INTERCESSION AND MEDIATION
by Mark Seagoe
There have been only a
few times recorded where the LORD smote people down. We think of Korah
Dathan and Abiram when they rose up against Moses Uzza when he touched the Ark.
When we see this kind of awful punishment we must understand that there is something
in this which God is trying to relay to us that He is passionate about.
Let us look at briefly at the scene with Nadab and Abihu.
Lev
10:1-2
1 And Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and put
fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the LORD
which he commanded them not.
2 And there went out fire from the LORD and devoured them and they died before
the LORD. (KJV)
Half the sons of Aaron were smote down in an instant because they offered strange
incense to the LORD. The burning of the incense was commanded to be after
a certain method from which they were not to deviate (Exod
30:1-9). The incense
was itself holy and it's mixture was not to be altered (Exod
30:34-38).
Does this mean something to us? Can we find an application to these words?
Yes. Incense is the divine symbol of prayer. (Psa
141:2 Luke
1:10 Rev
5:8 Rev
8:5).
Prayer like incense is sweet to God if offered correctly. It rises up to Him
and is pleasurable to Him. Prayer like incense can also be offered in
'strange' fashion or in a manner unseemly to God. Something to think about
is this that God smote down half of the sons of Aaron for offering strange incense.
Will he look more graciously upon us if we offer strange prayer? Isn't
prayer then something to be studied? Something to be careful about?
One of the most important subjects concerning prayer is the role that Jesus
performs in our prayers. Jesus has many roles in our lives King High Priest
Testator Surety Mediator Intercessor. These last two Mediator and Intercessor
both have to do with prayer. The conclusion made by this study determines
to show without any doubt that mediation and intercession are not the same thing.
After being told by so many brethren that these two words convey the same meaning
I was quite intrigued to stumble
upon the differences in my study of prayer. Reading from I
Tim 2:1-5 we can immediately
make out the differences:
There are many intercessors. In fact all the brethren are encouraged to
make intercession for others. There is however only one mediator.
Whereas Jesus is the main intercessor he is the only mediator between God and
man.
The rest of this article will deal with intercession and mediation in the New
Testament to reveal their differences.
INTERCESSION
Strong's:
Intercession - 1793 entugchano (en-toong-khan'-o); from 1722 and 5177; to chance
upon i.e. (by implication) confer with; by extension to entreat (in favor or
against); in KJV rendered as - deal with make intercession.
Since the meaning of intercession is to chance upon to confer with to entreat
and gives the idea of drawing near
to someone one may infer that if someone is making intercession to God it must
be done in prayer. This seems to be the idea found in most references
in the New Testament referring to intercession.
Jesus' priestly role of intercessor takes place at the alter of incense.
Intercession is found to be a continued process not occurring only once: Heb
7:25. The incense was
to be burned on the alter of incense continually by the High Priest. Exod
30:1 27-28.
It just so happens that Christ fulfills both role of mediator and role of intercessor.
The latter both through his spirit in our "groanings which cannot be uttered
" and his personal effort. Rom
8:27 34 Heb
7:25. It is made
plain in the passage in Hebrews that without intercession of Christ we could
not be saved.
Intercession has no subject upon which it acts. It is made for or against
someone to someone who has power over them. Mediation however does have a subject
upon which it acts. The subject of mediation is a covenant. Jesus
is said to be the mediator of the new covenant. Jesus is never referred
to as the intercessor of the new covenant nor do we read about the blood of
the intercession. Indeed from the sense that we get from doing our bible
readings we may already have gotten a feeling that there is a difference between
mediation and intercession. We know that Jesus plays many roles.
He is multi-faceted. This is just one more thing that makes him so wonderful
so excellent that he is not just a King not just a High Priest not just a mediator
not just an intercessor not just the door not just the veil not just the rock
not just the light not just the lamb he is everything wrapped into one.
He is God's word. The Old Testament is full of "Thus saith the LORD "
but in the New Testament God says "this is my beloved son hear ye him."
After that point Jesus does the talking. We sometimes fail to see that
Jesus doesn't just take up one position in the scriptures he takes up EVERY
position EVERY role he fulfills EVERY thing.
