(Through the Bible) Exodus 30-32 — Chuck Smith

The Incense Altar and Priestly Atonement

And thou shalt make an altar to burn the incense upon. Of acacia wood shalt thou make it. And it's to be eighteen by eighteen and forty-five inches high. This is the little altar that was set in the holy place before the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies.

Overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof and the sides round about, and the horns thereof. And so it's a little altar only of gold and it's to burn incense, a sweet-smelling savor again before God.

And the rings in it so that they can carry it with the golden staves that are through it. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning. When he dresses the lamps he shall burn incense upon it.

And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generation. So along with the putting of the oil in the lampstands to keep them burning morning and evening, there was also the putting of the incense on this little altar.

So in this holy of holies there was always the sweet smell of incense burning and the lamps that were burning. It was just unto the Lord there perpetually. And ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice or meat offerings, neither shall you pour drink offerings thereon.

It was just a little incense altar and nothing else on it. And Aaron shall make an atonement or a covering upon the horns of it once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements. Once in the year shall he make atonement upon it, Yom Kippur actually, the day of atonement.

Throughout your generations it is the most holy unto the Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, When you take the census of the children of Israel after their number, then shall you give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when you numbering them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.

This they shall give every one that passes among them that are numbered, a half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel is twenty geras, and a half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.

And every one that passes among them that are numbered from twenty years old and above shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, the poor shall not give less, than a half a shekel when they give an offering to the Lord, that shall make a covering for your souls.

And thou shalt take the atonement or covering money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord to make a covering for your souls.

So they did not actually take a census as such. They were forbidden by God to number the people. But once a year, every man above twenty years old had to give a half shekel. So they'd count the half shekels and they'd know how many people there were.

But no census because that was forbidden. But this was the way of taking the census actually. Every man gave a half of a shekel, which was to actually purchase the lands and the offerings and to keep, you know, things functioning there.

The rich were not to give more, the poor were not to give less. It was a half shekel for everybody. No favoritism because a person was rich. Just everyone giving the same amount. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass and his foot also of brass to wash.

And thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar and thou shalt put water in it. So this big bathtub, a brass tub for the washing of the priest. And that was before the, as they would come into the gate of this little enclosure.

The first thing was this brass tub to wash in. And then next, the brass altar. And then the tabernacle itself where they would go in. For Aaron his son shall wash their hands and their feet. And when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they die not.

Or when they come near the altar to minister to burn offering made by fire to the Lord. So here is again an occupational hazard. They forget to wash before they go in. They get wiped out. Now this could be what happened to Aaron's sons.

It could be that they just got excited when they saw the fire of God and ran in there without washing and got wiped out. Or it could be that they've been drinking some wine and were under false stimulant.

Because later on, after they died, God said to Moses, tell Aaron that neither he nor his sons are to drink any wine or strong drink when they offer the Lord, lest they die. So, very hazardous job being a priest in those days.

So they shall wash their hands and their feet that they die not. And it shall be a statute forever. Moreover, the Lord spake unto Moses saying, and now this is the anointing oil and how they were to make it.

Thou shalt also take these principal spices. Myrrh, 500 shekels. Sweet cinnamon, 250 shekels. And sweet calamus, 250 shekels. Cassia, 500 shekels. After the shekel of the sanctuary. And of oil and hen.

And hen is about six quarts. And the shekel is about 65 cents worth. So 65 cents worth of myrrh. And 65 times 500. 65 cents times 500. Thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment. An ointment compounded after the art of the apothecary.

The druggist. It shall be a holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation with it. And the ark of testimony. And the table and all the vessels. The candlesticks and all the vessels.

The altar of incense. The altar of burnt offering. And the vessels and the labor with his foot. And thou shalt sanctify them. That they may be most holy. And whatsoever touches them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons.

And consecrate them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak to the children of Israel saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout all your generations.

Among man's flesh shall it not be poured. Neither shall you make any other like it after the composition of it. It is holy and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever will compound anything like it. Or whosoever puts any of it upon a stranger.

Shall even be cut off from his people. Now as I was first reading through the Bible. And I was reading of this oil and all. I thought, oh that would be interesting to go ahead and put together these spices.

And make some of this oil. Until I got down to the verse 32. And then I decided not to do it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto these sweet spices. I'm not going to even try their names. And make a perfume.

After the art of the apothecary. Tempered together pure and holy. And thou shalt beat some of it very small. And put it in before the testimony of the tabernacle and the congregation. Where I will meet with thee.

