God’s Other Promises

Deuteronomy 2

            Have you ever had an event coming up and found yourself praying for good weather—sunshine, perfect temperature, the works? Have you ever stopped to consider that that same day a farmer might be praying for rain or for heat for his crops? What about a sporting event? Ever prayed for victory? What if the other guy is praying for victory too? (That one is something that irks me in sports: if you’re going to say, “God gave us victory,” you’d better be ready to say, “God gave us the loss,” too.) My point is simply this: the Lord listens to the prayers of all His people, and He has made promises to them, too. Sometimes what you want may conflict with what they need.

            I was thinking about that today as I read the several restrictions the Lord put on Israel: do not make war against Edom, Esau’s descendants; make sure to pay them for food and water. Do not make war against Moab; they are Lot’s descendants. Do not provoke the Ammonites; they also are Lot’s descendants. And the Lord had made promises to Esau and to Lot and to their descendants. Israel wasn’t the only people to whom the Lord was loyal; He kept all His promises.

            Now, as it happened, the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites did not return the favor. In the book of Judges, both the Ammonites and the Moabites oppressed the people of Israel. And there was bad blood between Israel and Edom for centuries. (The book of Obadiah has the Edomites’ betrayal of Israel as its major theme.) Still, at this juncture, the Lord honors His promises to their forefathers and He honors the blood ties that define these peoples.

            So what does that have to do with us? Consider the opening illustration: praying for just the right weather for our event assumes we’re the only ones God’s concerned about. Listen to the church’s prayers and we pray for seasonable, maybe even favorable, weather, but we leave the specifics to the Lord. In the matter of sports, we pray for sportsmanship and safety for both teams. There’s a certain humility in our prayer that says, “Father, I know what I want, but you know what I and everyone else needs. You have plans and purposes I know nothing about. So, here is my request, but your will be done.”