Numbers 14:20

_THE LORD IS LONGSUFFERING, AND OF GREAT MERCY, FORGIVING INIQUITY AND TRANSGRESSION, AND BY NO MEANS CLEARING THE GUILTY, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

20._And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word. _God signifies that tie pardons for His servant Moses’ sake, and makes, as it were, a present to him of those whom He had already devoted to destruction. Hence we gather how much the entreaties of the pious avail with God: as He is said, in Psalms 145:19, to “fulfil the desire of them that fear him.” He would, indeed, have done of His own accord what He granted to Moses; but, in order that we may be more earnest in prayer, the use and advantage of prayers is commended, when God declares that He will not only comply with our requests, but even obey them. But how is it consistent for Him to declare that He had spared those, upon whom He had determined to inflict the most extreme punishment, and whom He deprived of their promised inheritance? I reply that the pardon in question was not granted to the individuals, but

20-35 The Lord granted the prayer of Moses so far as not at once to destroy the congregation. But disbelief of the promise forbids the benefit. Those who despise the pleasant land shall be shut out of it. The promise of God should be fulfilled to their children. They wished to die in the wilderness; God made their sin their ruin, took them at their word, and their carcases fell in the wilderness. They were made to groan under the burden of their own sin, which was too heavy for them to bear. Ye shall know my breach of promise, both the causes of it, that it is procured by your sin, for God never leaves any till they first leave him; and the consequences of it, that will produce your ruin. But your little ones, now under twenty years old, which ye, in your unbelief, said should be a prey, them will I bring in. God will let them know that he can put a difference between the guilty and the...

Verse Numbers 14:20. _I HAVE PARDONED_] That is, They shall not be cut off _as_ they deserve, because thou hast interceded for their lives....

EXPOSITION THE REBELLION AT KADESH (continued) (Numbers 13:1, Numbers 14:1). NUMBERS 14:1 AND THE PEOPLE WEPT THAT NIGHT. As the spies repeated their dismal tidings, each to the leading men of his own tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly through the tents (cf. Deuteronomy 1:27) with ever-increasing exaggerations, the lamentation became universal. NUMBERS 14:2 Murmured against Moses

AND THE LORD SAID, I HAVE PARDONED, ACCORDING TO THY WORD. So as not to kill them utterly as one man: which is an instance of his being plenteous in mercy, and ready to forgive; and of the virtue and efficacy of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, and of the great regard the Lord has to the prayers of a good man for others. The Jerusalem Targum is, "and the Word of the Lord said, lo, I have remitted and forgiven according to thy word;'' which must be understood of Christ, the essential Word, and shows, according to the sense of the Targumist, that he has a power to forgive sin, and must be a divine Person, for none can forgive sin but God; see Mark 2:7....

CHAPTER 14 The Rebellion of the People, Moses' Intercession and the Divine Sentence _ 1. The rebellion (Numbers 14:1)_ 2. The intercession of Moses (Numbers 14:11) 3. The divine sentence (Numbers 14:26) 4. The presumption of the people and the defeat (Numbers 14:40) The words of unbelief of the ten spies yielded an awful harvest among the people. The camp was transformed into a camp of despair, weeping and crying during the night. Outspoken rebellion against Moses and Aaron was heard on all sides. Worse than that took place; they accused Jehovah of deception. Such is unbelief. They

NUMBERS 14:11 (JE). YAHWEH'S THREAT _TO_ DISINHERIT THE PEOPLE, AND MOSES-' INTERCESSION FOR THEM. This section is derived from JE, as appears from the exemption of Caleb only (Numbers 14:24) from the sentence of exclusion from Canaan pronounced on the existing generation. Moses here shows the same self-effacement as in Exodus 32:11 f. [The plea that Yahweh should do nothing which would damage His reputation among the heathen emphasizes a motive for the Divine action which is specially prominent in Ezekiel. A. S. P.]. NUMBERS 14:14. THEY WILL TELL IT: literally, they will say; but what will be said is not re

DISCOURSE: 156 GOD’S ANSWER TO THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES Numbers 14:20. _And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word: 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 spared [Note: Isaiah 65:8.]; the elect, for whose sake the days of vengeance have been often shortened [Note: Matthew 24:22.]; the little remnant, without which the whole world would long since have been made as Sodom and Gomorrha [Note: Isaiah 1:9.]. In the passage before

I HAVE PARDONED, &C.— That is, "At thy intercession I have spared their lives, and will not immediately destroy them; but, in testimony of my severe displeasure, this murmuring generation shall be excluded from the promised land." The next verse is so rendered as to seem to have no connection with the subject in hand. After the Lord had granted to the prayer of Moses the lives of the people, he goes on to declare, and affirms it by the most solemn oath, that none of these people shall inherit the land; but from our version of the 21st verse it appears, that the oath which the Lord swears is declarative only of his _glory filling the earth._ It should be rendered thus: _and verily, as I live, all that land shall be filled with the glory of JEHOVAH, as surely as all these men, who have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, &c._ Numbers 14:23