All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! Sermons
I. THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENT PRAYER. The people have at length reached the threshold of the promised land; but beyond the threshold they will not advance. Disbelieving the promise, they first insisted on sending spies; and then, when the spies returned, they would hear only the bad report. They even proposed to stone Moses, choose a new leader, and go back to Egypt. They would not listen to Joshua and Caleb, and were only restrained by a threatening' appearance of the Lord in the cloud above the tabernacle. So greatly was the wrath of God kindled, that he threatened to consume the congregation utterly, and raise up a more faithful people in their stead. "I will smite them; I will disinherit them; I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." Moses may have been - I believe he was - unprepared for the incredible perversity of the present outbreak of rebellion; but he was not unprepared for the threatening which it provoked. A similar outbreak had been followed with the same threatening at Sinai. And Moses did not fail to remember how, on that occasion, the threatened destruction had been averted by his intercession (Exodus 32:7-14). So, now also, he with reverent boldness "stood before the Lord in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them" (Psalm 106:23). II. THE PRAYER. It is summed up in one word, "Pardon!" (verse 19). "Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people." Forgive, yet this once, their perverse disobedience; revoke the sentence pronounced against them; fulfill thy promise by granting them the land. - I need not say more about this petition. The remarkable thing in the prayer is not what Moses asks, but THE ARGUMENT WITH WHICH HE ENFORCES HIS REQUEST. First, he pleads that the honour of God's great name is at stake. The Lord had been pleased to put his name on the children of Israel. He had chosen them to be his special possession, making them the depositaries of his oracles and ordinances, and the witnesses for his truth. All this was now become matter of notoriety. In the mind of the nations round about the name of the Lord was identified with the seed of Abraham. Verses 13-16, q.d., "If the tribes perish here, the Egyptians will hear of it, and what will they think? The signs wrought in their sight, both in Egypt and at the Red Sea, have taught them that thou, the God of Jacob, art the Most High, and that thou hast chosen Israel for thy people; and the report of thy doings in Horeb, and by the way, have deepened the impression made by the Egyptian signs. Let not this salutary impression be effaced by discomfiture now. Let not Egypt from behind, and the Canaanites in front, shout in derision of thy great name." - I much fear that this argument does not usually find the place of prominence in our prayers that it finds here in Moses' prayer. The interest of God's name - his truth and cause - in the earth does not lie so near our hearts. Yet it certainly ought. "Hallowed be thy name" should get the place of honour in our prayers. More particularly, we ought to guard against everything which would bring reproach on true religion in the view of the outside world. Christians are to "walk in wisdom toward them that are without." There are still Egyptians and Canaanites watching to hear, and eager to spread, any report regarding the professed people of Christ which they think can be made use of to the disparagement of Divine truth and the Christian cause. Secondly, Moses pleads the Lord's promise. Along with verses 17, 18 read Exodus 34:5-7. The reference cannot be mistaken. Q.d., "Didst not thou show me thy glory in Horeb, and was not thy glory this, viz., that thou hast mercy? Didst not thou declare to me that thy name is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression? Into this name I will now run. In this name I take refuge. Remember thy word on which thou hast caused me to hope. Let thy name be now manifested in forgiving this people." - There is no encouragement in prayer to be compared with that which is got from the study of God's promises. "He hath said - therefore we may boldly say" (Hebrews 13:5, 6). What God has promised to give, we may ask without wavering. Thirdly, Moses pleads former mercies (verse 19). Next to the promise of God, the remembrance of former instances of kindness received in answer to prayer ministers encouragement to pray still, and not faint. - Such then was the prayer of Moses at Kadesh-barnea - the prayer which turned away the fatal sword of God's wrath from Israel. I am much inclined to think that instances of like success in prayer are not so rare as many suppose; that, on the contrary, if an inspired historian were to write the annals of our families, churches, communities, it would be found that not seldom public judgments have been turned aside by the intervention of the Lord's hidden ones - his Noahs and Daniels and Jobs. When all secret things are brought to light, these intercessors will not fail to obtain recognition and reward. - B.
Pardon, I 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.) 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.) 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 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.) (ver. 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" (Psalm 25:10). "Unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy" (Psalm 62:12). "Merciful and gracious" (Psalm 103:8). "With the Lord there is mercy" (Psalm 130:7). And so (Jeremiah 3:12; Joel 2:13; Jonah 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" (Psalm 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 (Psalm 78:38). And the multitude of God's mercies because our sins are many (Psalm 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.) 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.) 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.) People Aaron, Amalekites, Caleb, Canaanites, Egyptians, Israelites, Jephunneh, Joshua, Moses, NunPlaces Egypt, Hormah, Kadesh-barnea, Red SeaTopics Aaron, Assembly, Company, Congregation, Crying, Death, Desert, Died, Egypt, Grumbled, Murmur, Murmured, O, Sons, Waste, WildernessOutline 1. The people murmur at the news6. Joshua and Caleb labor to still them 11. God threatens them 13. Moses intercedes with God, and obtains pardon 26. The Murmurers are debarred from entering into the land 36. The men who raised the evil report die by a plague 40. The people that would invade the land against the will of God are smitten Dictionary of Bible Themes Numbers 14:2 5072 Aaron, spokesman 4207 land, divine gift Library Moses the Intercessor'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.' --NUM. xiv. 19. See how in this story a divine threat is averted and a divine promise is broken, thus revealing a standing law that these in Scripture are conditional. This striking incident of Moses' intercession suggests to us some thoughts as to I. The ground of the divine forgiveness. The appeal is not based on anything in the people. … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Weighed, and Found Wanting Order and Argument in Prayer The Spies Afraid of Giants Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology. The Personality of Power. Exploring Canaan by Faith Trinity Sunday the Doctrine of the Trinity. The Scriptures Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices. Synagogues: their Origin, Structure and Outward Arrangements An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, and Part of the Eleventh Thirdly, for Thy Actions. The Earliest Christian Preaching Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Numbers Links Numbers 14:2 NIVNumbers 14:2 NLT Numbers 14:2 ESV Numbers 14:2 NASB Numbers 14:2 KJV Numbers 14:2 Bible Apps Numbers 14:2 Parallel Numbers 14:2 Biblia Paralela Numbers 14:2 Chinese Bible Numbers 14:2 French Bible Numbers 14:2 German Bible Numbers 14:2 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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