Rebelling Against The Consequences Of Their Actions

 The Israelites had left Egypt with the idea of coming into a land of their own.  When it didn’t happen instantly, some of them began to complain, even before they crossed the Red Sea, wanting to return to Egypt.  When Moses was not right there for a few days, they made the golden calf and worshipped it, and were constantly complaining about something.  When they came to the edge of the promised land, they refused to go in, because they didn’t trust god to give them the victory, despite all the times he had given them what they needed.  Frustrated at their refusal to trust him, God said he would not take any of those who had refused to go into the land.  Instead they were to spend the next forty years in the wilderness, until all those who refused to go died. 

 

Hearing that, and having seen the ten spies who refused to go killed, the people decided that if the4y couldn’t go back to Egypt, they would go now and claim his promise for themselves.  God was taking too long and they weren’t going to wait any longer, as Numbers 14:39-40 tells us.  “And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.  And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.”

 

Moses warned them that to go after God said they couldn’t would just be another act of disobedience and that it wouldn’t succeed, in Numbers  14:41-43.  “And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.  Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.  For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.”   God would not bless their disobedience, and they were already in land claimed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.  The way they were planning to go would lead directly through Amalekite and Canaanite cities and would be seen as an invasion.  The Amalekites and Canaanites would surely fight to protect their cities, and without God’s help, the Israelites would be defeated. 

 

Determined not to wait on God, the people ignored Moses’ warnings, in Numbers 14:44.  “But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.”  God didn’t cause the pillar of cloud to rise as a signal they were to move, so Moses and Aaron and the Levites stayed in the camp. 

 

As long as the Israelites stayed in the unoccupied parts of their territory and stayed on the caravan routes, the Edomites,  Amalekites, and Canaanites were not too worried about them, but when they invaded the communities it was obvious they were not just passing through.  The Amalekites and Canaanites had no choice but to defend their homes property, as Numbers 14:45 describes.  Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.”  With no real plan of action, or experienced leaders, the Israelites were easy prey.  The Amalekites and Canaanites chased them for miles.   

 

Forty years later, fearing a similar attack, the Edomites refused to allow Israel to follow the caravan routes across their lands.