"Pray for Me". Kenneth H. Carter Jr.
in Christ Jesus. Intercession requires emptying oneself on behalf of another.
When we worship, we move into the presence of a Holy God. We offer gifts of praise and silence, listening and humility, adoration and repentance. We place these gifts upon the altar. We gaze upon the greatest act of intercession, the cross of Jesus Christ. And we remember that Jesus continues to pray for us. He is the great high priest, seated at the right hand of God.
To make intercession is to worship God. All along the way, we are praising the God who hears our prayers, who is “our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.” We “lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely” (Heb. 12:1). We empty ourselves. We look to Jesus, who emptied himself, who endured the cross, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2).
As you read these pages, as you journey more deeply into a life of intercession, imagine that you are a part of a great procession approaching the throne of grace. You are not alone. You are laying your burdens before the altar. You are preparing for something. Perhaps you are preparing for a more profound ministry of intercession.
I have learned to honor the request “pray for me.” It is a cry for help, however it may be expressed. It is an acknowledgment that we are limited and finite creatures. It is a trust placed in a higher power. It is always prompted by a situation that would not be desired: an illness, a loss, a need, a crisis, a doubt—and yet it is always an occasion for the grace of God, whose power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
That intersection—God’s power and our weakness—lies at the heart of intercession. May the grace of God lead you into a deepened life of prayer for others.
Intercession and Scripture Old Testament
If we are to pray for others, we need to know the traditions, teachings, and practices of intercession found in scripture. These are God’s design for authentic intercession. They will guard us from errors of judgment and motivate us to continue in prayer, especially when we are tempted to give up. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on particular models of intercession from the scriptures, first from the Old Testament, and then from the New Testament. Biblical teaching undergirds this whole study, but these two chapters provide a foundation.
It will be helpful to have an open Bible nearby as we learn more about intercession. First we turn to the Torah, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Literature. We will focus on Moses, Elijah, and the psalmist.
Moses as Intercessor
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”
But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.—Exodus 32:1-14
A biblical understanding of intercession surely begins with the example of someone like Moses, whom, according to the Torah, “the LORD knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10). Moses is set apart from the beginning of his life—saved in a basket (literally an ark) that floats down the river; called aside by the Voice from within the burning bush, commissioned as the one who will speak to Pharaoh the oppressor. Throughout the book of Exodus, God speaks to Moses, guiding him, correcting him, encouraging him, at times with words—“I will be with you”—at other times with visible signs—plagues, cloud, fire, and manna.
In Exodus, Mount Sinai is a holy place (Exod. 19:23). There God gives Moses the commandments (Exod. 20). Later, at the end of Moses’ life, God is with him on another mountain, Mount Nebo. God points to the Promised Land, allowing Moses to see it, but letting him know that Moses will not be allowed to enter it. In the Gospels, Jesus is transfigured on a “high mountain” (Matt. 17:1-2). Moses appears there, along with Elijah.
Invitation to reflect: Mountain peaks are holy places throughout the scriptures. Recall what you would consider a mountaintop experience in your own life or a geographical mountain setting that is important to you. How has that experience or place affected your faith journey?
Moses has been on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. Moses is the leader of the people, but in his absence there is a void in leadership. So the people make demands on the logical person who is present: Aaron. They demand: “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us”; the idea of “going before” is also present in Exodus 13 (a cloud by day, a fire by night). Their true leader, Moses, is almost forgotten (“as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him”). In contemporary parlance, they might have asked, “Moses, what have you done for us lately?”
We have short memories. When God is absent, we look for substitutes. My neighbor Steve Shoemaker has written: “When times get hard and God seems nowhere to be found, the consolations of what we can see and touch, taste and smell are awfully appealing: the feel of gold, the taste of skin, the smell of the soil, the sea. Golden calves often beat out the impalpable God.”1
And so the Hebrew people demand other gods. Aaron, their leader, is either overwhelmed with doubts or intimidated, or perhaps some combination of both. In the end, he gives in to the demands of the people.
Invitation to reflect: Think about your own sphere of influence. Can you relate to Aaron’s predicament? Recall an instance when you’ve been tempted to give people not what they need but what they desire.
The people take the gold rings from their ears and bring them to Aaron. Aaron melts the gold and casts an image of a calf. They said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exod. 32:4), in clear violation of the second commandment. Human beings are worshiping creatures; when we refuse to worship the One God, we bow down to worship many gods (Rom. 1).
Seeing all this, the Lord sends Moses back down the mountain at once to the scene of the idolatry and unfaithfulness. The people are indicted. Israel is no longer “my people” but “your people” (Exod. 32:7, emphasis added). God mediates and intervenes through people like Moses—and perhaps you and me. Next comes a curious development in the story. The Lord says, “Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation” (32:10). Is God brooding? Does God need solitude? The rabbis