“ 1  And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

2  And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

5  And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6  And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

7  And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

8  They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9  And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

11  And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

12  Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

13  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people” – Exodus 32:1-14.

INTRODUCTION

A family stands before their house as flames threaten to consume it. The heat is unbearable, and the sobbing mother knows that her baby is trapped on the second floor. Within seconds the firemen are there, strategizing, preparing for, and carrying out a rescue. One returns the baby to the arms of its family as the rest extinguish the flames. Thank God someone intervened.

She sits alone and stares out the window. She has lived a full life. She was a hard worker, a loving mother, and a devoted friend. All her close friends have gone on to glory, as well as the husband she loved with her whole heart. Her children love and appreciate her, but they are scattered across the country, consumed with their own lives, spouses, and children of their own. They try to visit on special holidays and whenever business brings them into town, but for the most part, she spends her days alone. She turns at the sound of a knock on the door. Her face brightens as she makes eye contact with the teenagers from the local youth group. They visit once a week, casting light on her days and bringing joy to her weary heart. Many a week, these visits are the only break in the monotony of her existence, someone else’s grandchildren are the only visitors she will get. She would be completely alone without them. Thank God someone intervened.

He rushed home with his report card. The last months had been less than exemplary, and for as long as he could remember he has struggled with basic math. His single mother has had all she can handle just putting food on the table and keeping him in school. She worked long shifts at a diner and arrived home almost too exhausted to speak. He was used to doing the laundry. He was used to making dinner. And his teachers were used to his poor performance. That was before Miss Johnson began taking the extra time to tutor him in math. She stayed an hour after school with him every day, and he had gone up two letter grades in a semester. There would be no hiding this report card. Thank God someone intervened.

Intercession Defined

As humans, we are no stranger to struggle. All of us have faced it at one point or the other.In our lives situations—mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual—will arise that we are not capable of handling on our own. This is why we have the body of Christ, to come alongside us and strengthen us when we have no will or means to go on. Intercession can effectively help us in each area of struggle. We are called to look out for each other. Literally:

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth” - Isaiah 62:6–7 (ESV).

We should be watchmen in the lives of our friends and family. Remind the Lord of their plights and problems continuously, without thinking of rest for ourselves. God is constantly looking for people to intervene in the lives of others:

“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30).

The Lord who created Heaven and Earth is certainly capable of choosing to do things like provide bread, bind wounds, or create walls, but He gives us free will and choice, inviting us into the process. He created us to care for one another in the things we do, and the things we say, and by using the prayers we pray in intercession to intercept the plans of the enemy. Intercession is defined simply as “the action of intervening on behalf of another.” The Hebrew lexicon tells us that the Hebrew word for “intercession” is paga which is defined as follows: to encounter, meet, reach, entreat, make intercession. The English word intercession is derived from the Latin intercede, which means “to come between” or “to interpose on behalf of another.”

BACKGROUND

This passage is the first of two occasions where Moses intercedes for sinful Israel before an angry God who was ready to “consume them: and … make of … (Moses) a great nation.” However, Moses succeeded in appealing for mercy for them. The second occasion is recorded in Numbers 14:11-24; where Moses intercedes for Israel because of their rebellion after the ten spies returned with an evil report after spying out the land of Canaan. 

Moses has been on Mount Sinai with God for forty days and nights receiving from God the terms of the Covenant and overview of the Tabernacle. While Moses is there before God, the people become impatient. They demand that Aaron make visible gods like they’re used to. From their gold earrings, Aaron fashions a gold calf and the people began to worship and sacrifice to it, claiming that the idol brought them out of Egypt. 

God is utterly disgusted and filled with anger! He says: “And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff necked people!  10  Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation” -Exodus 32:9-10.

The term “stiff-nicked” was originally used to describe an ox that refused to be directed by the farmer. When a farmer harnessed a team of oxen to a plow, he directed them by poking them lightly with a sharp spike on the heels to make them pick up speed or turn. An ox that refused to be directed in such a way by the farmer was referred to as “stiff-necked.” A stiff-necked person is persistently stubborn and is difficult to lead.

GOD WAS ANGRY

“Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” – Exodus 33:10.

The people have utterly rebelled against God by substituting Him for an idol and attributing His salvation to it. “ 3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” – Exodus 33:3-4.

This is treason against the Monarch. This is rebellion in its truest form. As a result of their rebellion, God was angry with them, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: …” – Exodus 33: 10.

They are some people who have a problem with God being angry. However, God anger at sin can;t be understood apart from his holiness. God’s nature is utterly opposed to sin; our sins offend the very character of God. 

The Bible contains hundreds of statements of God anger at sin. One example of this is seen in Psalm 7:10-12 (NKJV):
“My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.
11  God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.
12  If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready.

God hates sin for the simple reason that sin separates us from Him: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” - Isaiah 59:2. It was sin that caused Adam and Eve to run away from God and hide “among the trees of the garden” - Genesis 3:8. Sin always brings separation, and the fact that God hates sin means that He hates being separated from us. His love demands restoration, which in turn demands holiness. We, too, are told, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked” - Psalm 97:10.

“Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” – Exodus 33:10.

God tells Moses that he will destroy the nation of Israel and reconstruct the nation from Moses’ offspring. Since Moses himself is a direct descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God’s promises to the patriarchs would be fulfilled. God had destroyed mankind once and restarted it with Noah and his descendants, so Moses has every reason to believe that God is quite serious.

ELEMENTS OF MOSES’ INTERCESSION

“ 11  And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12  Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.” – Exodus 32:11-1.

Moses’ intercession is a clear example of someone who has taken God's interests into his heart as his own. Even though in a way Moses own family would benefit from God proposal as the New Patriarchs, Moses appeals to God, boldly interceding for the people of Israel, pleading for mercy rather than condemnation upon them. And in the end, God relents and responds positively to Moses; prayer. We’ll consider the theological implications of this later. But first, let us analyze Moses; argument before God. Since the prayers in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14 are similar, let’s view them in parallel so we can see the similarities:

Exodus 32:11-13 

Appeal that the people of Israel are Gods own people whom He had delivered. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?” - 32:11 – NKJV.

Appeal to God;s name and reputation

“Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth””? - 32: 12.

Basic prayer

“Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people” - 32:12.

Appeal to God's promises to the patriarchs

“Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever”” - 32:13.

Numbers 14:13-19

Appeal to God's reputation

“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, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O 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 bynight.  15 If you put these people to death all at one time, 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 desert” -14:13-16.

Appeal to God's character of mercy

“Now may the LORD’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgivingn sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people...” - 4:17-19.

Appeal to God's precedent

“... Just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now” - 14:19.

Notice the basis of Moses’ appeals:

~Because the Israelites are God's people
~Because of God’s reputation among the heathen
~Because of God’s promises
~Because of God’s character
~Because of God’s consistent mercy.

As we study the notable prayers of the Bible, we begin to see a pattern where intercessors state their case before God based on His promises, character, righteousness, and precedents. When we learn to pray this way, we begin to learn to pray according to the will of God rather than contrary to it. When we support our prayers with appeals to scripture, we align ourselves with God's will. Part of learning to pray is praying scripture back to God.

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