And Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe me, for all the signs which I have done among them?
At Kadesh, a whole nation has just voted to go back to Egypt instead of entering the land God promised them. God puts His question to Moses, not to Israel: how long will this contempt last, and how much proof does a heart need before it trusts?
The people's crime here is not immorality but refusal to take God at His word.
"A hopeless case," we might say. The charge against the people was unbelief, because God had told them that He was going to give them the land and that it was a good land. So there was no need to send spies at all. Even after the spies gave their reports, the people should have trusted God to help them conquer the land as promised.
God's question points to the signs He had done among them. They did not produce faith. One writer explains why.
They do admit that God had worked miracles for them. But they said, in effect, "He has given us water, can He give us bread?" Men speak against God when there are no miracles, and ask "Why does He not intervene?" They forget that when God worked miracles before the eyes of men, they spoke against God. Miracles and signs do not change the heart of man. Miracles or no miracles, the natural man is unbelieving.
If unbelief were only a mental gap, God's tone here would be hard to explain. But look at who they refused to trust.
So it was with Israel; so it is with Christendom. No wonder that it is denounced as "a wicked heart" of unbelief. For what else is or can be distrust of such a God? The more He reveals His love, the more He exposes the wickedness of a heart that refuses His grace, or — worse still — gives it up. Nothing is more false than to treat faith as a mere process of the mind, with nothing moral in it. Faith rests on the deep principle of submission to God's word.
God asks "how long" twice. It is the sound of patience reaching its limit.
The Lord addressed Moses because of the rebellion of Israel. God had shown wonderful patience with them, but how can patience continue in the face of organised rebellion?
God's next words put a startling offer to Moses: start again, with Moses as the new line.
God was willing to begin again — to make a fresh start. As with Abraham, so He would take Moses as a fresh stock to work from. He was willing to make him such a name as Moses otherwise could not hope for. The heart of Moses answered to the heart of God. He would not hear of it. The offer was to bring out the love that held to what God can afford to be to His people. What He might do for Moses he would not now think of.
The chapter does not end with either destruction or a clean slate. Both mercy and government follow, and God's name is upheld in each.
Again we see the glory of Moses. The blessing of the people depends on his mediation, and in this he is a picture of the great Mediator. As Moses pleads, God had in fact tied His glory to the salvation of His people and to bringing them into the land. In the wilderness He had declared Himself the One who forgave iniquity, transgression and sin, even while He did not clear the guilty. The generation that had now tempted Him to the limit of His forbearance would perish in the wilderness. Caleb, on the other hand, as following Him fully, would enter into the land. So the Lord is sanctified in judgment and in mercy.
- Charge — The sin at Kadesh was not scandal but unbelief. God had already promised the land, so sending spies was needless and doubting the report was contempt.
- Evidence — The signs changed nothing. Miracles do not alter the human heart: with them or without them, it does not believe.
- Root — To distrust a God who has shown such love is a wicked heart, because faith is submission to His word, not an exercise of the mind.
- Limit — The twice-repeated "how long" shows patience at its limit. It cannot continue in the face of organised rebellion.
- Mediator — God offered Moses a great nation of his own. Moses refused and pleaded for the people. That generation still died in the wilderness, and the Lord showed Himself holy in both mercy and judgment.
I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.
Israel refuses to enter Canaan, and God's glory appears at the tent of meeting. His first words to Moses are not about the people but about Moses himself. God offers to wipe Israel out and build a greater nation from him. Everything turns on what Moses does with that offer.
One writer names the sin behind this threat, and traces it back to the decision to send spies.
The charge against the people was unbelief. God had told them that He was going to give them the land, and that it was a good land. So there was no need to send spies at all. Even after the spies had given their reports, the people should have trusted God to enable them to conquer the land as promised.
Death by plague was no more than the sin deserved. One commentator also asks whether a fresh start through Moses would have turned out any better.
