MOSES’ INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Numbers 14:11-25 / Keywords 14:19

In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."

  11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. 25 Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[Or the Sea of Reeds]”

1. The people thought their issue was a lack of power, or direction, or their leaders. But it was a lack of faith: they refused to trust God even after he brought them out of Egypt and provided everything for them. They were holding God in contempt. Unbelief is a great sin before God. God was going to destroy them and start over with Moses. They really deserved no better.

 

2. Moses interceded in prayer, remembering how God revealed himself to the world through powerful acts when delivering these people from Egypt. They were bound to his name. God’s great strength is shown through this: he is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. God willingly forgave the people (20). God cares about justice: he does not leave sin unpunished. They disobeyed and tested God ten times. They would be disciplined for their rebellion. Not one of those who treated God with contempt would see the promised land. God wanted to break the pattern of rebellion and testing, with hope that the next generation (and us 1Co 10:11) might learn from this. God also blessed Caleb’s faith. In a rebellious generation, we are called to have a different spirit; to follow our God wholeheartedly, trusting in his reward.

 

Prayer Father, your mercy and justice reveal your great strength of character. Help me to follow you wholeheartedly, and intercede for this rebellious and sinful generation on the basis of your love.

One Word Forgive our sins based on your mercy