Following the nation of Israel’s “fall narrative,” worshipping the golden calf, the book of Exodus gives us an amazing story of the prophet Moses. Though he had been an indifferent shepherd only a little while before (see Exodus 3), this man steps into the gap to intercede for this rebellious people. God had just offered to destroy the nation and exalt Moses (Exodus 32:10). Instead of taking this offer, Moses goes to bat for the people, and he does this by interceding for them.
As believers look at what Moses does, we can learn many lessons about our own intercession. Moses’s intercessory example teaches us how we should intercede, and it helps us see why our intercessory prayers matter to God. However, as we look at what Moses does, we can also see a glimpse of what Christ is doing right now!
The New Testament teaches that Christ’s glorious redemptive work did not finish at the resurrection. After rising from the grave, Christ also ascended into heaven. We read in Hebrews that, “after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3b, ESV). The author states elsewhere that after ascending, Christ continues to work for his people. We read that, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25). This is what Christ is doing for his people, right now! He is interceding. And, when we look at Moses, we see an example of that intercessory work.
We could identify many ways Moses’s three intercessory prayers (Ex 32:11–13, 31–32; 33:12–16) point to Christ’s. However, let’s notice one point from Moses’s third intercessory prayer. Here, Moses is pleading for God’s presence to go with them to the Land of Canaan. As I quote the next passage of Scripture, notice how Moses repeats the bolded phrase.
Ex 33:12–13, Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”
Moses describes himself three times as “finding favor” in this passage. Moses is appealing to the LORD’s offer in Exodus 32:10, where God had offered to make “a great nation” (I might say, just like he promised Abraham in Gen 12:2). In doing this, God was separating Moses from the people and demonstrating that, as opposed to the idolatrous people, Moses was pleasing to the LORD.
However, Moses does not use this designation to elevate himself. Instead, Moses takes his position as one who has found the Lord’s favor and he uses that status to elevate the people. He says, “LORD, if I have your approval, here me out.” Moses then continues,
Ex 33:15–16, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
And, lest we think Moses is presuming his status before the LORD, look at the LORD’s response
Ex 33:17, And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
The LORD grants Moses’s request and continues to dwell amongst them. And the reason that he grants Moses’s request is because Moses had found favor in the LORD’s sight. The LORD grants Moses’s request because Moses stands pleasing to him. That is the ground, the reason.
Now, I want us to bring this to Christ by first asking this question: If God finds Moses pleasing to him, how much more pleased is the Father with Christ? Moses had to find favor (or grace) in the LORD’s eyes in order for his intercession to granted. This demanded that Moses receive something he could not earn. But our Lord needs no grace.
Christ, in himself, is the eternal Son of God, of the very essence of the Father. He has always existed in perfect union and love with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The three persons have the trinity have enjoyed amazing joy together since before time began. This eternal Son of God is eternally more pleasing to his Father than Moses could ever be.
And let me continue to a second question: if God finds Moses pleasing and therefore grants his request, what will become of Christ’s requests? Is there any chance that our Lord’s requests will be denied? …that they will be not granted by the Father?
The answer is certainly, and joyfully, “Absolutely not!” There is indeed nothing, or should I say, no one, for whom the Son is now praying, that the Father will not grant to him.
This is why Christ is able to save “to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). Paul also writes in Romans that one of the reasons we can be confident that we will never be separated from the love of God is because the same Lord who has died for us is raised and “indeed is interceding for us” (Rom 8:34).
Let me ask another, more direct question: Do you think about these things? …that our Lord, right now, is interceding before the father for every believer? Does that not fill you with hope? Certainly, he will get all for whom he prays. We have a great hope right here. If you have any hope of believing tomorrow or in twenty years, it is because of that intercessory work, which Christ is doing right now.
And we can have a great confidence in that intercessory work because the Father is pleased with the Son. Will the Father ever reject his Son? Will he ever not find his Son pleasing? If the Father is pleased with the Son (which, he is), and if the Son is praying for you (which, if you are believing in Christ, he is), then you will never be separated from God’s love in Christ. You will be saved to the uttermost.
We can express our hope in the words of the well known him, Before the Throne of God Above (Charitie Lees Smith, 1863, Public Domain):
Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great High Priest whose name is love, Who ever-lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands, My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heav’n He stands No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
Joshua Wilks
Seminarian
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that our faculty, staff, and students would rest and rejoice in the hope of Christ’s intercessory work.
- Pray that the Lord would continue moving in the hearts of those who attended Godward Life.
- Pray that the Lord would guide the prospective students that visited us during Godward Life.
- Pray for the full funding of The Serious Joy Scholarships for this academic year.