"11 Then Moses prayed in the presence of Jehovah his God, and said," O Jehovah, why will your anger burn against your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, He brought them up for evil, to kill them on the mountains, and to destroy them from off the face of the earth? Turn from the fierceness of your wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. 13 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you have sworn by yourself, and you have said to them, "I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven; and I will give to your offspring all this land of which I have spoken, and they will take it for inheritance forever. 14 Then the Lord repented of the evil he said he was to do to his people. "Exodus 32: 11-14
This is the second place in the Bible where we see the principle of intercession. On several occasions, Moses interceded for the people, but from this particular scripture, a controversy arises: Can we change the mind to God? Who are we to change the mind to God? God did not take the people to kill them in the desert; The people were going to die because of their bad decisions. God was looking for someone who was an excuse for not to unleash the negative consequences of bad decisions. It is not that God repented; He was seeing that the people were on their way to death, saw the wrath that would come against them. When Moses wrote the Old Testament, he sees God in such a personal way that he uses words as we think, but it is not that God repented. When you have mercy with your children, for example, you see the actions they took, you see where they take them, but you get in and say: This is what should happen to you, but I'm going to get in the way to avoid you Pass what should happen to you. Because, many times, not even God can free you from the consequences of your bad decisions; God frees you from sin and guilt, but unfortunately there are many consequences of your bad decisions, which you have to pay for them.
Then, you get angry with God because you do not want to pay the consequences of your bad decisions; When someone intercedes what he avoids is that the consequences that are supposed to reach you, reach you; Someone gets in the way, and says: I take them, I pay them, I charge them; I take that load, I charge with them. When Moses intercedes, God says: Because of Moses, because there is a man, this will not happen. And all God needs is one. The Bible says, in Genesis 6, that the earth was full of curse, of trouble, but Noah found grace before God. As a man found grace, God gave opportunity, through that man, whoever believed, be saved; He who did not believe was not saved. But God gave opportunity, because of one.
That is why your country has hope, because what is needed is one. That's why your family has hope, because what you need is one; One that believes, that stands firm, one that intercedes, that prays, one that declares that it is not the end of your family. You have to believe that, because you serve God, everything will be different.
Abraham frees Lot of five kings; When he gets into Sodom, God sends angels to tell him, but even so, Lot does not want to understand. With everything and that, God gives you a way out. And God is always going to give your family a way out; As long as you stay in the gap, God will always give your family a way out. Unfortunately, not everyone accepts the ransom, but God is going to keep his word with you. You have to learn to pray, to intercede. There are relatives of yours who do not understand that most of the blessings they have is because you are alive, and that lots of things do not happen to you because of God's promise about your life. Spiritually, your coverage of your family is so great, that there are a lot of blessings that they enjoy solely and exclusively because they are close to you. When they go out and believe that it is for themselves, there comes the problem; And with everything and that, they are freed from lots of things because of you.
While Moses was there, the town would be safe. He stood in the middle, and God said: This does not come, I'm going to get in the middle; It is not going to happen to him what is supposed to happen to him.
In the New Testament, we see Jesus interceding for his disciples, in John 17 - for example - in one of the longest prayers. Jesus prayed that they would be one, prayed for his care; What he did was to intercede with the Father so that, since he was one with the Father, they also were one. From the cross, Jesus interceded when he said: Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing; That God did not put on them, that did not come on them the consequence that should reach them because of what they had done. Those people, when they killed Jesus, said: His blood falls on us. Those are big words. And Jesus said: Lord, do not listen to them; Do not give them everything they deserve for what they have done to me; I ask you to forgive them. Jesus stood in the gap.
