Numbers 14:19, commentary and pictures

On the borders of the Promised Land, after the spies' report turned the congregation to open mutiny and refusal to advance, Moses begged God to spare the people from destruction and forgive their iniquity. When God declared He would strike them with pestilence and make a greater nation from Moses, the prophet could not bear their ruin and interceded for their life once more. His plea rested on God's own character and past dealings — His great mercy, long-suffering love, promises, and continual forgiveness from Egypt until then — and on His honor before the nations, lest they claim He could not bring His people into the promised land. God answered that He had pardoned according to that word, sparing the whole congregation from being slain as one man in the wilderness. Yet pardon did not cancel consequence, for the tested rebels from twenty years upward who had seen His miracles and tempted Him repeatedly were turned back to wander until their bodies fell, while only Caleb and Joshua among them and the little ones they feared for would enter the inheritance.

Setting and Plea

The prayer was offered on the borders of the Promised Land when Israel refused to advance in obedience to the divine command after the spies' report, at the height of rebellion that brought the long wilderness sojourn. The rebellion was open mutiny, for the congregation accepted the unbelieving report, murmured against Moses and Aaron, turned against Joshua and Caleb when they urged trust in the Lord, cursed Moses and Aaron, reproached God, sought to return to Egypt, and sought to stone Caleb and Joshua. In response God declared He would smite the people with pestilence and disinherit them, and make from Moses' descendants a greater and mightier nation.

Unable to endure the thought of Israel's destruction, Moses agonizingly interceded for their life, asking pardon of the people's iniquity according to the greatness of divine mercy and as God had forgiven them from Egypt even until now. He asked Him to spare the ungrateful and unworthy people once more and to add another instance of patience to those already shown despite repeated rebellion. The plea was based on knowledge of Jehovah's long-sufferance, infinite love and mercy, character, glory, merciful kindness and tender love, and on His marvelous providences, promises, long patience, and continual forgiveness. With the same confidence with which he had often pleaded for erring Israel during the wilderness sojourn, he pleaded those merciful attributes in behalf of the chosen nation.

As the strongest of all pleas, Moses urged God's love for fallen man to be revealed, that His glory, His character, His merciful kindness and tender love should be made known. He also appealed to God's honor and power before the nations that had heard His fame, that enemies and the Egyptians should have no reason to claim He was unable to bring His people into the land He promised. He pleaded knowing what might have been and the glory God would have revealed in an obedient people, and appealing to the great displays of divine power that had made Israel's God known to the nations. The verse thus models prayer grounded on God's own character and spoken words, repeating that He is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and it is the privilege of all who pray to cite His promises in the same confident way.

Pardon and Consequences

Graciously the Lord answered the plea with pardon, declaring He had pardoned according to Moses' word. That pardon spared the whole people from being struck down at once and killed as one man in the wilderness. The rebellious adults were pardoned as a nation from immediate destruction, yet still faced exclusion from the promised land.

Pardon did not remove consequences for the tested rebels, for God could not work through the transgressors as before. It would dishonor His name to do great things for those who in spirit were no better than the heathen around them. Those from twenty years old and upward who had seen His glory and miracles in Egypt and the wilderness, and had tempted Him ten times without hearkening to His voice and had murmured against Him, must turn into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. Their carcasses would fall there without seeing the land sworn to their fathers, save Caleb who followed fully and Joshua. Their little ones, whom they said would be a prey, would be brought in to know the despised land, and Caleb was promised the inheritance for wholly following God.

After God declared the wandering, Israel's decision to enter Canaan came too late. Their enemies were prepared, Moses warned them not to go, and they were defeated. That rebellion led to the long wilderness sojourn, yet years later the people wrongly complained that the delay had been unnecessary and resented God's dealings with them.