Moses the Man of Prayer

Before Moses was the patriarchal dispensation with the family life, and the power the fathers had, marking it.  Moses is the first man appointed to be a teacher and leader of men.  In him we find wonderful illustrations of the place and power of intercession in the servant of God.

Moses’ Prayers—In Egypt, from his first call, Moses prayed.  He asked God what he was to say to the people, 3:11-13.   He told Him all his weakness, and besought Him to be relieved of his mission, 4:1-13.   When the people reproached him that their burdens were increased, he went and told God, 5:22, and he made known to Him all his fears, 6:12.  This was his first training.  Out of this was born his power in prayer when, time after time, Pharaoh asked him to entreat the Lord for him, and deliverance came at Moses’ request (8:8-9, 12,

28-31; 9:28-29, 33; 10:17-18).  Study these passages until you come under the full impression of how real a factor in Moses’ work and God’s redemption prayer was.

At the Red Sea, Moses cried to God with the people and the answer came (14:15).  In the wilderness when the people thirsted, and when Amalek attacked them, it was also prayer that brought deliverance (17:4, 11).

At Sinai, when Israel made the Golden Calf, it was prayer that averted the threatened destruction, 32:11, and 14.  It was renewed prayer that gained them restoration, 32:31.  It was more prayer that secured God’s presence to go with them (33:17), and once again it was prayer that brought the revelation of God’s glory (33:19).  And when that had been given it was fresh prayer that received the renewal of the covenant, 34:9-10.

In Deuteronomy we have a wonderful summary of all this, 9:18-20, 26.  We see with what intensity he prayed, and how in one case it was for forty days and forty nights that he fell on his face before the Lord, 9:25; 10:10.

In Numbers we read of Moses’ prayer quenching the fire of the Lord, 11:2, and obtaining the supply of meat, 11:2, 11, of prayer healing Miriam, 12:13; of prayer again saving the nation when they refused to go into the land, 14:17-20.   Prayer brought down judgment on Korah, 16:15, and when God would consume the whole congregation, prayer made atonement, 46.   Prayer brought water out of the rock, 22:6, and in answer to prayer the brazen serpent was given, 21:7.  To prayer God’s will was made known in the case of difficulty, 27:5, and Joshua given as Moses’ successor, 16.

Study all this until your whole heart is filled with the thought of the part prayer must play, may play, in the life of the man who would be God’s servant to his fellowmen.

As we study, the parts will unite into a living whole and Moses will be to us a living model for our prayer life.  We shall learn what is needed to be an intercessor. The lessons that will come to us will be such as these:

I see Moses was a man given up to God, zealous, yea, zealous for God, for His honour and will.

These are quotes from The Inner Chamber by Andrew Murray.