Pastor Kyle continued in our Sunday sermon series through the book of Exodus recapping that finally reaching Mount Sinai, the Israelites camped at the foot of the mountain while Moses climbed to the summit in order to meet with God for 40 days and receive the Ten Commandments. The nation of Israel became impatient and melted their gold to form an Egyptian golden calf idol to worship (something they were expressly forbidden to do). Moses returned with the stone tablets and eliminated the unrepentant rebels, then returned up for another 40 days to hear from God and intercede for the people, standing in the gap.
There is tremendous power in prayer. We hear that often and see it more, the longer that we walk with God. There is even more power standing in the gap and praying for others to God. Moses did that for his people and God calls us to do that as well.
Exodus 33:1-6 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’” So, the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
The entire purpose of the entire nation (God’s People) that God would be with them. It is what set them apart from every other nation in the world. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” God was angry because of their disobedience and stubbornness. He promised them the land, but He was leaving them on their own.
Exodus 33:7-11 Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. This was a look at the “tabernacle life” as Moses stood in the gap for His people.
Exodus 33:12-16 Then 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 grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
God said that He would continue to bless Moses, but not the people of Israel anymore. God often reminded Moses of things during his ministry, God often reminded the Israelites of things throughout their history, and God often reminds us of things all throughout our lives. Here, intercessor Moses reminded God of something: “consider that this nation is Your people”. There was no point of going into the land if God was not the One leading them into there, linking himself with the people.
Exodus 33:17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on "Intercession" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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