Scripture Daily

Context No. 1746 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 10:6-11: in context

6(The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. 8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the LORD’s covenant, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 9Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD your God spoke to him.) 10I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD would not destroy you. 11The LORD said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.”

In the middle of Moses' recounting comes a note about Aaron's death and the setting apart of the tribe of Levi to serve God, whose inheritance is the LORD himself. And Moses recalls his own intercession: I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as before, and the LORD listened to me that time also; the LORD would not destroy you. Then God told him to arise and lead the people on to possess the land. The passing note records a great thing: Moses' prayer had held back destruction.

The line worth pausing over is Moses' recollection: the LORD listened to me that time also; the LORD would not destroy you. After the people's grievous sin with the golden calf, God's judgment hung over them, and it was Moses' intercession, forty days and nights of pleading on the mountain, that turned it aside. God listened, and did not destroy them. One man's prayer stood between a sinful people and the judgment they had earned, and held it back. There is a truth here about the reality and weight of intercessory prayer, of standing before God on behalf of others. We can be tempted to think our prayers for others accomplish little, that intercession is a formality rather than a force. Moses' example says otherwise. His prayer for the people was not a formality; it was the thing that held back their destruction. God listened to him, and spared them for his sake. This dignifies the work of intercession, of standing in the gap for others, praying for those under judgment, for the wandering, the endangered, the sinful, and asking God's mercy on them. Such prayer is not nothing; in God's mysterious ordering, it can be the very means by which mercy comes and judgment is stayed. Moses stood between the people and destruction, and his intercession held. When we pray for others, we take up something of that same work, standing before God on their behalf; and we may trust that God listens to intercession, as he listened to Moses, and that our prayers for others are not wasted breath but can be, by his grace, the channel of his mercy to them.

Do I treat prayer for others as a formality that accomplishes little, or can I take up the work of intercession with the seriousness Moses gives it, standing in the gap for those under judgment or in danger, trusting that God listens to such prayer, as he listened to Moses and did not destroy the people?

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