Four Petitions
Introduction
A pastor and a bus driver went to heaven. The bus driver got a big beautiful mansion with large rooms. The preacher got only a one-room bungalow, so he went to St. Peter and said, “How come I got a very small place and the bus driver got that beautiful house? I’ve preached the Gospel all my life!”
St. Peter replied, “When you preached, the people fell asleep. When the bus driver drove his bus, people prayed.”
In chapter 32, the Israelites sinned by making a golden calf and worshiping it. Moses, angered by the people’s sin and Aaron’s blame-shifting, throws the stone tablets to the ground, symbolizing that the covenant was broken before it was entered.
Thesis: Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which is out of the will of God.
Prayer Changes Us, not God
A. Exegesis
- Moses assumes that he has such great status that he can make atonement for Israel, v. 30.
- Moses threatens that if God does not forgive Israel’s sin, God should punish him and blot out his name from the Book of the Living, v. 32.
- God does not change: “the soul that sins shall die,” v. 33.
B. Application–>Prayer does not change God; prayer changes us.
Prayer Teaches Us of God’s Ways
A. Exegesis
- Because of Israel’s transgression, God will not go with them to the Promised Land. God will send an angel, v. 3.
- Moses asks God to teach him God’s ways.
- God promises:
- His Presence to teach Moses daily, and
- rest to Moses or relief from anxiety caused by God’s Absence.
B. Application–>God teaches us His ways through His Word and our daily experience with God.
Prayer Secures for Us God’s Presence
A. Exegesis
- Moses and Israel are terrified at the thought of entering Canaan with only an angel, and not God’s Presence, v. 15.
- Moses asks for God’s Presence to lead them.
- God promises to be with Moses.
B. Illustration
Oliver G. Wilson said, “Prayer fills man’s weakness with God’s omnipotence and opens the gates to new fields of achievement. It makes the weak strong and the simple wise.”
Abraham Lincoln felt a great need for wisdom during America’s Civil War. A personal friend of his wrote: “I had been spending 3 weeks at the White House as the guest of the President. One night–it was just before the Battle of Bull Run–I was restless and could not sleep. From Lincoln’s bedroom, I heard the low tones of his voice. Looking in the door that was slightly ajar, I saw a sight which I have never forgotten. The tall Chief Executive was kneeling before an open Bible. He did not know I could overhear his agonizing supplications as he pleaded, “O Thou Great God Who heard Solomon in the night when he prayed and cried for wisdom, hear me. I cannot lead these people. I cannot guide the affairs of this country without Thy help. O Lord, hear me and save this nation.”
The answer he received is now history, for the Union was preserved.
C. Application–>Ask, and you will receive.
Prayer Reveals to Us God’s Character
A. Exegesis
- Moses asks, “Show me your glory.”
- God cannot grant this request, because showing the Infinite to a finite human would kill Moses.
- However, God’s answer to Moses is to grant what God will do, v. 19:
- “I will cause My Goodness to pass in front of you”–>God’s Character
- “I will proclaim My Name, Jehovah, in your presence”–>God’s Presence
- “I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover your with My Hand”–>God’s Grace
B. Application–God acts and reveals according to His will out of His goodness to us.
Conclusion
Unlike Moses, we can see the face of God in Jesus Christ, “the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14.