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Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Deuteronomy 9:27–29
I don’t like giving someone leverage against me. Who does? If you know what makes someone tick, what they truly value, then you can use it to get them to do something. That’s why money works so well. It’s the leverage that needs no explanation.
The amazing thing is how Moses uses leverage against God. And how our Father allows it. Moses understands how our God is jealous for His glory. Very jealous. It’s what He truly values. So in this beautiful and strange way, that I can hardly begin to understand, God invites us to use this leverage against Him. Moses saves the whole people of God using it. “Folks are going to talk bad about You, God” — that’s the substance of his argument with the Lord. We can go further than Moses did, we have the Son Himself! In Him we have the cross, the blood, and the new birth. But we can go further than this. He calls us sons and daughters and told us to call Him Father. We have the Spirit of sonship! What a staggering leverage this is! Use it!