Outrageous!
To think, that all these years, the Jews had been wasting their time offering sacrifices to the Most High.
All I had to do was tell myself that I am forgiven!
In truth, we cannot forgive ourselves, even if we want to!
Yetzer hara is not so easily dismissed, or resolved.
" And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement and thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast made an atonement for it and thou shalt anoint it to sanctify it." (Exodus 29:36)
For atonement, for forgiveness of sins, there must be shedding of blood. It is not enough to just think happy thoughts.
Or there must be an appeal to the Almighty, beyond His righteous judgment.
Cain appealed to God's mercy:
"And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
"Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me." (Genesis 4:13-14)
God had mercy on Cain, placing a mark of protection on him.
When the prophet Nathan confronted King David about his adultery and murder, David also appealed directly to God:
"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." (Psalm 51:1)
David did not forgive himself. Why not?
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:5)
No matter what positive thoughts we spin, before God we are all guilty:
"For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." (Genesis 8:21)
Now, about Moses' appeal to God for forgiveness. Context is key to unlocking the true legacy of this declaration.
In Numbers 14, the Israelites mourn the evil report brought back by the Timid Ten spies after scouting the Promised Land.
The LORD was not pleased with the unbelief of His people:
"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?
"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." (Numbers 14:11-12)
Here, Moses intercedes for the people Israel, and then the LORD answers:
"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.
"And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:" (Numbers 14:19-20)
Yet even after speaking these words, the LORD consequentially ordered the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until every doubter who had believed the evil report of the Timid Ten dropped dead.
Moses appealed to the Most High, not the Israelites themselves. Still trusting in their own efforts instead of walking in faith toward the LORD, they were barred from ever entering the Promised Land, as their unbelief despised His offering to them.
Even for David also, there were consequences for his sin with Bathsheba.
Above all, the grace of God was not fully realized in the lives of His faithful saints until the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed on Mount Calvary, at which point, they all rose from the dead:
"Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
"And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matthew 27:50-53)
Yes, God had mercy on His Old Testament saints, but their blood guiltiness was not forever expunged until Christ died on the Cross.
Let every Jew mark that God Himself can never arbitrarily forgive sins!