Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the Lord God.”

31 (The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. 32 The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.)

33 Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.

What an example of power and authority in prayer. Prayer changes things – even in the natural world.

But Moses is also an illustration of the place of the prophetic in prayer. He stood ‘in the counsel of the Lord’, just as Elijah did, who was to appear many years later (James 5:17,18). They did not randomly pray for changes in the weather patterns. They wielded such influence in heaven (and on earth) because they were in tune with what God was doing, and was going to do. They operated with revelation knowledge, and this made them so effective. They had an understanding of what God wanted. Maybe this illustrates the principle of ‘pray until you pray’? Spend time with God until your spirit has insight into how God wants you to pray. For both Moses and Elijah, prayer was not a matter of ‘hit and hope’.

We also see in this section the ultimate purpose of prayer. It is that the Father’s Name should be hallowed (29b). What god does in answer to our prayers is for His glory.

What a text for these times:

“…so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.”

Sadly, we repeatedly treat it like it is ours and we have raped, rather than stewarded it. May God have mercy.