And it shall be unto you most holy. As for the perfume. Which thou shalt make. Ye shall not make it to yourselves according to the composition thereof. It shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. So a separate oil.

A separate perfume. Only to be used for God. Whosoever shall make anything like unto the smell of it. Shall be cut off from his people. The Lord spake unto Moses saying. See I have called by name. Basiliel.

The son of Uriah. The son of her. Of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him. With the spirit of God. In wisdom. In understanding. And in knowledge. And in all manner of workmanship. To devise cunning works.

To work in gold and in silver. And in brass. So. Now God has anointed Basiliel. And given him certain talents and abilities. It is marvelous to see people who have just innate abilities and talents. That have been given to them by God.

Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ

It's just in them. It's encoded I think in their gene structures. There are some people that just have natural music ability. And I don't care how hard you study music. You can never achieve. What they have achieved just through natural innate ability.

There are people who are natural linguist. Languages just come naturally to them. One of the translators of King James. And I'm going to bring you some lessons on the King James translations one of these days.

And show you why I am opposed to anything other than the King James translation. Why I believe that it was inspired of God. Like no other translation has been since. There is an endeavor to put down the scholarship of the King James translation.

But I'm going to show you some interesting facts of history of what really happened to translations. And I'm going to show you the error of the reasoning of Westcott and Hort. Who created the text from which all modern translations are taken.

Basing what they said the most ancient manuscripts would be the more correct manuscripts. I'm going to show you the fallacy of their reasoning. A conspiracy of Satan to rob us from the true word of God.

And I'll be showing you the errors of a lot of these modern translations. Because they were taken from Westcott and Hort. People say, oh but the King James is so hard to read. Listen, there's nothing like it.

Now they are coming out with a new King James. The New Testament is now out. They've gone back to Textus Receptus. This is one of the best things that has happened in translation. Because I believe that the Textus Receptus is closer to the original text than anything else.

I think that the Westcott and Hort text is a gigantic perversion of Satan. To rob from the deity of Jesus Christ. Because of the Arian influence in the early church. And of the 50 copies that were made in Alexandria.

In which they deliberately perverted and changed the scriptures that had to do with the deity of Jesus Christ. From which came the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus and also the Vulgate. For Jerome used it in his translation.

And I'll show you where the true translations came from. The church of Antioch which was interested in keeping the purity of the scriptures. Quite a bit there to learn and to know. Don't let anybody put down your King James.

There are some 1128 changes in the Revised Standard that are horrible. They are doing away with the deity of Christ. I do not respect or admire the so-called scholarship of Westcott and Hort. I think they were a couple of big plants.

They put down the scholarship of King James and this is where I was started. One of the translators of King James could read and write Hebrew when he was five years old. A natural linguist could converse in 45 different languages.

Now some people are just born with that ability. Some people are born with mathematic ability. Some people are born with electronic abilities. Some people are born with artistic abilities. There are certain innate abilities that men have.

Now these innate abilities actually come as a gift from God. What you do with them is up to you. But it's tragic when a person takes an ability given to him by God and prostitutes it for his own profit or gain.

Whatever God has given to us, He has given to us to use for His glory. Languages were the hardest thing in the world for me. I struggled with languages. It didn't come easy at all. And yet some people just have no problem with language.

And the study of foreign languages just comes so easy for them. It's just an inward gift. It's just something that is there. I've been looking for what God has gifted me with for a long time. One of these days I hope to find it.

But I'm just Mr. Plain Normal. But I love to see people who have been gifted of God. I love to see an artist, really gifted artist, as they're drawing or as they're working. It to me is just fascinating.

I love to watch a gifted carpenter. People who have just been given that innate ability to do things. Now God said, I put my spirit on Basilio. For skillful, cunning work. This fellow was just anointed of God to be the superintendent and to oversee, to make sure that it was all done right.

And that to me is glorious. That God has so gifted people in various areas. Now that's where the body is neat. Because as we are here in the body, we have every kind of gift imaginable. Here within the body.

There's really probably nothing that we can't do collectively. We announced the problem with the brakes on the truck up at camp. Fellow came out and said, well I drive a truck and I'll take my toolbox.

And we went up and fixed the brakes. That's neat. If I had gone up there to look at the brakes, I wouldn't have known where to start looking. And so it's glorious that God has brought together collectively in all of us probably the abilities and the talents for just about anything.