They had provoked the Lord. They broke His law, they rejected His captain, and they refused to believe Him despite all the signs He had shown among them. The wages of sin is death, which would have reached them by a plague. Suppose God had cut them all off, and kept a posterity for Abraham according to His promise by starting again through Moses. In principle He would have been doing what He did at the flood. He destroyed mankind, and yet He preserved a posterity for Adam through Noah. But would such a line through Moses have proved any better than the line through Noah? Or better than the line through Abraham so far? The answer, which the New Testament gives, is NO.
God was not just announcing a plan. He was speaking in a way that would show what was in Moses' heart.
God was willing to begin again — to make a fresh start. As with Abraham, so He would take Moses as a fresh stock to work from. He was willing to make him a name such as Moses could not otherwise hope for. The heart of Moses answered to the heart of God. He would not hear of it. The offer was to bring out the love that held to what God can afford to be to His people.
For natural ambition, this was the chance of a lifetime. And the offer came from God Himself.
Here was what nature might well regard as a golden opportunity for him. Never before and never since have we any case in which a mere man had such a door open before him. The enemy and his own heart might say, "Now's your time. You have here an offer of becoming the head and founder of a great and mighty nation. The Lord Himself is offering it to you. You have not sought it. The living God puts it before you, and it would be the height of folly on your part to reject it."
His answer never mentions himself. It goes straight to what the nations would say about God's name.
Suppose all this personal glory and greatness could only be bought by giving up a single ray of divine glory. What then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for ever. … The thought of being made great at God's expense was more than the heart of this blessed man of God could bear. He could not endure the thought of the nations blaspheming the name he loved so well. He could not bear anyone ever saying, "The Lord was not able."
Moses guards God's honour first. Then he asks pardon on that same ground, and asks God to show His power in an unexpected way.
There is, first and above all, a jealous care for the Lord's glory. … But then it is on this very ground — the keeping of the divine glory — that Moses seeks pardon for the people. … "Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgment and destruction? No — "The Lord is longsuffering." What a thought! The power of God in longsuffering and pardon! How unspeakably precious!
The threatened blow never fell, but the generation still lost what it had despised.
This incident had two consequences. In response to Moses' intercession, the Lord pardons the iniquity of the people (v. 20). At the same time, God announces how He will now deal with the people. Everyone aged 20 or more would have to die in the wilderness instead of entering the land. The journey would also stretch out by 40 years (v. 34).
- Cause. The sin punished here is unbelief — refusing a land God had already promised and described as good.
- Offer. God offered to begin again with Moses, as He once began with Abraham. The offer came to draw out the love in Moses' heart.
- Test. No man ever had a more attractive door open to him. Moses' greatness shows in his refusal to walk through it.
- Plea. He argued from God's reputation among the nations. No personal honour was worth dimming one ray of God's glory.
- Result. Pardon came at his word. Still, the unbelieving generation lost the land, and forty more years in the desert followed.
And Moses said to Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for in thy might thou broughtest up this people from the midst of them;
Israel has refused to enter the land. God offers to strike the people with plague, disinherit them, and start again with Moses as a greater nation. Verse 13 is the first word of Moses' reply. Instead of taking the offer, he turns God's attention to what Egypt will say.
God's offer was real, and it put Moses' own future on the table. One writer shows what the offer was testing:
God was willing to begin again — to make a fresh start. As with Abraham, He would make Moses the root of a new family line. He was willing to give him a name Moses could never have hoped for otherwise. The heart of Moses answered to the heart of God. He would not hear of it. The offer was to bring out the love that held to what God can afford to be to His people.
Another writer weighs that offered future against the one thing Moses would not risk:
What if he did become a head and a founder? What if millions in the future looked back to him as their famous ancestor? If he could only buy all this personal glory and greatness by giving up a single ray of divine glory — what then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for ever… He could not bear the nations speaking against the name he loved so well, or anyone ever saying, "The LORD was not able."
