r Isai. xli. 14, 15. s Heb. ii. 11. * Heb. iii.12. » Lukexvii.5. * 1 Cor. vii. 32. Phil. iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 7. y Phil. i. 27.
god's answer to the intercession OF MOSES.
Numb. xiv. 20, 21. And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy tvord: but, as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
LITTLE do the world think how much they are indebted to the saints. They are the cluster for the sake of which the vineyard of the Lord is spared3; the elect, for whose sake the days of vengeance have been often shortenedb; the little remnant, without which the whole world would long since have been made as Sodom and Gomorrha0. In the passage
a Isai. Ixv. 8. b Matt. xxiv. 22. <= Isai. i. 9.
before us we have this very matter exhibited in a striking point of view. The whole people of Israel were in a state of rebellion against God; and God was meditating their utter extermination. But Moses lifts up his heart in prayer for them ; and, by his im- portunate intercession, averts the judgments which were ready to burst upon them.
Let us consider, I. The prayer he offered —
This did not relate to the eternal salvation of the people, except incidentally and by remote conse- quence : it had respect only to the threatening which God had denounced against the people. Having reason to fear that God would " smite them all with a pestilence, and disinherit them" utterly d, Moses entreated God to spare them, and urged such argu- ments as he judged most suitable to the occasion. These pleas of his deserve an attentive consideration.
He pressed upon the Deity,
1. A regard for his own honour —
[" What will the Egyptians and the Canaanites say ? Will they not ascribe the destruction of this people to a want of power in thee to accomplish thy projected plans e? O let them not have such cause for triumph ! let them not have so specious an occasion to blaspheme thy name ! "
This was an argument of great weight. He had used it successfully on a former occasion f; and God himself had acknowledged its force g. This therefore is a plea which we should use : we should use it with God, as an inducement to
him to keep ush and we should use it with ourselves,
as an incentive to vigilance and circumspection1. We should be exceeding tender of God's honour : and, when tempted to the commission of any sin, we should think, How will the Philistines rejoice, and the uncircumcised triumph k! how will they "blaspheme that sacred name by which I am called1!" O that I may " never thus give occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully"1 ! "]
2. A conformity to his own perfections —
d ver. 11, 12. e ver. 13—16. f Exod. xxxii. 12.
g Deut. xxxii. 26, 27. See also Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22, 44. h Ps. v. 8. Jer. xiv. 21. 5 1 Tim. vi. 1. * 2 Sam. i. 20. 1 Jam. ii. 7. m 1 Tim. v. 14.
156.J god's answer to moses' intercession. 61
[Didst thou not, O my God, when proclaiming thy name to me, represent thyself as " long-suffering, and of great mercy, and as forgiving iniquity and transgression, though thou wouldest not clear the guilty n ?" Let it now be seen that this is indeed thy character. I do not ask that thou shouldest " leave them altogether unpunished ; but only that thou shouldest not make a full end of them0, as thou hast threatened."
Here, methinks, is a plea, which, almost above all others, it becomes us to urge in all our supplications at the throne of grace. The character of God, as a God of infinite mercy, is that which encourages our addresses to him. When every other ground of hope fails, this is still firm. If only we do not " limit the Holy One of Israel," we can never be at a loss for " arguments with which to fill our mouths " at a throne of grace. O let us study well the representations which God has given of himself, and especially that to which Moses referred : then, even in our lowest state of guilt or misery, we shall never despair of obtaining mercy at his hands.]