Calvin - Moses wrongly wore himself out in intercession (Exodus 17)

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Solparvus

Puritan Board Senior
This from John Calvin on Exodus 17, with Moses needing his hands to be upheld by Aaron and Hur during the battle with Amalek:

"Doubtless his failure arose from his extreme earnestness, and the extraordinary vehemence of his zeal, and, therefore, praise is mixed up with blame, just as the saints, when they are stirred to make great efforts in prayer, find that not only does their vigor grow cold, but they fail from being almost consumed by their own ardor."

This is new to me, that Moses could be blameworthy, or that there could be a kind of earnestness in prayer that God finds blameworthy. Seems strange, because if my fault has lain anywhere, it's usually that I've prayed too little, or with too little heart and feeling. Yet Calvin seems to think that there can be a sinful other extreme.

Am I to take this as, if our earnestness in prayer is such that our bodies wear down, or there is such a fervency that we find ourselves exhausted afterwards, that we should ask ourselves whether the prayer was carried out as righteously as it ought to have been? No doubt God loves the sincerity of it, yet still there are temptations to sin on the other side.

Or is it that if we have not been in a good habit of prayer, but then we start becoming more earnest in prayer, we are to be blamed for our own weariness because we're now getting accustomed to doing something which we should have been doing more frequently, like a man who gets worn out after 20 minutes in the gym?
 
This makes me think of that time when Moses was rebuked by his father-in-law:
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.
(Exodus 18:17-18)
 
A friend of mine presented a sensible answer. The blame as Calvin points out is put on God, since we expect that God would be as impressed as we are with the fervency and zeal our our prayers; but when He doesn't act like it, we grow cold and lose our fervency.
 
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