Day 60: Intercessory Prayer

Numbers 10:1-10 The silver trumpets had a twofold purpose: to call the people of Israel to worship and to mobilize them for war. 


Deuteronomy 9:1-6 Moses reminded the people of Israel that their victories in battle and their entrance into the Promised Land were free gifts from God. If the Israelites were to rely on THEIR OWN STRENGTH, they would suffer the oppression of other nations and be deprived of the Promised Land. These gratuitous blessings of God were manifestations of his fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. (CCC 60)


Ch 9:7-29 Whenever the people were unfaithful or doubted God, it was Moses, who by fervent prayer and his special relationship with God, petitioned for God’s patience to hold back his chastisement. (CCC 2574-2577)


Psalm 10 This psalm is a continuation of Psalm 9 but takes on an anxious tone. Here again the frequent concern and perplexity about the apparent prosperity of the wicked comes to the fore. At times, it can seem as though God is indifferent or entirely absent to the plight and hardships of his people. The most wicked of evildoers do not believe in God, much less fear him, and certainly do not keep his Commandments. For a time their scorn for God and his Laws seems to have little effect on their material prosperity. The psalmist beseeches God with confidence, knowing that the God of Israel is a God of justice who sides with the poor, the orphan, and the weak despite the FLEETING pleasures and successes of the sinful. (CCC 272, 324, 2419)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


(*Walking With God: A Journey Through the Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)



Prayer by Fr Mike: “Father in Heaven we thank you and we give you praise, just like the psalmist praying this Psalm 10. Lord God, it seems like so often those who do not listen to you and those who do whatever they want, those who hurt other people among us seem to be the most blessed sometimes. The ones who say, “Who cares about God? Where’s God?” seem to have even happiness. They seem to even have joy. They seem to have maybe even sometimes more love than those who are listening to your Word and those who look for you in everything, Lord. Those who follow you sometimes seem to have more problems than those who forget about you, those who ignore you, even those who outright reject you. Lord God, this is such a mystery to us. This is just like the psalmist. We recognize the truth. The truth is that there are some people that want nothing to do with you, God. That seem to have everything going right for them. And some people who love you with their whole heart and seem to be forgotten. We know the truth, Lord God, that you are just. You do not forget the cry of the poor. You do not neglect those that you love. And so we continue to cry out to you. We continue to listen to your word. We continue to place our trust, our hope, and our entire lives in you alone. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

ANDREW'S PARALLELS

The Silver Trumpets to gather the assembly to the tent of meeting recalls two things to me:

1) When Church bells ring to call for us to gather for Mass.

2) Jesus' prophecy, primarily of the then pending doom of Jerusalem, as well as his Second Coming on the Last Day, when he will gather his people at the last trumpet ( 1 Thess 4:16-17) to his heavenly Temple

(*it's important to distinguish we are not speaking of a "rapture" event separate from the second coming, but a detail that is part of the bigger event at the end of time, Christ's Second Coming)

Just to clarify, Hobab is Moses's Father-in Law, who also was referred to as Reuel and Jethro.

Just to clarify, Horeb is Mount Sinai.

Another sign showing Jesus is "the New Moses":  forty days fasting in the wilderness.

Moses prefigures Christ as the Mediator for Israel the way Christ is our mediator of the New Covenant. Being Baptized into Christ's One Body and participating in his divine "sonship" (Rom 8:14-17), Paul encourages that we also intercede for each other.