Read Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 106:23Have you ever had anyone stand up for you? Imagine getting in trouble at school and having to go to the principal's office. When you get there, you find your teacher there talking to the principal on your behalf, asking him to absolve your punishment. In this instance, your teacher is acting as your intercessor (one who intercedes for another). To intercede is to be a mediator between 2 parties for the purpose of reconciling them to one another. Did you know that you have someone who intercedes on your behalf? Before we talk about that, I want to look at a familiar story in Exodus where Moses serves as the intercessor between the Israelites and God.
In Exodus 32:7-14, God is extremely angry with the Israelites. He has delivered them from slavery in Egypt and has performed many miracles for them which have proved His existence. Despite all of this, they have forsaken God for an idol. When Moses goes up the mountain for 40 days to talk to God, they think Moses and God have forgotten them, so they decide to make a golden calf to worship instead. This has to be one of the stupidest ideas anyone has ever had, and it certainly makes God mad (and rightfully so!).
God is so angry, that He says to Moses, "Let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation" (v. 10). God's wrath is so great, that He wants to completely wipe out the Israelites and start over. Moses, however, acts as an intercessor on behalf of the Israelites. He pleads to God to turn from His anger and spare the Israelites. Because Moses interceded for his people, they were allowed to live. Psalm 106:23 puts it clearly when it says, "Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them."
You might have heard me say before that the Bible is a metanarrative, which means that it is one overarching story. Many people read the Old Testament as a string of random stories that are disconnected from the New Testament. However, the Bible is one story focused on one major theme...God reconciling man to Himself through the cross. The whole Old Testament points to the cross that is coming, and the whole New Testament points to the cross that has already come.
This story in Exodus 32 is a perfect example of how the Old Testament points to Jesus. Can you see the connection? In Exodus, Moses intercedes for the sinful people, and God's wrath is subdued. In the gospels, we see that Jesus has become our intercessor. We stand separated from God as sinners under God's wrath. Jesus serves as the mediator between us and God. His sacrifice on the cross satisfied God's wrath and made a way for us to be reconciled to God. Can you understand the parallel here? Isn't it amazing to see how the Old Testament points to the gospel?
1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Just like the sinful Israelites needed someone to intercede to God on their behalf in order to be spared of God's wrath and reconciled to Him, we stand in a similar position. Without Jesus, we would have no way of being reconciled to God, because our sin separates us from Him. When Jesus took our sins on Himself on the cross, He made a way for us to have a relationship with God as His children. Thank God today for sending Jesus as our intercessor, because without Him, we would still stand condemned.
