Walking in Obedience (Exodus 39:42)
According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work.
—Exodus 39:42
Isn’t Exodus 39:42 a great verse? As we near the end of Exodus, we have been praying through this book. Think about where it began: God’s people as slaves in Egypt. God delivered them out, brought them to the mountain, and gave them his Word. When they rebelled against him, he showed them his grace. He fed them with bread from heaven and water from rocks. He guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now they have constructed the tabernacle, and at the conclusion of that construction, we read this verse: “According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work.”
Exodus 39:42 pictures the beauty of complete obedience to God.
Don’t you want that to be the verse read at the end of your life? And not just at the end of your life, which we sometimes think of as far off—even though none of us is guaranteed tomorrow—but even at the end of today. Don’t we want this to be the verse at the end of today? “According to all that the Lord had commanded you and me, so we did the work.”
What if that verse—Exodus 39:42—drove us every single day to pray, “O God, we want to do today all that you command us to do. We don’t want to hold back anything today. God, we want to obey your Word completely. We want to walk in step with your Spirit completely. God, keep us from sin, just as you taught us to pray: ‘Lord Jesus, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”
Exodus 39:42 encourages us to live daily according to God’s commands.
We pray that you would keep us from sins of commission or omission—from doing what we should not do or failing to do what you are calling us to do. God, help us to spread the gospel today. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves today—in our homes, outside our homes, in our workplaces, and as we gather for church. In anything and everything we do today, help us to do all that you command us to do.
We pray that this would be the story of our lives tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. God, may it be said of us—not merely said of us, but true of us—that we were faithful to do all the work you had given us to do. And even as we pray constantly on this podcast for unreached people around the world, we pray that you would help us to carry out the Great Commission, reaching all the nations you have called us to reach.
A Prayer for the Hadi People
You have commanded us to make disciples of all the nations. God, we pray: help us to obey your command among the Hadi in Bangladesh—this low-caste Dalit Hindu people group with no known followers of Jesus. We pray that disciples would be made among the Hadi, that you would use our lives to do this work and our churches to do this work—to finish this work you have commanded us to do. Help us to obey the Great Commission far from here and starting right where we are today.
Far from here, and right where we are today—at this very moment—help us to obey your Great Commission. Help us to obey your great commandment: to love you with everything we have today and to love others as ourselves today. God, may this be true of our lives when we lay our heads on our pillows tonight: according to all that you commanded us, so we did the work.
We pray this knowing we need you, Jesus, to live in obedience. We need you to experience fully all that you have designed for us. So we pray this in dependence on your grace and your Spirit in us. May it be so, we pray, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
