So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the LORD, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
The motivation behind our prayers matters. At a base level, the reasons why we desire anything we desire speak volumes about what is happening in our hearts. It certainly is possible to want something good but not for a good reason. Perhaps you train in a sport, and you dream of being the best. If you want to be the best in order to please God and draw attention to what He can do through mortal man, that is a great reason. If you want to be the best because of the accolades and riches that come along with it, that is not such a great reason. When Moses prayed this prayer, it was not to save himself. There were two greater motivations behind his words.
One motivation was preserving the lives of his people. Moses was pleading for God to exercise grace and let them live. Yes, they were stubborn and disobedient, but they held a certain value by virtue of being God’s chosen people. Moses recognized this, and it mattered to him for these people to be preserved, and he knew that it mattered to the Lord as well. Another motivation was the preservation of God’s honor and reputation. Moses could foresee how the Lord would be viewed by Israel’s enemies if He were to destroy his own people. These enemies would pounce on the broken promise and try to discredit God. Moses instead wanted to see a testimony of his faithfulness as a sign to those nations, and He knew the Lord would want the same.
Both of these motivations have to do with loss. Moses did not want God’s chosen people to lose that favor. He preferred grace and an opportunity for them to change. He also did not want God’s name to lose its reputation. He wanted the world to have no reason to doubt or question the faithfulness of God toward his people. Moses wanted the Lord to preserve his people and glorify himself in the process. He could see how bad the circumstances were, and his heart bled both for his people and his God. It is from that wound that these prayers were born. Father, help us to be motivated like Moses in prayer to petition for the preservation of your kingdom and the glorification of your name.