Whereas mediation always bears a good connotation and is implemented with good
intentions the word for intercession is not always used in a positive manner.
There are two references in the New Testament in which the word entugchano is
used in a negative sense. (Acts
25:24 Rom
11:2).
MEDIATION
Strongs definition:
Mediator - 3316 mesites (mes-ee'-tace); from 3319; a go-between i.e. (simply)
an internunciator or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor); in KJV rendered
as - mediator.
The other role that Jesus performs that has to do with our prayer is the role
of mediation.
Intercession the entreaties the pleadings the meetings with God continue on
and on. But our prayers would not be acceptable before God in the first
place except for the covenant relationship brought about by Christ's mediation.
But once the mediation has been performed and the covenant has been negotiated
the work of mediation is finished. We can't expect Jesus to mediate another
covenant with his blood. This is not to say that God does not hear the
prayers of the unbaptized but rather that those under this covenant are in an
extremely privileged position and may approach the mercy seat or throne of grace
with boldness.
Whereas the symbol for prayer and intercession is incense the symbol for mediation
is the sprinkling of blood. That which Jesus has mediated is the covenant.
A covenant is a promise.
If we have been baptized Jesus has brought us to God and has thus already fulfilled
his role of being our mediator (of the new covenant) in our life. He has
brought us to God into a covenant relationship. The use of the 'mediator' in Heb
8:6 aligns itself with
the use of the word 'surety' in Heb
7:22 implying that Jesus
is also a guarantor of the New Covenant. This word 'surety' is given by
Strong's as eng'- oo-os pledged (as if articulated by a member) i.e. a bondsman.
So there is a strong sense of something that involves a pledge. The new
covenant is coined 'the word of the oath' in Heb
7:28. The very
meaning of the word 'covenant' is implication enough. Mediation involves
a pledge.
When we see the act of mediation that Moses performed in Exodus 24 we see in vs.
7 the pledge of the
people: "All that the LORD has said we will do and be obedient."
This good confession of their faith was followed by the sprinkling of the blood
of that covenant upon themselves. In this act Moses was the Mediator of the
old covenant. Notice that the pledge the oath the promise was given not by God
but by the people "All that the LORD has said we will do and be obedient."
We also see the type of this act when we follow the ritual of the day of atonement
in the sprinkling of blood by the high priest (Lev 16). We see that although
Aaron was to keep the lamps burning constantly (figurative of letting the light
shine before all men ie. Preaching) and he was to keep the incense burning perpetually
upon the golden altar of incense (figurative of prayer to God) the ritual involving
the day of atonement was performed only once a year and thus good argument could
be made that this is because the act of sprinkling the blood of the covenant
in the mediation occurred only once.
Jesus' priestly role as a mediator takes place in the Most Holy into which as
on the day of atonement only the High Priest could go to offer sacrifice one
day of the year and no other people were allowed in the tabernacle while the
High Priest was offering. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and
the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. Lev
16:2 15-19 34.
The atonement of the mercy seat and tabernacle were said to be "because
of the uncleanness of the children of Israel AND because of the TRANSGRESSIONS
in all their SINS."
Found in Hebrews
8:12 under the New Covenant
God says "for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more." This role of Jesus involves
forgiveness & reconciliation. It also involves sacrifice. This role
is found to be an act that occurred one time Heb
7:27. "Who needeth
not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins
and then for the people's: for this he did once when he offered up himself."
In the worldly definition of 'mediate' it is usually used in as a legal term
referring to the act that an indifferent individual performs in bringing a dispute
to an end in an attempt to avoid a costly trial. It should be remembered
however that God is not trying to seek damages. Rather he wants us to
be saved. To this end he gave his only son.
Mediation may be better thought of as negotiation a deal has been made.
A good example may be that of a teenager wishing to purchase a car. The
bank does not want to loan him the money because he has not sufficient funds
nor means of guarantee that payments will be made. Therefore the bank
requires that the teenager produce a co-signer which usually ends up being one
of the parents. Jesus has co- signed for us pledging to help us pay in
a situation where we were not be able to come up with sufficient funds for the
transaction. It is his blood which is paying for our entrance into life
eternal.
When we pray in his name let us keep these things in remembrance. Let
us also remember that we must still keep up with our payments.