THE UNANSWERED PRAYER OF MOSES. BY THE REV. A. A. BONAR, GLASGOW. DEUT. III. 24-27. HATSOEVER things were written | with the people of God, to the 'pleasures of aforetime were written for our learning' (1 Cor. x. ; Rom. xv. 4). This prayer is one of those things, and none of the least,-the only time when Moses speaks much of himself. He was in his 120th year, and Israel in the fortieth year of wandering, when he so prayed. The event referred to in the prayer occurred, perhaps, about a year and a half before, viz. the angry, unbelieving smiting of the rock the second time. We said this is the only time when Moses tells of a thing wholly personal in its details. The Spirit guided him to do so, because the case is so fitted to yield us instruction. I. Here is a saint calling to remembrance his past sin.-'Let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.' That sad day at the rock (Num. xx. 12), and the chastisement threatened, are in his mind. Aaron had fallen under it, dying on Mount Hor: is Moses also to find the sentence executed? Think who it is who prays-one who was every way singular and favoured of God. Every period of his life had been peculiar. The first period of forty years (for his life may be divided into periods of three forties) begins with Moses in peril, but hid; and again in peril on the Nile: a breeze may ruffle it, and overthrow the bulrush ark, or a crocodile swallow up the babe. But help comes-royal help-the king's own daughter. Then the king himself furnishes a nurse, a home, protection, education. In spite of himself, Pharaoh yields to the bridle of God in his mouth, and his palace is the college where this most formidable of the Hebrews (had he been known) was taught the wisdom of Egypt, the art of war, the policy of state. He is sent to no college; Egypt's wise men are sent by Pharaoh to him. His bitterest foe is his best teacher. And on some occasion he was offered to be made 'son' by adoption,-offered virtually a crown, and treasures suitable. But (perhaps looking out at the palace window) he points to the smoking furnaces, and prefers affliction therein 23.-49. sin.' But now a second forty years begin. Moses is in flight again! See, he hastes over the desert sands toward Midian, often looking behind over his shoulder, in dread of the pursuing foe. And for forty years he does nothing but tend sheep! God sends him thither to learn humility. He who was fit to be a king, to govern a kingdom, to lead armies, who had the wisdom of Egypt,-lo! he does nothing for forty years but tend a flock, discover the best pastures, find out the wells that are longest full! Perhaps now he learned most of his meekness. This was his Nazareth-time of obscurity, and he was learning to obey. But it ends at last, and ends with miracle-the bush burning. And then his third forty years begin. They begin with flight; but it is not like the former flights. Moses has moved earth and heaven, and rolled thunders o'er Egypt and its gods; and is now marching forth at the head of a nation, cleaving his way through the depths of the Red Sca! With fiery column blazing over them, as their peculiar ensign, they march as on dry land through the deep, and next morning stand on the sloping shore, to gaze on the level wave, shone upon by the risen sun, the tomb of Pharaoh and his host. Ever onward, from that day, this man of God never rose at morning but over his head the ensign unfurled was the miraculous cloud; nor ever lay down to rest without the guardian fiery column. Nor had they journeyed many days ere, at his word, the food which they needed came from heaven, and the water from the rock. Miracles attended them all their journey through. This man moved amid miracles; and so intimate is he in holy familiarity with his God, that forty days and nights are twice spent alone with Jehovah on the mountain-top, a screen of fire, consuming fire, guarding the presencechamber, so that no man but Moses might approach. At last, forth he comes, with his face shining, too bright for mortal eye. Yet, as if all this were too little, and as if the Lord would return the visit of his friend, when Moses is in peril, lo! Jehovah drives his chariot up to his tent-door, the pillar-cloud descending, and talk ing with him (Ex. xxxiii. 9, 10). This is but a sample. But what a man is this man of God! What scenes he has passed through! What a favoured saint! His God has done to him more than to any before him, or almost any since. soon over?' Our God admits no such apology; our God does not pardon on such grounds. A black spot looks all the blacker on white snow. Oh that you had Moses' submissive tenderness of conscience! Who can tell how far your slow progress in grace arises from this once yielding to sin? Can it be that you are pursued by the chastisement? Elsewhere we are taught by Miriam's sin (Num. xii.), to-day by the sin of Moses. And, unbeliever, where shall you appear, if God's own escape not sore chastisement? Oh the abhorrence God has of sin! The God of Moses and of Jacob will pursue you to the uttermost. 'If they whose judgment it was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drank of it, shall you go unpunished?' (Jer. xlix. 12.) This, then, is the man who here prays over that sad sin (Num. xx. 12). It was but one; the first public sin of his life; the first time his meekness had failed these thirty-eight years, though every day tried by such a people! Yet even this one sin, in the case of this favoured man, see how it is chastised! Moses being now near the land, and the time for Israel passing in at hand, is often anticipating their entrance in. He sees the land from the spot where he is: 'Yonder hills are in the country promised to our fathers; yonder palms wave over it; this breeze, so cooling, brings the fragrance from its flowers; and only let me pass this Jordan, now II. A saint casting behind his back past exin view, and, after all this wilderness - trial, Iperiences.