Why does Moses have compassion that God lacks?

I would like to off up also that Moses was acting as an intermediary between God and Israel. This foreshadows the work of Christ and, in my reading, is why Moses is always "sticking up for" the people by interceding with God and God only shows his justice before relenting to Moses pleas.

It is a logical fallacy that an effect can be greater than its cause, so Moses (a created being) cannot have more compassion than God (the Creator). No created being has inherent ability to make himself greater than his creator. So, no one can be more compassionate or loving or forgiving than God.

In the situation stated, Moses is only appealing to God to withhold judgment. The people had not sinned against Moses, but against God, so Moses had no authority to exact either judgment or mercy. Only the offended party can forgive or choose not to forgive. So, Moses had no power to either execute justice or to give mercy.

He appeals as one who was also under God's authority--and he himself was guilty of dishonoring God at various times (when he struck the rock, for instance).

Moses' only hope is that God--who alone had the authority and the desire to give mercy--would do so.

It must be noted, however, the God gave mercy again and again and again and again to the Israelites. (See Psalm 78.) It is usually after repeated offenses and stubbornness on and griping on the part of the Israelites that God finally resorts to justice rather than mercy. God is the God of all comfort and all love and all mercy and all compassion. No one could have more of any of that than He does.

This is a characteristic thing in the old testament--- God is vengeful and destructive, generally not very nice or forgiving, and people are generally more sentimental than God is. This reflects the old style view of deities as natural forces beyond that of humans, that smite us with hurricanes and whatever, and war, and there is no requirement of consistency, because God is not the same character at the beginning of the Bible as at the end.

For example, Abraham very movingly argues with God to spare Sodom and Gommorah if only a certain number of righteous people can be found there. God keeps giving in, lowering the number of righteous people. The point there is to give an indication of the type of internal monologues people have with God when they are talking in their own heads. It often feels psychologically like a give-and-take with an unrelenting figure.

The more modern idea of a just and loving Uber-God is not the same as the Yahweh God of the old testament, who is really a more powerful less accomodating version of the local gods. The just and loving God conception is due to much later reforms, which abolish human sacrifice, then abolished temple prostitutes, made restrictions on slavery, and finally to Christianity, which substitutes a loving God which forbids Christians from owning Christian slaves at all.

The modern notion of God, with its notion of human rights and freedom of expression and so on, is not even compatible with that of the early church or of any other time. It is stupid to think that a one-size-fits all conception will capture the monotheistic idea of God.

So Moses is just negotiating with the tribal deity for concessions, not really the exact same figure that Jesus represents, or that is represented by people saying "God help me" today.