Let's pray for the nation
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Let's pray for the nation (Deuteronomy 9:1-29)
People have different ways of living according to their view of history.
1. Capture Canaan (vv. 1-7).
(1) “Hear, O Israel” (v. 1) “God is coming before you” (v. 3)
(2) Israel was able to enter the Promised Land of Canaan for two reasons: First, it was the total grace of God (vv. Second, it was because of the oath God made to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v) 5b).
⑶ Therefore, we Christians should always be humble and not proud (vv. 6-7).
2. Remember the failure of Sinai (vv. 8-17).
(1) The people of Israel committed the sin of idolatry on Mount Sinai. Israel made a golden calf on Mount Horeb to provoke God's wrath (verse 8). God says that God will wipe out Israel who betrayed Moses, and that Moses, who is always obedient and has good faith, will be the father of a new nation (verse 14). But Moses asks God to forgive the Israelites. They don't even care about their own family. For Moses, Israel was himself.
(2) Moses threw the two stone tablets of the law he had received from God at the idol of the golden calf and broke them (verses 15-17). Rather than longing to become the father of his great nation, Moses prayed for the nation as one with the people to save the nation, and prayed for Aaron, who stood at the center of idolatry (verses 18-21).
3. Let's pray for the nation (verses 18-21).
(1) Moses' intercession (vv. 18-21). Moses fasted forty days and repented and interceded for the sins of the people of Israel. It is a request to either forgive Israel's sins or to erase his name along with Israel (Exodus 32:31-32).
(2) God cares for those who intercede (Mal 3:16-17).
4. Do not repeat the failures of the wilderness (verses 22-29).
(1) We must intercede for the idolatrous nation.
Moses risked his life in intercession for the people of Israel. For 40 days and 40 nights, I bow down before God and pray (verses 23-25). In the end, in Exodus 32, God was moved by Moses' prayer and finally withdrew his plan to annihilate the people of Israel (Exodus 32:14).
(2) Our Christian mission of intercession is very important.
I hope that all of us will have the grace to heal the nation through intercession.