God Repents
Moses had gone up into the mountain and was communing with God. God reveals to him His purposes and plans for the future of Israel. He gave to Moses the two tables of stone written with His finger. What a glorious time Moses had in his time with the Almighty God. …But right in the midst of this sweet Presence with Him, God said to Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people (stubborn and rebellious): Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32:7-10).
God said, “Moses, let me alone…” Moses had not said or done anything. Why would he say to Moses, “Let me alone?” God knew the heart of Moses. He knew his long-suffering with this rebellious nation of people. God knew what Moses was about to do.
Moses besought the Lord and said, “Why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil [intent] their God brought them out to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from Your burning anger and change Your mind about harming Your people.” Moses continued to remind God that He had said, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever” (Exodus 32:11-13). God is always just, and He had every right to destroy the Children of Israel because of their idolatry. Moses knew that God is a God Who judges sin, but he also knew that God was a covenant-keeping God. So, what did Moses do? He put God in remembrance of His Word (Isaiah 43:26). We are commanded by God in this verse, “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together…” Then, the last part of this verse, God says in the Amplified Bible, “State your position, that you may be proved right.” Our position must be standing on what God has said (His Word). This is what Moses did with God. And how did God respond to Moses?
“And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people” (v. 14). In other words, God changed His mind about the harm which he said that He would do to them. Moses was not concerned for his own glory but for God’s glory. Moses appealed to God on two components: God’s Word and God’s oath; His promise. By Moses’ act of intercession, one man – Moses – saved a whole nation. That is the power and the possibility of intercession.
We are also called of God, dear brother and sister, to intercede. I have heard some serious visions that men and women of God have seen. It is called the judgment of America. God may have every right to judge America, but I am pleading with Him for mercy. I remind Him that there is a people that are His people, and that they still live here. I remind Him that we are believing for the revival that we believe the Word says that we can have. I remind Him that if He judges America, it will hinder any major revival that we have been praying for, for many years. I remind Him that His Word declares in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” I believe that this kind of intercession is prayer that believes God for mercy and grace instead of a just judgment.
What are you believing the Lord for? What are the Scriptures that you are standing on? Let us put our God in remembrance of His Word. He hasn’t forgotten His Word. He just desires for you and me to not let Him alone until we see His Word come to pass in our lives and in the earth. Amen!