Deut. 3:24; 1 Kings 19 Cor. 12; Matt. 26.
These four scriptures set before us four characteristic prayers. We must look at them in three ways—the first two together, then the third, then the fourth. The hardest lesson for us to learn, I suppose, is "that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing." "The flesh profiteth nothing." In three of the four passages (putting the fourth in contrast) we have prayers from the hearts of men in deep exercise connected more or less with this evil principle within us.
At the end of Moses's history, after he had led the children of Israel for forty years, during which he had loved them, borne with them in all their crooked ways, and sought to shelter them, and pleaded for them in the character of divine love, we find him at last coming out as at the beginning. He came out then truly in faith to be the deliverer of God's people, but it was in the enemy of nature. For forty years God took him aside to discipline and train him, and then he led the people for forty years; and at the end of this time, eighty years altogether, the very thing that came out at the beginning was manifested in a still more terrible way. It is good for us to look at it, for this thing is what you and I have in us, and it cannot be improved.
The more we go on with the Lord, the more terrible the allowance of the flesh becomes, because God has linked His glory with us in a very distinct way. It is more terrible in us than in Moses. As you find in Psalm 106, at the end of the journey the people chode with him, and "he spake unadvisedly with his lips." For that one failure -the only one—his way into the land was barred. And now, when speaking of it to the people, we find how deeply he felt it. The possession God had given to the people was dear to him because it was God's own gift to Israel; he desired to go into the land. But his failure shut him out—his allowance of the principle opposed to God, that which is in you and me. It can't be changed; it is the same from the beginning to the end. This is intensely solemn. It appeared a little thing, but barred Moses's entrance into the land because it was worse at the end, for God's glory was more distinctly linked with His people. Moses was bound to give a true expression of God's character, but he failed to sanctify God in the eyes of His people.
God has left us down here too for this purpose. He has set us in the world and linked His glory with us, as we read in John 17, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "Even so have I also sent them into the world." Sent into the world, even as He was, to be the true expression of God's character here—not only to have God's word in testimony, but to present the character of God to man.
Moses failed in this; but though he failed to give a true presentation of God to His people, God nevertheless took care of His own name and glory. But this does not set you and me free from responsibility. He was sanctified in the eyes of the people, but Moses's allowance of the flesh shut him out and brought down the hand of God in government. Having brought us so close to Himself, and because He is holy, it is on that very ground He deals with us. There are His grace and His government, and we are the subjects of both.
God dealt with Moses and shut him out of the land, but He felt for His poor servant. He said, as it were, You can't go in, Moses; your failure has shut you out. But I will show it to you. So God took him to Mount Pisgah and showed him all the land. God's grace came out there. He sympathized with His servant, and showed him the whole extent of the land, and then He put His servant to sleep. "He buried him in a valley." There was no funeral like that anywhere else. In the epistle of Jude you read of the archangel Michael contending about the body of Moses. This was the occasion, I suppose, when he did so. God buried His servant, doubtless, by angelic hands. What wonderful grace! What wonderful faithfulness!
But let us apply it to ourselves. Unless we keep the old nature in the place of death, we falsify God's character in the eyes of man. As a consequence of failure in this, Moses prayed, "Let me go over," but God answered, "Let it suffice thee."
In our second passage (1 Kings 19) we have another kind of prayer from another burdened heart. Elijah says, "Take away my life."
He was a wonderful man of faith standing isolated and alone amid that company of idolatrous priests. By divine power he stood—a wonderful scene—one solitary man standing for God in the face of the enemies of God, where the full power of evil was manifested. (1 Kings 18.) Was it possible for a man to stand firm amid such circumstances, knowing that there was not another to stand for God in Israel save him? Yes; but the next chapter shows us the same man under quite different conditions. He had gone on in the testimony, but without maintaining the secret of communion. The moment that the words of our lips are beyond our spiritual condition, we arc in the place of danger.
There must be the two things - the power of God equivalent to the testimony. The words of our lips must correspond with our heart's affection. Elijah had been carried on in the energy of the Spirit, but had not been in company with the Spirit of God in his soul. He was not in communion with God, and fell under the burden of the work he had undertaken. He went into the wilderness and sat down under a juniper tree, and prayed just the opposite of Moses's prayer. He said, "Take away my life."
Elijah said, "I am not better than my fathers." Did he think he was no better than his fathers? No; for he repeats (in substance), There is not another man besides me who has stood for Thee—a proof of what our poor wretched hearts are. He had not trusted God's care of His people, nor sought out the seven thousand beside himself that had not bowed the knee to Baal. So with us; we credit ourselves with being better than we are, not seeing Christ in one another. In truth we are only exalted in our own eyes, and must be abased.
But can there be a more miserable spectacle? Occupied with himself, he said, "I am not better than my fathers"; "take away my life"—let me get out of this place. But his prayer was not answered. Look at the tenderness of God's love. It was then—poor, failing creature that he was, occupied with himself—that an angel came, not a raven. When he sat beside Cherith's brook, the ravens came, but here he was ministered to by an angel. How sweet that in the moment of our failure, when we have turned from God, He ministers to us. Ah! there is no change in His heart, whatever we may be. What grace, that He should be the servant of our necessities!
It is true that Elijah got out of the testimony, but not in the way he desired. He passed through Jordan, but actually he did not die at all, but went up by a whirlwind into the heavens. He went out in God's way. May we not say that, like Moses, he had his prayer answered in company with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration? Was it not better than he asked?
I would now speak of the third prayer; but you must keep the first two together. The first shows us how the evil principle brought out the government of God; the second displays the self-occupation of the servant; but in 2 Cor. 12 another, who had traveled through this world in perils and sufferings, prayed; and what did he say? As Moses's and Elijah's, his prayer was definite and unqualified. Moses's was, Let me go in; Elijah's, Let me go out; and Paul's, Take it away. The Lord was dealing with him in full preventive discipline. How wonderful to be the subject of His care in this way. He had been to paradise and heard unspeakable things, and for fear that he should be exalted the Lord gave him a thorn for the flesh (not in the flesh)—something to keep in check the thing that would bring dishonor on the Lord. It was not because of failure, but this evil principle was in him, and the Lord gave something to prevent his falling.
Just think of the Lord watching over us so! And He sees danger of allowing this evil principle so, in faithfulness, He deals with us in one way or another. You may ray, "Lord, I don't know what this means; I judge myself, but I am not conscious of anything that needs this thorn." Then comes the answer, "It is necessary because I see something in you; and in order that you may not run into this or that, I give you something to keep it in check." When the declaration day, the day of judgment, comes, we shall see what was the infinite love of God that thus dealt with us. Should we not even now receive His faithfulness because we know His love? That blessed hand never leaves us.
Paul said, Take it away; and then the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Paul added, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." What a wonderful word of Christian attainment; but what did he attain to? To take pleasure in infirmities! Look a t the distress he passed through for Christ (2 Cor. 12). Could we rejoice in such circumstances? If, like Paul, it were to learn something of the Lord Jesus we had never learned before, who would not glory in that?—in circumstances that give Him an opportunity to be everything to us, to carry us along, and to bring us through? Ah! that is Christian attainment.
Paul did not get his prayer answered, but he got something better. And so it is through all these three prayers. The Lord always gives us more than we ask for. We look to God for blessing, but are we willing to be blessed in His way? But it must be, for He will bless us in His own way, and this only is true blessing.
The fourth prayer is in Matt. 26 There is no comparing it with the others; it is beyond that. To take the shoes off our feet, becomes us when we speak of it. Here is another Man—the Son of God. There was no evil there to be dealt with, no fear of evil coming out there. Every step of this blessed Man, who walked all the pathway through for the glory of God, gave joy to the heart of God. Behold Him here! Scarcely can one speak of the divine grace of the blessed Savior who went down under the hand of God in judgment on our account. He took His chosen disciples and, selecting three of them, He went a little way from them and poured out His heart to God.
The three gospels differ in their expressions. In Matthew it is, "My Father." In the darkness of that hour He who was the divine Victim going to the cross fully realized the relationship that existed—"My Father." In Mark it is, "Abba, Father"; in Luke, "Father"—all precious distinctions. See how the perfections of the Lord Jesus, this one blessed Man, came out in a marked way in these distinctions. In Matthew His soul realized the blessedness of the relationship He stood in. The prayer in Mark is that the hour as well as the cup might pass from Him. Thus Paul prayed that the thorn might be taken away, but there was not the same dependence and self-renunciation. Here, there was no will but what was in harmony with the heart of God. He prayed, "Not My will"—perfect subjection to the will of God. Look at the deep intensity of the sufferings. He had not yet drunk the cup, but He suffered; He was feeling the weight of it. Luke tells us that an angel came to minister to Him, and Satan tried to press upon Him all the consequences of taking the cup—all the forsakings of God, the hiding of His face. But all was absolute obedience on His part. And though Mark tells us that He said, "Take away this cup," yet He added, "nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt." Here we find the perfect Man who, in obedience, went under the hand of God in judgment.
How marked the contrast, beloved, when we see God's saints side by side with the Lord Jesus. We have this evil principle, the flesh, within us; and how distinctly it was true of His servants, as of us, "That in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." What Moses and Elijah could know nothing of, we do know; and let us seek to keep the flesh under the sentence of death, bearing about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, and thus realize how God gives us power to refuse the old nature. Let us see to it that we hold these things firmly, and not think it a light thing. We have to bear about in this world the glory of God morally in our walk and ways, and in our conversation—to set forth God's character in grace. Are we doing so? Is God sanctified in me? Do I give a true expression of Him? He does sanctify Himself, but do we sanctify Him? If we manifest the flesh, we tarnish His glory and, like Elijah, plunge ourselves into misery; the enemy comes in, and there is failure. May the Lord give us grace to have our eyes fixed on Him, to maintain communion, and not to let the words of our lips go beyond the expression of our hearts. The Lord never takes His eyes off of us. He helps us—it may be with a thorn, as in Paul's case. Is not that comforting? And if we do not understand it now, we shall in the coming declaration day.
Oh! to be able to say, as our blessed Savior did, "Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done."