The Persistent Mediator and Grace in Motion Text: Deuteronomy 10:10-11
Introduction: The Relenting of God
We find ourselves here in Deuteronomy at a critical juncture. Moses is recounting the history of Israel's rebellion and God's faithfulness. The context is the aftermath of the golden calf, that great apostasy at the foot of the mountain. Israel had, with astonishing speed, turned from the God who had just delivered them with a high hand from Egypt and fashioned for themselves a dumb idol. God's response was entirely righteous. His anger burned hot, and He declared His intention to destroy the people and make of Moses a great nation.
This is the kind of situation that makes modern, sentimental Christians uncomfortable. We want a God who is all grace and no gravity, all mercy and no majesty. But the God of the Bible is holy, and His holiness is a consuming fire against sin. The fact that we are not all consumed is not because our sin is a trivial matter, but because God is rich in mercy. And that mercy is not a vague, free-floating sentiment. It is a covenantal mercy, a promised mercy. And it is a mercy that is secured through the work of a mediator.
What we are reading here is the history of a great deliverance, not from Pharaoh, but from the wrath of God Himself. This is a deliverance that was accomplished not by plagues and a parted sea, but by the persistent, agonizing intercession of a mediator. Moses stands in the breach, he places himself between the holy God and a stiff-necked people, and he pleads the covenant. He does not plead Israel's innocence, for they had none. He pleads God's name, God's reputation, and God's promise. And in this, Moses is a magnificent type of Christ, our great high priest and mediator.
These two verses are a summary of that crisis. They reveal the heart of mediation, the patience of God, and the forward-moving nature of God's grace. God does not just spare His people; He sets them on their feet and points them once again toward the promised inheritance. This is not just history; it is the pattern of our salvation.
The Text
"I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you. Then Yahweh said to me, 'Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.'"
(Deuteronomy 10:10-11 LSB)
The Persistent Mediator (v. 10)
We begin with Moses' own testimony of his intercession.
"I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you." (Deuteronomy 10:10)
Moses emphasizes the duration and the difficulty of his work. "Forty days and forty nights." This was not a quick, casual prayer. This was a grueling, sustained act of intercession. He was prostrate before the Lord, fasting, praying, wrestling. The phrase "like the first time" reminds us that this is a do-over. The first forty days were for receiving the law for a people presumed to be faithful. This second forty days is for pleading for the very existence of a people who had proven themselves utterly faithless.
And notice the result: "Yahweh listened to me that time also." God hears the prayers of the mediator. This is a foundational principle of our faith. God is holy and just, and we are sinful and rebellious. There is a great gulf fixed between us. We cannot approach Him on our own merits. We need a mediator, one who can stand before God on our behalf. For Israel, that was Moses. For us, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, who "always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
The final clause is the glorious outcome: "Yahweh was not willing to destroy you." This is not to say that God changed His mind in the way that we do, as if He were fickle or uncertain. Rather, the intercession of the mediator was the instrument that God Himself had appointed to bring about His predetermined plan of mercy. God's will is not a simple, flat line. He has a will of decree, His sovereign plan that will certainly come to pass. And He has a will of command, which we are to obey. He commanded Israel not to make idols, and they disobeyed. His righteous response was judgment. But His sovereign plan included the mediation of Moses to display His mercy. God's reluctance to destroy them was not a weakness in His justice, but a triumph of His covenant love, brought to bear through prayer.
This is a profound comfort. Our salvation does not depend on our ability to keep our noses clean. It depends on the finished work and the ongoing intercession of our Mediator. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). He does not plead our case by saying we weren't really that bad. He pleads His own blood. He points to His own righteousness, and on that basis, God is not willing to destroy us.
Grace in Motion (v. 11)
God's grace is never static. It does not merely rescue from judgment; it propels toward a destination. This is what we see in the next verse.
"Then Yahweh said to me, 'Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.'" (Deuteronomy 10:11)
The first command is to Moses: "Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people." The time for prostration is over. The intercession has been successful. Now it is time for action. Moses is to get up and lead. This is the pattern of leadership. The leader goes before God for the people, and then he goes before the people for God. He leads them in the way they should go.
And where are they going? They are going to "go in and possess the land." This is crucial. God's grace did not just restore them to the status quo, sitting at the base of Sinai. It put them back on the mission. Forgiveness is not the end of the story; it is the fuel for the journey. We are saved from sin not to sit around and polish our halos, but to get up and get to work. We are forgiven so that we might go and make disciples, to go in and possess the land that Christ has won for us.
And why should they do this? On what basis? Not on the basis of their own righteousness, which was a complete train wreck. They are to go because of God's oath: "the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." God's promise is the bedrock of our confidence. He made an unconditional oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His character is on the line. He will not, He cannot, break His word. Their sin was great, but His covenant is greater.
This is why our salvation is secure. It is not founded on the shifting sands of our performance, but on the solid rock of God's sworn oath, an oath He made to His Son in the covenant of redemption before the foundation of the world. Because God swore to give Christ a people, we can have confidence. Because He swore, we can arise and go on our journey.
Notice the balance here. God gives the land by His sovereign oath. But the people must "go in and possess" it. This is the divine tension of the Christian life. God has given us all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. The victory is won. But we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). We are called to fight the good fight, to run the race, to take up our cross. God's sovereignty does not negate our responsibility; it establishes it. He works in us, so that we can will and do according to His good pleasure.
From Intercession to Inheritance
So what do we take away from this brief account? We see the entire gospel in miniature.
First, we see our desperate need for a mediator. Like Israel, we have sinned grievously. We have built our own idols, whether of wood and stone or of money, sex, and power. The righteous wrath of God stands against us. Left to ourselves, we would be destroyed. We cannot plead our own case. We need someone to stand in the breach for us.
Second, we see the glorious provision of a Mediator. Jesus Christ did not just pray for forty days; He lived a perfect life of thirty-three years and died a substitutionary death on the cross. His intercession is not based on pleading, but on payment. He did not just avert the wrath of God; He absorbed it. And now He stands before the Father, and because of Him, God is not willing to destroy us who are in Him.
Finally, we see the purpose of our salvation. We are not saved to be idle. We are saved for a mission. The command to us is the same as it was to Moses: "Arise, go." Get up from your navel-gazing. Get up from your petty squabbles and your comfortable Christianity. Go on your journey. Go out into the world, ahead of the people, and lead them to the inheritance. The land is before us. Christ has promised it. He swore an oath. The nations are His inheritance. Our task is to go in and possess them, in His name, by the power of His Spirit, for the glory of His Father. God has listened to our Mediator. Therefore, let us arise and go.