Exodus 32:11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, Why doth thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
After the Lord told Moses about the Golden Calf incident, He told him that He would consume them and make a great nation out of Moses. Moses interceded and prayed to the Lord to withhold His wrath and not destroy His people. In response to Moses’ intercession God repented of the evil which he thought to do.
Amazing! God listened to Moses’ intercessory prayer and changed His mind! Sure, maybe God never really intended destruction for He knew Moses would pray. Nevertheless, we must take God’s threats of wrath and eternal death seriously. He’s not kidding. Israel would have ceased being His people if Moses had not intervened.
Moses acted as High Priest, coming between God and humanity pleading mercy. In this way, Jesus is our High Priest interceding for us by His substitutionary death. God is pleased with the sacrifice of His Son, and for His sake forgives us and saves us from His deserved wrath and eternal damnation. And not only did Jesus intercede for us once and for all at the the cross, but He also continues to intercede for us daily, pleading mercy on account of His own shed blood. We are daily and richly forgiven and cleansed.
Now, once we have received Christ as our Priest and Savior, we become intercessors, pleading the blood of Christ for our family, friends and neighbors. Beseeching the Lord is our response to the saving intercession of Christ on our behalf.
God’s holy wrath is real, but His love is stronger. And when we see that God has changed his mind toward us, we change our minds, that is, repent and believe the Gospel.