“The Lord did according to the word of Moses.”
– Exodus 8:13
Exodus 8:13, The Lord Followed Moses’ Word?
This is so interesting because at numerous points, in Exodus, we see that Moses did according to the word of the Lord. So God said do this, and Moses did it, but here it’s reversed in Exodus 8:13. The Lord did according to the word of Moses. So what’s that talking about?
This is talking about prayer. Moses prayed, was pleading, interceding before God, for God’s provision in his life, for God’s provision in the Israelites, for God’s work in Egypt and God did according to what Moses asked. What a testimony to the power and the place of prayer in the will of God. This is what Jesus says in the New Testament too.
May we never pray like it is just religious routine. God hears your cries and is working all things according to the counsel of His will.
When you ask according to my word, I will do it. When we pray, like this matters. Oh may we never pray, like it’s just religious routine. We’re just kind of talking into thin air. That’s now what prayer is. Prayer is communication with the God of the universe, the Lord, Yahweh and when we speak, he hears us and he answers. He responds to our prayer.
Sure, you might think well I’ve asked for things and God hasn’t answered in the way I was asking, and if that’s the case, then pause and praise God that he who is all wise is ultimately calling the shots. He who is all good and totally righteous and never makes a mistake and is working all things together for our good, that he is ultimately calling the shots.
We always have a limited perspective in our praying, so even as we ask God for things, we ask God with a yielding to his perspective and his knowledge and his wisdom, but we ask with confidence, knowing he hears us and he answers. That he answers.
We see this in so many different ways all throughout scripture and it’s a mystery how it works and God’s sovereign. He’s in control of all things, but in his sovereignty he has ordained prayer to be a means by which he provides for his people, by which he responds to the requests, cries of his people. He answers.
Exodus 8:13 Demonstrates The Power of Prayer
So we pray with confidence right now, God help us to realize the wonder of what we’re doing right now. We’re talking to you and you are listening to us, and so we come before you humbly yet boldly because we are asking you to do according to our word. God we ask that humbly because we know that you are all wise. Even as we ask for things, we plead for things with all of our heart. We do it with trust in you, that you know what is best, that you are a good Father, that just as Jesus taught us when we ask for a fish, you don’t give us a snake. When we ask for bread, you don’t give us a stone.
We ask humbly, trusting in you but boldly, pleading before you. God we pray right now. I pray, we pray for people in our lives who don’t know Christ and our families who don’t know Christ, for our friends, coworkers, neighbors who don’t know Christ.
God we ask, I would just encourage you as we’re praying right now, think of specific people. God we ask for their salvation, please oh God do according to our word. Please save them. Please oh God save them. God I’m thinking about people right now, you love them. You desire their repentance, 2 Peter 3:9.
Jesus you’ve died to make eternal life possible for them. Please oh God, please, please, please save them. We ask, please do according to our word, and we’ll keep asking. We’ll keep knocking, keeping pleading, until you do. God please, please, please, God we pray for people that are hurting around us. God we pray for your provision. Lord, we pray for your help. We pray for your healing.
We pray for the hope of Christ to be theirs, for the strength of Christ to be theirs.
God we pray for people who are walking through really challenging days. God do according to our word. Comfort them, please. Draw them closer to yourself. Don’t let these trials pull them away from you. We plead oh God. We could go on and on and on and we will, we will.
God help us to pray like this. Help us to pray, trusting that when we’re talking to you, that you are listening to us, and you answer according to our words. Oh thank you for this privilege in prayer. Help us to grow in our experience of this privilege, every day, more and more and more. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
