Exodus 8.1-15


Did you notice it? In our text there was one sentence that seemed wrong. Did
you catch it? ‘And the LORD did according to the word of Moses.’ Shouldn’t
that read, ‘And Moses did according to the word of the LORD’? Though things
seem backwards, they aren’t. Yahweh really does act according to what Moses
said. What we have before us is a fascinating text about prayer. Yes, prayer
is an expression of our desire to see God act according to our words. And we
need to see it that way. So, today we are going to examine what this text
has to say about prayer. Let me say two things at the outset. First, we are
only looking at one slice of prayer. There is more to prayer than making
requests – much more. But today that is all we are going to be looking at.
Secondly, it is impossible to be a faithful disciple of Jesus in this world
without real prayer. And so, our topic is very important. Let me urge you,
then, to listen carefully and then to reflect on what I am about to say.

Let’s start with this. In verse 12 we read, ‘So Moses and Aaron went out
from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to Yahweh about the frogs…’ In other texts of
this sort we’ll read that Moses ‘said’ or ‘spoke’ or even ‘prayed’. Why does
it say ‘cried’? Apart from anything else, this shows that there was a
measure of intensity to what Moses was doing. Moses was focused on his
conversation with God. I point this out because it is so easy to simply go
through the motions. We can all too easily fall into the trap of uttering an
empty prayer, filling it with the required, clichéd vocabulary of ‘bless’,
‘be with’ and ‘please help’. It’s like a conversation that we are only
half-heartedly involved in. That’s not was Moses was doing. He was focused
on what he was saying because it was important to him. Each word had
meaning. No empty prayer here. It is better not to pray at all than to just
go through the motions. But it is better yet to really mean what you pray.
Remember, there really is someone listening.

Now, consider what Moses was praying about, getting rid of all those frogs.
Let’s raise a question here. How did he know to pray for that? If you know
that you are asking for the right thing, you will also know that your
prayers will be granted. You will know that Yahweh will act according to
your words. So, how did Moses know? Bear in mind that nothing like this
happened in the first plague. The Nile was turned to blood, but then, after
a week, that plague simply stopped. The Nile was water again. Shouldn’t
Moses have expected that here? Add to that the fact that there is nothing in
Yahweh’s instructions to Moses that referred to his praying about the
removal of the frogs. So, how did Moses know?

There are two husbands and their respective wives will soon have a birthday.
Notice how they go about getting a gift. The first husband goes up to the
mall and buys the first thing that looks good. It seems nice and it isn’t
too cheap nor too expensive. He gives it to his wife, and she smiles
politely. Another thing to check off the to-do list. The second husband acts
differently. First, he thinks. He thinks about his wife. He thinks about the
things that she enjoys. He generates some ideas about the kind of gift that
will she will enjoy. Now, he goes to certain places with these ideas in mind
and looks carefully for the right thing. He looks until he finds it. When he
gives it to his wife he knows from her response that his gift has hit the
spot. What was the difference between the two husbands? The second husband
knew his wife well enough to understand what would please her. That’s why he
knew what the right gift would be. Moses knew God well enough to understand
what would please Him. That’s why he knew what to pray for. This is what
John was getting at when he wrote, ‘And this is the confidence that we have
toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.’ [1
John 5:14] Knowing God’s will is knowing His heart, knowing what He is up
to, understanding what will please Him. Moses understood God’s plan for that
situation in Egypt. He understood God’s goals. He understood God’s heart.
And because of that, he was able to pray in such a way that ‘Yahweh did
according to the word of Moses.’ Just as a husband needs to invest the time
and effort to really get to know his wife so that he will understand her
heart, a faithful Christian needs to invest the time and effort to get to
know his God. This is an investment that will result in a powerful prayer
life.

