Numbers 14

Numbers 14:1

14:1-10 All the congregation broke out into bitter complaint against Moses and Aaron, accused the Lord of delivering them from Egypt so they would be slain in the Promised Land, and proposed a new leader who would take them back to Egypt (vv. 1-3). When Joshua . . . and Caleb sought to assure the people that they would be victorious against the enemy, the Israelites conspired to stone them (vv. 6-10). Verses 3 and 4 demonstrate graphically the stupidity of unbelief. Return to Egypt! Return to a land devastated by their God! Return to a land still mourning for its firstborn sons! Return to the land they had plundered on the eve of their exodus! Return by the Red Sea where the Egyptian army had been drowned, pursuing them!

And what kind of welcome would Pharaoh give them? Yet this seemed safer than to believe that God would lead them to victory in Canaan. Jehovah had struck Egypt, parted the sea, fed them with bread from heaven, and led them through the wilderness, yet they still could not trust His power to prevail over a few giants! Their actions revealed clearly what they thought about God. They doubted His power; was the Lord really a match for the giants? They had failed to grasp what had been so manifestly revealed to them the past yearnamely, the nature and ways of Jehovah.

A low concept of God can ruin a person or an entire nation, as is here so painfully illustrated. 14:11-19 The Lord threatened to abandon the Jews and raise up a new nation from Moses’ descendants (vv. 11, 12). But Moses interceded for them by reminding the Lord that the Gentile nations would then say that the LORD was not able to bring His people into the Promised Land (vv. 13-19). The honor of God was at stake, and Moses pled that argument with tremendous forcefulness. In Exo_34:6-7 the Lord had revealed Himself to Moses. In verse 18 Moses repeats almost verbatim God’s description of Himself as the basis of his prayer. How different is the theology of Moses from the theology of the people! His is based on divine revelation; theirs is based on human imagination. 14:20-35 Although God replied that He would not destroy the people, He decreed that of all the men twenty years of age or older who came out of Egypt and who were able to go to war (Num_26:64-65; Deu_2:14), only Joshua and Caleb would enter the Promised Land. The people would wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the unbelieving generation died. The sons had to bear the brunt of their fathers’ infidelity (v. 33). However, they would be permitted after forty years to enter the Promised Land. Forty years were specified because the spies had spent forty days in the land on their expedition (v. 34). Forty years here is a round number; it was actually about thirty-eight years.

It was forty years from the time Israel left Egypt till they reached Canaan. The people refused the good the Lord wanted to give them, so they had to suffer the evil they chose instead. However, the fact that they were excluded from the land does not mean that they were eternally lost. Many of them were saved through faith in the Lord, even though they suffered His governmental punishment in this life because of their disobedience. There is a great deal of obscurity concerning the exact route followed by the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings. There is also uncertainty concerning how long they stayed in each place. Some believe, for example, that over thirty-seven years were spent at Kadesh and that one year was spent on a journey south to the shore of the Red Sea, now known as the Gulf of Aqaba. Many of the place names on the route between Sinai and the Plains of Moab are no longer identifiable. The glory of the LORD in verse 21 refers to His glory as righteous Judge, punishing the disobedient people of Israel. The Israelites had tempted God ten times (v. 22). These temptings were as follows: at the Red Sea (Exo_14:11-12), at Marah (Exo_15:23), in the Wilderness of Sin (Exo_16:2), two rebellions concerning the manna (Exo_16:20, Exo_16:27), at Rephidim (Exo_17:1), at Horeb (Exo_32:7), at Taberah (Num_11:1), at Kibroth Hattaavah (Num_11:4 ff.), and at Kadesh (the murmuring at the spies’ reportNum. 14). Of the 603,550 men of war who came out of Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered the land (vv. 29, 30; Deu_2:14). 14:36-38 The ten unbelieving spies who brought the evil report were killed by a plague, but Joshua and Caleb escaped it. 14:39-45 Hearing the doom pronounced upon them, the people told Moses that they would obey God and go into the land, probably meaning directly north from Kadesh Barnea (v. 40). But Moses told them that it was too late, that the Lord had departed from them, and that they would be defeated in the attempt. Disregarding Moses’ advice, they advanced to the mountaintop and were attacked and driven back by some of the heathen inhabitants of the land (v. 45).