Practices in the Christian Life- Intercessory Prayer
Among the many practices of the Christian life (such as gathering for worship, meditating on God’s Word, serving the needy, forgiving, and seeking forgiveness) There are two very basic practices in the Christian life; receiving God’s Word, and then speaking with God. Receiving God’s Word of course comes through reading, or hearing the scriptures. And speaking with God occurs in prayer. As soon as the topic of prayer comes up, questions are not far behind. Questions like “If God already knows, why pray?” or “What are the outcomes of prayer?”. It is appropriate to ask questions about prayer as we learn from Jesus' example in answering the first disciples about how to pray (Matthew 6:5-13). In today’s piece, we examine how prayer is linked to the work of Christ, and the role of the prophet.
What is Intercessory Prayer?
The Greek word is ὑπερεντυγχάνω and is a compound word. “Huper” means “on behalf of” and “entungchano”, which means, “to entreat or pray, plead” combined we get, “to entreat or pray/plead on behalf of someone else”
More often than not when we talk about intercessory prayer we think of the office of the priest. In many religions today, people come to confess their sins to a priest and he in turn prays or “intercedes” on their behalf to God (or at least he is supposed to entreat God on their behalf). However, what is striking is that in the scriptures the most wonderful intercessory prayers are found on the lips of God’s prophets, e.g. Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and our Savior and God’s ultimate Prophet, Jesus Christ. Looking further at the above examples, we see a pattern regarding intercessory prayer in each of these passages. Abraham intercedes for King Abimelech who had taken Sarai to be his wife because Abraham lied and said she was his sister. God graciously intervenes and reveals Sarai’s true identity in a dream to the king and tells him that Abraham is a prophet and will intercede on his behalf if he safely returns her to Abraham. (Genesis 20:7)
Moses twice makes intercession for the idolatrous people in Exodus 32. He prays for forgiveness and for God to remember His covenant promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through Moses’ humble prayer on behalf of the people, God graciously and mercifully forgives. We will look a little closer below of Moses’ intercession. Samuel in 1 Samuel 7, intercedes like Moses did for the idolatry of Israel, do you recognize a pattern? In Isaiah 63:7-64:12, Isaiah the prophet intercedes for exiled Israel for their idolatry. Similarly in Jeremiah 15:15-21, Jeremiah’s intercessory prayer is graciously heard by the LORD. Daniel, an exile, remembers Jeremiah’s prophecy and in contrite intercessory prayer to the LORD pleads for the exiles in Daniel 9.
From these texts, we see that “intercession” in regard to prayer is someone advocating or pleading on behalf of another before God. Intercession is a legal term for a witness taking the stand to plead the cause of the accused. Job 16:19,21 is helpful for us to consider at this point. The text reads, “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high.” In verse 21 we read, “O that a man might plead with God…”. In the context of the passage, Job has been accused in heaven by satan of having advantage and privilege and the blessing of God, and that was the reason he was committed to the LORD. Satan was permitted to persecute Job physically and materially. Materially speaking, Job lost everything, yet his faith in God’s righteous and gracious care remained steadfast despite the devastation inflicted upon him. The reason for Job’s steadfast faith is that it is in the Man in heaven pleading his cause on his behalf (vs.21). Job knows he can plead his (a man) case before God because the God/Man is interceding for him, more of this in a moment.
In the NT. we see the theme of intercession continue in the Great Prophet Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”, and in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
The Need for Someone to Intercede on Our Behalf
The need for someone to intercede and plead our cause is enhanced further in Numbers 21:7, “So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.” In the passage, the people of Israel are complaining against Moses and YHWH and the LORD sent serpents into their midst to punish their grumbling and sin. They ask Moses to “intercede” for them to the LORD. Pointing or foreshadowing when one Man will intercede or advocate for His people in the N.T. That one man being Jesus Christ!
Another text is found in 1 Samuel 2:25, “If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him? The high priest Eli’s sons are treating the God they serve in the Tabernacle with disregard and irreverence. Stealing food and sleeping with women coming to worship the LORD. Because they have rejected the substance of God's law and the one to whom their service to the LORD foreshadows and perverted the sanctuary of God, they do not have an Advocate or intercessor like Job to plead for them.
Examining Exodus 32 gets at the heart of intercessory prayer. In Exodus 32 we are told of how Moses prayed on behalf of the people. Psalm 106:23 summarizes Moses’ actions by stating he “stood in the breach before Him,...”. Psalm 106 is a beautiful historical Psalm that recounts a summary of the events in Exodus 32. As the account of Exodus 32 states, Moses was delayed in coming down the mountain. He had gone up to receive God’s divine revelation and regulations, i.e. the Decalogue. The people had seen the LORD thundering on the mountain and did not want to go up to Him, so in their fear of Him they asked Moses to go up “on their behalf”. When he did not come down after the forty days were over the people say to Aaron in 32:1 “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
We Are Like the People of Israel
By our sin nature, we are like the people of Israel. Who we are deep within our hearts is characterized by rebellion and love only for ourselves. When circumstances change even in the slightest we run away from the God who has delivered us from slavery to sin to the arms of lifeless idols claiming they are our deliverers. Oh, dear reader, how much we like Israel of old need someone who will stand firm against the outburst of God’s righteous anger against us. We need someone to take our sinful rebellious nature upon Himself and stand in the chasm that is between us and our Creator. We need someone to stand in the beach for us!
When God’s people fall in humble prayer before the LORD, our “Man” (Christ Jesus) in heaven is standing in the breach. The chasm that sin has caused is bridged by the perfect son of God taking on flesh and interceding. What is truly remarkable and marvelous, is that as we reflect the one Mediator in humbleness and intercession on one another’s behalf God listens and graciously forgives because He is before the LORD in the Holy of Holies of heaven (John 20:23). He who not only stands in the breach, but has through his voluntary sacrifice taken upon Himself our sin and endured ALL of God’s wrath. This truth is stated strongly in Hebrews 7:25, which says, “and so He is powerful to save absolutely those who come near to God through Him, for he is ever living to plead (intercede) on their behalf.”(author’s translation)
Indeed, it is through Jesus Christ, the great prophet, Intercessor, and eternal Son of God that intercession for His people is accomplished. Hebrews says He is always praying and interceding for you and me. Think of your savior praying and standing in the breach on our behalf because He truly, like no one else, could understand the frailty of life you are living, because He has been tempted in all we have except our sin (Hebrews 4:15). So we can run to our God at any moment, for any reason, on behalf of anyone and plead our case with steadfast faith and hope because like Job “our Man” is there right now standing in the breach for us!
Arthur W. Pink says it this way in his commentary on Hebrews, pg 417; “The Lord Jesus lives a mediatorial life in heaven for His people, as He dies for them, so He lives for them…” The son of God came from His glory above and took to Himself humanity so that He might die and atone for, in His horrific death, the sins of His beloved. Now through His resurrection, He lives so that He might convey to those who believe in Him eternal life! As he has been glorified to the right hand of the majesty in heaven, (Heb. 1:3, 8:1) He ever lives there to stand in the breach for those who trust in Him. This glorious truth of our dear Savior is why the book of Hebrews says we have “so great a salvation”, (2:3). Do you know the Lord Jesus? If you have believed and know Him as your savior, be reminded that He is alive and intercedes for you every time you draw near to the Father through Him. He prays on your behalf that every prayer His people utter is heard and answered! (Romans 8:26-34).
As surely as Moses stood in the gap, and the prophets of old entreated God on behalf of the people, Christ now lives standing in the gap bringing the prayers of His people into the loving ears of our heavenly Father.
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