The Children of Israel were scarcely out of Egypt when they were attacked by enemies. They had no experience of war, yet they had no alternative but to stand and fight against Amalek. Joshua was appointed to lead a fighting force, while Moses, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, went up to the top of the hill overlooking the scene of battle. We are told that, “when Moses held up his hand . . . Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Ex 17:11). Though Moses never lost his physical strength till the day of his death, he obviously became weary after he had been holding up his hand for a period of time. But the other men brought a stone, sat Moses down on it, placed themselves one on each side of him and held up his hands. And Israel were victorious.
Obviously Moses lifting up his hands was a symbol of being engaged in prayer, and in Psalm 141 David puts the expression “my prayer” in parallel with “the lifting up of my hands”, indicating that the one means the same as the other. We can conclude that, as Moses held his hands in the air, he was engaged in prayer, making intercession for Joshua and the other fighting men in Israel’s army. If any of these men had the opportunity to take his eye off his enemies for a moment to look up at Moses on the hilltop and recognise that this godly man was holding up his hands in the act of prayer, he would feel encouraged, knowing that God hears prayer; he might well feel moved to send up a petition to God seeking for help in the battle. But if the soldier’s quick glance at the hilltop showed that Moses’ weary arms had fallen limp by his side, he would feel correspondingly discouraged.
We may consider Moses as a mediator between God and his people; he was standing between God and them and making intercession for them. And we are to see Moses here as a type of Christ. Though Christ is altogether more glorious than Moses, yet when we look at Moses in certain situations, we should see Moses pointing us to Christ, who on a higher level acts in some way corresponding to how Moses was acting. So when we see Moses as a mediator making intercession for his people, we should think of Christ as Mediator making intercession for sinners in this world. But we should be clear that Christ’s intercession is on a higher level altogether, and one indication of this is that He never grows weary.
Clearly Israel needed a mediator, and the Lord provided Moses to make intercession for them. It ought to be just as clear that all sinners need a mediator if they are to approach God – which is what they ought to do – for deliverance from their troubles and for His blessing as they make their way through this sinful world. We are unholy creatures and cannot, in our own right, enter into the presence of a holy God to present such requests. Our sin, our guilt, our pollution, our unclean lips, make that impossible.
But the Mediator whom God has provided – His own Son – is perfectly suited to each of us in our needs, no matter how difficult our circumstances. As “holy, harmless, undefiled,” He is able to represent sinful human beings before a holy God; He presents their imperfect petitions to the Father on the basis of His perfect righteousness. And so “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). Which implies that, always, He “shall neither slumber nor sleep (Ps 121:4). He will continuously be alert to each and every need that His children, in particular, experience and, in contrast with Moses, He will never grow weary.
God’s children will often become weary. They may become weary of indwelling sin and that evil heart of unbelief which, even after many years, still doubts the full extent and absolute certainty of God’s promises. They have gone, times without number, to the throne of grace to plead, as David did, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps 51:7). Why then do they not feel whiter than snow? And although they recognise, in theory, the truth of every single statement in the Bible, why in practice do they not more completely trust the promise that God will supply all their needs?
The answer is that the work of grace in the soul is gradual. It will not be complete until the time will come for God to bring their souls into eternal blessedness. Yet He hears their prayers, because they are presented on their behalf by the Mediator. They are being sanctified, although they may be increasingly conscious of their sinfulness. They are becoming more trustful although their faith continues to be seriously imperfect. Let them continue to plead for holiness and for growth in grace – and for all other spiritual blessings – for Christ will never grow weary of presenting their petitions.
God’s children may become weary in their conflicts with temptation and in the hardships they experience – illness, for instance, or bereavement or poverty – for they, like everyone else in the world, are subject to all the infirmities of this life. It is good if they know their way to the throne of grace and can rest on the fact that their Redeemer is ruling over all that takes place – and does so with their good in view. But let them never imagine that He will ever become weary of representing them in their troubles, great and small, before the Father.
In this world, we will never be without reasons to pray. William Wilson, then of Dundee, stated in a sermon: “I cannot go to a throne of grace without having some errand both of thankfulness and of supplication. I remember my former need and the Saviour’s bounty, and so I praise Him with a grateful heart. But such an exercise of soul reveals to me new wants and opens up to me, moreover, His gracious heart. Thus I have always something to ask, for I am always conscious of need. Even that grace which I have becomes languid unless it be daily watered with the dew of heaven. But in this position, at the feet of Jesus, a petitioner and an acknowledger of His manifold mercies, I am always lifted up again and am enabled to advance in my pilgrimage.”1
But what reason we have to pray for the Church of God in her present state of weakness! Yet God’s children may become thoroughly weary when they do not seem to see their prayers answered. They see godly people being removed to glory and few raised up by God to take their place. They see gross sin being promoted and atheism apparently becoming the national religion. But, even when the outlook seems so dismal, they are not to become weary in well doing; they are not to become weary in praying for the spiritual well-being of their generation. Instead let them remember that the King upon the throne in heaven is not weary. He hears their prayers and He will, in infinite wisdom, answer them in His own time and way.
Let us also think of someone conscious of his acute need as a sinner. He knows that he is guilty and must be forgiven if he is to escape the awful torments of a lost eternity; he knows that he must be delivered from the power of sin if he is to be received into heaven. He has prayed again and again, but he feels he has received no answer. He is still guilty; he is still polluted. Can he continue coming to God in prayer for salvation? Yes, he must. But he must not forget the Mediator whom God has appointed.
Let him take encouragement from the fact that, although he may easily become weary in prayer, the Mediator will never grow weary. He assures even the chief of sinners: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn 6:37). The sinner deserves nothing, but the saving work of Christ was so great and glorious that He merits, from God the Father, a full salvation for sinners of every kind. Let no sinner, however weak, question Christ’s power to save him in particular. He must look away from himself and his inability to this glorious Person who is able to save to the uttermost.
1Wilson, Christ Setting His Face Towards Jerusalem, 1878, pp 166-7.