Moses points back to what God had already done. He brought this people out by His own power, and Egypt watched it happen. That act tied God's glory to Israel's future:
Moses' intercession rests on the testimony the LORD had given about Himself… The principle behind it is this: the LORD is perfectly identified with His people. Moses presses on the LORD that His own glory is bound up with the keeping and blessing of His people. It cannot be separated from them.
Because of that link, outsiders would read Israel's destruction as God's failure:
He protests that the Egyptians would hear of Israel's destruction. So would other nations who had heard that God was with Israel. They would all dishonour God by saying He was unable to keep His promise of bringing Israel into the land.
Notice what Moses does not plead. He does not plead Israel's need, and he does not plead their repentance. One writer draws out what this teaches about asking God for forgiveness:
Here is the true ground of appeal for mercy and forgiveness. It is not our need, great as it may be. It is not even repentance, heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name, the written pledge of His faithfulness to those who are under the blood… When we pray, we make our requests known and ask a Father's forgiveness. But do we fully enter into the meaning of "for the sake of" or "in the name of Jesus Christ"? Is it merely a closing formula in our minds? Yet God our Father hears it in its full and blessed meaning, and answers our prayers accordingly. Otherwise He could not answer at all and still be righteous… God hears the prayer and passes over the people's sin. Here is a wonderful combination: God maintains the honour of His Name, and shows mercy to Israel.
Moses then quotes back to God what God had said about Himself (verses 17–18):
Moses could not bear to see the LORD's character damaged. So he holds Him firmly, as it were, to His own word… He clings to the word of God and to His ways. He clings to the love God had proved so often, even to this faithless people He had known so well from the first. If He had borne with them before, He would not turn from them now.
What Moses asks God's power to do is startling. The writer quotes Moses' prayer from an older translation:
"Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgement and destruction? No — "The LORD is long-suffering." What a thought! The power of God in long-suffering and pardon!
One writer sees in this scene a picture of someone greater:
Again, in this wonderful instance, Moses gives a beautiful picture of the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus. That grace keeps and sustains His people despite their waywardness.
- Name first. Offered a nation of his own, Moses would not buy greatness at the cost of a single ray of God's glory.
- Name watched. God brought Israel out in the sight of Egypt, so His glory is bound up with what becomes of them.
- Name pleaded. Moses pleads not Israel's need or repentance, but the honour of God's name. That is the true ground of appeal for mercy.
- Name quoted. He holds God to God's own words, and asks Him to show His power in long-suffering and pardon.
- Name ours. Praying "in the name of Jesus Christ" makes the same plea. His intercession, not our worth, keeps His people.
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, [who] have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people, that thou, Jehovah, lettest thyself be seen eye to eye, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night;
God offers Moses a fresh start — a nation of his own. Moses turns it down. He points instead to what Egypt and Canaan already know: the Lord lives among this people and goes ahead of them in cloud and fire. His whole case rests on one point. God's name is now tied to the people He redeemed.
Israel's neighbours knew something no other nation could claim. God Himself lived in the middle of this camp.
The Lord was with them and among them in a symbolic presence. This was the glory of Israel's position among the nations of the earth. It was also the guarantee their hope of the promised inheritance rested on.
Moses points to the cloud that stands over them and goes before them. It gave both shelter and direction.
This pillar of cloud stood for the divine presence. It protected them from the burning heat by day, and from the countless dangers and terrors of the darkness by night. It guided these vast crowds of wayward and ignorant people through the empty, howling wilderness, home to the promised land. But to do this, the movements of the cloud had to guide the people on every stage of their journey. Here we have the two great essential principles: protection and subjection.
His plea is not sentiment about Israel. He takes hold of what God has revealed about Himself. In the eyes of the world, God and this people now stand or fall together.