-This is seen in his prayer. His prayer stand there!' He goes alone; the venerable man, his hair white with the snows of 120 winters, falls prostrate, prays under some bush or palm, at the foot of Nebo: O Lord God. . . I beseech Thee let me go over.' But no sooner is the prayer done, than a voice is heard, not whispering through the trees, but from heaven: 'Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter." Ah! how holy is the Lord! Our God is a consuming fire!' (Heb. xii. 29.) He burns up sin wherever it is found. And though He means to pardon this sin, yet He must express his abhorrence of it. Sin in Moses is equally vile with sin in a devil. He must bear the chastisement; he must go halting to his grave. Moses feels this is just, and complains not. He does not try to balance the present sin by recounting past services; nor to cover it, by referring to the fact that this is the first of its kind for thirty-eight years, in public, and that in meekness he hitherto had been most exemplary. No; this would be to try to blot out sin by former holiness-a subtle and perilous attempt for the conscience. Moses submits. Nor is there any trace of sullenness in his submission. Nay, rather, after this he speaks more highly of the land than ever: 'A land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of their valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-olives and honey' (Deut. viii. 7, 8). 'A land flowing with milk and honey.' Do any of you try to soften the blow, and to blunt the edge of conviction, when you do fall into some sin, it may be some sudden ebullition of temper, some burst of old nature, something that your family or your friends feel and know? Do you say, 'Oh, it is but occasional-very rare; and, in the main, I am very different, and it is refers to no one of the things that made him different from other men,-to none of his attainments, none of his privileges, none of his services, none of his sufferings and self-denials. It is grounded exclusively on the revealed character of his God: Thou hast begun to show me thy greatness and might.' He brings up to view just two things, viz. God's power to save, and the tokens of his willingness to use that power. The revelation of power, mighty works, mighty hand,' and these begun to be shown,' furnished a sufficient plea. If so, surely now to us the fuller revelation of the heart and hand of our God, in the face of Jesus, may furnish what is irresistible! Therein is the warrant. Take encouragement in prayer from God only.' 6 Moses does not (yet who would have wondered if he had?) speak of his fellowship with God, nor quote God's own testimonial: Faithful in all my house' (Num. xii. 7); 'Face to face I speak with him.' He does not urge: Lord, remember I gave up the treasures of Egypt for Thee. Lord, once Thou offeredst to make me a nation, and cut off all the people, and I refused; and now am I, the preserver of the spared nation, not to go in?' He omits all such pleas; self would have been in them; and the plea of God's power and willingness is enough. Believer, you err egregiously if ever you resort to services, experiences, and sacrifices for God, to embolden you to ask and expect. Forget the things behind.' Come afresh every time on the strength of the warrant, ‘Able to save... all that come unto God by Him.' Draw ever from the original fountain, Christ. Hold fast the beginning of your confidence to the end." But, further, Moses here may teach the inquirer. You think you could come if you had previously felt faith, and had attained somewhat. This is self-righteousness-seeking a ground of encouragement in self. Ask Moses, and he will direct you. He will say, 'I had the experience of 120 years; but I laid all away- threw all behind me and came in the strength of the warrant, Jehovah's name. Do you the same. You, indeed, have no such experiences to throw aside; but all the more readily, therefore, you may stand on a level with me here. I divested myself of all, and came as a sinner whose eye saw encouragement enough in God himself.' Again; Moses condemns the excuses of the careless. You pretend to be waiting till you are fit to go. But you ought to go now, at once, on the ground of what God is, not what you are. In your pretended reasons for not going, you are wholly mistaken. A man that really comes, comes as Moses did, eyeing Jehovah's name. Why not do so now? Why turn thine eye elsewhere? Ah! why so unwilling to look on Him? There you would find all your warrant. Well, this is your condemnation, that you, all unfit in yourself, will not take fitness from Him. III. A saint made still more a saint, and gaining his end, by having his will thwarted.-'I pray Thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan' (Deut. iii. 25-27). By the refusal of God to grant his prayer, he was benefited and prepared for glory, as well as blest at present. There is much of flesh and nature in many of our prayers; hence, no wonder they are refused. 'We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, Which the wise powers deny us for our good;' and so We find profit by losing of our prayers.' So spoke one of our poets, and it is all true. As Peter afterwards (John xxi. 20, 21) was refused his request, not only though loved, but because so loved. We may wonder, indeed, why Moses urged his suit, after the positive declaration in Num. xx. 12. Perhaps he thought that that threatening extended only to his leadership, and that, possibly, he might go into Canaan on foot-a deposed leader. Or, like Hezekiah afterwards (Isa. xxxviii. 