God
promised to bless the world through Abraham’s descendants who multiplied in
Egypt but became enslaved. God called Moses to lead them and God delivered them
out of Egypt with many ‘miraculous signs’. The Lord parted the Red Sea and
Israel walked through on dry ground while Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the
sea. The Lord led Israel by the pillar of cloud and fire and miraculously
provided ‘manna and water from a rock’ despite Israel’s grumbling. At Mt. Sinai
the Lord established His covenant with Israel and gave them the 10 commandments.
But, while Moses was with God on the mountain the Israelites made a golden calf
as an idol. Moses went down smashed the idol and went back up Mt. Sinai to
intercede for the Israelites. Moses pleaded with the Lord and the Lord
promised to go with Israel and to forgive them (Ex. 34:1-9). The Israelites set
out from Sinai in their tribal divisions with the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ before
them with the pillar of cloud above them. Their journey was difficult and they complained
about their hardships (11:1). They wailed for meat and claimed they were
better off in Egypt which provoked the Lord’s anger. Moses started talking about his calling being
a burden that he was unable to carry. So God, in His grace, anointed seventy of
Israel’s elders with His Spirit to help Moses. (Ex. 18:13–26, Num. 11:24–30).
Then the Lord brought so much quail into the camp that the Israelites became
thoroughly sick of it. They came to the border of Canaan where we learn the story
of the ‘twelve spies’ who explored the Promised Land (Numbers 13-14). Watch the story and read the comments below.
For Israel to take possession of the
land God would have to intervene. If He didn’t then they would die in battle
and their families would be taken as plunder. Caleb believed they could take
possession of the land, but the others saw themselves as grasshoppers and the land’s
habitants as giants who would devour them. The report of the ten focused on the
powerful inhabitants and their fortified walled cites. The community believed
the ‘bad report’ and they grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They said that they
would be better off dying in Egypt or in the desert. Moses and Aaron fall on
their faces and Joshua and Caleb address the community. Joshua and Caleb said that
if God was pleased with them then He would give them the land. They
exhorted the people not to rebel against the Lord
and not to be afraid of the inhabitants of the land because the Lord was with them. But
the people wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb (Num. 14:1-10).
For Joshua and Caleb it wasn’t about how
they measured up to the land’s inhabitants. Joshua and Caleb exhorted the Israelites
not to rebel against the Lord and
not to be afraid of those in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Moses at the Tent of
Meeting and said that He would destroy the Israelites and make Moses into a
great nation. According to the Lord the people were treating Him with contempt even
though the Lord had delivered them out of Egypt with many miraculous signs. Moses
intercedes for Israel by saying that the Egyptians and the inhabitants of
Canaan would wrongly believe that the Lord destroyed Israel because He couldn’t
bring them into Canaan. According to Moses the inhabitants of the land knew
that the Lord was with Israel and had been leading them by a pillar of cloud and
fire. Surely the Israelites knew this but they didn’t believe like the Lord’s
servants, Caleb and Joshua. Moses appealed to the Lord’s great love and asked
the Lord to forgive the Israelites as He had been forgiving them since they
left Egypt (Num. 14:10-20). The Lord forgave yet that whole generation of Israelites who complained
in unbelief would wander forty years and die in the desert. Only
Caleb and Joshua who were loyal to God would enter the land. The
children of those who failed to believe God would enter and enjoy the land that
their parents despised. Those spies whose bad report incited a rebellion were struck
with a plague and died and Joshua and Caleb were the only spies that remained
alive (Num. 14:20-35).
What was different about Caleb and Joshua? The community knew that God had delivered
them out of Egypt and had led them by the pillar of cloud and fire. They all saw
the evidence that the land the Lord had promised to their forefathers was a
fruitful land. Yet they thought God had done all this just to bring them into
the land to die by the sword and have their families taken as plunder (Num.
14:3). On the hand, Caleb and Joshua concluded
that if God was pleased with them then they would take the land. They interpreted
the very same events and concluded that God was with them and they trusted that
God was including them in His good purpose. The others knew that God had been
leading them but they had no assurance that God was pleased them. They showed contempt
for God and rebelled against the Lord. They did this by believing that God was leading
them into the land only to die by the sword and to have their wives and
children taken as plunder. They even thought it would have been better to die
in Egypt or in the desert than to risk entering the land. Then when the
Israelites learned that the ten who brought the bad report had died they confessed
their sin and claimed they were ready to take the land. But Moses said they
would be crushed for the Lord had abandoned
them because they had abandoned the Lord.
They had said they would be better off dying in the desert and this is exactly
what God said would happen to them. So now they try to enter the land even when
both Moses and the Ark of the Covenant remained in the camp. This was pure presumption
and the result was that the peoples living in the hills came down and attacked
the Israelites and beat them back (Num. 14:39-45).
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