The intercession of Moses comes in, based on the testimony the Lord had given of Himself. (Compare Ex. 34:6-7.) The principle of it is this: the perfect identification of the Lord with His people. He presses on the Lord that His own glory is tied to the keeping and blessing of His people, and cannot be separated from them.
God had just offered to make Moses into a greater and mightier nation. The offer drew out what filled his heart.
The heart of Moses answered to the heart of God. He would not hear of it. The offer was to bring out the love that held to what God can afford to be to His people. What He might do for Moses, he would not now think of.
One thing he could not bear was that the nations should ever say God had failed.
What if all this personal glory and greatness could only be bought by giving up a single ray of God's glory? Then away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for ever… He could not bear the thought of the nations blaspheming God's name, which he loved so well, or of anyone ever saying, "The Lord was not able."
Moses' plea raises a hard question. How can God refuse to excuse sin and still refuse to give up the people He redeemed?
Still, God cannot allow sin. Neither could He give the people up; for had He not redeemed them? as Moses pleaded with Him (Num. 14:13-16)… He cannot give them up; He cannot allow sin; and therefore He brings in priestly grace to meet the difficulty.
Moses ends by holding God to His own description of Himself. God answers.
So Moses could not bear to see the Lord's character compromised. He holds Him fast, as it were, to His own word… He clings to the word of God and to His ways. He clings to the love God had so often proved, even towards the unbelieving people He had known so well from the first. If He had borne with them before, surely He would not turn from them now. "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word: but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."
- Presence — The nations knew one thing about Israel. God lived among them, face to face, with His cloud over the camp. That nearness was their standing in the world.
- Guidance — The cloud by day and the fire by night gave protection and called for subjection. Israel moved only when the cloud moved.
- Identification — God had tied His name to this people. If He destroyed them, Egypt and Canaan would call it His failure.
- Selflessness — God offered Moses a nation of his own. Moses set himself aside. He would sooner lose his own name than let anyone say, "The Lord was not able."
- Pardon — Moses held God to His own revealed character. God met the difficulty with priestly grace and answered, "I have pardoned" — and promised that His glory will fill the whole earth.
if thou now slayest this people as one man, then the nations that have heard thy fame will speak, saying,
Israel has just refused to enter the land God promised them. God offers Moses a personal future: destroy this people, and make Moses into a greater nation. Moses looks past himself. He asks what the watching nations would say if the LORD killed this people as one man.
The offer tested what Moses valued most.
Here Moses takes the very highest ground. He is completely taken up with the Lord's glory. He cannot bear the thought of that glory losing its brightness in the eyes of the nations. What if he became a founder and a head? What if millions in the future looked back to him as their famous ancestor? If all this personal glory and greatness could only be bought by sacrificing a single ray of divine glory — what then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for ever... He could not bear to hear the nations speak against the name he loved so well. He could not bear anyone to say, "The Lord was not able."
The plea works because of something God has done. He has tied His own name to this nation.
The intercession of Moses rests on what the LORD had said about Himself. (Compare Ex. 34:6-7.) The principle is this: the LORD identifies Himself completely with His people. Moses urges on Him that His own glory is bound up with keeping and blessing His people, and cannot be separated from them.
The same principle reaches past Israel to believers in Christ.
God must accomplish His purposes to His glory, but in grace He has tied them to us... This marks faith: not just believing that God is glorious, but connecting His glory with the blessing of His people. So Moses says, "What will You do to Your great name?" and "The Egyptians will hear of it." He pleads with God this way all through. What a source of security and ground for praise, that God should have joined His glory to our blessing and to His promises to us in Christ!
Moses does not argue that Israel deserves to be spared, or even that they are sorry.
The sin was deep, and God had threatened to disinherit them. How instructive, then, to learn the true ground of appeal for mercy and forgiveness. It is not our need, great as it may be. It is not even repentance, heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name, the written pledge of His faithfulness to those who are under the blood... We pray, we make our requests known, we ask a Father's forgiveness. But do we fully grasp the meaning of "for the sake of" or "in the name of Jesus Christ"? Is it merely a closing formula in our minds?
