A Kingdom of Priests (14)

 Intercession (9)

With the following proclamation, Yahweh proclaimed His glory and His ways to Moses:

 

“Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by the front of him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5 – 7).

 

Keeping the above in mind, let’s consider Numbers chapters 13 and 14. Here is the account of Israel sending twelve spies into the Promised Land and, upon their return, choosing to believe the ten unbelieving spies rather than the faithful two witnesses, Joshua and Caleb. While the ten saw the same things as the two, they interpreted what they saw differently – isn’t this the way of life? So often life is not a matter of circumstances, it is a matter of how we respond to circumstances; it is a matter of whether our lives are anchored in the True and Living God.

 

The People of Israel chose to take the counsel of the ten unbelieving spies and reject the command of Yahweh, and the counsel of Moses, Joshua and Caleb; the people chose to return to Egypt. Once again Yahweh tells Moses that He will destroy unbelieving Israel and make a great people from Moses, and once again Moses intercedes for Israel. (Please read the full account of this so that you can see these Divine dynamics; also note the similarities between Moses’s intercession in Numbers 14 and his intercession in Exodus chapters 32 – 34, there is much to see and learn and emulate).

 

The thing I want us to see is what Moses says to Yahweh in Numbers 14:17 – 19:

 

“But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘Yahweh is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.’

 

“Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of the people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

 

Can we see what Moses is saying to God, when he says, “…just as You have declared”? Moses is repeating back to Yahweh the very words that Yahweh spoke to Moses in Exodus 34:5 - 7 when God revealed His glory and His ways to Moses. In other words, the glory and ways of God, which God revealed to Moses by what He spoke to Moses, became the basis for Moses’s intercession in Numbers chapter 14.

 

There are those who see the acts of God, and there are those who learn the ways of God. As a holy and royal Priesthood, we are called to learn the ways of God so that we might not only have an intimate relationship with Him, but so that we might also live intercessory lives and engage in deep intercessory prayer.

 

Do we not see the Nature of God in Moses? As Moses sees and imbibes the glory and ways of God, the Way of God, is he not transformed into that image? Does not the Nature of God live in Moses? Can we see Christ in the cry of Moses, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin – and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”? (Also note Paul in Romans 9:1 – 3).

 

O dear friends, what a tragedy that American Christianity has been traduced into a religion of the Great Self, of “What’s in it for me?” What a greater tragedy that we are exporting this teaching into other nations. Can we not see that this is the spirit of the very antichrist that “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thess. 2:4)?

 

What of the Gospel of which Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”? Of Elliot who wrote, “He is no fool, who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose”? Of which Christ proclaims, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me…” (Mark 8:34ff)?

 

Can we see Christ in Moses and Moses in Christ? Can we see the intercessory Christ in us, as individuals and as His People? Are we learning the Way of the Intercessory life of God in Christ?

 

Are we coming to know, to deeply know, the Word of God and the God of the Word? The basis of our intercessory praying and living must be the God of the Word and the Word of God; God has proclaimed His glory and His ways through His Word.

How shall we pray…and live…today?