Numbers 14:13-19

Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people.

Moses’ expostulation

What book but the Bible has the courage to represent a man standing in this attitude before his God and addressing his Sovereign in such persuasive terms? This incident brings before us the vast subject of the collateral considerations which are always operating in human life. Things are not straight and simple, lying in rows of direct lines to be numbered off, checked off and done with. Lines bisect and intersect and thicken into great knots and tangle, and who can unravel or disentangle the great heap? Things bear relations which can only be detected by the imagination, which cannot be compassed by arithmetical numbers, but which force upon men a new science of calculation, and create a species of moral algebra, by which, through the medium and help of symbols, that is done which was impossible to common arithmetic. Moses was a great leader; he thought of Egypt: what will the enemy say? The enemy will put a false construction upon this. As if he had said, This will be turned against Heaven; the Egyptians do not care what becomes of the people, if they can laugh at the Providence which they superstitiously trusted; the verdict passed by the heathen will be:--God was not able to do what He promised, so He had recourse to the vulgar artifice of murder. The Lord in this way developed Moses. In reality, Moses was not anticipating the Divine purpose, but God was training the man by saying what He, the Lord, would do, and by the very exaggeration of His strength called up Moses to his noblest consciousness. We do this amongst ourselves. By using a species of language adapted to touch the innermost nerve and feeling of our hearers, we call those hearers to their best selves. If the Lord had spoken a hesitant language, or had fallen into what we may call a tone of despair, Moses himself might have been seduced into a kindred dejection; but the Lord said, I will smite, I will disinherit, I will make an end; and Moses became priest, intercessor, mighty pleader--the very purpose which God had in view--to keep the head right, the leading man in tune with His purposes. So Moses said, “Pardon”; the Lord said, “Smite”; and Moses said, “Pardon”--that is the true smiting. The Lord meant it; the Lord taught Moses that prayer which Moses seemed to invent himself. The Lord trains us, sometimes, by shocking our sensibilities; and by the very denunciation of His judgments He drives us to tenderer prayer. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The intercession of Moses for the doomed nation

I. The petition which he presented.

II. The pleas by which he urged his petition.

1. The honour of the Divine name amongst the heathen.

(1) The relations of God with Israel and His doings for Israel were well known amongst neighbouring nations.

(2) If God should destroy Israel at a stroke, that also would be known amongst these nations.

(3) The interpretation of such destruction by the nations would be such as would reflect on the honour of God. They would conclude that His resources were exhausted; that His power had failed to sustain and lead Israel onward: and thus His glory would be tarnished.

(4) That this might not be the case Moses entreats the Lord not to disinherit the rebellious people.

2. The Divine character as revealed to Moses.

3. The truth of the Divine word.

4. The forgiveness which God had already bestowed.

Conclusion: From this intercession of Moses let us learn--

1. How to plead with God for ourselves.

2. How to plead with God for others, and especially for His people. (W. Jones.)

God’s pardoning grace in the past an encouragement to seek for the same in the present

I. God is as able and as willing to forgive now as ever he has been.

II. Man is now, as much as ever he has been, the object of God’s compassion.

III. God’s purpose with regard to the human race is now what it ever has been. (David Lloyd.)

The power of intercession

The intercession of Christians, who are already formed, is the leaven which is to leaven the whole earth with Christianity. It is one of the destined instruments, in the hand of God, for hastening the glory of the latter days. Take the world at large, and the doctrine of intercession, as an engine of mighty power, is derided as one of the reveries of fanaticism. This is a subject on which the men of the world are in a deep slumber; but there are watchmen who never hold their peace day nor night, and to them God addresses these remarkable words: “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (T. Chalmers.)

The mercy of God

(Numbers 14:18):--

I. What we are to understand by the mercy of god. It is His goodness to them that are in misery, or liable to it. Thus the mercy of God is usually, in Scripture, set forth to us by the affection of pity and compassion; which is an affection that causeth a sensible commotion in us, upon the apprehension of some great evil that lies upon another, or hangs over him. Hence it is that God is said, in Scripture, to be grieved and afflicted for the miseries of men. But though God is pleased in this manner to set forth His mercy and tenderness towards us, yet we must take heed how we clothe the Divine nature with the infirmities of human passions. When God is said to pity us, we must take away the imperfection of His passion, the commotion and disturbance of it, and not imagine any such thing in God; but we are to conceive that the mercy and compassion of God, without producing the disquiet, do produce the effects of the most sensible pity.

II. That this perfection belongs to God. I will only produce some of those many texts of Scripture which attribute this perfection to God. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious” (Exodus 34:6). “The Lord thy God is a merciful God” (Deuteronomy 4:31). “The Lord your God is gracious and merciful” (2 Chronicles 34:9). “Ready to pardon, gracious and merciful” (Nehemiah 9:17). “All the paths of the Lord are mercy” (Psalms 25:10). “Unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy” (Psalms 62:12). “Merciful and gracious” (Psalms 103:8). “With the Lord there is mercy” (Psalms 130:7). And so (Jeremiah 3:12; Joel 2:13; John 4:2; Luke 6:36), “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” The Scripture speaks of this as most natural to Him. In 2 Corinthians 1:3, He is called “the Father of mercies.”

III. The degree of it. A God of great mercy. Scripture speaks of it as if God was wholly taken up with it, as if it was His constant employment, so that, in comparison of it, He doth hardly display any other excellency; “All the paths of the Lord are mercy” (Psalms 25:10); as if, in this world, God had a design to advance His mercy above His other attributes. The mercy of God is now in the throne; this is the day of mercy; and God doth display it, many times, with a seeming dishonour to His other attributes, His justice, and holiness, and truth.

1. Preventing mercy. Does not that man owe more to his physician who prevents his sickness, than he who, after the languishing, the pains of several months, is at length cured by him?

2. Forbearing mercy. And this is the patience of God, which consists in the deferring or moderating of our deserved punishment. Hence it is that “slow to anger,” and “of great mercy,” do so often go together.

3. Comforting mercy (2 Corinthians 1:3).

4. His relieving mercy, in supplying those that are in want, and delivering those that are in trouble.

5. Pardoning mercy. And here the greatness and fulness of God’s mercy appears, because our sins are great (Psalms 78:38). And the multitude of God’s mercies because our sins are many (Psalms 51:1).

Uses--

1. We ought with thankfulness to acknowledge and admire the great mercy of God to us.

2. The great mercy of God to us should stir up in us shame and sorrow for sin. The judgments of God may break us; but the consideration of God’s mercy should rather melt us into tears (Luke 7:47).

3. Let us imitate the merciful nature of God.

4. If the mercy of God be so great, this may comfort us against despair.

5. By way of caution against the presumptuous sinner. If there be any that encourage themselves in sin, upon the hopes of His mercy; let such know that God is just, as well as merciful. (Abp. Tillotson.)

Long-suffering of God

We may safely assert that Jeremy Taylor is none the less vigorous for illustrating the long-suffering of God by the Rabbinical story that the archangel Michael, being God’s messenger of vengeance, had but one wing, that he might labour in his flight, while Gabriel had two wings, that he might “fly swiftly” when bringing the message of peace. (J. Pilkington.)

Great mercy

God’s mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God. As John Bunyan well says, “It must be great mercy or no mercy, for little mercy will never serve my turn.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)