Moses then holds God to God's own words about Himself.
So Moses could not bear to see the LORD's character compromised. He holds Him tightly, as it were, to His own word... He clings to the word of God and to His ways. He clings to the love God had so often shown, even to this faithless people He had known from the first. If He had borne with them before, surely He would not turn from them now. "Then the LORD said, 'I have pardoned, according to your word'" (verse 20). And He goes on to promise that all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD (verse 21).
God answers the prayer, and two things stand together in it.
God hears the prayer and passes over the people's sin. What a combination! God keeps the honour of His name and shows mercy to Israel, while His judgment upholds His righteousness. This is the glory that will fill the earth.
Moses standing between God and a guilty people points beyond himself.
Moses protests that the Egyptians would hear of Israel's destruction. So would other nations who had heard that God was with Israel. They would all dishonour God by saying He was unable to keep His promise of bringing Israel into the land (vv. 13-16)... Again, in this wonderful instance, Moses gives a beautiful picture of the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus. That grace keeps and sustains His people despite their wayward ways.
- Name at stake. Moses' whole case rests on one sentence he cannot allow the nations to say: "The Lord was not able."
- Name over fame. Offered a nation of his own, he would rather have his own name erased than see one ray of God's glory dimmed.
- Name links God to us. God has tied His glory to the blessing of His people. Their ruin would look like His failure. That is the believer's security too, not Israel's alone.
- Name as our plea. Forgiveness rests on the honour of His name, not on our need or even our repentance. That is the real weight behind praying "in the name of Jesus Christ."
- Name answered. God answers, "I have pardoned, according to your word." He promises that His glory will fill the whole earth. The same interceding grace keeps His people today.
Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land that he had sworn unto them, he has therefore slain them in the wilderness.
Israel has just refused the land, and God has offered to destroy the nation and start again with Moses alone. Moses refuses. He asks what Egypt and the nations nearby would say if the whole nation died in the desert: that Israel's God promised more than He could deliver.
God's offer to make Moses into a great nation was real. It was also a test, and one writer shows what it drew out of Moses' heart.
God was willing to begin again — to make a fresh start. As with Abraham, He would start a new family line from Moses. He was willing to make him such a name as Moses otherwise could not hope for. The heart of Moses answered to the heart of God. He would not hear of it. The offer was meant to bring out the love that held on to what God is willing to be to His people. What He might do for Moses he would not now think of.
The words he dreads are a verdict on God's power, spoken by outsiders. Moses would sooner lose everything God promised him than hear them said.
What if he did become a head and a founder? What if future millions looked back to him as their famous ancestor? If all this personal glory and greatness could only be bought by giving up a single ray of God's glory — what then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be wiped out for ever… He could not bear to have the name he loved so well insulted among the nations. He could not bear that anyone should ever say, "The Lord was not able."
Two things were at stake for him at once.
Look at the love he has for Israel on the one hand, and the care for God's character on the other. He says, Lord, I do not want to be made much of, but I do want something for others.
Moses does not argue that Israel deserves rescue. He appeals to God's own name and God's own promise.
The sin was deep, and God threatened to disinherit them. How instructive, then, to be shown the true ground of appeal for mercy and forgiveness. It is not our need, great as it may be. It is not even repentance, heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name, the written pledge of His faithfulness to those who are under The Blood… When we pray, we make our requests known and ask a Father's forgiveness. But do we enter into the full meaning of "for the sake" or "in the name of Jesus Christ"? Is it just a closing formula in our minds?
Spare them, and their rebellion goes unanswered. Destroy them, and His redeeming work looks like failure. One writer shows how God met that problem.