The whole body concept is beautiful. Because as we pool the resources together, oh so much can be accomplished for God. With the pooling of our combined abilities and talents. And that's what God intends.

Is that we each put our part in. And the body is composed of many parts. And not all parts do the same thing. Your hands can't do what your feet were designed to do. Your feet can't do what your hands were designed to do.

But each part is important to the functioning of the body. So here we are, the body of Christ. And God has you here for a plan and for a purpose. Your place within the body to fill that place. And when the need arises in which God has given you those special talents and abilities, you can step in and say, well hey, I can do that.

You know there's none of that. Oh yes, there is something to that if you don't know anything about it. If you haven't been talented by God in that area. So the collective pooling of the resources, our talents as we anoint, give them to God and let them be anointed of their spirit.

Because always, always, your talent will find its greatest release when anointed of God's spirit and doing the work of God. And anything less will always be a little unsatisfactory. You won't have a total sense of fulfillment until you've consecrated to God, let Him anoint it and let Him use it.

And then, oh, the glory that comes from consecrating my talent to God and letting Him use it for His glory. It's really great. So Basilio, a man anointed to devise the cunning works, to work in gold, silver, brass.

He's just a natural at it. In cutting of stones, carving the timber, and then work in all kinds of workmanship. A guy just skilled with his hands. And I have given with him a holy egg from the tribe of Dan.

And in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted, I have put wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee. The tabernacle of the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat, the furniture of the tabernacle, the table, and all of these things.

God just gave these fellows these abilities and wisdom. And the Lord is begging unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my sabbaths shall ye keep. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.

The Sabbath, Christian Rest, and the Finished Work of Christ

Ye shall keep the sabbaths therefore. It is holy unto you. Every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath, he shall surely be put to death. Capital punishment. Wherefore, the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant.

It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth. In the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And so he gave unto Moses. He made an end of the communion with him on Mount Sinai.

Gave him the two tables of testimony, the tables of stone written with the finger of God. Now, notice on the sabbath day that it is a definite covenant between God and the nation Israel. For their generations.

Between me and Israel forever. The sabbath was not a law made for the Gentile. And nowhere in the scripture, except where a Gentile would move in to Israel, was he to observe the sabbath. But the Gentile church was never placed under the sabbath law.

In the scriptures. And in the early church when there was an endeavor to put the Gentile church under the law, a council was called in Jerusalem in which it was determined that they should not try to put the Gentiles under the law which Peter called a yoke of bondage which neither we nor our fathers were able to keep.

Why should we tie it on the necks of the Gentiles? And so when they wrote to them, the Gentile church of Antioch, concerning its relationship to the law of Moses, they said, keep yourself from fornication and from things that are strangled and if you do this, you do well.

God bless you. But nothing about the observance of the sabbath day. And thus, Paul the Apostle said in Romans 14, one man esteems one day above another. Another man esteems every day alike. Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind.

In Colossians he said, therefore, let no man judge you in respect to sabbath days, new moons, holy days, which were all a shadow of things to come, the real substances of Christ. Now, what was the Jewish sabbath signifying?

That God wanted His people to rest in Him. But, they never did rest in Him. Even though they did nothing on the sabbath day. Now, Christ is the fulfillment of the sabbath day for Christ is our rest. And we who are in Christ have entered into His rest.

So we have a perpetual sabbath. I have ceased from my own labors. I have entered into the finished work of Jesus Christ. And even as God is now resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ as far as my salvation, I must rest where God is resting and realize that there is no work that I can offer to God of my hands that can save me.

The only thing that can possibly save me is Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for my sins and I rest in that sacrifice, that finished work of Jesus Christ as far as my salvation is concerned. I'm resting that Christ is going to take care of it.

Through His sacrifice of His blood upon the cross, I'm resting and thus, I have entered into the true sabbath that which the Jews haven't yet discovered. Though they light their candles and say their prayers and stay in bed.

On Saturday. How glorious it is to know the true rest of God. The true sabbath of God. Even Jesus Christ. Now when the people saw that Moses had delayed coming down from the mountain, they gathered to Aaron and they said, get up and make us gods that shall go before us.

Israel's Golden Calf and the Danger of Idolatry

For as for Moses, we don't know what's happened to him. He brought us out of the land of Egypt, but what's become of him? We don't know. He's been gone now for almost 40 days. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them unto me.

And all of the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received them at their hands and fashioned with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf.

So, he melded down the gold and then he fashioned it with a graving tool, a little golden calf. Notice that carefully. Because you're going to find that Aaron's a classic liar. He took this graving tool and carved out this little golden calf.

