Moses Successfully Intercedes For Them (Numbers 14:13-19).
‘And Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people, for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.” '
However, Moses resorted to a similar argument to the one that he had used at the incident of the molten calf (Exodus 32:12). Let Yahweh consider that when the Egyptians heard what He had done they would crowingly declare to the Canaanites ‘what Yahweh had done'. Here was a fierce God indeed, they would jeer. He had done the same to these people as He had previously done to the Egyptians.
So Moses asked Him, had they not heard about how Yahweh was in the midst of His people, and was seen by them face to face when His glory was revealed as it now was? And how His cloud was over them day and night, and that Yahweh went before them in cloud and fire? Would they not therefore mock all the more if these same people were destroyed? So much for His faithfulness and protection, they would say. He was not to be trusted.
“ Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard your fame will speak, saying, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.' ”
And if Yahweh slew them all the observers would declare that with all His extravagant actions and claims He had been unable to do what He had set out to do, bring these people safely into Canaan, even though He had sworn that He would do so. And they would suggest that that was surely why He had slain them in the wilderness, because He had had to face up to His own inadequacy. So it was Yahweh's reputation in the world that was at stake here, not just a matter of the deserving of the children of Israel.
“ And now, I pray you, let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
Having called on Him to consider what people would think, he then turned to a second argument, the compassionate nature of Yahweh as declared by Himself. Let Him now reveal how great His power was by revealing that compassion. Those who are truly great are great enough to show compassion. And who was greater than Yahweh? Had not Yahweh previously declared that He was slow to anger and abundant in covenant love (chesed)? That He forgave iniquity and transgression, although by no means clearing those who remained in their guilt by failing to repent? (see Exodus 34:6-7). On the guilty He brought His judgment even to the third and fourth generation, because they continued obstinate in the face of His mercy. But on those who repented He showed mercy, ‘forgiving iniquity and transgression'. Let Him now reveal this by forgiving these people for their iniquity and transgression.
“ Pardon, I pray you, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your lovingkindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
So for His honour's sake, and for his reputation's sake, and for the sake of the truth about His nature, Moses prayed that He would pardon this people's iniquity in accordance with His great covenant love, just as He had continually forgiven them from the time when they left Egypt up to this point. Let Him reveal Himself as the unchanging One, and the One Who forgives.