Forgiven But Consequences Remain

God had led Israel to where they were with the pillar of cloud and fire.  They had seen God do numerous miracles the year and a half since they came out of Egypt, and had covenanted to keep his commands.  Their determination to go back to Egypt rather than going into Canaan was in effect saying God had lied to them and could not be trusted.  Moses and Aaron remembered how many had died when they made the golden calf and were worried what would happen this time.  Numbers 14:5 tells us, “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.”

Two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb tried to reason with the people in Numbers 14:6-9.  “And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.  If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.”

The problem was the congregation had become a mob.  The people’s fear was feeding off other people’s fear, and the fear had so consumed their thoughts they ignored everything else.  When people fear or anger, of drugs or alcohol take over their thoughts completely, anything that feeds that fear can easily influence them because they cease to think about anything else.  They are open to satanic influence or control, and corrupt political and religious figures play on the anger and fear to stir up violence, often turning what started as a peaceful protest into a riot.  The people responded in typical mob fashion, in Numbers 14:10a. “But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.”

If people are not completely possessed with a spirit of fear or anger, it is sometimes possible to distract them and get them to thinking again.  God distracted the people in Numbers 14:10b- 12.  “And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?  I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

The glory of God appeared on the Tabernacle like it had at the dedication, redirecting people’s attention.  God was frustrated with the people’s refusal to believe him despite all the miracles.  He was to the point of wanting to just destroy them and start over with Moses’ family.  When they are angry or fearful people often say or do things with no thought of how affects the people involved.  Even God gets tired of being treated that way. 

Moses reminded God that if he destroyed the people, the Egyptians would conclude he wasn’t able to fulfill his promise and couldn’t be trusted, killing the very people he promised to care for, in Numbers 14:13-16.  “And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.  Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.”  When the story got around, no one would believe God. 

Instead of destroying them, Moses asked God to forgive them, so that people would understand that God was a forgiving and loving God, in Numbers 14:17-19.  “And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The LORD is longsuffering, 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.”  As he pointed out, God had forgiven them repeatedly already. 

God had no intention of destroying Israel or Moses request would not have changed anything, but god wanted Israel to take their sin seriously.  He had forgiven them repeatedly and they continued to do the same things.  While he will forgive them, they are going to suffer some consequences for their actions, according to Numbers 14:20-35.  “And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.  (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.  Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.  But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.  But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.  And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.  After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.  I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”

God had forgiven them, and would continue to provide for them and protect them, but they would never experience the blessings he had promised because they would not stop their sin.  Rather thatn accepting responsibility for their actions, as we see in Numbers 16:13-14, many of the people Blamed Moses and god for their situation.  “Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?  Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.”  As we saw, that refusal to accept their responsibility cost almost fifteen thousand people’s lives.  It is impossible to guess how many people have lost their health, their job, their marriages, their children, or even their own lives because they blamed someone else and would not accept responsibility for what they did. 

Sometimes the results of our actions come right away.  Numbers 14:36-38 tells us. “And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.  But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.”