MOSES STANDING IN THE BREACH
Exodus 32:7-14, 32.
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Bill’s girlfriend, Karen, got a job at a local hardware store. Karen told Bill, "The owners don't want us hanging out with our friends. If you stop by, tell them you're my brother."
2. On Bill’s first visit, he walked to the customer service desk and asked an older woman there, "Is Karen around?"
3. When the woman looked at him quizzically, Bill added, "I'm her brother."
4. The woman smiled and said, "What a nice surprise. It's so nice to meet you; I'm Karen's mother!"
B. TEXT
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” 11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” 14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Exodus 32:7-14, 32. NKJV
C. THESIS
1. We have a moral crisis in this country. The problem is not only that the politicians are bought out by special interests controlled by destructive ideologies;
2. The bigger problem is that there’s an overall moral breakdown in our society. They're very grave signs of secularism taking over.
3. Even more serious than all these is that the Church is indifferent, apathetic, and asleep at the wheel.
4. Tonight we're going to look at a textbook example of intercession. God felt constrained to punish Israel, but Moses intervened.
5. We're going to look at the reality of Hedges, the crucial need for intercessors, the things that hindered Moses, and the five arguments he used to prevail with God.
6. The title of tonight's message is, "Moses Standing in the Breach.”
I. THE REALITY OF HEDGES
A. ORIGIN OF HEDGES
1. God places a protective wall around His people, called a ‘hedge’. Hedges are real and protect us from evil and the judgment of God. The devil said to God, “Have you not put a hedge around him[Job] and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land” Job 1:10.
2. The Hedge is placed by God because of imputed righteousness (life) by faith.
3. Hedges operate by the spiritual Laws of God.
B. DESTRUCTION OF THE HEDGE
1. SIN DESTROYS THE HEDGE.
a. “23 So he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them” Psalm 106:23.
b. The hedge around Israel was breached by sin.
2. Breach (defined):
a. an act of breaking or failing to observe a law, agreement, or code of conduct.
b. a gap in a wall, barrier, or defense, especially one made by an attacking army.
3. Breaches occur invisibly first, then become manifested physically.
4. 10 The Lord said to Joshua, “11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant….taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied….12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction.” Josh. 7:10-12.
II. THE CRUCIAL NEED FOR INTERCESSORS
A. A GOD’S LOVE FOR ISRAEL(SINNERS)
1. But -- wonderful thought! -- God doesn’t want His wrath to fall on the disobedient; He longs to spare us.
2. We are indifferent to our danger, we don't see it, but God does and grieves over it and seeks an escape for us.
3. An intercessor is needed to fill the breach and to turn back God's wrath/judgment -- as Moses did. Psalm 106:23.
B. IN EZEKIEL’S DAY, GOD COULD FIND NOONE
1. Ezekiel 22:30 is an indictment exposing the indifference of God’s people. If we cared, we would pray!
It's an indictment of our desertion of our calling to pray.
2. HUMOR.
a. A man took his small son with him to work one day. When lunch time arrived, the two of them went to a familiar diner for a sandwich.
b. They ordered lunch, and when the waiter brought the food, the father said, "Son, we'll just have a silent prayer." Both bowed their heads.
c. Dad got through praying first and waited for the boy to finish his prayer, but he just sat with his head bowed for an unusually long time.
d. When he finally looked up, his father asked him, "What in the world were you praying about all that time?" With the innocence and honesty of a child, he replied,
e. "How do I know? It was a silent prayer."
3. But God has faith in us; He believes better things of us and calls us to rise to the office of the intercessor.
4. Isaiah prophesies of us, “You shall be called, ‘Restorers of the Breaches’” Isa. 58:12. That is, one who helps remove the occasions of sin and restores the relationship between God and His people.
III. HINDRANCES TO MOSES’ PRAYERS
What would it take before you wouldn’t pray for someone? There were many things that might have hindered Moses from making intercessory prayer:
A. THE GREATNESS OF THEIR SINS
1. First: the startling greatness of the people’s sin.
2. God’s terrible estimation of it: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.”
3. You’ve probably known someone whose sin was so terrible that you almost hesitated to pray for them; some Christian who’s sin is so willful, flagrant, and without excuse, that you wondered about the value of praying for such a sinner; but it was not so with Moses.
4. Never say, “I can’t pray for that; I’m sickened by it, I loathe it.” The most despicable criminal may be saved by God. Who are we to say the grace of God isn’t enough for someone?
B. THEIR DETERMINATION TO SIN
1. Second reason, God’s observation; “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!” (32:9).
2. There are many people who doggedly persist in their sins, but Moses didn’t think their obstinacy was grounds not to stand in the gap.
C. GOD’S ANGER AGAINST THEIR SIN
1. Moses probably asked himself, “Shall I pray for those with whom God is justly angry? Shall I dare to intercede for those whom God is ready to destroy?
2. Many lesser experienced intercessors would say, “It’s no use praying for those upon whom the wrath of God is resting!”
3. Moses too was furious when he saw the calf, and the dancing. He tore down their idol, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, mixed it in the water, and made them drink it!
