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September 23 Daily Devotional

The Work of the Intercessor

Frans Bakker

And Moses brought their cause before the LORD. —Numbers 27:5

Bible Reading

Numbers 27:1–5

Devotional

Moses, with Eleazar and the princes of the people, stood by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation facing a difficult matter. There, together, they had been able to solve many questions, but they knew of no solution to this question. An inheritance in the land of Canaan had been requested of them, while that inheritance had just been parceled out to the sons of Israel. And all this had taken place according to the institution of the Lord. “Unto these,” the Lord had said in verse 53 of the preceding chapter, “the land shall be divided for an inheritance.” “Unto these,” referred to those numbered among the sons of Israel, according to verse 51.

What was there for Moses to divide, if the land had already been divided? Well then, the daughters of Zelophehad came too late. Indeed, they had no rights. It would not have been difficult for Moses and Eleazar and for the council if these orphans had been satisfied with that answer. But the problem was that they did not go away so easily. Observe their persistence. “Why,” they said, “should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.” That drove the mediator of the Old Covenant to God. That caused him to ask, “Lord, what must I do with the request of these daughters?” Their cause was bound to the heart of Moses, the mediator.

Here we think of the greater Moses, the Mediator of the New Covenant. As the question of these five orphans weighed upon the heart of Moses, so the desires of poor sinners weigh upon the heart of the Mediator between God and man. They do not know this yet. They do not know, that there is an invisible Mediator standing between them and God. They do not yet know Him as the great Intercessor before God the Father, and yet He is the only One through whom they have access to the Father. Without this great Deliverer, the desire of sinners who have no rights could never be fulfilled.

Sinners already have an Intercessor without knowing it themselves. When they dare not reckon themselves among His people, when there is not yet a promise of an inheritance among God’s people, when they themselves are still standing outside, then already His intercession begins. They begin to see this later. Increasingly God’s Spirit teaches that it is a fruit of the hearing of prayer, not because of their pleading, nor because of their tears, but only because of the work of the Mediator, that their needs are met.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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