A Prayer Warrior Who Never Quits

“For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.” (De 9:19 AV)

Moses is rehearsing to the people several times he intervened on their behalf when the LORD was very upset with them.  So upset that He was willing to destroy the nation and start anew with Moses and his family.  There was the bitter water, the water out of the rock, the quail; but most of all, the golden calf.  When Israel defied God, God got angry.  There needed to be an intercessor whom the LORD would listen to.  That was Moses.  He saved the nation of Israel from certain destruction on more than one occasion.  Praise the LORD for parents, pastors, teachers, and friends who assault the throne of God on our behalf when we least deserve it.  However, my mind cannot help but go immediately to our Chief Advocate!  Our personally assigned defense lawyer will plead our case before a gracious Father.  Our Brother, our Friend,  our Savior, and LORD.  Jesus Christ intercedes to the Father when we least deserve His grace.  One wonders how many times the Father wanted to cut my life short, but my Savior pled before a forgiving Father for one more chance.  It boggles the mind.

In trying to come up with a perfect comparison, there would be none.  Think of two brothers.  The elder always looking out for the younger.  The younger was a clutz.  He was always breaking things, hurting himself and others, and generally being a disaster wherever he went.  His older brother would fix what was broken or replace it with brand new.  He would profusely apologize to others for his brother’s behavior.  As the younger brother grew, his lack of attention spilled into deliberate disobedience.  He would fail to follow his father’s simple instructions.  Dad corrected, but the son seemed to never learn.  The older brother came to his rescue.  Time and again he fixed whatever it was that his brother has done wrong, or supervised him to see that obedience was followed.  The more his younger sibling screwed up, the angrier dad got.  Yet the elder was always there to fix it.  He couldn’t stop dad’s correction.  That was not the point.  What he did do was to assuage dad’s anger which resulted in a bit more grace than it otherwise would have been.  Over time, the younger brother came to his senses and realized some of what his older brother had done for him all those years.  It didn’t completely fix what he was, but it went a long way towards improvement.  The constant watch care and intercession of his brother changed his life.  For the better.

That is the hope in Christ’s intercession for us.  In fact, Paul attests to this truth when he says,  “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Ro 2:4 AV)  The intercession of Christ should motivate us to change who and what we are.  I for one am eternally grateful for the intercessory work of Christ.  It started at Calvary.  He became my sacrifice.  He stood between me and a holy God who was set in judgment against me for all my wickedness.  His blood ran on the ground and He gave all that I might become just before our Father.  When I could not help myself, He was there to do it all for me.  This intercessory work did not stop at Calvary.   “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:25 AV)  I cannot help but think every time I screw up, the LORD approaches the Father with the reminder of His nail-scarred hands and simply states, “I died for that one, too.”  Time and again, when sin gets the better of me and the Father has every right to be angry, the Son steps to the throne and simply states, “I died for that one, too.”  When John receives the book of judgment sealed with the seven seals of God, there was no one worthy to open it.  Except for One!  And His qualification was that He redeemed the sinner from the wrath of God and therefore, the only one to reveal that very wrath.  Praise be to God and His Son and my Savior, Jesus Christ that I have an eternal hope in an eternal Priest, who will eternally intercede that I might live!