3-5), perhaps he felt, 'My God is so fertile in resources, so marvellous, it may be He has some way of taking his stroke from me; the threatening may be conditional.' But, at all events, he prayed, and was met by a peremptory refusal. Probably, till that moment, not he only, but all Israel to a man, thought it desirable that his prayer should be granted. God was wiser far. By this treatment He greatly benefited Moses, and in this treatment He graciously discovered much of himself. 1. He thereby kept Moses on the proper ground of justification. After so many favours, and such holy intimacy with God, none was ever so apt (except Paul, who had been in the third heaven) to be exalted above measure. Need there was of a thorn in the flesh. Here it is: Moses is made to feel himself a sinner as others, needing the same righteousness as others. As he died, the hills on the other side Jordan stare him in the face; and so from Pisgah he sees what, in the very hour of death, causes him to betake himself solely to the righteousness set forth in the sacrifices and the ordinances which God caused him to appoint. Dying Moses would feel,But for my sin, I would have been dying yonder!' Thus it may have been with some of us. We were prescribing the answer that must come to our prayer,-the life of a dear Christian friend given back; or the eyesight of a friend threatened with blindness; the blow of adversity in regard to property warded off. But no. God did otherwise. Your self-importance got a blow. Had you been heard, perhaps you would have been ready to say, 'Now I am favoured above others.' Spiritual pride would have come in, and you have slid off the true Rock. But by rejecting your prayer, God made you feel yourself a commonplace, undeserving sinner; and you were glad to look again to the only justifying righteousness; for you saw clearly that there was no merit in you. 2. He thereby deepened his sanctification. For nothing helps on our holiness more than breaking the neck of self-will. Moses now, perhaps, got a finishing touch given to his meekness. 'Not my will' any more, but thine!' So you, believer? Perhaps everybody agreed with you in desiring the object; and yet no-the Lord's will is best, and you are best in acquiescing. 3. The Lord, nevertheless, at the same time, discovered his gracious character yet more, by doing all this in such a way as was fitted to give least pain. For He softened the pain of the refusal by giving a glimpse of the very land: "Get thee up to the top of Nebo." Look westward-to where such scenes are to be witnessed at Messiah's First and Second Coming, Jerusalem and its hills. Look north, to that "goodly mountain." Look to south and east, and see the length and breadth of the whole glorious land' (ver. 27). Has not the Lord often done the like? After some denial, some rejected prayer, some crossprovidence, has He not, at the communion table, or in a text of Scripture, or while you prayed and waited on Him, given a lifting up of his face, or some earnest of glory, that filled you with joy unspeakable? 4. But more: He filled his hands with present duty, that there might be no time for morbid reflection and regret: 'Charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see' (ver. 28). 'Spend your time in instructing and training him.' You have felt this too? Duty was waiting on you-forced almost on you-all, by his kind arrangement, to divert your mind, and give you much to occupy and engross you, till the end should arrive. 5. Yet more to complete all. About 1500 years after this time, Moses was actually on 'that goodly mountain, Lebanon,' if not in the land.* On that memorable Transfigurationnight, when Israel's Saviour was come, and when he might see Him, not only as 'Man of sorrows' toiling up the hill, but as the King in his beauty,'-Moses was there. He saw the goodly mountain to best advantage; saw it at its best time, lighted up with glory, as it is yet to be when again its King returns. On that memorable night, when Moses returned with Elijah in the bright cloud, with what rapture would he say, 'Elijah, Elijah, let us praise Him! My cup runneth over. He once denied my prayer, and thereby blessed me with manifold blessings on earth; and now, lo! He has added at last the very wish of my heart!' And so when you whose friend was snatched from you, or whose friend's distress was not removed, in spite of all your prayers-when you at length stand in glory with Him, at his appearing and kingdom, you shall look back and see how He blest you fully -ever sending you back to the Justifying One, and ever carrying on your sanctification. And then, you shall add to all, 'He has made my cup run over! My friend is here in resurrectionbeauty. No more separation now! my every wish is full!' For assuredly the sample given on the Transfiguration-hill shall be fulfilled in the kingdom in ten thousand instances. Now, to sum up all 1. Believers, see what blessing prayer brings! What a cluster of blessings! and all this attending even prayer unanswered, as it seemed! Blessing now, and hereafter too, when the golden vials are held up, 'full of incense' (Rev. v. 8). *If the Transfiguration-hill were Tabor, he was in the land; but it was possibly Hermon, a spur of Lebanon, and beyond Jordan. Even your unanswered prayers for the conversion of friends