I was recently eating lunch with Brother Colin (Powell) – (so delighted he has returned to Houston!) and he shared some thoughts from his study of Daniel 9 where we find the prophet diligently praying and even repenting before God for the Hebrew nation/people. After retuning to my office at WOF, I started contemplating all the times in the Bible that individuals effectively interceded on behalf of a nation. While I was certainly aware of all the accounts I found, I was taken-back, and literally somewhat stunned by the historical record.
Numerous times, the intercession and faithful prayers of one person brought about the nation’s deliverance from judgment! On two different, distinct occasions, the Lord God was ready to obliviate (literally forget or wipe from existence) the entire nation/people group. In Exodus 32:7-14, the Lord actually offers to alternatively make Moses a great nation and utterly destroy this “obstinate people.”
Again, in Numbers 14:11-25, the Lord is ready to “dispossess” His people because they “spurn” Him in spite of all the “signs” He had “performed in their midst.” The Lord once again makes a proposal to His faithful servant, Moses … “I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
In each of these cases, Moses prayed, and the Lord graciously and mercifully withheld the full judgment that the nation/people undisputedly and forthrightly deserved.
In II Chronicles 20, the Lord heard Jehoshaphat’s prayer and gave Israel a decisive victory over the large and powerful invading armies of the Moabites and Ammonites. King Hezekiah cried out to God in II Kings 19:1-7 and Isaiah 37:1-7 when the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem, and the Lord sent His angel to slay 185,000 enemy soldiers (19:35 and 37:36).
A righteous individual is powerful and effective in prayer … “
“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16)
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
James 5:17-18
God doesn’t have to wait for an entire nation to repent and/or cry out for His mercy; He works when and as He hears the prayers of believing, faithful intercessors. Apparently, according to Truth from God’s Word even … only one!
In Daniel 9:3-6 one encounters a great amount of spiritual transparency as the prophet openly and volitionally acknowledges the sins of the people/nation.
So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
Then in verses 13-14 …
all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. “Therefore, the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
If this sounds familiar, portraying our nation currently, and the people of our land, what shall believers do? Just simply think about it, discuss it, or write about it?
Not! –PF
