Intercession
Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!
Exodus 32:12
What is our prayer for others? Do we go to God asking Him for mercy for the lost world? Perhaps this is our best way of becoming the Great Commission. Can we actually go into all the world with prayer and make a difference with God? Moses did.
The above quote is essentially a prayer from Moses to God about destroying the children of Israel as they were celebrating the false god they created out of gold. Jehovah saw this activity as a betrayal and vowed to destroy them and start over with Moses. But Moses asked God not to destroy them. He asked for mercy, patience, and grace. Moses interceded on behalf of God’s people and God did in fact change his mind or relented or repented. God did not destroy the “stubborn and rebellious” people He just delivered from slavery in Egypt.
The applications of this story for us today are myriad. We are both stubborn and rebellious also and deserve destruction. God does not because of His love, mercy, and forgiveness in the form of Jesus. These people are not some foreigners who do not know God; they are His people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In today’s world, these are Christians who know God but create their own gods out of money, power, and any number of other idols. Who intercedes for us? Yes, according to Paul in Romans 8, Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us (vs 34). The Hebrew writer tells us Jesus is the perfect high priest for us because he knows us as humans (4:14-16). Thus, God sets the example for us as working for others as Christ does for us.
So how should we pray for others? There are many examples of intercessory prayer in Scripture. We can pray for those we love and care about like Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, who was told by an angel that God heard and responded to his prayer for a child (Luke 1:13). We can pray for the lost as Jesus did on the cross (Luke 23:34). Jesus actually tells us to pray for our enemies in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-47). Intercession is a mark of God’s people. Christians serve others and go to God for them praying for healing from physical, mental, and spiritual maladies. We are reborn to become agents for the lost.
The Great Commission tasks God’s people to go make disciples from all nations by teaching and baptizing them. We do that in many different ways, but perhaps we have the biggest impact on the world by simply praying for them. Join me today in praying for the lost of the world that they may find God in their lives and become reborn as Christian servants of others.
Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14
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