Interceding in Prayer– Numbers 14

“Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. ² Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. ³ “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” ⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel. ⁶ Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothing.⁷ They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land!⁸ And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. ⁹ Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” ¹⁰ But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle… ¹⁷ “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’¹⁹ In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

When we are going thru life hardships sometimes we get to the point that we just weep and cry; and it makes no different, whose fault it is, because it just hurts, so we cry. And when we’re hurting, most likely somebody will notice, either by our attitude or because we tell about it. And that’s what happened to the people of Israel.

We see here two different approaches because we have two groups of peoples, and they both were being “oppressed” by each other’s actions.  In Moses group is his brother Aaron, and Joshua and Caleb who were the spies who brought God’s good report about the land; the second group is the people of Israel. Israel’s Approach was to talk about the oppression, which lead them to plot against the very person God had chosen to lead them out of captivity. Then we have Moses Approach, which was to go in prayer mode.  Trying to help Moses, Joshua and Caleb proceeded to encourage the people of Israel to make them reason which wasn’t too good for them for it brought them stones to their backs because they fell to recognize that the prayer mode was the only right thing to do. When Moses prayed, GOD answered, and HE needs no one’s help, GOD IS ENOUGH!

See, when you talk about negative situations, problems or the oppression you’re feeling or going thru, because people are humans just like us, they will react in diverse ways.  Their reactions will depend of the mood they’re in, the past experiences they’ve been thru, and the future things they do not want to go thru again or want to accomplish. So, in other words, most likely they’ll be a negative approach that will perish one way or another; this way is very uncertain, and harmful for the most. Did you realize God’s reaction to their negative talk against God’s anointed? The Lord wanted it to destroy them immediately!

On the other hand, when the oppression was on Moses, instead of going to someone else to talk about what to do, what did he do? He went straight to his source of life and dependency; he went to The Master of his life, and The One who had commanded him to lead the people, GOD! And how did he do it?  I’m glad you asked! Moses chose to go in a Prayer Mode; he immediately engaged in a conversation with God, that’s the prayer mode! He talked and God listened, then God talked and Moses quietly heard and then replied. With Moses was his brother Aaron, and the spies who where God’s chosen instrument to examine the new land they had been commanded to go to, they also decided to tear their clothes and humble before God with Moses and Aaron. Because truly they knew that if someone could do something about the entire mess that was GOD, so they did!  And needless to say, God acted upon that humble attitude on their behalf.

Moses realized God was really angry with the attitude these people of Israel had, so to make the long story short Moses intervene for The Lord not to destroy them all, and God answered Moses’ request.

Now Moses was clear about three things: (1) he was God’s instrument to speak to Israel yet he wasn’t totally in charge; (2) God His Master was the only ONE who could do something about both sides for He was really the ONE in charge; (3) Prayer Mode was the vehicle to be used.

Prayer Mode was, is and will always be the best way to get the victory in anybody’s life or situation. 

The QUESTION is: WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH? Israel’s or Moses’?  

I pray in the name of JESUS that you, like Moses, choose today to recognize God as the only ONE who is really in charge of your life; because no matter what the situation might be, GOD can and will intervene on your behalf if you have chosen HIM as your Master.  I pray that you realize that Moses and this Prayer Mode I’ve been talking about is just another to say that Moses develop a conversation with GOD, where one speaks and the other one listens then vice versa. In a conversation with God is important that you remain quiet after you have said it all, so you can hear what HE’s placing in your mind. 

Moses didn’t have a Bible like we have today, so let’s use it!!!  Sometimes His words might be hard to hear, like Moses heard them.  I suggest you to have your Bible with you because in these cases, you just ask God to give you a Scripture to look for in it that will give you the needed answer.  For this you can ask Him the name of one of the sixty six books in the Bible, and then ask for the chapter number, and then read it.  I pray you try it for yourself, and I pray in JESUS name and for His glory, AMEN!!!