I. There are three reasons why intercession is a very high duty. (1) It is a power given to every man to wield, a mighty instrument for which we are responsible. (2) It is love's utterance in its holiest expression. (3) You are never walking so accurately in the likeness of Jesus Christ as when you are praying for a fellow-creature. On these three pillars the duty of intercession rests.
II. There are great privileges connected with intercession. (1) It is a beautiful way of giving expression to love. (2) It revives the spirit of prayer in ourselves.
III. Intercessory prayer must be: (1) intensely earnest; (2) accompanied with thanksgiving; (3) we should have a regular, defined period for it.
Intercession is the climax of prayer, because it was the climax of Christ's prayers.
J. Vaughan, Meditations in Exodus,p. 78.
The nobler meekness is that which comes forth victorious from the struggle with strong emotion, and wins a glory from the passion it has subdued. The indication of an impetuous, fiery spirit in Moses only reveals the beauty of the meek patience which marked his life.
I. In the story of the golden calf we see (1) man's natural tendency to worship; (2) we see the Israelites employing the very tokens of their deliverance to build a god for themselves. The very gifts of Heaven wealth, intellect, power men turn into idols. (3) In worshipping a golden calf the Israelites utterly degraded themselves.
II. The godliness of Moses manifested itself in self-sacrificing sympathy. Fronting death and its mystery, he stood sublimely willing even to be cut off from God if the sin of the people might thereby be forgiven. (1) His revulsion from their sin mingled with his own love for the people. The holiest men ever feel most deeply the sin of their fellows they see its seeds in themselves; they find its shadow falling across their heaven. (2) He felt the promise of his people's future. In them lay the germ of the world's history; through them might be unfolded the glory of Jehovah before the face of all nations. Gathering these feelings together, we understand his prayers.
E. L. Hull, Sermons,3rd series, p. 106.
References: Exodus 32:30-35. Parker, vol. ii., p. 273.Exodus 32:31. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches,3rd series, p. 148. Exodus 32:31; Exodus 32:32. H. Grey, A Parting Memorial,pp. 135, 155.Exodus 32:32. C. J. Vaughan, The Liturgy and Worship of the Church of England,p. 167. 32 Parker, vol. ii., p. 265. 32-34. W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver,p. 214. 32-39. J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era,p. 119. Exodus 33:2. Parker, vol. ii., p. 280. Exodus 33:7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vii., No. 359. Exodus 33:8. J. Burns, Sketches of Sermons on Special Occasions,p. 140. Exodus 33:9-23. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 338. Exodus 33:12. J. Baldwin Brown, The Divine Life in Man,p. 266.