"The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness."
Numbers 14:16 {NIV}
I have much to learn about prayer, especially intercessory prayer, and so I pay attention to the great intercessory prayers in the Bible. This passage records a particularly tragic episode in Israel's history, caused entirely by their lack of faith. Hebrews 4 teaches us that the episode itself has application to us as Christians living our lives through faith in the Son of God, yet I would like to focus our attention on the logic that Moses used with God in order to prevail in prayer and see the Israelites spared destruction.
He told God a truth - that the people of the world watch God's people and they either glorify God or demean God based on how our lives turn out. This is true in our day in age as well, and therefore this type of apprach to God is relevant to our prayers today. We make a mistake if we think Moses isn manipulating God. NO - He is genuinely concerned about God's reputation and God's glory. Our lives would be different if we were that concerned with God's glory and our prayers would be different as well.
Moses prevailed with God; not only did God not destroy the people, God displayed His great strength by forgiving them! May we prevail with God like this great intercessor did!
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