Identity: Interceded-For (Part 1)

The snowflake falls, no sound. Muffled. A single flake, missed in the blizzard. Unnoticed. Unheard.

Sometimes, we feel like that. Muffled. Like our prayers cannot penetrate through the thick, heavy grey clouds above. Or if we prayed harder, did something more, maybe, maybe God would hear us.

At the bottom, we feel alone. One small unnoticed snowflake trying to reach back up to heaven. We name ourselves Unheard, Unseen, Alone, Unmeriting-Attention, Not-Good-Enough-to-Reach-Heaven’s-Ears.

But heaven has heard. You are not alone. More than that, you have one standing on your behalf lifting your requests up before the throne, him with the perfect plea. You are the Interceded-For.

~ The Biblical Story ~

Adam and Eve—the winter of God-separation, the blizzard of shame, was harsh after the summer paradise of Eden (and yes, I think it was perpetually summer!). Who could make intercession for them? God himself took the initiative. He came seeking them.

The Lord appeared to Abraham. He queried, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…?” (Gen. 18:17, ESV). Why did God tell Abraham? Perhaps because this man, the Father of the Righteous, would be the one through whom the Great High Priest would come. Perhaps because this Father of the Righteous needed to be a type of his Great Son, and needed to have the same heart. Abraham was not remiss, and he stood in intercession for the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah and for his nephew Lot.

Moses, friend of God made intercession for the Israelites. He cried out, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written” (Exo. 32:32-32). Can you hear the heart of the Greater Prophet, the Messiah?

So, too, the prophets were intercessors. Samuel, prophet and priest, made intercession for the people. He states his duty as intercessor in strong words: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way” (1 Sam. 12:23). Jeremiah stood weeping, his head a fountain of tears, weeping for God’s broken heart and for the people’s suffering (Jer. 9). In Ezekiel, the Lord was amazed that no one stood to make intercession for the people—oh, that one would care to stand before the Lord! That one would lift the people up! (Ezek. 22:30). For God is a personal God, choosing to partner. As Blaise Pascal is quoted, “God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality.”  Because God’s people must be shaped after the heart of God, a God who makes intercession for his people in his own Son and Spirit. God himself, Intercessor. God’s people, the interceded for.

Not a snowflake drops to the ground apart from the eye of our Lord. We are heard. His heart is so to hear us, to have a dialogue with us, he instituted priests and prophets. He gave types of the Great High Priest so that his people would never doubt: We are the Interceded-For.

*Praise God for his involvement with the world, his heart that we would see, hear him, that one on our behalf would stand before him!

*How confident are you that God hears all of your prayers? Why or why not?

~ Jesus’s Story ~

The snowflake may not be able to ascend to heaven, may not make her voice heard—but the King of Heaven stepped down, stooped down. The Priest bridged the gap of earth and heaven, and the snow clouds parted for his white-radiant pure love.

The heartbeat of our Interceding God comes forth in Jesus. He spent hours in prayer; was some of it intercession? After all, he told Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Lk. 22:32). He had prayed. His high priestly prayer before the cross was for the Father’s glory, the protection of the disciples, and for us. His heart was to bear us up before the throne!

Hebrews continues this theme of Jesus being our Great High Priest (Heb. 4:15-16) His heart is to come and give succor to the weak. The high priest of the Old Testament bore a breastplate with twelve precious stones, one for each of the tribes, to represent him bearing his people before the throne of God. Our High Priest bears you on his heart, you, precious in his sight, before the heavenly Father. His hands outstretched, still bearing the scars on his hand, still bearing your name engraven in the palms of his hand. “I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands….” (Isa. 49:15b, 16).

Your case has a plea in our Advocate before the throne, as John calls him (1 Jn. 2:1). You are heard, and your concerns are heard. While I do not want to present my Majestic Jesus as a genie or a bus boy, nor do I want to mold Jesus’s heart to ours. Rather, we are to have our desires shaped to our High Priest’s. Yet, he knows your need for daily bread, for comfort and peace. He knows the cares on your heart and you are invited to share them, to cast your cares on him, for he cares for you (1 Pet. 5:6). Can you see him taking the burden and bearing it before the throne? Can you see him lifting up your pain-wracked body, “Father, my sister, my redeemed, needs your healing.” Can you see him bearing the broken relationship, “Father, I died to reconcile all. She needs a reconciling touch!”

Jesus is not sitting passive up in heaven, but is actively ruling as King, actively speaking as Prophet, and actively interceding as our Priest. We have a voice in heaven, for we are brought up with him and he is with us. Paul writes that Jesus “is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34). The author of Hebrews echoes that Jesus “he always lives to make intercession” for his people (Heb. 7:25).

*How do you see Jesus as YOUR High Priest? What does that mean for you?