Thursday 31st August
Read Numbers 14:20-35
“The Lord replied, ‘I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 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 – 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. 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. 25 Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out towards the desert along the route to the Red Sea.’
26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 ‘How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, “As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 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. 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. 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. 32 But you – your bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 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.” 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.’” (NIVUK)
Once you understand the principal, you can’t unsee it. The punishment fits the crime. Having seen the glory of the Lord and rejected it (v22), they will not see the promised land (v23). After hearing their complaints (v27) that it would be better if they died in the wilderness (v2) they will receive precisely what they wished for (v28-29).
Having forgiven them though following Moses’ intercession, the punishment is a commuted sentence. Most will not be wiped out immediately but will die of old age wandering in the wilderness waiting for the end. They asserted that their children would be taken as plunder (v3), but God graciously promises that those children, through suffering, will enter the land. There is both perfect justice and gracious mercy through these verses.
The note of caution we should heed as we read these stories is just as relevant today. We are accountable, just as they were, for what we have seen and what we have heard. Having heard the gospel and seen God made flesh in Jesus we are perhaps even more privileged than those who saw the pillar and the fire and the plagues and heard the voice of God and the law.
“But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:16-17) (NIVUK).