And remember, he's the high priest, which might be a warning unto you that not all who are in the ministry of the Gospel are totally honest in all of their dealings. You might get some computerized letters that are filled with hypocrisy, deceit and lies.

If I could get going again. So, the people broke off their golden earrings. He took a graving tool. He carved out this little molten calf. And he said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Quickly, these people forget. You know, to me, the constant, constant burden of my heart is the fact that there are some people that just migrate towards every stupid doctrine. Every wind of doctrine.

Every concept that comes along. People just trailing on after it. I wish that the true doctrines, sound doctrines, could spread as rapidly as false doctrines. But man, these false doctrines seem to have wings and they spread so rapidly.

The latest one being this prosperity cult. God wants all of His children to be prosperous and healthy. If you're not prosperous and healthy, there's something wrong with your relationship with God. God help us.

What a cruel, corrupt doctrine. Oh, how it has spread. Sad. The people so quickly... Paul wrote to the Galatians and he said, Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should so soon turn away from the truth?

Having begun in the Spirit, are you now going to be made perfect in the flesh? Foolish Galatians! You turn from the truth so quickly. Foolish Israelites! You turn from the truth so quickly. God is drawing you to Himself to worship the holy, living, true God.

And now here you are as a little golden idol before you. And this is your God that brought you out of Egypt. And the people demanding, make us a God that we might worship. And this is the result. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.

And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and they rose up to play.

And the Lord said to Moses, Get down, for thy people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Notice this. The Lord isn't even claiming them at this point. Thy people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, corrupted themselves.

And they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. And they have made them a molten calf and are worshiping it and have sacrificed unto it. And they have said, These are the gods, O Israel, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen the people. Behold, they are stiff-necked. Now therefore, let Me alone that My wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them, and I will make thee a great nation.

I'll wipe them out and I'll make a great nation out of you, Moses. We'll start over again. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why does Your wrath wax hot against Thy people? Not mine, Lord.

Don't put them on me. Which Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand. Nobody wants to claim them at this point. Why should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief He brought them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth.

Turn from Thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou swearest by Thine own self and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed and they shall inherit forever.

And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Now, faced with a problem. For in Numbers 23, 19, we read that God is not a man that He should repent. Or God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent.

Hath He not spoken, shall He not do it? What does it mean, the Lord repented? The obvious reading of this scripture looks like God is angry, ready to destroy the children of Israel. And Moses uses some good logic and reasons with God, the reasons to spare Him.

Look, if you wipe them out, the Egyptians are going to say, Look, you just brought them out of land or you might destroy them here. And they're going to speak evil against you. Why should they speak evil against you, God?

Lord, now turn from your fierce anger. Don't do this. And God is just angry, ready to wipe them out. And Moses is the cool head and he's holding God off. Now remember, Moses wrote this. But our problem, our problem is that we have to describe God's actions in human terms.

And therein lies the problem. The actions of an infinite God cannot adequately be described in human language. But we have to describe in human terms the activities of God. So we use the word God repented.

But in reality, God does not and has no need to change or to repent, which means to change or to turn from. But from the human standpoint, how can I describe the fact that the judgment of God is due these people, but the judgment of God doesn't come upon these people?

Well, God changed. No, He didn't change. Again, we see Moses standing there and interceding and holding God off. But who put it in the heart of Moses to intercede? Who put it in the heart of Moses to pray?

Who put a love for these people in the heart of Moses? It was God's work in the life of Moses to begin with. The inspiration of Moses' prayer came from God Himself. All true prayer begins with God. And thus, God was the inspiration behind the prayer.

Now, God knows all things from the beginning. He knew that the children of Israel were going to mess things up. He knew they were going to be worshiping this calf. In fact, He knew it before they ever did it.

And God is speaking to Moses about their sin, need of judgment. Moses is now inspired of God to plead for their salvation. But it's impossible to describe the activities of God in human terms, but we have nothing else to describe them.

And thus, we have to have human terms to describe what are apparent activities of God, but yet the human terms fall short and cannot adequately describe God's actions here. Let it be said, if God had determined to destroy them, He would have destroyed them and nothing Moses could have said could have changed it.

The fact that they weren't destroyed only indicates that God had no intention to destroy them in the beginning. But Moses is having to describe the anger of God against these people and the deserving justice that was coming to them in the human terms and yet the justice of God doesn't fall upon them and thus I have to describe that also in human terms and give some sort of an explanation why these people were able to survive this great sacrilege against God.

