A MODEL OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
Exodus 32:7-14.
Even as Moses finished his business with the LORD in the mount, the LORD disowned His covenant people, telling Moses to get down “for your people which you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves” (Exodus 32:7).
The indictment is that they had made a molten calf, worshipped it, and made sacrifices to it: and that they had said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:8; cf. Exodus 32:4).
Now the wrath of the LORD waxed hot against them, and He determined to wipe them out, and make a new nation out of Moses (Exodus 32:9-10).
Such is the humility of Moses that he does not even consider the option of the LORD making a new nation out of him, to replace wayward Israel. Instead, Moses’ response is a model of intercessory prayer.
First, he is zealous for the honour of the LORD. It is the LORD who has brought Israel out of Egypt, so why should He give occasion for the Egyptians to suggest that He brought them out only to consume them in the mountains (Exodus 32:11-12)?
Second, he appeals to the covenant promise which the LORD had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 32:13).
We are not told here of any sin-offering being made, but “the LORD repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people” (Exodus 32:14). Such is the power of prayer: that man should strive with God, and prevail (cf. Genesis 32:28)!
The Cross of Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of God’s “great power and mighty hand” (Exodus 32:11). Through the sacrifice of Jesus, Christians have been brought out of captivity to sin and death (Romans 8:2). Because He took our sin, we are made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
It is part of the purposes of God that His purposes should be fulfilled through the prayers of His people. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous (1 John 2:1), who is ever interceding for us at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34). We are enjoined by Jesus Himself to ‘ask in my Name’ (John 16:24), and so we may come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).
Furthermore, though we know not what to pray for as we ought, yet (since Pentecost) the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us (and through us) with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26).
