Page 72 - Psalms Ebook

going to renege on His promise? The answer is, no, not at all. God
promised I am going to build a nation, but He saw that they would sin,
and He ordained that Moses would be burdened and that Moses would
pray. Moses came to know God through that prayer. It was a
tremendous thing. Moses did not change God’s will. Moses fulfilled
God’s will by praying. Many times God seemed about to destroy His
people. Psalm 106, verse 23,

“Therefore He said that He would destroy them had not Moses His
chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath
from destroying them.”

God said over and over, “I will destroy them”. Then Moses prayed.
Then God does not destroy them.

Let me give one other illustration. The nation of Judah sinned against
the Lord. God said I am going to send them into captivity. Do you
remember how many years? For seventy years in Babylon. And God
nailed it down. Through the prophet Jeremiah He said after seventy
years they will come out. Jeremiah 29:10,

“Thus says the Lord, when seventy years have been completed I will
visit you, fulfill My good word to you, bring you back to this place.
The plans I have for you, declares the Lord, are plans for welfare, not
calamity, to give you a future and a home. Then you will call on Me
and come to Me and pray to Me and I will listen to you.”

Now, get the description. God says you are going into captivity for
seventy years, and at the end of seventy years someone will pray, and
then I will set you free. But He actually prophesied, someone will pray.
Well, it came to pass. They went into captivity and in their midst was a
great man of God by the name of Daniel. He was studying the Bible one
day and he began to study Jeremiah chapter 29. He reads that the years
of bondage will be seventy years. So Daniel takes out his calendar and
calculator, and he says “Whoa! It is the seventieth year!” Then he
keeps reading Jeremiah, and it says someone will pray. Who? Well it
must have been him. So Daniel prayed. And when Daniel prayed, God
delivered!

Now here is the question. Would God have delivered anyway if Daniel
did not pray? He said seventy years and you are out. Were they
delivered because the seventy years were finished or because Daniel
prayed? You see, God ordained the end, but He also ordained the means
to the end. Our prayer does not change God’s will, but our prayer fulfills