A Different Kind of Sacrifice

13 “Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.
(Deuteronomy 9)
As the people of Israel were preparing to cross the Jordan to enter the Promised Land, Moses recounted not only the Law of God, but His history as their leader. Twice in this chapter he speaks of laying prostrate before the Lord on their behalf. He was interceding for them in prayer in the strongest way possible - throwing himself between them and God.  He did this on numerous occasions. God had given these people a number of sacrifices and the offering of incense as a means of finding forgiveness and the ear of God and given them through Moses.  That is what they could do. But he did what he could do for them: pray. Sacrificially pray.  He knew it was no substitute for other sacrifices (or what Christ one day would do - the ultimate sacrifice), but it was what he could do.  So can we.  True, consistent, persistent, sincere intercessory prayer for anyone God makes us responsible for or in relationship with - that's what we're called to do.  Let's make that sacrifice today.