Love

 'The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'
Numbers 14:18 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/num.14.18.ESV

Moses appealed to God's character to try and persuade Him not to destroy the rebellious Israelites. They didn't think they could make it into the promised land, after all God had done getting them out of Egypt. We need to believe that anythings possible for God.

Moses' statement here seems somewhat contradictory. How can God forgive sins on the one hand, and visit iniquities on subsequent generations? Well that's exactly what He did in the context.

The Israelites were forgiven their rebellion- God didn't destroy them. Yet they spend the next forty years in the wilderness. That rebellious generation perished in the desert, they never got to see the promised land.

When Jesus on the cross prayed 'Father, forgive them', God answered His prayer. The centurion and one dying criminal at least came to faith in Him. Yet around forty years later, the rebellious Jews in Roman Palestine were destroyed by that military machine of Rome.

'O Lord our God, please help us to have faith in You to forgive us. May we humbly bear the consequences of our sins, until You call us home, in Christ's name, amen'

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