yield a large harvest. But, when speaking of unanswered prayer for others, let us make no mistake. The prayer of faith, and the prayer of a man of faith, are not necessarily the same. The man of faith has unbounded confidence in the Lord's resources of love, grace, good-will, power; but the thing he is asking may not be a matter of faith—that is, not a thing directly promised in the word. And so it may turn out that this thing which the man of faith prayed for is denied to him; there being reasons, hid from our view, why God should so do. We must carefully distinguish between a man of faith expecting a blessing on the ground of a direct promise, and a man of faith expecting the blessing on the ground of a deep-wrought persuasion in his own mind, or because of a strong hope and desire, as in the case of Moses. If I pray for particular sins, that they may not have dominion over me,' or for victory over Satan and the world, or for God's presence with me in trouble, and in conflict with enemies, I have a warrant for saying it shall be done; and so I pray the prayer of faith. In James v. 15, the person who prayed had got some intimation (such as was common in apostolic days) that God wished to heal the sick man. If, however, I have no statement in the word to ground my request upon, and no intimation from God, my prayer is not the prayer of faith. But, on the other hand, the Lord often goes beyond his promise, when we are exercising faith in his Godhead-power and grace. He does not bind himself to go beyond the terms of his promise; but when, on the ground of encouraging statements as to his good-will, in all matters that concern his people, as well as on the ground of his infinite love, we ask such a thing as the conversion of a particular person, the Lord may give what we ask. Still, the answer, in this case, is not the result of a special promise, and so is not properly the answer to a prayer of faith. It is, however, like the Lord's reply to the Syrophenician woman: Be it unto thee even as thou wilt ;' and as when He said to the centurion: 'As thou hast believed, so be it unto thee.' He referred to the centurion's faith in his unlimited Godhead-power, not to his faith in any particular promise regarding that special case. The Holy Ghost often stirs up such prayers as the Syrophenician's and the centurion's in the heart of God's people. There are also hundreds of cases, in which it pleases IIim to answer us, while praying for our friends, though our request is not grounded on any plain promise; for He can say, if it please Him: Be it unto thee as thou wilt, and according to thine appeal to my general love and power.' At the same time, the accumulated heap of calls, invitations, warnings, Let it suffice; speak to me no more of this matter;' and you never shall see that there are often cases of unanswered prayer, and they all belong to this class: they are cases for which no positive promise or statement of the word could be pleaded, and in which the Lord' good land!' Take up the warrant now: '0 saw wise reasons for saying, 'Nay; speak to me no more of this matter.' Yet all the while the praying one is a gainer by his prayer. 2. Unsaved men, if Moses' one sin made it a righteous thing in God to deny his request, and that, too, though the sin itself was forgiven; who are you to hope for acceptance on a deathbed, by uttering, Lord, have mercy on me!' and getting friends to do so too? The Lord may remind you of this scene, or may say, from amid Lord, Thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?' Plead his power and willingness in Jesus. Use this plea now; otherwise you may yet see 'Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets,' go into the kingdom, but yourself cast out, left to weeping and gnashing of teeth in outer darkness! THE TEMPTATIONS OF RICHES. 'Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.'-2 CHRON. xviii. 1. JEHOSHAPHAT had in his father Asa an example and a beacon; much to encourage, and much to warn, might be gathered from his sire's history. Jehoshaphat began well, and God blessed him. He sought first the honour of God, and the good of his people, and all things were added to him. 'He had riches and honour in abundance;' but, alas! he did not (like Paul) 'know how to abound.' No circumstances in which God places us, should lead to our abandonment of first principles. To use all for God, to be separated from evil, and to make no friendship with God's enemies, are first principles in all ages, and for all characters. But Jehoshaphat, when he became rich, joined affinity with Ahab. How very unlike, the moral character and religious habits of these two kings! Although near neighbours geographically, they were moral antipodes. Morally and spiritually they had nothing in common. Yet Ahab could appreciate Jehoshaphat's honour and riches, and because of them welcomed his proffered friendship. But what a crop of mischief grew from this small seed! The friendship of the parents brought about a marriage between their children, and the ultimate result was, that the royal house of Judah was all but exterminated. 'Beware of the friendship of the world,' is written in large characters on this history. But is there not some connection between the two things mentioned in this verse-i.e. the riches possessed, and the union formed? Had Jehoshaphat remained poor, probably he had never joined affinity with Ahab. Poverty has many trials; but it prevents many evils. Perhaps the secret motive in the good king of Judah was desire of display. This was the sin by which Hezekiah afterwards fell. Let us watch against it. |