Here Moses takes the very highest ground. He is wholly occupied about the Lord’s glory. He cannot endure the thought that the lustre of that glory should be tarnished in the view of the nations of the uncircumcised. What though he should become a head and a founder? What though future millions should look back to him as their illustrious progenitor? If all this personal glory and greatness was only to be purchased by the sacrifice of a single ray of divine glory,—what then? Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out forever. He had said as much in the days of the _calf_, and he was ready to repeat it in the days of the _captain_. In the face of the superstition and independence of an unbelieving nation, the heart of Moses throbbed _only_ for the glory of God. That must be guarded at all cost. Come what may—cost what it may, the glory of the Lord must be maintained. Moses felt it was impossible for any thing to be right if the basis were not laid firmly down in the strict maintenance of the glory of the God of Israel. To think of himself made great at God’s expense was perfectly insufferable to the heart of this blessed man of God. He could not endure that the name which he loved so well should be blasphemed among the nations, or that it should ever be said by any one, “The Lord was not able.” But there was another thing which lay near the disinterested heart of Moses. He thought of the people; he loved and cared for them. Jehovah’s glory, no doubt, stood uppermost; but Israel’s blessing stood next. “And now,” he adds, “I beseech Thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying, ‘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.’ 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.” (Ver. 17-19.)