Number 14: They were almost there:
What happened?
The report of the spies was devastating!
(Num 14:1 NKJV) So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
The people turn to complaining again.
(Num 14:2) And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
Oh be careful people! God is listening!
You have given Him two choices.
He will pick the second one and it will be yours.
(Num 14:3) "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"
(Num 14:4) So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."
You’ve heard their complaints!
You’ve seen their lack of faith!
Next, Moses and Aaron Speak
Caleb and Joshua Speak
Then God comes to announce judgment!
Moses and Aaron “Speak.”
(Num 14:5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
If they actually spoke to the people, we do not have the words expressed at this time, but there was a message in their action of falling on their faces. Many feel this is a way of saying they were publicly asking God to help and to intervene, which He did.
Caleb and Joshua Speak
(Num 14:6) But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
“. . .tore their clothes;” Is a visible expression of their deep grief over the actions of the children of Israel—Their total lack of faith!
(Num 14:7) and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. {8} "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' {9} "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us.
Do not fear them."
Note the people’s response to this great plea!
(Num 14:10) And all the congregation said to stone them with stones.
That’s it!
They just crossed the line,
and there is no return!
It’s judgment day!
It’s over!
They lose!
There is now no place for repentance!
It’s too late for that!
God speaks in judgment: the verdict!
Here He is:
(Num 14:10b) Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. {11} Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? {12} "I will strike them with the pestilence
and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
If I had been Moses, my response might have been more like this:
§ Lord, God, I think that is a marvelous plan!
§ I’ve been wondering how much longer you were going to put up with these people.
§ What do you need me to do next?
But Moses is different! He steps up to the plate and becomes the great mediator!
His first argument: Lord, You’ve got to save Your name.
You’ve got too much at stake to do that.
(Num 14:13) And Moses said to the LORD: "Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, {14} "and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people; that You, LORD, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by
night.
Great arguments: Why did Israel not listen?
Moses continues his argument with God:
(Num 14:15) "Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, {16} 'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.' {17} "And now, I pray, let the power of my LORD be great, just as You have spoken, saying, {18} 'The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.'
How can you have this:
“forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty,”
I think this is probably the literal translation, but the NIV probably helps us understand how this can be:
(Num 14:18 NIV) 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'
King David is a good illustration:
(2 Sam 12:13-14 NKJV) So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. {14} "However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."
What is interesting is what has already been said. It illustrates even more Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished;
(2 Sam 12:10-11 NKJV) 'Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'
{11} "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
'Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house;’
Absalom rebelled against his father, and David’s men killed his son in defense of David. This is then the result:
(2 Sam 18:33) Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate,
and wept. And as he went, he said thus:
"O my son Absalom; my son, my son Absalom; if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!"
Ironically, those were basically the choices.
It was pretty much that Absalom would die,
or David would.
David’s men protected him from his own son.
How can you win in such a situation?
Back to our study in Numbers,
and Moses plea for the children of Israel.
(Num 14:19) "Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." {20} Then the LORD said: "I have pardoned, according to your word; {21} "but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; {22} "because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, {23} "they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
One more time: (Num 14:18 NIV) 'The LORD . . . forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished:”
{20} . . . "I have pardoned, according to your word;
"they certainly shall not see the land
This may answer the question, were they eternally lost? It would appear that the answer would be; not necessarily, but they were denied entrance into the promised land.
Moses the great mediator!
He’s done this before.
(Exo 32:31-32 NKJV) Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! {32} "Yet now, if You will forgive their sin; but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."
What a man!
Remember, he was a type of Christ.
(Deu 18:15 NKJV) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,
We haven’t finished the story. What they decide to do and what God will do with each group of them: the faithful, the young, the mature (those over 20)?
My Sunday Evening Lessons Bible Study with Harley