All this involved, on Israel's part, a deliberate abandonment of their connection with Jehovah. They had given Him up; and, accordingly, we find Him, as it were, taking them on their own ground. "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.... I have seen this people, it is a stiff-necked people: now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of _thee_ a great nation.'" Here was an open door for Moses; and here he displays uncommon grace, and similarity of spirit to that Prophet whom the Lord was to raise up like unto him. He refuses to be or to have any thing without the people. He pleads with God on the ground of His own glory, and puts the people back upon Him in these touching words, "Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against _Thy people_, which _Thou_ hast brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against _Thy_ people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst unto them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'" This was powerful pleading. The glory of God, the vindication of His holy name, the accomplishment of His oath,--these are the grounds on which Moses entreats the Lord to turn from His fierce wrath. He could not find in Israel's conduct or character any plea or ground to go upon; he found it all in God Himself.