Psalm 103 (6)

To continue with the last two posts in this series: What is the linkage between verses 7 and 8 in Psalm 103, and how does this speak to us of intercession?

In our previous post we saw Yahweh revealing His name and His glory to Moses on Mount Sinai:

“Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” Exodus 34:5 – 8.

In today’s post we want to consider Numbers Chapter 14 and how knowing the ways of God, as opposed to knowing only the acts of God, leads us not only into communion with God, but also enables us to intercede on behalf of others.

Numbers chapters 13 and 14 contain the account of 12 spies going into the Promised Land and returning to Israel with a description of what they had seen. While all 12 men agreed that the land was bountiful and would be a great place to live, 10 of the 12 were fearful of the inhabitants of the land and they did not think Israel could defeat such a strong people – it made no difference to them that God was telling them to go into the land. These 10 men spread fear into the people of Israel; we find the verdict of the people in Numbers 14:4, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

Moses and Aaron were stunned, and Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who believed God and had courage in God, tore their clothes and said to the people, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If Yahweh is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us – a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Yahweh…” (Numbers 14:7 – 9).

The people of Israel responded by attempting to kill Joshua and Caleb – at which point God intervened. During God’s intervention He said to Moses, “I will smite them [the people] with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they,” (Numbers 14:12).

In other words, God was going to put an end to Israel’s persistent rebellions and start all over with Moses. If you had been Moses, how would you have responded? Would you have said, “I’m with you God. I’m tired of them too. Let’s begin again.” Or, would you have done what Moses did again and again, would you have prayed for the people, imploring God to be merciful and forgiving?

(Consider Moses’s earlier intercession in Exodus 32:32, when he prayed, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin – and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!”)

In Numbers 14 Moses once again intercedes for Israel, and within his intercession we read these words:

“But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”” (Numbers 14:17 – 19)

Compare what Moses said to God in Numbers with what God had previously said to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus:

“Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of  Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” Exodus 34:5 – 8.

Yahweh declared His nature, His glory, His ways to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 34; later, when Moses intercedes in Numbers 14, Moses appeals to God’s nature, God’s glory, God’s ways – Moses is echoing back to God what God revealed to him previously on Mount Sinai.

The basis, the ground, of intercession is the nature of God; as we know His nature, as we know His ways, we can intercede on behalf of others.

This brings us back to Psalm 103:7 – 8: “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”

(Note that Jonah, disobedient and petulant though he was, knew the ways of God – Jonah 4:2. Also note Nehemiah 9:17 and Psalm 86:15).

God has called His people to be a people of intercession.  We are to be a people of intercessory prayer and intercessory living. This means that it is not enough for us to know the acts of God, the things that God does – we are called to know His ways, to know His Way (John 14:6), to know His nature (John 15:4), to know His glory (John 17:22 – 24). If the Trinity lives in us (John 14:16, 17, 23), then we certainly ought to learn and know the ways of our God.

Yet, most of us have been taught and conditioned to stand afar and only observe. We live either outside the Tabernacle or, often at best, live in the Outer Court. We talk about what we see, not about Who we know. We talk about Jesus as we talk about a historical figure, or as we speak of a current political leader who we know only through others, or at a distance through media.

Our calling is to know God intimately, and in knowing Him to live in Him as He lives in us; and to live for Him and for others – laying our lives down in intercessory prayer and intercessory living.

Are we interceding for others in the midst of the present fears and uncertainties? Do we know the ways of God? Are we manifesting those ways to our generation?