82. Mercy Forgives Sin
Numbers 14:18 The Lord is long-suffering, 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.
The character of the Lord is mentioned several times in the OT with similar words. Here the descriptors are patient, merciful, and forgiving, but also just. Being just and holy means that the Lord cannot just clear the guilty and let them go. The guilty must be punished. No one “gets away with it,” ever. The sins of the fathers carry through for several generations. This most likely means that the particular sinful tendencies of persons carry through the next generations. The DNA in inherited.
However, the Lord can break generational bondages through Word and Spirit. Mercy trumps justice. Forgiveness clears the guilty. God can “clear the guilty” by justly punishing our sins upon His innocent Son on the cross. This Great Transaction does not clear the guilty; it simply transfers the guilt from us to Jesus.
It is the patience, mercy and forgiveness in God that motivates and enables God to send His own Son to bear the punishment of our sin and guilt. By doing so the Lord can and does graciously and mercifully forgive all sin. It is the faithful love of God that dominates His personality and His actions. He can do al this forgiving without compromising His holiness and justice, for Jesus took the just punishment for our sin upon Himself.
The promise is that God will be “long-suffering.” He suffers long with our sinfulness and rebellion. He won’t give up on us. He keeps on relentlessly working on us to turn us to Him. Every day He waits by the gate looking for us to turn. And He turns us.
The promise is that God will show “great mercy.” His mercy is so deep and never-ending that we can hardly believe that He will be merciful again. But He is. “Great” means inexhaustible.
The promise is that God will “forgive iniquity and transgression.” The Lord has not only forgiven us for the whole of our life when we were baptized and believed, but He daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers in Christ continually.
Moses could intercede for the people with these words, reminding himself of the nature and character of the Lord God. After Moses’ prayer God did forgive, but they were banished to the desert for another 38 years.