Still, God cannot allow sin. Neither could He give the people up; for had He not redeemed them? as Moses pleaded with Him. He cannot give them up; He cannot allow sin; and therefore He brings in priestly grace to meet the difficulty. To take away their murmurings, He does not use the rod of Moses, but that of Aaron. The rod of Moses could only judge them for their sin… But Aaron's does it by priestly grace.
God pardoned Israel, and still that generation died in the desert. Both stand together, because Moses had held God to words God Himself had spoken.
Notice this. Even as the Lord pronounces judgment, He acts according to the very word to which Moses had tied Him in faith… He would hold fast His mercy, but He would by no means clear the guilty. There was pardon, or Israel would never have entered the land. Yet He would "by no means clear the guilty", and so that generation fell. So God kept His character intact, and His hand made good what His mouth had spoken.
Writers also see in this scene a picture of a greater intercession.
Again, in this wonderful case, Moses pictures the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus. That grace keeps and sustains His people despite their waywardness.
- Offer — God proposed a nation built on Moses. The offer drew out a heart that cared more for God than for promotion.
- Refusal — Moses would sooner lose his own name than let anyone say, "The Lord was not able."
- Ground — the plea that wins is not our need, or even our repentance. It is the honour of God's name. That is what praying "in the name of Jesus Christ" means.
- Tension — God would not excuse the sin, and He would not abandon the people He had redeemed. Priestly grace, not the rod of judgment, met the need.
- Answer — God pardoned, and that generation still fell. He kept both His mercy and His word. Moses pleading here pictures the Lord Jesus interceding for His own.
And now, I beseech thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in goodness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth [generation].
Israel has just refused the land, and God offers to strike the nation and start again with Moses alone. Moses answers by quoting back God's own words about Himself, first spoken on the mountain, and asking Him to act in character.
Moses does not invent an argument. He takes the description God had given of Himself and treats it as binding.
Moses could not bear to see Jehovah's character compromised, so he holds Him firmly to His own word... He holds fast to the word of God and to His ways. He holds fast to the love God had shown so often, even to this unfaithful people He had known so well from the start. If He had been patient with them before, surely He would not turn from them now.
(The ESV reads "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Older translations quoted here say "longsuffering, and of great mercy.")
The plea rests on more than pity. Moses ties God's own glory to what becomes of Israel.
Moses steps in to plead for the people, and he builds his plea on the testimony Jehovah had given about Himself... The principle behind it is this: Jehovah completely identifies Himself with His people. He presses on Jehovah that His own glory is tied up with keeping and blessing His people. It cannot be separated from them.
The word behind "forgiving" carries a picture. It means to lift a weight up and carry it away.
nasa, 'to bear,' take away [guilt]: used by Joseph's brothers when they asked him to forgive them, Gen. 50:17; and used of God as "forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Ex. 34:7; Num. 14:18; and in describing the blessedness of the man "whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Ps. 32:1.
Moses asks for the power of the Lord to be great — and then defines what that power should do.
"Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgement and destruction? No; "The Lord is long-suffering." What a thought! The power of God in long-suffering and pardon! How precious beyond words! How close Moses was to the very heart and mind of God, that he could speak like this!
Moses quotes the hard half of the sentence too. Commentators warn against stopping at the kind words.
It is a great mistake to think that the proclamation of divine goodness in this scene is the gospel. People are badly wrong when they quote "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin" in this sense and stop there... There is no doubt that this is the goodness and mercy of God, but God is showing it to a people still under the government of the law... Without this mixture of law and mercy the guilty people never could have been spared. They would have been wiped out completely. It was because of this that a new generation of Israel entered the land at all.
Set beside the gospel, the difference is sharp:
This is clearly not pure law, and it is not pure grace either. It is the goodness of God in government, and under that government God will by no means clear the guilty. Under grace, God can justify the ungodly.
The line about consequences reaching to later generations troubles many readers. Commentators place it in God's dealings on earth, not in His final verdict.
