MOSES, THE MIGHTY INTERCESSOR
_Intercessory Prayer is a powerful means of grace to the praying man.
Martyn observes that at times of inward dryness and depression, he had
often found a delightful revival in the act of praying for others for
their conversion, or sanctification, or prosperity in the work of the
Lord. His dealings with God for them about these gifts and blessings
were for himself the divinely natural channel of a renewed insight
into his own part and lot in Christ, into Christ as his own rest and
power, into the “perfect freedom” of an entire yielding of himself to
his Master for His work._--BISHOP HANDLEY C. G. MOULE.
Prayer unites with the purposes of God and lays itself out to secure
those purposes. How often would the wise and benign will of God fail
in its rich and beneficent ends by the sins of the people if prayer
had not come in to arrest wrath and make the promise sure! Israel as
a nation would have met their just destruction and their just fate
after their apostasy with the golden calf had it not been for the
interposition and unfainting importunity of Moses’ forty days’ and
forty nights’ praying!
Marvelous was the effect of the character of Moses by his marvelous
praying. His near and sublime intercourse with God in the giving
of the law worked no transfiguration of character like the tireless
praying of those forty days in prayer with God. It was when he came
down from that long struggle of prayer that his face shone with such
dazzling brightness. Our mounts of transfiguration and the heavenly
shining in character and conduct are born of seasons of wrestling
prayer. All-night praying has changed many a Jacob, the supplanter,
into Israel, a prince, who has power with God and with men.
No mission was more majestic in purpose and results than that of
Moses, and none was more responsible, diligent and difficult. In it
we are taught the sublime ministry and rule of prayer. Not only is it
the medium of supply and support, but it is a compassionate agency
through which the pitying long-suffering of God has an outflow. Prayer
is a medium to restrain God’s wrath, that mercy might rejoice against
judgment.
Moses himself and his mission were the creation of prayer. Thus it is
recorded: “When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto
the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers
out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.” This is the genesis
of the great movement for the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian
bondage.
The great movements of God have had their origin and energy in and
were shaped by prayers of men. Prayer has directly to deal with God.
Other ends, collateral and incidental, are secured by prayer, but
mainly, almost solely, prayer has to deal with God. He is pleased to
order His policy, and base His action on the prayers of His saints.
Prayer influences God greatly. Moses cannot do God’s great work, though
God-commissioned, without praying much. Moses cannot govern God’s
people and carry out the divine plans, without having his censer filled
full of the incense of prayer. The work of God cannot be done without
the fire and fragrance are always burning, ascending and perfuming.
Moses’ prayers are often found relieving the terrible stroke of God’s
wrath. Four times were the prayers of Moses solicited by Pharaoh to
relieve him of the fearful stroke of God’s wrath. “Entreat the Lord,”
most earnestly begged Pharaoh of Moses, while the loathsome frogs were
upon him. And “Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which God
had brought against the land of Egypt, and the Lord did according to
the word of Moses.” When the grievous plague of flies had corrupted the
whole land, Pharaoh again piteously cried out to Moses, “Entreat for
me.” Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord, and the Lord
again did according to the word of Moses. The mighty thunderings and
hail in their alarming and destructive fury extorted from this wicked
king the very same earnest appeal to Moses, “Entreat the Lord.” And
Moses went out from the city into privacy, and alone with Almighty God,
he “spread abroad his hands unto the Lord, and the thunderings and hail
ceased, and the rain was not poured out upon the earth.”
Though Moses was the man of law, yet with him prayer asserted its
mighty force. With him, as in the more spiritual dispensation, it could
have been said, “My house is the house of prayer.”
Moses accepts at its full face value the foundation principle of
praying that prayer has to do with God. With Abraham we saw this
clearly and strongly enunciated. With Moses it is clearer and stronger
still if possible. It declared that prayer affected God, that God was
influenced in His conduct by prayer, and that God hears and answers
prayer even when the hearing and answering might change His conduct and
reverse His action. Stronger than all other laws, and more inflexible
than any other decree, is the decree, “Call upon me and I will answer
you.”
Moses lived near God, and had the freest and most unhindered and
boldest access to God, but this, instead of abating the necessity of
prayer, made it more necessary, obvious and powerful. Familiarity and
closeness to God gives relish, frequency, point and potency to prayer.
Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in
prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to
Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing.
There were conditions of extremity to which Moses was reduced which
prayer did not relieve, but there is no position of extremity which
baffles God, when prayer puts God into the matter.
Moses’ mission was a divine one. It was ordered, directed and planned
by God. The more there is of God in a movement, the more there is of
prayer, conspicuous and controlling. Moses’ prayer rule of the church
illustrates the necessity of courage and persistence in prayer. For
forty days and forty nights was Moses pressing his prayer for the
salvation of the Lord’s people. So intense was his concern for them
which accompanied his long season of praying, that bodily infirmities
and appetites were retired. How strangely the prayers of a righteous
man affect God is evident from the exclamation of God to Moses, “Now,
therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I
may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.” The presence
of such an influence over God fills us with astonishment, awe and fear.
How lofty, bold and devoted must be such a pleader!
Read this from the divine record:
“And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have
sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold!
“Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray
thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him
will I blot out of my book.
“Therefore now go, and lead the people unto the place of which I have
spoken unto thee. Behold my angel shall go before thee.”
The rebellion of Korah was the occasion of God’s anger flaming out
against the whole congregation of Israel, who sympathized with these
rebels. Again Moses appears on the stage of action, this time having
Aaron to join him in intercession for these sinners against God. But it
only shows that in a serious time like this Moses knew to whom to go
for relief, and was encouraged to pray that God would stay His wrath
and spare Israel. Here is what is said about the matter:
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,
“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume
them in a moment.
“And they fell on their faces, and said, O God, the God of the
spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with
all the congregation?”
The assumption, pride and rebellion of Miriam, sister of Moses, in
which she had the presence and sympathy of Aaron, put the praying and
the spirit of Moses in the noblest and most amiable light. Because of
her sin God smote her with leprosy. But Moses made tender and earnest
intercession for his sister who had so grievously offended God, and his
prayer saved her from the fearful and incurable malady.
The record is intensely interesting, and follows just here:
“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and the cloud
departed from off the tabernacle and behold, Miriam became leprous,
white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold she was
leprous.
“And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not
the sin unto us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have
sinned.
“Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when
he cometh out of his mother’s womb.
“And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her, O God, I beseech
thee.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her
face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from
the camp seven days, and after that let her be received again.”
The murmurings of the children of Israel furnished conditions which
called into play the full forces of prayer. They impressively bring out
the intercessory feature of prayer and disclose Moses in his great
office as an intercessor before God in behalf of others. It was at
Marah, where the waters were bitter and the people grievously murmured
against Moses and God.
Here is the Scripture account:
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of
Marah; for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called
Marah.
“And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
“And Moses cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which
when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet; there
he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved
them.”
How many of the bitter places of the earth have been sweetened by
prayer the records of eternity alone will disclose.
Again at Taberah the people complained, and God became angry with them,
and Moses came again to the front and stepped into the breach and
prayed for them. Here is the brief account:
“And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; and the Lord
heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt
among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost part of the
camp.
“And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the
Lord, the fire was quenched.”
Moses got what he asked for. His praying was specific and God’s answer
was likewise specific. Always was he heard by Almighty God when he
prayed, and always was he answered by God. Once the answer was not
specific. He had prayed to go into Canaan. The answer came but not
what he asked for. He was given a vision of the Promised Land, but
he was not allowed to go over Jordan into that land of promise. It
was a prayer on the order of Paul’s when he prayed three times for
the removal of the thorn in the flesh. But the thorn was not removed.
Grace, however, was vouchsafed which made the thorn a blessing.
It must not be thought that because the 90th Psalm is incorporated with
what is known as the “Psalms of David,” that David was the author of
it. By general consent it is attributed to Moses, and it gives us a
sample of the praying of this giver of the law of God to the people. It
is a prayer worth studying. It is sacred to us because it has been the
requiem uttered over our dead for years that are past and gone. It has
blessed the grave of many a sleeping saint. But its very familiarity
may cause us to lose its full meaning. Wise will we be if we digest it,
not for the dead, but for the living, that it may teach us how to live,
how to pray while living, and how to die. “So teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Establish thou the work of
our hands, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”