This leads us to a most important principle. What was the focus of Moses’
prayer? What was he aiming at? ‘Moses said[to Pharaoh], "Be it as you say,
so that you may know that there is no one like Yahweh, our God."’ [Exodus
8:10] This is the mainspring to prayer, to worship, to everything that you
do. ‘… that you may know that there is no one like Yahweh…’ When Jesus
taught His disciples to pray, He gave them a model which we call the Lord’s
Prayer. That prayer has six petitions. The first three are that God’s name
be honored, God’s kingdom advance, and God’s will be obeyed. These are to be
the priorities for our prayers. And even when we get to the other three
petitions about our needs, our forgiveness and our protection, we need to
pray for them in the larger context of the first three petitions. We see
this in Moses. His primary concern was not about himself or providing relief
for Egypt, or even about Israel’s freedom. His primary concern was that His
God be honored. It was this concern that motivated his prayer. This is why
he prayed about the frogs.

Let me anticipate a question here. ‘What about things that concern me? When
do I pray about those things?’ There is a subtle assumption at work here.
The assumption is that there are two parts to the world: God’s part and my
part. And so, we pray about the advance of the Gospel, things about our
church, and the like: God’s things. But then we pray about the rest of life:
family, job, health: our things. But that is a fatal assumption. The world
is not divided into two parts. There is only one. If Jesus really is Lord,
then everything is His part. That doesn’t mean that we ignore family, job
and health. Rather, we see them in terms of Jesus and what He is doing in
this world. His honor is the focus of every aspect of our prayers, even when
we pray about family, job and health. We pray about the second three
petitions in the context of the first three. But that will only be possible
if His honor is not just the focus of every aspect of our prayers, but
rather the focus of every aspect of our lives. Developing a powerful prayer
life is not a matter of making some adjustments to how we pray. Developing a
powerful prayer life can only happen if there are some adjustments to how we
live. And Moses’ own life is so very helpful here.

Think back to what we have seen in Moses’ life. First, we found the
impetuous young man who murdered for The Cause – and then ran away, tail
between his legs, in fear of his life. Then there was Moses at the bush
giving God all his excuses why he surely wasn’t the right man for the job.
Buoyed up by what God did at bush, Moses naïvely charges into Pharaoh’s
palace and delivers his demands – only to be rebuffed not just by Pharaoh
but also by the people of Israel who now have even more work to do. Stunned,
Moses turns into a complainer, ‘Lord, what are you doing? Why have you
brought all this trouble on Your people? And why have you sent me? All that’
s happened is that Pharaoh is madder than ever and Your people are having a
harder time than ever. And You haven’t delivered Israel.’ [See Exodus
5.22-23] Moses hasn’t been the great example of a faithful disciple doing
powerful things for the kingdom. And yet, by the time we get to the second
plague Moses is bold enough to cry out to God in prayer. ‘And Yahweh did
according to the word of Moses.’ There is good reason for the Scriptures to
show us the saints of old – warts and all. Contrary to those Bible story
books that we read, they weren’t super heroes. They were sinner like us. But
Jesus did His amazing work in their lives. And as a result, we have timid
people like Moses being changed so that they are so consumed with the honor
of Yahweh that they are bold enough to tell God what to do. I have described
some things about prayer – the intensity required, the knowledge of God
needed, the priority of His honor in all aspects. Some of you might be
thinking that gaining such things, and thus being able to pray with boldness
and effect, is impossible for you. But you underestimate the power of the
Spirit of Jesus. Jesus is in the process of taking people like Moses and you
and me and changing us in surprising ways. What can stop Him? After all,
that’s the Gospel. Do you believe it?

Let me close with this. What’s the goal of this sermon? The goal is not that
you would be able to pray well. That’s a means to the goal. It is a critical
and indispensable means, but still only a means. What’s the ultimate goal?
The goal is to see Jesus act in our church and through our church in such a
way that He would be honored as the great Savior that He is; that it would
be clear that there is no one like Jesus, our God; that we and many, many
others in Erie with us would declare with hearts filled with wonder and
love, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ That’s the goal. As we learn how to pray, I think
that it can happen. Do you?