is the one who “brought [them] out of Egypt with great power and with a might hand.”  Failure to finish the task would imply that he couldn’t rule these obstinate people or worse, he wouldn’t lead this people.

Moses appeals to the reputation of God in the world (v. 12).  Then, Moses appeals to God’s desire to be known among the nations. Nearly a dozen times, Moses records in Exodus that God’s purpose in saving Israel was to make known to the nations his name and renown. In truth, the world exists as a stage for God’s glory to be displayed.  Moses, knowing this, tells God to relent, to change his mind so that his reputation would not be ruined.

Moses asks God to remember his covenant (v. 13).  As we have seen previously in Exodus, God’s love for Israel is based on his previous election of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God had made lavish promises to these patriarchs, and Moses is simply appealing to YHWH: Do what you said you would do.  You promised offspring, so give life, not death; You promised land, so bring them into the land; you promised your blessing; so don’t curse Israel.

In these verses, we find a key to effectual prayer.  It is what George Mueller, the great man of answered prayer, called “Holy Argumentation.”  Modeling his prayers after Moses and the other great men of prayer in the Bible, Mueller described the way we must approach God,

[Like Moses] We are to argue our case with God, not indeed to convince Him, but to convince ourselves. In proving to Him that, by His own word and oath and character, He has bound Himself to interpose, we demonstrate to our own faith that He has given us the right to ask and claim, and that He will answer our plea because He cannot deny Himself.

But of course such praying requires spade-work in the Scriptures.  His biographer, A.T. Pierson, tells us of how Mueller read the Bible: As he opened God’s word, he was looking for “promises, authorized declarations of God concerning Himself, names and titles He had chosen to express and reveal His true nature and will, injunctions and invitations which gave to the believer a right to pray and boldness in supplication.”  He was a man on a mission, to see God, and to pray according to his own revelation.  Mueller did not pray according to his feelings or according to what he wanted; he prayed according to God’s revealed will.  The result was legendary, because he had learned to pray from Moses himself.

May we learn to pray with such Scriptural confidence, arguing from God’s Word for God’s Word to be effective in the world.  Our hope is not in his leniency, but in his steadfast love.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss