by James Jacob Prasch, 11/1/17 
And so becomes the question--Why is it that God heard the prayer of Moses? Why is it that it was the incense of Moses and Aaron that God took into account? What was it that made God hear their prayer? Not once, not twice, three times. What was it? The thing that made God hear the prayer of Moses is the thing that will make God hear your prayer and mine. The thing that caused God to inhale the incense of Moses is the thing that will make that same God find your incense and mine acceptable. Why did God hear the prayer of Moses? Did God hear his prayer because he was called? Yes God heard his prayer because he was called but there was more to it than that. Did God hear his prayer because his doctrine was correct? Yes his doctrine was indeed correct and God heard his prayer but there is more. Did God hear his prayer because his motives were pure? Yes God heard his prayer because his motives were pure, but there is more than that. Did God hear his prayer because he did not abuse or exploit his position? Yes God heard his prayer because he did not abuse or exploit the sheep misusing his position. All those things are true; all those things are indefensible and if someone lacks those things I would not expect God is going to hear their prayer. It says in James "You can ask and not receive it you don't ask with a right motive." That is all true but there is something more than that. As crucial, as vital as each of those things are there was another reason, an even greater reason that God heard the prayer of Moses. Because when they turned against Moses, indeed, when they rebelled against God himself, when they were not called, when their doctrine was false, when their motives were not pure, when they followed scoundrels what did Moses do? He fell on his face and said "Spare thy people, O Lord." He did what Jesus did. He said "Forgive them." Why should God become a man and hang of the cross for a cocaine dealer and a campus radical from New York like me? Why? I do not know why. Maybe someday he will tell me why. In heaven I will know why, but right now I don't know why he did, I just know that he did! He hung between the place of the living and the dead. When he hung there, despite all the things I did to him, despite the terrible things I had done, he said "Father, forgive him. Father forgive them, they know not what they do." These people don't know. Do you think these people in Frangipane's church...they don't have a clue, they don't know. They have never been to a Bible study in the sense that you would know what one is. They don't know. Does it get me angry? I am sure it got Moses angry. It certainly got God angry. But there was another side of God. Before his judgment came he wanted to show his mercy. He wanted to give people a chance to repent and be saved. And so God heard the prayer of Moses. Of course he was called. Was his doctrine right? Absolutely. Where his motives pure? Yes! Did he exploit or abuse God's people? No, never. Are all these things true? Certainly, yes but there was more to it. The reason God sniffed that incense, the reason God heard that prayer is the one reason God will hear your prayer and mine. We must be called, our doctrine must be right, our motives must be pure, we must not exploit or abuse his people, that is a given. But the capacity to say "Dear God, they have rebelled against you, they've turned against me, they have cursed me, they have unjustly accused us when we were only doing your will. Please forgive them." That is why God heard the prayer of Moses. That is the one prayer, as it were, that God himself cannot turn a deaf ear to. That is the one prayer that God can never say no to. "Father, forgive them."
| 
