Numbers 14:17

Be great, i.e. appear to be great, discover its greatness; a real verb put for a declarative, or the thing for the manifestation of the thing. And this may be understood either,

1. Of God's power in preserving the people, and carrying them on into Canaan, which sense may seem to be favoured by the foregoing verse, where the Egyptians deny that God had power to do so. And according to that sense he adds the following words, not as an explication of this power, but as an argument to move him to show forth his power for his people notwithstanding their sins, according as, or rather because, (as the Hebrew word is oft rendered,) he had spoken, saying, &c., and so he should maintain the honour and the truth of his own name, or of those titles which he had ascribed to himself. Or,

2. The power of his grace and mercy, or the greatness of his mercy, as he calls it, Numbers 14:19, in pardoning of this and their other sins; for to this the following words manifestly restrain it, according as thou hast spoken, & c., where the pardon of their sins is the only instance of this power both described in God's titles, Numbers 14:18, and prayed for by Moses, Numbers 14:19, pardon, I beseech thee, &c., and granted by God in answer to him, Numbers 14:20, I have pardoned, &c. Nor is it strange that the pardon of sin, especially of such great sins, be spoken of as an act of power in God, because undoubtedly it is an act of omnipotent and infinite goodness; whence despairing sinners sometimes cry out that their sins are greater than God can pardon, as some translate Cain's words, Genesis 4:13. And since power is applied to God's wrath in punishing sin, Romans 9:22, why may it not as well be attributed to God's mercy in forgiving it? especially if it be considered that even in men revenge is an act of impotency, and consequently it must needs be an act of power to conquer their passions and inclinations to revenge, and to pardon those enemies whom they could destroy.