The Huge Cost of Rebellion

Numbers Chapter 14

When the Israelites heard the explorer’s report that they believed it was impossible to defeat the people who occupied Canaan, they began to weep and complain to Moses and Aaron. They wished they had remained in Egypt and were terribly afraid they would die in battle and their families would be made slaves. They plotted among themselves to return to Egypt.

Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the people. Joshua and Caleb, tore their own clothing, the customary way of showing despair. They insisted the promised land was wonderful and that the Lord would bring everyone safely to that land. They pleaded with the people to not be afraid of the people in Canaan and not rebel against the Lord. They reasoned that the Canaanites did not have the protection of the Lord the way the Israelites did.

The whole community was so riled up, they were considering stoning Joshua and Caleb when the Lord’s presence appeared above the Tabernacle. The Lord asked Moses how long these people would continue to reject him. He asked if they would ever believe in him, even after all the miraculous signs he produced. The Lord said he would disown them and destroy them with a plague and start over making them a far greater nation.

Moses pleaded with the Lord using facts such as: the Egyptians knew the power of the Lord when he rescued the Israelites from Egypt. Moses realized that the Egyptians would spread the word of the Lord’s power to the people inhabiting Canaan. They now knew that the Lord appeared in a pillar cloud that hovers over the people. They now knew that the Lord traveled before the people in a pillar cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. So Moses pleaded that if the Lord slaughtered all the Israelites, the nations who had heard of his fame, would think the Lord failed to bring the people into the promised land, so he somehow killed them in the wilderness.

Moses begged the Lord to prove his power was as great as he claimed. He reminded the Lord that he was slow to anger and rich in unfailing love, forgiving sin and rebellion, yet punishing sin and punishing the children for the sins of the parents.

The Lord took Moses words to heart and told him that he would pardon the people, but not one of these people would ever enter that land. He told of the people seeing his glorious presence and miraculous signs and they refused to listen. Therefore, the Lord refused to let the people see the land he had sworn to give their ancestors. No one who treated the Lord with contempt would enter this land, but Caleb who was loyal and the Lord would bring him into the land he explored. His descendants would receive their full share of that land. Now turn around, said the Lord, and go away from Canaan and back to the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron and Moses and said he had heard everything the Israelites had been saying about him and he would do to them the very things he heard them say. He told them they would all die in the wilderness because they complained against the Lord. Therefore only those who were not counted (under 20 years of age) would enter the promised land eventually, and of course, Caleb. He promised their children would be safe and not taken captive, but would wander like shepherds for forty years and in this way, they would pay for their faithlessness until the last of them were dead in the wilderness. This meant a year for each day the men explored the promised land. Then the ten scouts who had incited the rebellion against the Lord by spreading discouraging reports were struck dead with plague; only Caleb and Joshua remained alive.

When Moses reported the Lord’s words to the Israelites, they were sorrowful, but got up the next morning and set out for the hills of Canaan. They were penitent and actually thought by being sorry,they could enter the land. Moses tried to tell them they would only be crushed by the enemies, because the Lord was no longer with them. The people would not listen and went anyway, only to be attacked by the Canaanites who chased them as far as Hormah.

BIBLE NOTES show that the Israelites disobedience cost them entrance to the Promised Land. They were condemned to wander 40 years in the wilderness. Moses did his best to plead with God, asking forgiveness for his people. It is amazing to me that with a clear view of God, the people could still rebel.

Do you think God’s judgment was too harsh? Not really. He could have given them an instant death, but he let them live even though they showed contempt and distrust of him.

How does this chapter relate to us today? Oh boy, this chapter shows how spreading negativism cost the Israelites the prize. And it can cost you too, if you show contempt and distrust of the Lord. And to think these people actually got up the next day and expected to travel to the new land without God on their side- amazingly naive, and purely idiotic.

Do we travel each day with God on our side? I hope you do, I pray you do. Good intentions don’t cut it. God expects complete obedience. Most of the time we dwell on the love and forgiveness of God. But we must never lose sight of the fact that God’s patience can reach the point when he must maintain discipline and institute punishment. I don’t think God likes to punish. I like to think it hurts him as much as it hurts those he punishes, don’t you? I like to think punishment is low on his priority list and loving mercy is high on it. I like to think he loves to see joy on the faces of his people especially in today's world!

Yours in Christ,
Mary