Numbers 14:26-45
Death Sentence on the Rebels
26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “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. 28 Say to them, As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 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. 30 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. 31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. 33 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. 34 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. 35 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.’”
36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, 37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
A Futile Invasion Attempt (Deuteronomy 1:41–45)
39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!”
41 And Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the command of the LORD? For this will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the LORD is not among you. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.
The wages of the sin of rebellion and rejection of God’s deliverance to the people of the LORD were harsh. They refused to enter the promised land and even rebelled against the true testimony of Caleb and Joshua who not only saw the true vale of the promised land, but also had faith in God to give them victory over the adversary to enter it. They were therefore condemned to wander for forty years until they all died and were unable to enter into that earthly paradise; only their innocent children and the two faithful witnesses who trusted and acted by faith in the promise would be allowed into that land. Those who still desired the promised land but not the one who promised it attempted in their own strength to defeat the adversary but were defeated and denied entry for turning away from the LORD to their own efforts to gain an impossible victory over the enemy without and within. Similarly, we only enter the kingdom of God through faith that trusts the divine person of God’s Son come as a man in the flesh () and His work alone to fulfill the promise of the gospel to enter the promised heavenly land to come. Only Jesus can and has defeated the adversary to gain our victory (1 Corinthians 15:57) and opened the way to paradise once lost by our forbearers. Only by trusting this narrow way from death to life (John 5:24) can we enter through Him (John 10:9, 14:6, Acts 4:12) and not die with all the others who deny Him (Mark 16:16, John 12:48) and His promises of eternal life. When we hear the gospel, do we receive it or reject and attempt to make our own way to earn the kingdom of God by our own works which always fall short (Romans 3:23) of gaining us us entrance into the promised land of eternal paradise (Luke 23:43) with the Lord? The alternative is to wander aimlessly through this life in the wilderness of sin apart from God and His grace of the promise, only to face death in the end without hope. We must instead trust His word of promise as Caleb and Joshua did of the gateway of grace promised for those who take God at His word and act on it to enter that heavenly land set before us. Why continue to disbelieve and earn the wages of sin and not turn to trust and follow the Deliverer who would lead us through the gateway to glory?
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