We are apt to suppose that the position of a ruler is easy and enviable, and so doubtless it would be, if one could accept its privileges without feeling its responsibilities. Generally those who covet such positions would feel but little of the obligations, and therefore they are unfit, and the obverse of this is true too. There is nothing that we know of Moses to indicate that he ever had the slightest personal ambition to rule Israel, but when he was obliged to take the post, there is much to show that he felt the responsibilities of a ruler as only such a large and noble nature could. The heartless ingratitude and wickedness of the people, however, were almost too much for him, and it appears as if he would gladly relinquish his post till he hears God threatening to destroy them. Then, when he sees them in sin and danger, he offers himself up altogether — even to the eternal obliteration of his existence — sooner than desert them. This is one of the phases of the mediator. He is the friend in need that loves at all times, that sticks closer than a brother — that says, call upon me when you are in trouble.
Denouncing the Evil
and Pleading for Mercy
Those who saw Moses down among the people denouncing their idolatry with flaming words of consuming wrath could have had no conception of the pity with which he had just pleaded their cause even to the offering up of himself in propitiation for them. “Let the righteous smite me: it shall be a kindness” (Psa. 141:55Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. (Psalm 141:5))! Man condones our faults to our faces and condemns them behind our backs. But the true Advocate reverses this; to men’s faces He said, “Ye generation of vipers,” but to God He groaned, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”!
Some have asked, What is the use of intercession with deity? If God’s disposition is merciful, what need is there that anyone should intercede for others? Is He likely to be swayed from His irrevocable decrees and inexorable purposes by any petitions from us? This is a kind of reasoning most quickly answered by this illustration. Here in Exodus 32 the great indignation of God with Israel for their gross insult and national treason is entirely reasonable. But so is the pleading of Moses for mercy to his sinful brethren. So also is the mercy that is at last granted in response to that impassioned intercession. It is quite reasonable, then, that a ruler should desire to grant mercy to a sinful people, and yet find it out of accord with the dignity of his throne and laws to do so unless someone pleads their cause. To spare them before anyone interceded may be perceived as weakness; afterward it is readily seen as grace.
The Reflexive Effect
Besides all this there is its reflex effect. No one can pray or intercede for another without receiving the answer in his own bosom, without becoming larger and stronger in soul (speaking now of ourselves). Let me put this question to the reader: Is your habit of mind that of intercession? Is it your tendency to condone, with that charity that covers a multitude of sins, the offenses of others, so far as justice permits, and to appeal to God and man for their favor? If so, that is Christ-like. Or is it the reverse?
The Daysman, for whom Job in the ancient darkness groaned, has three principal functions: He is the Interpreter, whence the name “Word,” because He expresses the thoughts of God, and the Interpreter of man too. Second, He is the mediator between God and man — that being broad and universal. Third, in God’s family of those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren, He is the Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:11And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: (John 2:1)).
There is far more honor in accomplishing great work with small and apparently inadequate means than with strong and suitable instruments, so we are not so much struck with the fact that Shamgar and Samson delivered Israel, as that the one did it with a common ox-goad, the other with the jawbone of an ass. God reveals the glory of His power and wisdom chiefly by accomplishing work vast and stupendous, by instrumentalities feeble and despised.
It was thus in Israel’s history. Those whom God took up to promulgate and preserve the knowledge of the true deity on the earth were not a band of angelic beings, but a nation of men quite as sinful as any that ever had existed. They were about the same as their fellow-men, not much better, nor much worse. Human nature is much the same wherever you find it. A very short time after Israel was delivered from Egypt they fall into the vilest orgies of idolatry. It has been with this kind of people that God has transformed the face of the earth, instruments that continually broke in His hand. Understanding this ought to be an encouragement for us to seek to go on faithfully for Him in spite of our weakness.
On the occasion when the children of Israel fell down before a golden calf, God first said He would cast them away, but He listened to the intercession of Moses and retained them. At that point the advocacy of Moses then takes another character. He makes their very wickedness a ground of appeal to Jehovah to go with them. He prays that Jehovah would go with him among Israel, “for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance” (Ex. 34:99And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. (Exodus 34:9)). It is not that we are so good that He cannot do without us, but we are so bad we cannot do without Him. If any consider this to be presumption, it is the presumption of faith, and I wish we had more of it.
In truth this is one of the finest examples of intercession in God’s records. He first carries his point on the grounds of the Judge’s goodness, when it was the people’s badness that was really in question, and then he turns around and makes the very badness of the people a fresh basis of appeal, this time for fresh clemency. Moses had said that he was not eloquent and, of course, he believed it, but that was only because of the innate modesty and diffidence of his great nature. He had indeed a massive and magnificent character. He was great in interceding.
From Types and Symbols
of Scripture