CONTEXT:
PART
3: To Refusal & Judgment
The
third part finds Israel at the border of the Promised Land,
sending in spies, and then refusing to go in. Chapter 15
reiterates rules and looks to the future when they do go
in.
Ch.13:
[Action]
Exploring
the Land & Report of the Spies
-
sending spies in to assess the land
Ch.
14
:
[Action] Refusing Entry & Judgment
-
a negative report and a rebellious people
Ch.
15:
[Law]
Offerings in the Land & [Action] a
Disobedience
-
nevertheless hope for the future
|
FRAMEWORKS:
Numbers
14 :
Refusing Entry & Judgment
v.1-4
The People Rebel against Moses & Aaron
v.6-9
Moses, Aaron, Joshua & Caleb plead with the people
v.10-12
When the people threaten to stone them, the Lord intervenes
v.13-19
Moses Intercedes with the Lord
v.20-25
The Lord Pronounces His Sentence – no Entry
v.26-35
The Lord Pronounces His Sentence – death in the wilderness
v.36-39
Ten of the Explorers die
v.40-45
The People try to Enter the Land & are repulsed
v.1-4
The People Rebel against Moses & Aaron
v.1
That
night all the members of the community raised their voices and
wept aloud.
v.2
All
the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron,
and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt!
Or in this wilderness!
v.3
Why
is the Lord
bringing us
to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children
will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back
to Egypt?”
v.4
And
they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back
to Egypt.”
[Notes:
The people as a whole allow themselves to be fearful
and grumble yet again against Moses and Aaron. In their foolishness
they wish they had died in the wilderness rather than have to
fight against the odds they see in the land.]
v.6-9
Moses, Aaron, Joshua & Caleb plead with the people
v.5
Then
Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite
assembly gathered there.
v.6
Joshua
son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who
had explored the land, tore their clothes
v.7
and
said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through
and explored is exceedingly good.
v.8
If
the Lord
is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing
with milk and honey, and will give it to us.
v.9
Only
do not rebel against the Lord
. And do not
be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them.
Their protection is gone, but the Lord
is with us.
Do not be afraid of them.”
[Notes:
Moses & Aaron pray, Joshua and Caleb speak out and
a) state how good the land is, b) affirm that the Lord will give
it to them, c) plead with the people not to rebel against God,
and d) affirm their belief that they will be able to take the
land.]
v.10-12
When the people threaten to stone them, the Lord intervenes
v.10
But
the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of
the Lord
appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.
v.11
The
Lord
said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?
How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the
signs I have performed among them?
v.12
I
will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will
make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
[Notes:
The people are set in their way and talk of stoning
them at which point the glory of the Lord appears as the tent
entrance and God declares to Moses that He will destroy this people.]
v.13-19
Moses Intercedes with the Lord
v.13
Moses
said to the Lord
, “Then the
Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these
people up from among them.
v.14
And
they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have
already heard that you, Lord,
are with these people and that you, Lord,
have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them,
and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a
pillar of fire by night.
v.15
If
you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations
who have heard this report about you will say,
v.16
‘The
Lord
was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them
on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.'
v.17“Now
may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared:
v.18
‘The
Lord
is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children
for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.'
v.19
In
accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people,
just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until
now.”
[Notes:
Moses plead with the Lord not to, on the basis that:
the Egyptians will hear of it [v.13]
the people of the Land will hear of
it [v.14]
the onlooking world will hear of it
and God's name be diminished [v.15,16]
how much better if God's power is seen
[v.17] revealing what He had said to Moses about Himself [v.18]
how much better if He forgave these
people as He had done a number of times already since they left
Egypt [v.19]]
v.20-25
The Lord Pronounces His Sentence – no Entry
v.20
The
Lord
replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.
v.21
Nevertheless,
as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord
fills the
whole earth,
v.22
not
one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt
and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested
me ten times —
v.23
not
one of them will ever see the land
I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated
me with contempt will ever see it.
v.24
But
because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me
wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and
his descendants will inherit it.
v.25
Since
the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn
back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to
the Red Sea.”
[Notes:
So, OK He forgives them and will not destroy them outright
(implied). However they have grumbled or rebelled some ten time
[v.22] since leaving Egypt and some commentators have suggested
that the following constitute those ten rebellions:
1. Exo
14:10-12: At the Red Sea where it
seemed Pharaoh's army would destroy them
2. Exo
15:22-24: At Marah where they found
bitter water.
3. Exo
16:1-3: In the Desert of Sin as they
hungered.
4. Exo
16:19-20 In the Desert of Sin as they
paid no attention to Moses concerning the storing of the manna
until the morning.
5. Exo
16:27-30 In the Desert of Sin as they
disregarded Moses concerning the gathering of the manna on the
seventh day.
6. Exo
17:1-4 At Rephidim as they complained
for water
7. Exo
32:1-35 At Mount Sinai as Aaron led
the people in making the golden calf
8. Num
11:1-3 At Taberah where the people
raged against the Lord
9. Num
11:4-34 At Kibroth Hattaavah in the
grumbling provoked by the rabble for quail
10.
Num 14:1-3 At Kadesh in the Desert
of Paran when the people refused to receive the good report of
Joshua and Caleb but rather wished themselves dead.
The
Lord's conclusion is that He will not let this people enter the
Land.]
v.26-35
The Lord Pronounces His Sentence – death in the wilderness
v.26
The
Lord
said to Moses and Aaron:
v.27
“How
long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard
the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.
v.28
So
tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord,
I will do to you the very thing I heard you say:
v.29
In
this wilderness your bodies will fall —every
one of you twenty years old or more who was
counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
v.30
Not
one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make
your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
v.31
As
for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will
bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.
v.32
But
as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.
v.33
Your
children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for
your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the
wilderness.
v.34
For
forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the
land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to
have me against you.'
v.35
I,
the Lord ,
have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked
community, which has banded together against me. They will meet
their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”
[Notes:
But more than forbidding their entry to the Land, with
the exception of Joshua and Caleb, everyone over the age of twenty
will gradually die off in the wilderness over the next forty years.
They wanted to die in the wilderness, so be it!]
v.36-39
Ten of the Explorers die
v.36
So
the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made
the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report
about it—
v.37
these
men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the
land were struck down and died of a plague before
the Lord.
v.38
Of
the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and
Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.
v.39
When
Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly.
[Notes:
The ten ‘bad spies', all die from plague. Joshua and
Caleb survive.]
v.40-45
The People try to Enter the Land & are repulsed
v.40
Early
the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill
country, saying, “Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord
promised.
Surely we have sinned!”
v.41
But
Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord's command? This will
not succeed!
v.42 Do
not go up, because the Lord
is not with
you. You will be defeated by your enemies,
v.43
for
the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because
you have turned away from the Lord
, he will not
be with you and you will fall by the sword.”
v.44
Nevertheless,
in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in
the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord
's covenant
moved from the camp.
v.45
Then
the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country
came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to
Hormah.
[Notes: After
all this occurs the people acknowledge they have sinned and decide
to enter the Land. Moses warns them against this and when they ignore
him and try, they are repulsed by the inhabitants.]