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. God is not asked to
forgive because of their repentance or their faith. True, these are the
conditions on which His pardon is received by us, but they are not the
reasons why it is given by Him. Nor does Moses appeal to any sacrifices
that had been offered and were conceived to placate God. But he goes
deeper than all such pleas, and lays hold, with sublime confidence, on
God’s own nature as his all-powerful plea. ‘The greatness of Thy mercy’
is the ground of the divine forgiveness, and the mightiest plea that
human lips can urge. It suggests that His very nature is pardoning
love; that ‘mercy’ is proper to Him, that it is the motive and impulse
of His acts. He forgives because He is mercy. That is the foundation
truth. It is the deep spring from which by inherent impulse all the
streams of forgiveness well up.
What was true when Moses prayed for the rebels is true to-day. Christ’s
work is the consequence, not the cause, of God’s pardoning love. It is
the channel through which the waters reach us, but the waters made the
channel for themselves.
II. The persistency of the divine pardon.
‘As thou hast forgiven … even until now.’
His past is the guarantee of His future. This is true of every one of
His attributes. There is no limitation to the divine forgiveness; you
cannot exhaust it.
Sometimes there may be long tracts of almost utter godlessness, or
times of apathy. Sometimes there may be bursts of great and
unsanctified evil after many professions of fidelity, as in David’s
case. Sometimes there may be but a daily experience in which there is
little apparent progress, little consciousness of growing mastery over
sin, little of deepening holiness and spiritual power. Be it so! To all
such, and to every other form of Christian unfaithfulness, this blessed
thought applies.
We are apt to think as if our many pardons in the past made future
pardons less likely, whereas the truth is that we have received
forgiveness so often in the past that we may be quite sure that it will
never fail us in the future. God has established a precedent in His
dealings with us. He binds Himself by His past.
As in His creative energy, the forces that flung the whole universe
forth were not exhausted by the act, but subsist continually to sustain
it, as ‘He fainteth not, neither is weary,’ so in the works of His
providence, and more especially of His grace, there is nothing in the
exercise of any of His attributes to exhaust _that_ attribute, nothing
in the constant appeal which we make to His forgiving grace to weary
out that grace. And thus we may learn, even from the unfading glories
of the heavens and the undimmed splendours of His creative works, the
lesson that, in the holier region of His love, and His pardoning mercy,
there is no exhaustion, and that all the past instances of His
pardoning grace only make the broader, firmer ground of certainty as to
His continuous present and future forgiveness for all our iniquity. He
who has proposed to us the ‘seventy times seven’ as the number of our
forgivenesses will not let His own fall short of that tale. Our
iniquities may be ‘more than the hairs of our heads,’ but as the
psalmist who found his to be so comforted himself with thinking, God’s
‘thoughts which are to usward’ were ‘more than can be numbered.’ There
would be a pardoning thought for every sin, and after all sins had been
forgiven, there would be ‘multitudes of redemptions’ still available
for penitent souls.
There is but one thing that limits the divine pardon, and that is
continuous rejection of it.
Whoever seeks to be pardoned _is_ pardoned.
III. The manner of the divine forgiveness.
He pardoned, but He also inflicted punishment, and in both He loves
equally. The worst, that is the spiritual, consequences (which are the
punishments) of sin, namely separation and alienation from God, He
removes in the very act of forgiveness, but His pardon does not affect
the natural consequences. ‘Thou wast a God that forgavest them and
tookest vengeance of their inventions,’ says a psalmist in reference to
this very incident. Thank God that He loves us too wisely and well not
to let us by experience ‘know that it is a bitter thing to forsake the
Lord.’
It is a blessing that He does so, and a sign that we are pardoned, if
we rightly use it.
IV. The vehicle of the divine forgiveness.
The Mediator. Moses here may be taken as a dim shadow of Christ.
‘Moses was faithful in all his house’ but Jesus is the true Mediator,
whose intercession consists in presenting the constant efficacy of His
sacrifice, and to whom God ever says, ‘I have pardoned according to Thy
word.’
Trust utterly to Him. You cannot weary out the forgiving love of God.
‘Christ ever liveth to make intercession’; with God is ‘plenteous
redemption.’ ‘He shall redeem Israel out of _all_ his iniquities.’