Here God is showing how He deals with people on earth in His holy government. When it comes to His judgment for eternity, He judges the dead "according to what they had done" (Rev. 20:12-13), and no child bears the sin of his father there... In the working out of God's government in this world, a father's iniquity harms his children. That fact is too obvious for any of us to overlook.
God's reply comes in two statements.
Note these two statements carefully. They are absolute and unqualified. "I have pardoned." And, "All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Nothing could, by any possibility, touch these grand facts. The pardon is secured; and the glory will yet shine out over all the earth.
- The Name spoken. God had used these very words about Himself before. Moses is not guessing at God's character; he is repeating it.
- The Name pleaded. Moses argues that God's own glory is tied up with keeping and blessing His people.
- The Name limited. "But he will by no means clear the guilty" keeps this from being the gospel. It is goodness at work inside God's government, where guilt still brings consequences on earth.
- The Name answered. The reply came back: "I have pardoned." That is power at work in patience, not destruction.
- The Name enlarged. What government could not do, grace does. God justifies the ungodly, and the whole earth will still be filled with His glory.
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy loving-kindness, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
Israel has just refused the land, and God has offered to destroy them and start again with Moses. Verse 19 is his reply — a plea for pardon based on nothing in the people, only on the greatness of God's love and His record of forgiving them.
Moses does not invent a new argument. He points to what God has said about Himself, and to every past forgiveness, as proof of what God is.
Moses could not bear the Lord's character to be compromised, so he holds Him tightly, as it were, to His own word... He clings to the word of God and to His ways — to the love God had shown so often, even to the faithless people He knew so well from the first. If He had borne with them before, surely He would not turn from them now.
Moses does not ask for pardon on its own. He asks on one ground above all: God's glory must not suffer.
There is, first and above all, a jealous care for the Lord's glory. That glory must be guarded on every side. But it is on this very ground — mainly, to maintain the divine glory — that he asks pardon for the people. This intercession links the two together in the most blessed way. "Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgement and destruction? No — "The LORD is slow to anger." What a thought! The power of God shown in patience and pardon!
The prayer asks nothing for Moses. One writer shows what he was ready to lose to keep God's glory safe.
If all this personal glory and greatness could only be bought at the cost of a single ray of divine glory — what then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for ever.
Another writer weighs what Moses wanted for himself against what he wanted for Israel.
Look at the love he has for Israel on the one hand, and his care for God's character on the other. He says, Lord, I do not want to be made much of, but I do want something for others... The mercy of God is a deep sea that never changes, and it is infinitely precious.
God answers the prayer in the next verse, then sets a limit. Pardon here does not mean the people escape every consequence.
God answered the prayer of this one man on behalf of all Israel, telling him He has pardoned Israel: He would not destroy them. Yet, while God shows grace in this way, He will not relax His government... Israel would feel the results of their disobedience in a painful way.
How can God forgive and still punish? One writer answers by saying what forgiveness itself means.
God may discipline us in His government for our good, or even as a testimony, as in David's case and Numbers 14:20. Yet, between Him and the guilty, He forgives. He does not charge the sin against them. He no longer holds them guilty.
God's answer holds two statements, and neither one carries a condition.
Note these two statements carefully. They are absolute and unqualified. "I have pardoned." And, "all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD." Nothing could possibly touch these grand facts. The pardon is secured, and the glory shall yet shine out over all the earth.
One writer sets this prayer beside another famous prayer in Scripture.
How close Moses was to the very heart and mind of God when he could speak like this! Compare him with the prophet Elijah on Mount Horeb, who prayed against Israel. There can be little question which of these two honoured men was more in tune with the mind and spirit of Christ.
One man's prayer kept a whole nation alive. Another writer sees in it a preview of someone greater.
Again, in this wonderful instance, Moses beautifully pictures the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus. That grace keeps and sustains His people, despite their waywardness.
- Ground — Moses claims nothing for Israel. He holds God to His own word, and to every pardon given since Egypt.
