Numbers 14:11-19 – Being a great intercessor.

The tantrum of the people of Israel did not augur well for them. It showed how shallow was their trust in God. They showed themselves to be unreliable and not single-minded. Though God’s patience for them could not be questioned, their uncalled-for behavior was slowly but surely wearing it thin. God concluded that it was a lack of respect for Him. To God, their faith in Him was incredibly unbelievable. Despite the many miracles He had brought about in their midst, yet they could not trust Him. God was on the verge of disowning them. He wanted to destroy them and suggested raising for Moses a different group of people, a nation who would be more in tune with Him. This was not the first time God felt that way. In fact in Exodus 32, God had said the same thing after the golden calf’s incident. Was God giving the cue to Moses to pray for them? For that was what Moses did. It is so comforting to know that when God has a compassionate intercessor, He always finds it in His heart to deal kindly with the people. Today, God is still enlisting intercessors to stand in the gap between Him and lost mankind. Will we be like Moses, stand up, and be counted?

What makes a good intercessor? Look at verses 13-19 and see what made Moses such an excellent intercessor. Here’s a model for us to emulate. For a lesser person, God’s suggestion to make him a great and mightier nation would be a chance not to be missed. But not for Moses whose heart was for God, His reputation and His plan. Firstly, Moses was more concerned for God’s reputation. He was afraid that God’s name would be smeared by the Egyptians who saw His mighty deeds. If He slaughtered the people now, it would provide them with a cause to rumor falsely about Him. They would falsely charge that  God, who had begun greatly, could not fulfill the promise that He had made, so He slaughtered them in the wilderness. This would certainly not speak well of God.

Secondly, Moses appealed on the mercy and compassion of God. He reminded God of what He had said of Himself in Exodus 34:6-7. Moses rehearsed those words captured in these two verses. So verse 18 reads “ The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, forgiving wrongdoing and violation of His Law; but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.” He pleaded for God to show mercy on the people because of who He claimed to be. This quotation shows us two things about God. It shows us that while God is merciful, He is also just. He will balance justice with mercy. What a magnanimous God!

Here we see the heart of God as well as the heart of a true intercessor. So the next time we intercede for others, we must consider the reputation of  God. While we want God to be merciful, we must not presume on Him to compromise on His just and fair nature.