November 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Exodus 32:30–35

Devotional

Moses could not redeem the people of Israel. There was need for a better Surety, a more powerful Intercessor. That is Christ. He comes with everything for a sinner who has nothing. Jesus became poor in order to make the poor rich. We see a poor Jesus before God, and a rich Jesus for His people. They lack everything in Moses, but find everything in Jesus.

The Lord leads His people into the school of Moses and then into the school of Christ. In the school of Moses you must perish, for no matter what you try, Moses comes back with the law. And the harder you work in the school of the law, the more ineffective you become in yourself. In the school of Moses you do not advance but continually go backward. You become greater sinners instead of less until you sink so low that you have no hope in yourself. It is exactly there that Christ’s instruction starts in your life. That is a great miracle of grace. Moses makes room for Christ.

Moses came back down the mountain with the law, but Christ comes with the gospel. He came to preach the gospel to the poor and to heal the broken in heart. The aim of the Old Testament is to lead to the New Testament. The law makes room for the gospel.

In Exodus 32:30 Moses said unto the people, “Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.” Moses failed to work atonement for their sin, but now there is a more powerful Intercessor. With Him salvation does not rest on a “peradventure.”

Never did anyone rest on this greater than Moses in vain, and now He is exalted at the right hand of the Father. There He is the almighty Intercessor for powerless supplicants. And the more you experience your own helplessness, the more you will receive from His intercessory work. Therefore, come before the throne of God often that you may experience your own inability. In this Christ is glorified. And when He is glorified this always brings with it your salvation until the time comes when the redeemed of the Lord will no longer have need of an intercessor. That is when they will be delivered from sin, for He will come one day to take His people home out of this earthly wilderness. Then they will eternally sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

 

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.