015. Prayer Of Moses On Mount Sinai
Prayer Of Moses On Mount Sinai The Prayer as recorded.—Exodus 34:8-10. The Answer.—Exodus 34:10.
According to the command of the Lord, Moses ascended the mount, with the tables of stone. In his haste he had broken those which contained the law, and the first token of God’s reconciliation to Israel was his renewal of them. Moses remained in the mount forty days and nights, in close communion with God, who at this time granted him a special manifestation of his holy presence—“And the Lord passed by before him;” the prophet bowed his head to the earth and worshiped. His prayer was affectionate and earnest; his people needed the presence of the Lord; the prophet implored help and strength from heaven to guide them; for they had become stiff-necked, and trials and sorrow have ever been lightened by prayer.
“God, for thy glory only can I act, And for thy creatures’ good. When creatures stray Farthest from thee, as these have done, Remember them in mercy.” The prophet knew God would not reject his prayer, though breathed from earthly lips; he remembered the promises made to him, but they did not supersede the necessity of prayer, they encouraged and directed him in his approach to the Being who alone could grant the first and greatest desire of his heart. Moses was permitted to hold communion with the Lord for forty days and nights; it was no wonder he should bear some visible mark of this high and holy fellowship with the Father of lights. He was himself unconscious that he bore about with him the evidence that he had been with God. It is so in some measure, dear reader, with every prayerful person; we know him when he is near, his face is full of the beauty shining out from a Christian heart; we know him, the friend of God; the world can never hide him, though his path may be among the meek and lowly. No one can come from communion with God without breathing on all around him the sweet breath of charity and gentleness; his face will shine out with love to his fellow man, and the wicked will not be able to bear the light of his countenance, for it shines brightly with the beauty of holiness. This petition of Moses was granted, for the Lord promised to make a covenant with Israel; the sun stood still, in its course in the heavens, the waters of Jordan were dried, and marvelous things were done in the earth, according to the answer of the Lord.