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.