Nu 14: What I'd ask Moses.

       There are a few famous people I’d love to have a cup of coffee with. (It’s ok; my husband knows.) They are Jimmy Stewart, Jaime Laredo, Peyton Manning and Moses. I might be too star-struck to say anything intelligent for the first few minutes, but at least three of them seem (or seemed) so comfortable with themselves that I might be able to speak actual words eventually. In the worst case, I could always do an MDS (a federally mandated nursing home assessment; that’s my job) on them. That's something I know by heart and can rattle off until I compose myself.

       As for Moses: I don’t know if he was comfortable with himself in the same way, but I know what I would say to him. I’d say, “Tell me.”

       Tell me what?

       11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

       The LORD offers Moses the promise of a lifetime, but Moses either doesn’t hear it, or ignores it.

         13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) 14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

         15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

       Moses says that the peoples of the world will bad mouth the LORD. They will misjudge His character. They will misjudge His ability, that He was all talk. Does the LORD really want that to happen?

       In Genesis 18, Abraham convinces the LORD to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there are ten righteous people found there. If you add up his nephew Lot’s family, it was at least eight. Sadly, there weren’t ten righteous people.

       Abraham dares to ask God: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen 18:25 b.) He asks the LORD to remember His character. Like Abraham, Moses asks the LORD to remember His character. Moses uses the very words the LORD said:

       Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

       In Numbers 14, Moses recounts this.

         Numbers 14:17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

 18 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.

 19 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.

       This scripture sets an amazing precedent. Abraham and Moses knew the LORD so well that they dared to try to change God’s mind. This won’t be the last time for Moses, either.

       What was it in Moses that gave him such passion for the children of Israel? I have my own ideas, but I would love to hear it from him.