Day 2 - Exodus

Do you ever read something in the Bible and think, "I can't believe that's in there?  Did I just read that?"  That's the way I felt, and still feel, when I read Exodus 32.  A little context.  After wondering in the desert a while, God sends Moses up to Mount Sinai to give him the 10 commandments...literally.  God is actually talking to Moses and carves up with his finger two stone tablets to take down to the people.  He's gone a long time and the Israelites get restless.  They don't know where Moses is, so they ask Aaron, Moses' brother, to make them some gods.  So, they get all the gold they've got together and make a golden calf to bow down and worship and to 'go before them.'  They wanted a symbol and even celebrated a festival to God, but did so in worshiping at the altar of this golden calf.  God is not too happy.  Check out Exodus 32:7-14:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “O Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and 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 wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened."

Wha...Wha...What?!  Did you catch that?  Do you need to read it again?  Moses did something that still amazes me -- he changed God's mind.  Did you even know that was possible?  Moses prayed.  And God changed what he was going to do.  Moses did what we call 'interceded' on behalf of the people.  He stood in the gap for them.  He pleaded their case.  He reminded God of God's character and who He is.  He pointed to what God had done in the past and painted a vision for the future.  And God relented. 

God's mind can be changed by holy people who intercede.  Does that change your understanding of prayer?  It does mine.  First, I want to be a like Moses, intimately involved with God where I feel like I can say anything to Him.  And I want to carry myself with the kind of integrity Moses has.  I think that matters when we intercede.  But, most of all, I want to speak to God with the boldness of Moses.  I want to convince God.  I want to cast a vision to God.  Notice it's not about what Moses wants or what is best for Moses.  That's not what this is about.  It's not about praying really hard (and loudly) so that God gives us what we want.  That doesn't work.  This happens because Moses' motives and heart are so pure.

Moses casts a vision in his intercession that is about what is best for God's Kingdom, how this prayer, this new action will speak to the nations of the glory and power of the Almighty.  My prayers are often either selfish or weak.  They end up being about me or including lines like "if you don't mind" or "if you'd just".  Moses is bold.  Moses pleads with God and cries out to God.  And God changes.  Do you know why?  God loves Moses.  And God loves those people.  God is looking for a reason to bless his children...and He still is.  And God is listening for the faithful to be bold in their prayers, to convince Him of another path that will reveal His Glory.  Aren't you tired of praying selfish prayers?  Aren't you tired of praying namby-pamby prayers?  It's time to be selfless.  It's time to be bold.  You might change history as we know it.  After all, He loves you, too.