(23) Stood before him in the breach . . .—This is generally explained after Ezekiel 22:30, where undoubtedly it is an image taken from the defence of a besieged town. (Comp. Ezekiel 13:5.) But it is possible that we should render, “Had not Moses stood before him (i.e., submissively; see Genesis 41:46; Deuteronomy 1:38) in the breaking forth (of his anger),” since the verb from which the substantive here used comes is the one employed (Exodus 19:22), “lest the Lord break forth upon them.” So the LXX. seem to have understood the passage, since they render here by the same word, which in Psalm 106:30 does duty for “plague.” (Comp. Vulg., refractio.)

106:13-33 Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts, cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their spirits.Therefore he said that he would destroy them - See Exodus 32:10-14. He threatened to destroy them, and he would have done it, if Moses had not interposed and pleaded for them. There was nothing strange or very unusual in this. Many a descending curse upon guilty people is turned away by prayer, and by human intervention. We are constantly endeavoring to turn aside evils which would come upon others - by our intervention - by labor or by prayer. Thus, when we toil to provide food for our children, or give it in charity to the poor, we are endeavoring to avert the evil of starvation which would otherwise come upon them; when we provide for them clothing, we turn away the evils of nakedness and cold; when we give them medicine we turn away the evil of long-continued disease or of death; when we rush through the flames if a house is on fire, or venture out in a rough sea in a boat, to save others from devouring flame or from a watery grave, we seek to turn aside evils which would otherwise come upon them. So when we pray for others we may turn away evils which would otherwise descend on the guilty. No one can estimate the number or the amount of evils which are thus turned away from the guilty and the suffering by intervention and intercession; no one can tell how many of the blessings of his own life he owes to the intercessions and the toils of others. "All the blessings that come upon sinners - "all" that is done to turn away deserved wrath from people - is owing to the fact that the one great Intercessor - greater than Moses - cast himself into the "breach," and himself met and rolled back the woes which were coming upon a guilty world. "Had not Moses his chosen." Chosen to lead and guide his people to the promised land.

Stood before him - Presented himself before him.

In the breach - literally, "in the breaking." The allusion is to a breach made in a wall 1 Kings 11:27; Isaiah 30:13; Amos 4:3; Job 30:14, and to the force with which an army rushes through a breach that is thus made. So God seemed to be about to come forth to destroy the nation.

23. he said—namely, to Moses (De 9:13). With God, saying is as certain as doing; but His purpose, while full of wrath against sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moses was the type (Ex 32:11-14; De 9:18, 19).

Moses his chosen—that is, to be His servant (compare Ps 105:26).

in the breach—as a warrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortress besieged, a perilous place (Eze 13:5; 22:30).

to turn away—or, "prevent"

his wrath—(Nu 25:11; Ps 78:38).

He said; he declared his intention in express words, as Exodus 32:10, and elsewhere.

In the breach: God had made a hedge or wall about them; but they had made a gap or breach in it by their sins, at which the Lord, who was now justly become their enemy, might enter to destroy them; which he had certainly done, if Moses by his prevailing intercession had not hindered him. See Deu 9:12 10:10. It is a metaphor from a besieged city, where the enemy endeavours to make a breach in the walls, and thereby to enter into the city; which he will do, unless some valiant champion stand in the gap to oppose him.

Therefore he said that he would destroy them,.... He said in his word, the Targum adds; he thought within himself he would; he seemed determined in his own mind to destroy them, being provoked at their wretched forgetfulness of him, and their idolatry; he said to Moses,

let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, Exodus 32:10. The decree indeed was not gone forth, but there was such an appearance of displeasure as if ruin was determined; and a great number was destroyed, and the whole body was threatened.

Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach; made between God and the Israelites by their sin; the allusion is either to an hedge broken down, at which a spoiler enters, unless made up, Ezekiel 22:30, or to a breach made in the wall of a besieged city, at which the besieger enters, unless stopped by the besieged, Isaiah 30:13, or to the bank or dam of a river broken down, which lets in a flood of waters, 2 Samuel 5:20. So Moses made up the hedge, and stood in the gap; he presented himself to God, rushing in like a man of war, and pouring out his wrath like an inundation of waters: this is to be understood of his fervent and importunate prayer to God on the behalf of this people, and which succeeded.

To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them; Exodus 32:11 so the Targum,

"unless Moses his chosen had rose up and strengthened, or prevailed in his prayer before him to turn away his wrath from destroying.''

This shows the power and efficacy of prayer, and of what avail it is with God, especially the prayer of his elect; it was Moses, his chosen, that prayed, a choice servant of his; and whom he had chosen to everlasting life, as well as to be the deliverer, guide, and governor of Israel; see Luke 18:7. Herein he was an eminent type of Christ, as in other things; as Moses was a mediator between God and the people of Israel, so is Christ between God and his people. Sin is a transgression of God's law, a breaking of his statutes, which he has set as an hedge, fence, or wall, about man; and this has made a breach between God and man; which lets in the wrath of God as a flood, and justice as an armed man: and terrible it is to consider there is no standing before him, and making up the breach; but Christ has interposed as a surety, made satisfaction to law and justice, and procured peace and reconciliation; and so, by his atonement and intercession, has made up the breach, appeased the wrath of God, and turned it away, and prevented the ruin and destruction of his people.

Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had {l} not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

(l) If Moses, by his intercession, had not obtained God's favour against their rebellion.