And I only have human terms to do it, but I'm dealing in those mysterious divine inner counsels of God of which I have no clear understanding at all. God said, my ways are not your ways, my ways are beyond your finding out.

But yet I only have human terms to describe the activities of God and thus I have to use terms that do not adequately describe what God has done, but only describes the effect of the actions in human terms.

God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent. But yet we read over and over in the Old Testament where God repented, but that's only describing the activity of God with the human term which is a poor term to say the best, but yet we have nothing else.

So there's the limitations always of seeking to describe the things of God with human language. It always falls short. Paul the Apostle when he was in heaven, when he came back, he said it would be against the law, it would be a crime if I tried to describe to you in human terms the things that I heard.

He just can't do it. He didn't even try. There's no language that man understands or knows. No words have yet been formed or created or devised that could adequately describe the glory, the beauty, the majesty of that heavenly realm.

It's just so far beyond anything we've ever experienced or known or seen or whatever that it's just ridiculous to try to use human language because anything you would say would be less than it really is.

So far less that it would be a crime to use human language to try to describe it. And yet we must describe the activities of God. We only have human vocabulary to do it and thus we have to use terms that we understand as human beings to describe the supposed actions of God.

But in reality what God has purposed he will fulfill. And had God purposed the extermination and wiping them out, he would have done it. But God did use Moses' intercession as the excuse not to do it because God delights in mercy.

Moses Breaks the Tablets and Calls Israel to Repentance

So Moses turned and he went down from the mountain with the two tables of testimony in his hands. The tables were written on both of their sides. And the tables were the work of God. The writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables.

Oh, wouldn't it be exciting to see those two tables that God actually inscribed with his finger the commandments upon. Oh, wouldn't it be priceless to just look at those two tables of stone. Now when Joshua, who was the servant of Moses, who was with Moses, heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there must be a war in the camp.

And Moses said, it's not the voice of those that shout for mastery, neither the voice of those that are crying because they're overcome. But I hear the noise of singing. And it came to pass, as soon as they came close to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing.

And Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made. He burned it in the fire. He ground it into powder and he put the powder in water and he made them drink the water.

There, drink your God. And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. You know the people that they are set on mischief.

For they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever has any gold, let him break it off.

So they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf. Hocus pocus dominocus. Aaron, shame on you. And when Moses saw the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side?

Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him and he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from the gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor.

That is those who were leading in this blasphemous sacrilege. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow a blessing this day.

And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure I shall make a covering for your sin. And Moses returned to the Lord and he said, oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold.

Intercessory Prayer, Confession, and Forgiveness

Now we see Moses in the position of an intercessor offering intercessory prayer before God. Intercessory prayer is that form of prayer that reaches out beyond me and my own needs to bring a guilty world before God.

That God might work in it. Prayer has three forms. Basic forms, variations within each. The first is worship, praise, adoration. Acknowledging God for who He is is something that goes on constantly in my heart day by day.

My awareness of God, my consciousness of God, my worship of God for His goodness, for His blessings, for His mercies, for His love. For all that He is to me and all that He means to me. For the beauties of the world.

The beauties of His presence and grace in my life. That continual thanksgiving within my heart because God loves me. But then prayer has a second form of petition, where I bring before God my needs, my requests.

I need strength. I need guidance. I need help. I need wisdom. I need so many things. And I come before God that He might supply my needs. But then prayer moves into the realm of intercession where I bring before God Your needs.

I bring before God the needs of the community. I bring before God the needs of this nation. The needs of the world. Intercessory prayer. And no prayer is really complete except it enter into the area of intercession and we really need real intercessors.

If you want a book to really understand intercessory prayer, read Reese Howell's book, Intercessors. Fantastic. Just a beautiful book on intercessory prayer. Reese Howell, The Intercessor. I believe that one of the greatest needs today really is for people to really have the ministry and exercise the ministry of intercessory prayer.

More things are wrought through prayer than the world will ever know. The real power behind the scenes. How I thank God for the 130 men in the church who are engaged in the intercessory prayer all night long each night of the week.

God bless these men. What a power they are for good in this whole community as they intercede in their ministry of intercessory prayer. No wonder God is working so marvelously because of the intercession that is going on day and night continually.

Moses is in intercessory prayer. The first thing is the confession of the sins of the people. Confession of sin is so important because without confession there can be no forgiveness. Unless you confess your sins to God, there's no way God can forgive your sins.