My, Me, and I…

How good are we at intercession? When someone sins against us personally, how often does that put us right on our knees asking God to please forgive them? I’m pretty certain that the collective answer would be ‘not often enough’. It would appear that the spirit of intercession is really quite foreign to us….as is loving our neighbor as ourselves, and yet that is the high calling. Indeed God’s ways are not our ways. Indeed God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). None the less the command is to be holy (Leviticus 11:45). Note below a few biblical examples of an intercessory spirit and one in which I’m certain God loves. Also, note that in some of the examples, how the person interceding identifies with the sin…includes themselves! Not the traditional, forgive THEM…but rather forgive US!  My Christian Interpretation would be that none of these prayers are about my, me, and I, but rather about the collective good.  How does our prayer life stack up against these examples?

Exodus 32:31-32…So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin— but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."

Exodus 34:8…Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. "O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with US. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive OUR wickedness and OUR sin, and take US as your inheritance."

Numbers 16:41-48…The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. "You have killed the LORD’s people," they said. But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the LORD said to Moses, "Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." And they fell facedown. Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started." So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.

Deuteronomy 9:6…When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so provoking him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me. And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.

Acts 7:59-60…While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Luke 23:34…Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.