Desert Prayers

Big Idea

Tension: What does Moses do in the crisis of water and the attack of the Amalekites at Rephidim?

Resolution: He appeals to God through prayer.

Resolution: To pray.

Exegetical Idea: In the crisis of water and the attack of the Amalekites at Rephidim, Moses appeals to God through prayer.

Theological Idea: God shows the favor of Christ’s justification and the victory of Christ’s resurrection to his people through prayer.

Homiletical Idea: In prayer we encounter Christ for us.

Introduction

In one of my

Now, I have a little bit of a confession to make, I love the TV show the Office. It is such a funny, nostalgic part of my earlier adulthood years. Now, In this one episode, the whole group of the office is going to visit one of the couple’s churches. ANd in episode, there is just this one character who can’t go into the church. ANd he gets close to going and backs away. ANd he is hesitant. And finally, at the end of the episode, he forces himself into the church. And by that time, everybody else is gone already, so it’s just him and God. And he looks up at the ceiling like he’s praying and he says, “Why you always gotta be picking on me?”

As a pastor, I know that’s how we often feel, like God is picking on us. We feel like he’s just being mean and like he’s forgotten abobut us. We feel like he’s just allowed all these terrible things to happen, and like he’s not really there, like he doesn’t really care, like he just doesn’t really want anything to do with us. ANd maybe we know that he’s there, and maybe we don’t really think that he’s watching, but we don’t really think that he wants us to be okay. Sometimes, we just feel like he’s watching, like a judge high up in the sky, but we don’t really think that he is on our side. What do you do when you feel that way? How do you react when you feel like everything is against you? How can you fight through that?

Well, in our passage today, we are going to see two crises for Moses. Two different situations where it would have seemed like the world was against him, but where he was able to see that God was for him.

Water from the Rock

Is this different? Is this different from the previous stories? There are several indicators (location, staff, and structure) that this is more closely related to what follows than to what comes before. But the most important one is that this story seems to mainly be about Moses and the Israelites are secondary characters.

The Crisis: The people contend with Moses because they are thirsty.

Rising Action: They grumble against Moses, repeating the same complaints as last time.

Moses cries to the LORD: Moses here speaks to God, the first time that Moses has done this since they’ve crossed the Red Sea.

Climax: God responds: Strike the rock before the elders. I will be “before you” on the rock. What does it mean that God is before him on the rock?

The face and the favor of God: The word for “before” is closely related to the idea of God’s face. And often God showing his face to someone is him showing his favor to him. (; )

Encountering Christ’s favor

Moses encountered God’s favor through prayer. Moses ends the story byt asking how could they have ever doubted the Lord was among them (vs. 7)

How can we also come to God in prayer? Because Christ has suffered for us, God shows his favor to us in prayer. () We encounter Christ’s favor through prayer.

Encountering Christ’s victory

Crisis: Amalek comes out to fight against Israel

Moses tells Joshua to pick out men: This is less choosing the best of hte best, but more, choosing the best of the worst. Why doesn’t Moses go out and pick the warriors to fight for Israel and lead them in war? As an Egyptian educated prince, this probably would have been something he was the most able to do. But, whatever it is he is going to do is more important.

Moses goes up the Hill and raises his hand: There is a lot of discussion about what this is doing, but the best explanation is that to raise his hands is a posture of submission and prayer.

Moses must endure and be faithful: Moses’ prayer must endure and be faithful until the victory has won. This is why Hur and Aaron come along side him.

Moses declares the LORD is his banner: This expression means that God will be the place of safety for his people ().

Moses says, a hand upon the throne: This probably means that the God’s people can always put their ahnds onto God’s throne when they are in a time of crisis.

Moses encountered God’s victory through prayer.

We too encoutner God’s victory through prayer. This victory is nothing less than the resurrection of Christ. ()

Big Idea Reveal: In prayer, we encounter Christ for us, both the favor that his crucifixion bought, and the victory that his resurrection brought.

Reality: Here is the good news though: what these verses tell us is that both the Son and the Spirit are always intereding for us. They are always pryaing for us. The Son is always interceding for us before the Father, and the Spirit is always pleading for us. The Son intercedes by the basis of his own blood, and the Spirit never stops groaning with our spirit. So that, when we lose sight of our prayer, our experience of God being for us might fail, but the reality of GOd being for us never does.

Here is the good news though: what these verses tell us is that both the Son and the Spirit are always intereding for us. They are always pryaing for us. The Son is always interceding for us before the Father, and the Spirit is always pleading for us. The Son intercedes by the basis of his own blood, and the Spirit never stops groaning with our spirit. So that, when we lose sight of our prayer, our experience of God being for us might fail, but the reality of GOd being for us never does.

Experience: That being said, the reason that we do nto experience this reality is very often that we are not prayerful. Many of us, the reason that we are not living a life that is growing in our identity as the blood bobught children of God and as the victorious children of the resurrection is because we are not praying. Our lives are often devoid of prayer, and then we wonder why we feel like God is picking on us, or we wonder why we feel so far forgotten byb God, or we wonder why we feel like we just don’t have the energy to go on. When we allow prayer to slip in our lives, it is no wonder that we will begin to fall back into feeling condemned and feeling like failrues in teh Christian life.

Application: Prayer

Christ’s victory through prayer

So how do we solve this? Prayer. Prayer is one of God’s means for you to engage him more deeply and to experience all that he is for you. So how do we do this? Well, let me giv eyou just a few practical tips.

First, we must plan to pray. We must plan to pray. Most of us, we do not have a plan to pray and so we ownder why we have no prayer life. Praying through the Psalms. Praying through a prayer book. Praying through the church directory. Making a plan to pray.

Second, we must pray God’s way. Many of us treat our prayer life like a heavenly shopping list. We tell God we want this or that, then we get surprised when he doesn’t give it to us. If youw ant to experience Christ being for you in prayer, then you must be acquainted with the benefits of salvation.

Third, we must pray together. This passage is a beautiful reminder of the importance of community in prayer. Bbecause in this passage we see that Aaron and Hur cannot take Moses’ place in prayer. They cannot bear Moses’ burden. but they can hold up Moses. SO it is with prayer. Your church cannot hold up what burdens your heart. But we can hold you up.

Conclusion: What is holding you back from prayer?