4. But we should never let our anger (or God’s) about someone’s sins hinder us from praying for them!
D. GOD’S EXPRESS COMMAND
1. A still greater hindrance to the prayer had to be God’s request, “Let me alone.”
2. Church, I’m pretty sure that you and I would’ve thought that it was time to quit praying when God said, “Let me alone.” But Moses knew that expressed only one part of God nature.
3. Moses knew that though God’s justice demanded punishment, God’s mercy cried for forgiveness for them. It’s the same with serious sinners around us.
4. The “Leave Me alone” was also a test of Moses’ love for God and Israel. If his advocacy was founded on love, no mere reproof would hinder his intercession.
E. THE TEST OF SELFISHNESS
1. One more hindrance: Moses’ prayers had to overcome his own personal interest, for God said to him, “Let Me alone, that I may consume them….I will make of you a great nation [in place of them].”
2. What an opportunity for an ambitious man! Moses could have become the founder of a great nation. He, instead of Abraham, would be its head!
3. All the promises to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, would be transferred to Moses and his descendants; but Moses refused to have it.
4. Moses swept those advantages saying, “Spare Your people, and bless Your inheritance!” Moses insisted that God aid those sinful people.
IV. MOSES’ 5 ARGUMENTS TO PERSUADE GOD
A. “THEY’RE YOUR PEOPLE”
1. In Vs. 7, God declared the Israelites Moses’ people, but not His, due to their corruption. “No,” says Moses, “they’re not my people; they’re YOUR people.”
2. Moses reminded God that HE had:
a. Chosen their fathers, and entered into covenant with them. He made them objects of His love and mercy; therefore, God was under obligation to bless them.
b. When you intercede, if you can’t say a person is God’s chosen, at least you can say that he/she is God’s creature; therefore, “God, don’t let Your creature perish!”
B. “YOU’VE DONE GREAT THINGS FOR THEM”
1. Next, Moses reminds God how He brought them out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand (Vs. 11).
2. Only God could have brought down the plagues, divided the Red Sea; struck Pharaoh. “You did it. And if You’ve done all this, won’t You finish what You’ve started?”
3. This was an awesome strategy/ argument. “Once You’ve shown signs of grace to them; would He now refuse them?”
4. About those you would pray for: Do you see any signs of grace, any tokens of God’s work in their hearts? Then press this same argument! “Lord, you’ve begun a work in them; will you now alter Your course? Finish the work You’ve started; save them with everlasting salvation!”
C. “THE LORD’S NAME WILL BE COMPROMISED”
1. Moses said, “Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’?” (32:12).
2. “Oh God, shall the travail of Christ’s soul be wasted? Shall Christ die to no purpose? Shall the gospel be preached in vain? Shall the Holy Spirit be poured out without effect?”
3. Send revival so that the enemy can’t claim victory and so that the Name/ sacrifice of Jesus will be honored!”
D. “GOD’S COVENANT WILL FAIL”
1. “You promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that their seed shall inherit the land; if they be destroyed, how can they enter into Canaan, and possess it?” Moses reminded God of His covenant.
2. Claiming the promises of God’s Word gives us strong ground for intercession. “God is watching over His Word to perform it” (Jer. 1:12). It can’t return unfulfilled, but must accomplish what it says (Isa. 55:11-12).
3. We don’t seek to overcome God’s reluctance, but to lay hold of His willingness. His Word is His will.
E. “WITHOUT THEM, DON’T TAKE ME!”
1. In the 32nd verse Moses advances his most wonderful argument of all; “I can’t be parted from these people; with them I will live or die. If You blot their name out of Your book, then blot out my name also.”
2. Moses says, “No, I won’t receive selective favor; I‘ll sink or swim with my people.”
3. That’s the same prayer the Lord Jesus Christ pleads for his Church before the Father: “My Church is my bride, and I, the Bridegroom, can’t lose my spouse. I’ll die for her; and if I live, she must live also; and if I rise to glory, she must be brought to glory with me.”
4. When we put ourselves side by side with the lost in intercession, then we’ll succeed.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Power of the Name
1. Rob Chaffart, born in Belgium, told how, 25 years ago he was a teacher at an American university. To work longer than a year he would need a green card. He was told it would only take 2 weeks.
2. He married an American girl and went on his honeymoon in peace & happiness. When they returned and he applied for the card, he was shocked to be told it wouldn’t be issued for 2 years!
3. His visa was quickly running out. With summer school just days away, I would either be forced to work illegally, or I would have to break my contract.
4. He contacted a lawyer specializing in immigration issues. The visit cost him $500 and he left just as confused as before. The future still looked grim. There was no hope in sight.
5. But some friends suggested we contact our local congressman. We did and 2 months later, I had my green card. Why? Because an outstanding Congressman backed my application. His signature made all of the difference!
6. Our prayers also receive ‘express status’ when we pray in the name of Jesus. His backing will have a profound influence on the fulfillment of our prayers. All heaven, earth, and under the earth bow at the Name of Jesus!
B. THE CALL
1. Prayer can make all the difference in the world. We can have a difficult life, with lots of bangs and bumps, or our way can be smoothed and guided by prayer.
2. What situation around you needs urgent prayer? Who around you needs intercession? Let’s use the 5 arguments of Moses to prevail!
3. Prayer.
[Point III & IV drew on Charles Spurgeon’s sermon, “The Meditation of Moses.”]