- Glory — Moses asks pardon on one ground: God's own glory. Mercy and glory rise or fall together.
- Gift — "I have pardoned" is absolute. God spares the nation and shows His power in patience, not destruction.
- Government — pardon does not cancel consequences. God still disciplines the people He has forgiven, and Israel felt that painfully.
- Goal — the same answer promises that the whole earth will be filled with God's glory. Nothing can touch that.
And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word.
Israel had just refused the land. They even talked of choosing a leader to take them back to Egypt. Moses prayed for them, and this verse is God's answer — a pardon, but one given on terms that shaped the next forty years.
Moses did not argue that the people deserved better. He appealed to God's own glory, and asked for pardon on that ground.
This is remarkably fine. The order, the tone, and the spirit of this whole appeal are beautiful. First and above all, there is a jealous care for the Lord's glory. That glory must be guarded on every side. Yet it is mainly on this ground — the keeping up of God's glory — that he asks pardon for the people... "Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgement and destruction? No; "The Lord is long-suffering." What a thought! The power of God in long-suffering and pardon!... Such words were pleasing to the ear of Jehovah, who delights in giving pardon.
Moses had quoted God's own proclamation back to Him: the Lord is slow to anger and rich in mercy, yet will by no means clear the guilty. God kept both halves of it.
Notice that at the very moment Jehovah pronounces judgment, He acts according to the word to which Moses had tied Him in his faith. Even if his faith did not reach as high as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their absolute, unconditional promises, it did fall back on the pledge Jehovah had given for His government of the people — and Jehovah holds to that pledge. So He dealt with that generation and swept it away, on the terms of His own proclamation. He would hold fast His mercy, but He would by no means clear the guilty. There was pardon, or Israel would never have entered the land. But He would "by no means clear the guilty", and so that generation fell.
The pardon was real, but it had limits. God spared the nation, yet the people who rebelled still lost the land.
His main thought was not of himself at all but of God and His glory. The people had rebelled first against God, and only after that against Moses himself. Even so, his one concern was how the Egyptians and the surrounding nations would read such a drastic judgment. With that in mind, and with God's declared patience and mercy in mind, he asked boldly for pardon. His plea prevailed, and God granted pardon as far as the death penalty was concerned.
Sin can be forgiven while its consequences still run their course. Darby points to this verse as an example.
In His government God may chasten us for our good, or even as a testimony, as in David's case and in Numbers 14:20. Yet between Himself and the guilty person He may forgive, and not count the sin against him — no longer hold him guilty.
God attaches no conditions to the pardon, or to the promise that follows it in the next verse.
Let the reader carefully note these two statements. They are absolute and unqualified. "I have pardoned." And, "All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Nothing could possibly touch these grand facts. The pardon stands secure, and the glory will yet shine out over all the earth. No power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever interfere with the divine integrity of these two precious statements.
A nation survived because one man stood between it and judgment. Commentators see a larger picture in that.
Moses appeals to the power of God to overcome obstacles, even the obstacle of Israel's stubbornness. He also appeals to what the Lord had told him: that He is "longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression"... On this ground Moses pleaded with God to pardon the iniquity of Israel, as He had done all through the wilderness journey. Once again, in this wonderful instance, Moses gives a beautiful picture of the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus, which keeps and sustains His people despite their waywardness.
- Plea. Moses thought of God's glory and not of himself, and asked for pardon on that ground.
- Pardon. The answer carries no conditions — "I have pardoned" — and nothing can touch it. God spared the nation, and it would still reach the land.
- Word. "According to your word" means God kept the exact terms He had proclaimed. He held fast His mercy, and He did not clear the guilty.
- Government. The pardon lifted the death sentence on the nation, not the consequences. God may forgive and still chasten us for our good.
- Picture. One man's prayer saved a rebellious people. It pictures the interceding grace by which the Lord Jesus keeps His own.