We studied previously how the Lord God spoke to Moses and he sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. ... Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan,... So they went up and spied out the land... they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” (Numbers 13:3, 17, 21, 26-29)
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:30-33)
After all God had done for the children of Israel, they continued to have a lack of faith in Him and his power. Of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb believed the Lord. They, along with Moses understood, If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) Who? No one!
And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” (Number 14:10-12)
The Lord God had threatened to destroy the children of Israel previously, after they had committed idolatry with the golden calf. And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people." (Exodus 32:9-12)
Now Moses would make a similar plea to the Lord God again on behalf of the children of Israel; And Moses said to the Lord: “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. (Numbers 14:13-14)
"Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’ And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ [Exodus 34:6-7] Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” (Numbers 14:15-19)
The power of intercessory prayer! When we truly believe and obey the two greatest commandments, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27) And when we really start loving God and others the way we're supposed to, we would never be content to stand idly by and watch others suffer, even if they have justly deserved it; but, we will always be moved to pray and ask God to pardon our sins according to the greatness of His mercy.
Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. (Micah 7:18) In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil. (Proverbs 16:6) However, for those who don't know to ask for forgiveness and mercy, like the children of Israel, who had an intercessor in Moses, we also have an intercessor, He [Chirst Jesus], because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:24-25)
Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.” (Numbers 14:20-25)
The Lord God had brought them out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. After over two years of preparing them in the wilderness at Mount Sinai to go into the promised land, He had removed the inhabitants of the promised land protection from them, and the Lord was with the children of Israel. After all they had been through and God delivered them from, they get that close to the promise being fulfilled, and then start to doubt the Lord God; therefore, only a remnant of His heritage would be saved in the wilderness and enter into the promised land. God forgives sins, and He is merciful not to destroy the whole nation, but the consequences for those who reject Him are devastating and eternal.
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. (Numbers 14:26-30)
'But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’” (Numbers 14:31-35)
A journey that only took forty days from Mount Sinai to the promised land, and a guarantee that If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, turned into a curse of forty years of wandering in the desert, and a whole generation who left Egypt would die and not see the fulfillment of the promise of God for themselves, except for two men. What a sad self-imposed end and devastating consequence for sin. Rejecting God is the same as rejecting His Word, and just as the consequence for the children of Israel was that a whole generation who rejected Him would not receive the promised land, if we reject God's Word today, Christ Jesus, Who was the Word of God in the flesh, we too will not make it into "the promised land".
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. ... For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ... Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, and He ho is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:26-39)
A journey that only took forty days from Mount Sinai to the promised land, and a guarantee that If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, turned into a curse of forty years of wandering in the desert, and a whole generation who left Egypt would die and not see the fulfillment of the promise of God for themselves, except for two men. What a sad self-imposed end and devastating consequence for sin. Rejecting God is the same as rejecting His Word, and just as the consequence for the children of Israel was that a whole generation who rejected Him would not receive the promised land, if we reject God's Word today, Christ Jesus, Who was the Word of God in the flesh, we too will not make it into "the promised land".
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. ... For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ... Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, and He ho is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:26-39)
