Among other marvelous acts toward Israel, was one done in Israel itself; they, whoso fathers went down to Egypt only seventy in number (Genesis 46:26, Genesis 46:27), had, notwithstanding the cruel oppression to which they were subjected there, grown to a nation numberless as the stars (cf. Genesis 22:17; Deuteronomy 1:10; Nehemiah 9:23).
HOMILETICS
The results of the intercessory prayer of Moses.
In these verses we have a very brief statement of the results of the pleading of Moses for Israel with God, which can only be duly appreciated when set side by side with the fuller account in Exodus 33:1-23; Exodus 34:1-35. It is clear, even from the few words here given us, that the Lord's wrath was turned away, that the covenant and the covenant promise were again renewed. But we must at least indicate the points of detail ere we can gather up the sublime teachings of the whole.
I. THE RESULTS OF THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES.
1. Generally. "The Lord repented," etc. (Exodus 32:14). The passage in Numbers 23:19 is by no means contrary to this. It means that there is no fickleness nor falseness in the Divine promises, and that the fulfillment of them is not subject to human caprice; which is gloriously true, and in perfect harmony with the before-named words. These do not denote a change in the mind of God, but rather a change in the Divine acts. God's promises are, in an important sense, conditional, and his threatenings too. If we reject the promise and fail to rely upon it, it will not be fulfilled in our case; so, if we repent and turn from sin, the threatenings will cease to apply to us. The virtual withdrawal of promise or threatening is called "repenting," not because God changes his will, but because he varies his action. God may plan and effect a change without ever changing a plan.
2. In detail.
(a), Exodus 33:7; the tabernacle of Moses, where he would hear the causes of the people, and maintain the mediatorship, was removed from within the camp to the outside of it. Still, mercy and judgment were blended, for the pillar of cloud did not forsake them.
(b), Exodus 32:34, Exodus 32:35; this is very obscure; but it at least means that, though they were forgiven, yet they were chastised. In after times, the Jews were wont to say that never any trouble came upon them without an ounce of the dust of the golden calf in it. The intercession of Moses, though it secured inestimable blessings, yet did not avail to remove all reminders of their sin, or to make things as though it had not been.
(a) They should not be consumed, still, only an angel should go with them (Exodus 33:2, Exodus 33:3).
(b) The Divine presence should go with them (Exodus 32:12-14).
(a) Though the tabernacle is out of the camp, yet communication with Jehovah is still maintained (Exodus 33:9).
(b) The old promise is renewed (Exodus 33:12-14). "Rest!" Rest in God. What less, what more, could they desire?
(c) There was a formal renewal of the covenant (Deuteronomy 10:1-5).
(d) Jehovah grants a new disclosure of his glory. The recent exhibition of the frailty of man might well have crushed Moses if he had not been sustained by a new vision of God. And what a vision! What a declaration! Nowhere else on earth had a Name so glorious then been proclaimed (Exodus 34:6-9).
(e) The long-continued communion with God illumed the face of Moses (Exodus 34:29-35). Was this supernatural or miraculous? Supernatural? Yes. Miraculous? No. We believe intensely in the religion of the face (see Acts 6:15; vide a lecture by Joseph Cook, of Boston, on 'The Solar Light'). Moses was full of the Holy Ghost. The luster without was but the index of the light within. He had gone in unto God to plead for others, and he was rewarded openly, by bringing down from the mount a radiance that told with whom he had been! If our faces were oftener directed towards God in intercessory prayer, they would certainly beam with new light, and men would take knowledge of us that we had been with Jesus.
II. THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY THIS NARRATIVE.
1. We see here the abounding mercy of God—how slow he is to anger, how ready to forgive. We can imagine, indeed, an objector interposing here, and saying, "Precisely the reverse. The fact of the severity of God's judgments being abated, removed, and even exchanged for mercy, just in response to the intercession of Moses, seems to make Moses appear more merciful than God." Perhaps it seems so at first, but it only seems. And even the seeming ceases when we look all round. For was it not the same God whom Israel had offended, who had given them Moses, who taught him to pray, and who sustained his pleading power? So that the lines of judgment and of mercy have a common meeting-point in the same hand. Besides, we must never forget that the Great Father adapts himself in the methods of his teaching to the capacities of the child in learning. And even the severity of the judicial sentence comes out of mercy. When will men learn the profound truth in Psalms 62:12? The greatest mercy which can be. shown to a people is to educate them in righteousness. How constantly are men making the mistake of regarding suffering as the grievance rather than sin! as if it were not the sin which is the people's bane, and the suffering consequent on it which is really their guard, that they may learn to dread the sin which brings such sorrow with it. And if the Great Lord, over and above the merciful threatenings which show the evil of sin in his sight, provides Israel with such an intercessor as Moses, and if by virtue of his pleas will withhold the dreaded stroke, and for the uplifted arm of justice will show the directing and sheltering hand,—both the one act and the other are joint illustrations of that glorious Name, the Lord thy God! There is no schism in the manifestation of that Name. The terror and the kindness perfectly accord, and it is only our defective sight which makes them appear inharmonious in hue. The very God who guards Law by the holiest sanctions, has provided also in his government for the efficacy of interceding prayer! "He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy."
2. This mediatorship of Moses is but one illustration of the working of a permanent law, that God wills to be approached by his saints in prayer on behalf of others. It were well if some were to collate the intercessory prayers in the Bible, and the passages which bear on the theme of pleading for others. The Apostle Paul understood the blessedness of intercessory prayer. He himself rose to a glorious height in this sublime act, and yet he declares his own dependence on and appreciation of the prayers of the saints. Nor do we at all understand the priesthood of believers, till we regard this as one of its special privileges, functions, and duties. Let those who "profess and call themselves Christians" see to this. Let them rise to this high and holy service. Let them enter into their closets, fall on their knees, and pour out before God petitions for all. We sometimes ask whether the yearning spirit of intercession is dying out amongst us (Joel 2:16-18).
3. This Divine law, of the power of intercession, has its supreme illustration in a greater than Moses (Hebrews 7:25), even in him, of whom in so many respects Moses was a type. Human mediation may achieve much, but ah! even the men who plead most with God for others do feel most their need of One to plead for them! There, there, at the Father's throne, is One who, having given himself a ransom for many, does present his own work as the ground on which the coming sinner may be forgiven, accepted, and saved.
4. There are three things which no intercession, either of saints on earth or of a Savior in heaven, can secure. Why? Because in the nature of things they are impossible, and therefore for them no holy one can intercede.