Numbers 14:11-19 comments: Moses pleads for his people

 

Numbers 14:11 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 12  I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. 13  And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) 14  And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15  Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16  Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17  And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18  The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 19  Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

 

Here, the LORD is testing Moses, proving him. He threatens to destroy the Hebrews and use Moses like an Abraham and create a people from him. This threat to disinherit Israel is met by Moses plea for mercy. He uses the argument first that this would result in bad press, so to speak, as the Egyptians and the people of Canaan would then say that God wasn’t strong enough to do His will.

In a way, this reminds me of the Christian of the 20^th century who insists that while God could and did inspire the original autographs of the Bible He was not able to preserve or purify the words He wanted us to have so that all translations are faulty. This makes the preacher who says he is going to read from God’s error-free word a complete and total liar because he doesn’t believe he has it, just an old book that must be judged textually like any old book.

In verse 19 Moses seeks God’s mercy for his people not because they deserve it but because it is in God’s nature to show mercy. In like manner David pleads for mercy not because he has any merit but because of the greatness of his iniquity and for God’s name sake.

Psalm 25:11  For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

 

A patient goes to a doctor and asks for help not because his sickness is insignificant but because he cannot stand it. It is the doctor’s nature to heal and the case the patient makes for healing by coming to him is the greatness of his illness. So, Moses appeals to God for mercy for his people as it is in God’s nature to be merciful.

God spoke the words Moses quotes as recorded back in Exodus.

 

Exodus 34:5 ¶  And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

 

Note the context of the statement in Exodus 34:7 as it pertains to the Hebrews, the Israelites. Please regard the following later.

Ezekiel 18:19  Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. 20  The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

 

So quit quoting that from Numbers or Exodus as if it applies to a brother or sister in Christ. We know by experience that familial sin and familial trends impacts later generations. A child who grows up in a home where mother and father are contentious and full of spite and bitterness for each other may wind up sexually confused and morally uncertain. We also know that child abusers often create child abusers in the next generation but that is a different process at work than God requiring a grandchild’s suffering as a judgment for the sins of the grandparent. Don’t be too loose with your applications, Christian. A text without a context is a pretext.