Moses’ Intercessory Prayer for His People

“The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of Your book that You have written.’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of My book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, My angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.’”-Exodus 32:30-34 (ESV).

It is hard for us to imagine the task Moses had in leading the Israelites from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. The number in the company is staggering. Exodus 12:37 states: “And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” He dealt with challenges and complaints of hardships on the journey and remembrances of what some considered better times in Egypt. Even when God provided manna in the desert to feed them, they were often unhappy and ungrateful. Perhaps one of the greatest heartbreaks to Moses was when he and Joshua returned from Mount Sinai and found the people had made a golden calf and were worshipping it. Moses said he would ‘go up to the Lord,’ indicating that he went apart from the crowd of people, into a solitary place alone, or maybe even back on the mountain again to pray. In his intercessory prayer he would ask God earnestly for His forgiveness. ‘Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin,’ Moses said. To atone means “to wipe clean, to purge, to appease.” And how did Moses propose to God to atone for the great sin of idolatry His people had just committed? “Please blot me out of your book that You have written.” Moses was willing to have himself blotted out of God’s book in order for his people to be forgiven. This is prelude to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of the people, a life for lives, one offered up for all.

In commenting on Exodus 32:30-35, Trent C. Walker stated, “A mediator’s majestic intercession is not sufficient” (Holman Bible Dictionary, 1991, p. 458). In Moses’ time (as well as in the New Testament and later), the strong theological belief is held that God maintains a Book of Life in which the names of the faithful are recorded. When a name is blotted out of the book, that person dies. This belief is referred to in Psalm 69:28: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.” [See also Daniel 12:1, Luke 10:26, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3;5, 13:8, 20:19 and 22:19]. Moses was willing to be blotted out from God’s book in order for the people to be forgiven and restored. Moses was reminded that the ‘blotting out’ was God’s work. Moses was to get back to his assigned task: going where God directed in the journey that lay ahead to the Promised Land. And notice the help promised: “My angel shall go before you.”

Paul expressed the same pathos of concern for his brothers, the Israelites, for so many of them had rejected Christ the Lord as the Messiah: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothersk, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3). I remember a powerful sermon preached by my husband, Rev. Grover Jones, when he was leading our church in preparation for revival. His words went something like this: “Several of you have persons for whom you pray, for whom you intercede to become Christians. Would you, like Moses and Paul, be willing to be blotted out of the Lamb’s Book of Life in order for them to be saved? Do you have that much concern for their salvation?” The good news is that I do not have to blot myself out. God has made arrangements that those in His Book of Life are there forever. Our earnest desire for the salvation of others should make us have concern like that of Moses and Paul, expressed in deep intercession.