I prayed to the LORD and said, “Lord GOD, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, and their sin, otherwise the land from which you have brought us might 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 let them die in the wilderness.’ For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
Background
This prayer is part of a remembrance of a famous event at Mt. Sinai. It is the story of the golden calf. Moses had ascended the mountain to receive God’s guidelines for His people. He was gone longer than the people thought he should be. They become restless and angry, and decide that other gods must have been responsible for their deliverance from Egypt. They made idols for these “gods” and began to worship them. God moved to destroy them and start again with Moses and his descendants as the new people of God. Moses begged Him to reconsider. After almost six weeks of prayer, God relented.
Meaning
The context of this passage is the giving of the Law to the people of Israel. It focuses on all that has happened to them and the history of God’s acts. Moses reminded them of this event at Mount Sinai and recalled the prayer that he offered for them.
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Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about prayer.
