Israel rebels at Kadesh-Barnea
14
📚And the whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. 14:1 This sad chapter is a lesson on unbelief and its consequences. As usual the people doubted their beliefs and believed their doubts. So they wept. The one and only thing that could keep them from taking possession of Canaan was unbelief. And this sin they immediately committed (Heb 3:18-19). Now the only thing that can keep us from inheritance in Christ and heaven is unbelief (Mark 16:16; John 3:36). Let us be careful to avoid the bad example of Israel.⚜
2 📚And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this desert!
3 📚And why is the LORD bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will become plunder. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?”
14:3 What a slander on God who loved them, delivered them from their bondage, gave them food from heaven and water from the rock, and poured on them loving kindness and tender mercies! Let us not fall into the same condition. Unbelief always slanders God and fails to receive God’s blessings.⚜
4 📚And they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader to return to Egypt”.
14:4 This is the wickedness of unbelief. Then it would stir up the people to forsake God’s way and turn back to the very condition of bondage from which He had delivered them. Now it would tempt those who make a profession of faith in Christ to forsake Christ’s way and turn back to the world of which Egypt is but a type and picture (Gal 4:8-9; 2 Tim 4:10; 2 Pet 2:20-22).⚜
5 📚Then Moses and Aaron prostrated themselves before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 📚And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who explored the land, tore their clothes, 7 📚and spoke to all the company of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we went through to explore it, is an exceedingly good land. 8 📚If the LORD is pleased with us, then he will take us into this land, and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 📚Only do not rebel against the LORD, or be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has left them, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them”.
14:6-9 Joshua joins Caleb (Num 13:30) in exhorting the people to faith and obedience.⚜
10 📚But the whole congregation said to stone them 📖 with stones. But the glory 📖 of the LORD appeared on the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
God’s anger and Moses’ prayer
11 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat me with contempt? And how long will it be before they believe me, in spite of all the signs which I have showed among them?
14:11 Unbelief is rooted in man’s selfishness, sinfulness, ignorance, and prejudice, and even a sight of God’s miracles does not overcome it (Ps 78:11, 32; 106:21-24; Luke 16:31; John 6:26). Unbelief wants only a full belly; promises of glory mean nothing to it.⚜
12 📚I will strike them down with a plague and disown them, and will make of you a greater and stronger nation than they”.
14:12 Note at Ex 32:10.⚜
13 📚And Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear it (for with your strength you brought up this people from among them), 14 📚And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land; for they have heard that you, LORD, are among this people, that you, LORD, are seen face to face, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire. 15 📚Now if you kill all these people like one man, then the nations which have heard of your fame will speak, saying, 16 📚‘The LORD has killed this people in the desert because he was not able to bring them into the land which he swore to them.’
17 📚“And now, I beg you, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have spoken, saying, 18 📚‘The LORD is slow to get angry and of great mercy, forgiving wickedness and transgression, yet not leaving sin unpunished, visiting the wrongdoing of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
19 📚Pardon, I beg you, the wickedness of this people in accordance with the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt up until now”.
God decrees punishment
20 📚And the LORD said, “I have pardoned them in accordance with your word.
14:20 So God the Father hears the prayers of His Son for His people.⚜
21 📚But as truly as I live, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 📚Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the desert have tempted me now these ten times, and have not listened to my voice, 23 📚they will by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor will any of those who treated me with contempt see it.
14:22-23 They were pardoned, but they must be chastised and bear something of the consequences of their sin. Compare 2 Sam 12:10-11, 14; Heb 12:6; Rev 3:19; Prov 23:13-14; 1 Cor 5:4-5; 11:29-30.⚜
24 📚But as for my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in him, and followed me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his offspring will possess it. 25 📚Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley. Tomorrow turn and set out into the desert by way of the Red Sea”.
26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 📚“How long will I have to endure this evil congregation that complains against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel which they make against me. 28 📚Tell them this: As truly as I live, says the LORD, I will do to you just as you have spoken in my hearing; 29 📚your carcasses will fall in this desert, all of you men who were counted, the complete number of you twenty years old and more who have complained against me, 30 📚will not at all enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 📚But as for your little ones, whom you said would be plunder, I will take them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. 32 📚But as for you, your carcasses will fall in this wilderness. 33 📚And your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, and bear your unfaithfulness, until your corpses end in the wilderness. 34 📚You will bear your sins for forty years, according to the number of days in which you explored the land, forty days, each day for a year, and you will know my opposition. 35 📚I the LORD have spoken; I will surely do these things to this whole evil congregation that is gathered together against me. They will be devoured in this wilderness and here they will die”.
14:25-35 This is what they chose in their unbelief and disobedience and this is what they got. Here is an example of divine justice at work (Deut 30:19-20; Prov 1:28-31; 5:21-23; Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19; Ezek 18:30-32; Matt 23:37-39; John 3:18-20; Gal 6:7-8). The people of Israel opposed God, now He would oppose them (v 34; Lev 26:23-24, 27, 28; Ps 18:25-26).⚜
36 📚And as for the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and caused the whole congregation to complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land, 37 📚those men who brought the bad report about the land died by a plague in the presence of the LORD.
14:36-37 This judgment was speedily executed by God on the unbelieving spies. Beware of unbelief!⚜
38 📚But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to explore the land, remained alive.
Israel disobeys again
39 📚And Moses told these things to all the children of Israel; and the people mourned greatly. 40 📚And they got up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “See, here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned”.
14:40 Their repentance and confession were not real. This is revealed by the fact that they immediately disobeyed God again and refused His command given in v 25 and His word given through Moses in vs 41-43. False repentance will never obtain good results.⚜
41 📚And Moses said, “Why are you now breaking the command of the LORD? But this will not succeed. 42 📚Do not go up, or you will be struck down before the face of your enemies, for the LORD is not among you. 43 📚For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, the LORD will not be with you”.
44 📚But they presumptuously went up to the top of the hill, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, did not leave the camp.
45 📚Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill came down and attacked them and beat them down as far as Hormah.
14:45 This is the usual result of self-effort in God’s name apart from God. Canaan is a picture of the inheritance of believers in the heavenly places in Christ. We can enter into an experience of its blessings by a victorious faith in God’s promises and a moving forward according to His word. Faith and obedience bring with them the power of God working in behalf of the believer. Unbelief robs us of the victory, rest, and enjoyment of God’s blessings He wants us to have. Egypt is a type of the sinful world under God’s wrath. The desert speaks of the temptations and trials all believers must pass through on their way to heaven. It seems that the believer now is in three places at the same time – physically he is in Egypt (the world), as a pilgrim to heaven he is in the desert, spiritually in Christ he is also already in the heavenly places. Notes at Num 20:12; Ex 15:27; Deut 1:19; Josh 1:17; Jud 3:2; Eph 1:3; 2:6. Numbers chapter 14 shows that Israel was not yet ready for Canaan.⚜