World English Bible

Bible Verses About love – Timothy-2 4:10
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Bible Verses About love – Song-of-Solomon 8:5
Who [is] this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth [that] bare thee.

Bible Scriptures – John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Bible Favorites

Bible Verses About love – Peter-1 1:22
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Bible Verses About love – Genesis 29:20
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him [but] a few days, for the love he had to her.

Bible Verses About ardon – Numbers 14:20
And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

Bible Verses About enlarged – Samuel-1 2:1
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.

Bible Verses About seer – Chronicles-2 31:13
And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, [were] overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

Bible Verses About withdrew – Ezekiel 20:22
Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.

Bible Verses About frankincense – Exodus 30:34
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; [these] sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like [weight]:

Bible Verses About separation – Numbers 31:23
Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make [it] go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Bible Verses About abner – Samuel-2 2:31
But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, [so that] three hundred and threescore men died.

Bible Verses About sworn – Jeremiah 11:5
That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as [it is] this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Bible Verses About loss – Colossians 1:21
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

Bible Verses About couches – Amos 6:4
That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;

Bible Verses About tappuah – Joshua 12:17
The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

Bible Verses About forgave – Luke 7:42
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Bible Verses About rehoboam – Kings-1 15:6
And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

Bible Verses About generation – Psalms 48:13
Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell [it] to the generation following.

Bible Verses About iezer – Judges 8:2
And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? [Is] not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

Bible Verses About hated – Genesis 29:33
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I [was] hated, he hath therefore given me this [son] also: and she called his name Simeon.

Bible Verses About woman – Judges 13:24
And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

Bible Verses About jeconiah – Jeremiah 27:20
Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

Bible Verses About spoken – Matthew 3:3
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Bible Verses About jehoram – Kings-2 8:16
And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat [being] then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.

Bible Verses About faith – Philippians 3:9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Bible Verses About struggle – Genesis 25:22
And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If [it be] so, why [am] I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD.

Bible Verses About hope – Romans 8:25
But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].

Bible Verses About joy – Job 29:13
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

Bible Verses About forgive – Psalms 25:18
Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

Bible Verses About baptism – Luke 20:4
The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?

Bible Verses About dreams – Samuel-1 28:6
And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.

Bible Verses About success – Joshua 1:8
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Bible Verses About anger – Mark 3:5
And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched [it] out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

Bible Verses About giving – Corinthians-1 14:16
Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?

Bible Verses About jealousy – Psalms 78:58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Bible Verses About visions – Joshua 11:23
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

Bible Verses About trust – Jeremiah 12:5
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

Bible Verses About tongue – Psalms 137:6
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Bible Verses About marriage – John 2:1
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:

Bible Verses About courage – Deuteronomy 3:28
But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

Bible Verses About wisdom – Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Bible Verses About worship – Revelations 22:8
And I John saw these things, and heard [them]. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.

Bible Verses About purpose – Romans 9:17
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Bible Verses About grace – Exodus 33:16
For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? [is it] not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that [are] upon the face of the earth.

Bible in Basic English

Bible Verses About baptism – John 4:2
(Though, in fact, it was his disciples who gave baptism, not Jesus himself),

Bible Verses About mothers – Mark 13:12
And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death.

Bible Verses About fear – Isaiah 8:9
Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:

Bible Verses About women – Isaiah 3:12
As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.

Bible Verses About prayer – Job 21:15
What is the Ruler of all, that we may give him worship? and what profit is it to us to make prayer to him?

Bible Verses About worship – Deuteronomy 13:2
And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;

Bible Verses About joy – Luke 1:44
For, truly, when the sound of your voice came to my ears, the baby in my body made a sudden move for joy.

Bible Verses About caring – Deuteronomy 12:19
See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long as you are living in your land.

Bible Verses About friend – Judges 14:20
But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man.

Bible Verses About wisdom – Revelation 7:12
So be it. Let blessing and glory and wisdom and praise and honour and power and strength be given to our God for ever and ever. So be it.

Bible Verses About aran – 1-Corinthians 16:22
If any man has not love for the Lord, let him be cursed. Maran atha (our Lord comes).

Bible Verses About hanani – Daniel 1:7
And the captain of the unsexed servants gave them names; to Daniel he gave the name of Belteshazzar, to Hananiah the name of Shadrach, to Mishael the name of Meshach, and to Azariah the name of Abed-nego.

Bible Verses About unwise – Acts 19:36
So then, because these things may not be doubted, it would be better for you to be quiet, and do nothing unwise.

Bible Verses About astarte – 1-Samuel 31:10
His war-dress they put in the house of Astarte; and his body was fixed on the wall of Beth-shan.

Bible Verses About jordan – Mark 10:1
And he got up, and went into the country of Judaea on the other side of Jordan: and great numbers of people came together to him again; and, as was his way, he gave them teaching.

Bible Verses About travellers – Jeremiah 9:2
If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men.

Bible Verses About blackberries – Isaiah 5:6
And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give orders to the clouds not to send rain on it.

Bible Verses About outside – Numbers 19:9
Then let a man who is clean take the dust of the burned cow and put it outside the tent-circle in a clean place, where it is to be kept for the children of Israel and used in making the water which takes away what is unclean: it is a sin-offering.

Bible Verses About slow – Matthew 13:15
For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well.

Bible Verses About manasseh – 2-Chronicles 32:33
So Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the higher part of the resting-places of the sons of David: and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

King James Bible

Bible Verses About waste – Ezekiel 33:24
Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we [are] many; the land is given us for inheritance.

Bible Verses About breath – Habakkuk 2:19
Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it [is] laid over with gold and silver, and [there is] no breath at all in the midst of it.

Bible Verses About slothful – Proverbs 22:13
The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

Bible Verses About sound – Hebrews 12:19
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

Bible Verses About courts – Psalms 100:4
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.

Bible Verses About grapes – Genesis 40:10
And in the vine [were] three branches: and it [was] as though it budded, [and] her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:

Bible Verses About vexed – Psalms 6:2
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I [am] weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

Bible Verses About escape – Jeremiah 41:15
But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.

Bible Verses About blessing – Revelations 5:12
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Bible Verses About dominion – Jeremiah 51:28
Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

Bible Verses About cain – Genesis 4:24
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Bible Verses About honourable – Isaiah 23:8
Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning [city], whose merchants [are] princes, whose traffickers [are] the honourable of the earth?

Bible Verses About veil – Leviticus 21:23
Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.

Bible Verses About deceived – Timothy-1 2:14
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Bible Verses About prison – Isaiah 10:4
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.

Bible Verses About perverse – Isaiah 59:3
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

Bible Verses About sixth – Chronicles-1 26:5
Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth: for God blessed him.

Bible Verses About desert – Isaiah 51:3
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Bible Verses About womb – Isaiah 44:2
Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, [which] will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.

Bible Verses About windows – Isaiah 54:12
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.

Bible Scriptures About rain – Jeremiah 14:10
Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

Bible Scriptures About david – Psalms 144:1
[A Psalm] of David. Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight:

Bible Scriptures About heart – Job 10:13
And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this [is] with thee.

Bible Scriptures About heathen – Jeremiah 49:15
For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, [and] despised among men.

Bible Scriptures About reproach – Psalms 78:66
And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

Bible Scriptures About sabbath – John 19:31
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.

Bible Scriptures About incense – Chronicles-2 28:25
And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.

Bible Scriptures About begat – Genesis 5:30
And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

Bible Scriptures About wicked – Jeremiah 23:11
For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

Bible Scriptures About possess – Numbers 33:53
And ye shall dispossess [the inhabitants] of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.