When Moses Prayed
The story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 is a familiar one. The people who had seen God’s mighty power and felt his mercy and grace got tired of waiting for Moses to come down from his 40-day meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. So they asked Aaron to make them a god, to build them an idol they could worship. When God saw it, he told the leader of Israel that he would destroy the nation and start over with Moses. That is when Moses “implored” God not to do that. The word is rich in meaning. To “implore” pictures a person who is weak and sick, grieved and bent over with the weight of intercession and entreaty. We see a clearer picture of that in this same story as Moses told it in Deuteronomy. That account adds even more weight to Moses’ plea for mercy. When God told him what was going on below, Moses went down to see what the people were doing. When he witnessed their idolatry, he threw down the stone tablets and broke them. He wrote, “Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.”
Do the math. When idolatry broke out below, Moses had already been on the mountaintop with God for 40 days. Add another 40 of brokenness and intercession, and that means Moses went 80 days without bread or water. He was supernaturally sustained by God. But more importantly, look at his intercession which he gives us in the text in Exodus 32. His argument in defense of God’s people is an appeal to God’s great favor he has shown them already many times. First, Moses appeals to a God’s great love for His people that showed itself in mighty deeds. “You brought them out with great power.” Second, Moses appeals to God’s great name and character. “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains.’” Third, Moses appeals to God’s great covenant with the patriarchs. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self…I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven.” Notice Moses calls Jacob “Israel” which is what God changed Jacob’s name to when the deceiver finally and fully surrendered his will to the Lord.
What happened? God relented. You could say he “gave in” to the exact plan he had all along. And Moses was the man who stood in the gap. Psalm 106:23 says, “Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.”
Two challenges I would leave with you. Just as Moses had to go down and intercede to stop God’s wrath, the greater intercessor, the Son of God had to come down and stand in the gap for God’s people. And he did that with his own blood. Paul writes to those who believe, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The first challenge is simply a question, then: do you know Him? Have you bowed your head and accepted the yoke that Jesus offers? He say to you this morning, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The second challenge is this: For whom are you interceding? You can make the same appeal that Moses made. Ask the Father to show his love to that one who has not yet come to repentance. Cry out to God for his own name’s sake and ask him to save so that others will see and proclaim his glory. Finally, appeal to the covenant God has made with the world that because of the finished work of Jesus his Son on the cross, men and women can be saved. You can pray, “Add this one, Lord! Open his eyes. Show her your kindness and mercy. Save them, O God!”
What can we do? We can pray. We can intercede. We can ask our God who is unstoppable in his love and mercy to change the hearts of our loved ones and friends. So what are we waiting on?
Let’s pray.