Audio Transcript
The prayer you don’t need answered. Fascinating matter right this moment, arising as a result of we meet it quickly within the Navigators Bible Studying Plan, later this weekend. On Might 12, we learn Psalm 106:15 collectively — a textual content we’ve been requested about by a listener. “Pastor John, good day! My title is Amy, and I stay in Lincoln, Nebraska. As I learn the Bible, I see that there are occasions once we ask God for issues wrongly, and he mercifully simply says no. We see this in James 4:3. And there are occasions once we ask God for issues wrongly, and he says sure. That appears to be the case in Psalm 106:15. Are you able to clarify this verse and Israel’s ‘wanton craving within the wilderness’ in Psalm 106:14? I presume it’s for meals. What about this prayer is evil? Why do you assume God responded by giving them what they needed? Why additionally the ‘losing illness’?
“I’m confused right here, having a tough time understanding the precept, one I discover in different texts — particularly, in Psalm 78:29–31.” Sure. And I (Tony) am going so as to add a pair of different texts into the combination right here too, and interject them — 1 Samuel 8:7, 22 — as a result of these are verses we simply checked out in APJ 2029. “So, are you able to clarify this,” Amy asks, “and inform me whether or not this could inform how we ask for issues right this moment and what we ask for? Are we liable to have a wrongfully requested prayer get answered by God for our personal undoing?”
After I lived in Tennessee for a yr, I found that there have been two mountain climbing routes up the again of Stone Mountain. One was about twice so long as the opposite, however the brief one was actually rugged and steep. Now, suppose I had a nine-year-old son with me — I didn’t on the time, so I needed to think about this, however I attempted each of them myself, and I do know what would occur — and we hiked the mountain, say, as soon as every week on Saturday for enjoyable, for train. And suppose each time we bought to the fork within the path the place the 2 mountain climbing routes diverged, he complained and he complained and he begged and he begged to “go the brief one, Daddy. I wish to go the brief one, as a result of the opposite one took so lengthy.”
Now, there are two ways in which I may search to show my son to belief me for my knowledge on this life. One is to say, “No, that’s not a clever determination. We’re going to do the one we are able to do. So, we’re taking the lengthy route. It takes longer, however we are able to do that. We are able to deal with that, and you should be taught to belief me.”
“The sinful prayer for a king turns into the means by which Jesus enters the world as king.”
However there may be one other method. You may select to show this child a factor or two. You say, “Okay, let’s do it.” And midway up, he’s completely exhausted. He’s these rocks in entrance of him, trying like a straight-up cliff, and he’s saying, “I can’t do that, Daddy.” I’m saying, “Sure you may, and you’ll. You prayed for it; you bought it.” That’s the losing illness, proper? This rock face and his distress. And the purpose is to show my son, somehow, “Belief me, son. It is advisable belief me. I do know what I’m doing after I make choices on this household.”
Sinful Prayers, Sorrowful Solutions
Psalm 106:13–15 says,
[Israel] quickly forgot [God’s] works;
they didn’t look ahead to his counsel.
However that they had a wanton craving within the wilderness,
and put God to the check within the desert;
he gave them what they requested,
however despatched a losing illness amongst them.
God had met each want since Israel left Egypt. However these individuals grumbled repeatedly and once more in opposition to the Lord. They have been hungry for meat. Psalm 78:19 says, “They spoke in opposition to God, saying, ‘Can God unfold a desk within the wilderness?’” That was how they examined the Lord. They doubted him. They challenged him.
This prayer for what they craved was not a humble expression of belief, which is what good requests are. It was a skeptical expression of anger. God may have stored supplying their wants, the best way he was doing all alongside. That may be a lesson: wonderful grace and provision. “Be taught to belief me. Belief me.” That wasn’t working. Or he may educate them a lesson this fashion: “I’ll grant your doubting, difficult request, and distress to go along with it.” Lesson: “Belief me; don’t doubt me.”
“God is wonderful in the best way his providences twist our sins, in order that they really can work for our salvation.”
So sure, I believe God does that right this moment. It’s by no means proper right this moment to overlook God’s works after which fail to attend for his counsel. It’s by no means proper to assume that we all know what’s greatest and develop into demanding and difficult to God. He simply may give us the automobile we demand, or the partner we demand, or the rising inventory worth that we demand, or the kid we demand. After which 5, twenty years later, these solutions may come again with nice sorrows in our lives.
Twists of Windfall
That would sound fatalistic, however right here’s the twist. There’s a twist of windfall on this peculiar method that God disciplines us by giving us what we ask for after which distress to go along with it. We are able to see this twist if we take a look at the opposite instance that I believe you talked about, Tony, at the start, with regard to the demand for a king. The twist is that they need to not have demanded a king the best way they did, and but God gave them a king after which made their ungodly want serve his everlasting functions of grace. That’s the twist. And it’s so eager for these of us who’ve made silly choices and have requested for horrible issues — or requested for issues that appeared good, and we have been all flawed in the best way we requested for them. God can work this for good.
The Sin
So, right here’s the best way it labored. Within the transaction in 1 Samuel 8:5, the elders of Israel say to Samuel, “Appoint for us a king to evaluate us like all of the nations.” Now, that’s the sin: We wish to be just like the nations. Nevertheless it says in 1 Samuel 8:6–7, “The factor displeased Samuel once they mentioned, ‘Give us a king to evaluate us.’ And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord mentioned to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the individuals . . . for they haven’t rejected you, however they’ve rejected me from being king over them.’”
After which Samuel appears to offer them yet one more likelihood to vary their minds by telling all of them the miseries that the king goes to convey into their lives (1 Samuel 8:11–18). The king’s going to take your sons and make them troopers. He’s going to take your daughters and make them perfumers and cooks. He’s going to take your fields and your vineyards. He’s going to take your flocks. After which it says in 1 Samuel 8:19–20, “However the individuals refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And so they mentioned, ‘No! However there shall be a king over us, that we additionally could also be like all of the nations.’” After which in 1 Samuel 8:22, God says, “Obey their voice and make them a king.”
Now, right here’s 300 years later. That is Hosea, the final prophet who prophesies earlier than Assyria destroys Israel. Right here’s Hosea 13:10–11: “The place now could be your king, to avoid wasting you in all of your cities? The place are all of your rulers — these of whom you mentioned, ‘Give me a king and princes’? I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath.” So, God answered their request, and it didn’t go effectively for them.
The Twist
And I pause and say, “However wait. Wait. There’s something else happening right here.” In Psalm 2:6, God says, “I’ve set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” God set his king on Zion, his holy hill. And Isaiah 9:6–7, “To us a toddler is born, to us a son is given; and the federal government shall be upon his shoulder. . . . Of the rise of his authorities and of peace there will probably be no finish, on the throne of David and over his kingdom [forever].” His kingdom ceaselessly. In Luke 1:32–33, Gabriel says to Mary, “The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he’ll reign over the home of Jacob ceaselessly, and of his kingdom there will probably be no finish.”
Right here’s the upshot, the twist. The sinful prayer for a king turns into the means by which Jesus enters the world as king to die and rise and forgive the sins that they introduced upon themselves by asking for a king. I simply assume God is wonderful in the best way his providences twist our sins, in order that they really can work for our salvation.
So, the twist of windfall is that this. In case you are, right this moment, in a state of affairs of God’s self-discipline in reply to an unbelieving, indignant, misguided prayer, don’t despair. Don’t despair. Repent, settle for your sin and your guilt, flip to Christ’s mercy and blood, and ask God to twist this case into one thing good and God-honoring. I’ve seen him do that in my life. I’ve seen him do it. I do know he can do it in yours.
