Death sentence on the rebels
November 26, 2020
Commentary
The LORD told Moses and Aaron to remind the people of Israel how they had complained against Him too many times (vv 26-27). He says he is going to give them exactly what they wanted (v. 28). They will die in the dessert and their dead bodies will cover the ground (v. 29). Because of their disbelief none of the men over 20 years of age will enter the promised land except Joshua and Caleb (v. 30). The children will get to enter the land but the adults will die in the desert (vv. 31-32). The children will wander around the desert for forty years, suffering because of the sins of the older generation (v. 33). This will continue until the older generation are all dead (vv. 34-35).
God’s judgment came in the form the people feared the most. They were afraid of dying in the wilderness, so God punished them by making them wander in the wilderness until they died. At this point they would have wished they had the problem of facing the giants and the fortified cities of the Promised Land. Failing to trust God often brings greater problems than those faced originally. When we run from God we often run into problems.
God had brought the people to the edge of the Promised Land just as He said He would. He was ready to give the people this rich land but they didn’t want it (14:1-2). The whole nation except for Joshua, Caleb, Moses and Aaron showed contempt for and distrust in God. The men that Moses sent to search the land returned and made all the congregation grumble and complain against him by bringing back a slanderous report of the land (vv. 36-37). Even those men who brought the evil report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. However, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to search the land, contiued to live (v. 38).
Application
When I fail to trust God and try to take things into my own hands I usually run into bigger promblems than what I may have had originally. It is amazing at how much God will put up with before he brings judgment my way.
Numbers 14:26– 38 (NET)
26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. 29 Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness—all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. 30 You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, 33 and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days—one day for a year—you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. 35 I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”’”
36 The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, 37 those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived.