Day 51: The People Rebel

*Numbers 14:5-45

In response to the spies’ discouraging report, the Israelites rebel against God, leading to their punishment of wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, with only Joshua and Caleb allowed to enter the Promised Land.

  • Initial Response to the Spies’ Report:
    • The Israelites react with fear and distress upon hearing the spies’ negative report about the Canaanite inhabitants and fortified cities.
    • They express regret over leaving Egypt and lament the perceived impossibility of conquering Canaan.
  • Joshua and Caleb’s Defense:
    • Joshua and Caleb, two of the twelve spies, attempt to reassure the people, urging them to trust in God’s power to conquer the land.
    • They emphasize the land’s richness and assert that God will grant them victory over their enemies.
  • Threats against Joshua and Caleb:
    • The congregation responds by threatening to stone Joshua and Caleb for their dissenting viewpoint, further demonstrating their lack of faith.
  • Divine Intervention and Judgment Pronounced:
    • God appears to Moses and expresses His anger at the Israelites’ lack of faith and their readiness to abandon Him despite witnessing His miracles in Egypt.
    • He proposes to disinherit the people and start anew with Moses, but Moses intercedes on behalf of the nation.
  • Moses’ Intercession:
    • Moses pleads with God not to destroy the Israelites, citing concerns about His reputation among the nations and His promises to their ancestors.
    • He appeals to God’s mercy and forgiveness, asking Him to pardon the people’s disobedience.
  • Divine Judgment Declared:
    • God responds to Moses’ intercession by pardoning the people but declares that the current generation, apart from Joshua and Caleb, will not enter the Promised Land.
    • He condemns the faithless generation to wander in the wilderness for forty years, one year for each day the spies explored Canaan.
  • Immediate Consequences:
    • God decrees that none of the adults from the generation that left Egypt, except for Joshua and Caleb, will enter the Promised Land.
    • The spies who spread the negative report die of a plague, and the Israelites face defeat in battle against the Amalekites and Canaanites.
  • Repentance and Reversal Denied:
    • The people mourn their defeat and express regret for their disobedience, but it is too late.
    • Despite Moses’ warning not to proceed, some Israelites attempt to invade Canaan, resulting in further defeat and loss.
  • Conclusion:
    • The survivors retreat to the wilderness, recognizing the consequences of their rebellion against God’s commands.

Numbers 14:5-45 teaches us that trusting God’s timing and direction is important. The Israelites first doubted God and refused to enter the promised land, but when they realized their mistake, they tried to go without His blessing—and failed. This reminds us that true success comes from following God, not rushing ahead on our own. It encourages us to listen to God, trust His plans, and obey Him the first time instead of waiting until it’s too late.

Numbers 14:5-45 (WEB)

14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes. 7 They spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it 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 don’t rebel against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us. Don’t fear them.”
10 But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones.
The LORD’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. 11 The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. 14 They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are among this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, 16 ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’ 17 Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 The LORD said, “I have pardoned according to your word; 21 but in very deed—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the LORD’s glory— 22 because all those men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; 23 surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went. His offspring shall possess it. 25 Since the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.” 26 The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which they complain against me. 28 Tell them, ‘As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you. 29 Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, 30 surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But I will bring in your little ones that you said should be captured or killed, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’ 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”
36 The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37 even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned.”
41 Moses said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of the LORD, since it shall not prosper? 42 Don’t go up, for the LORD isn’t among you; that way you won’t be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you will fall by the sword because you turned back from following the LORD; therefore the LORD will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the ark of the LORD’s covenant and Moses didn’t depart out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down even to Hormah.