Facing The Consequences Of Disobedience

Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb recognized that the people were rebelling against God in refusing to go because of their fear.  As Romans 14:23 tells us, “…for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”  They tried to stop the people but they threatened to kill them.   God had already punished them for similar rebellions, and this time would be no different, as we see in Numbers 14:10b-12 describes.  “...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.”

 

Their lack of faith led to their refusal to obey God, and God was frustrated by their refusal to believe him.  Any person who has experienced people refusing to believe them knows how frustrating that can be.   God threatened to destroy them and start over with Moses’ family.  Please understand that God knew beforehand what they would do, and was not surprised.  He knew that they were going to continue to rebel for the next thirty nine years, but Moses did not.  I suspect he was preparing Moses for that future rebellion by making him think about what their destruction would mean. 

 

The strategy worked, as Moses’ response in Numbers 14:13-19 describes.  “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.

 

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.”

 

If God destroyed them as they deserved, the people around them would receive the impression tht God had only limited power, and that he, like their gods, was a vindictive and selfish being.   Moses asked God to reveal himself as the powerful and forgiving God he knew him to be instead of lowering himself to the level of the idols of the people around them.

 

God had no intention of destroying them. he had already forgiven them, but they were going to have to live with the consequences of their sin, as Numbers 14:20-25 describes.  “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.”

 

The area where they were was occupied by the Amalekites and Canaanites, and to stay would only result in their being attacked.  God directed them to go back south along the border of the Gulf of Aqaba toward the desert around Mt. Sinai because none of the people who had refused to obey would be allowed to go into the land.  He directed Moses to explain why they were not going to be allowed to go into the land, in Numbers 14:25-35.  “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.”

 

They had accused God of just bringing them out there to die, and now God was going to let it happen.  They would spend a year in the wilderness for each day they had spent scouting the land and everyone over twenty years of age except Joshua and Caleb would die.  They had worried that their children would die in the wilderness, but God promised they would survive.   God punished the men who had encouraged the rebellion immediately, as 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.”