Numbers 14:26-35

Numbers 14:26-35

And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

a. This is one of the saddest events in Israel’s history. It is the pronouncement by God that Israel would wander in the wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience  and rebellion of not believing God going into the Promised Land.

b. In May of 2012 I was doing a study on Joshua 2 & 3, the portion of the book of Joshua that chronicles Israel’s initial entrance into the Promised Land after their wandering 40 years in the wilderness. Most Christians know about Israel’s disobedience and subsequent punishment of not going into the Promised Land and wandering in the desert for40 years but not many know of a small but profound detail. The forty years began at this point in the Biblical text of Numbers 15, they did not include the approximate 1½ years from the night of the Exodus from Egypt to this point which makes what I learned more profound. During the study I learned that the Biblical material of Exodus 12, the night of the Exodus from Egypt to Numbers 13 &14, the sending of the spies and subsequent unbelief and rebellion of Israel comprise a time line of about 1½ years. I also learned that the Biblical material from Numbers 22 to Joshua 3 comprises a time line of about 1 year, which leaves Numbers 15-21 to fit in 39 years. Inside those 7 chapters of Numbers is the rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16, the budding of Aaron’s rod in Numbers 17, signifying again that God chose Aaron and his sons in the Priesthood. In Numbers 20 is the disobedience of Moses and Aaron in getting water out of the rock, for which disobedience neither enter into the Promised Land. In Numbers 21 is the episode of Israel’s complaining and the subsequent result of the death of many from serpent bites and the making of the brass serpent by Moses. Finally Numbers 21:20 records Israel getting to the top of Pisgah immediately before the military campaigns against Sihon and Og. These campaigns occurred approximately 1½ years before Israel went into the Promised Land. Other than those historic Biblical events there is nothing recorded about those 39 years. NOTHING! In early January of 2013 me and Missy were listening to a series by John Bevere entitled Honors’ Reward . In that series he made the statement that in Numbers 14 when Israel refused to believe God about going into the Promised Land, they lost their calling. His statement struck me as very profound because this group of Israelites were called by God to be the people prophesied by the Hebrew fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses to go into the Promised Land, but because of their unbelief, they were denied by God and sentenced to wander in the desert for forty years. Until everyone in that generation died. They lost their calling. What is even more profound to me is that there is very little written of them and nothing good. What a sobering thought. I am reminded of a passage in Exodus concerning Israel’s disobedience at Sinai when Moses was receiving the Law. While Moses was on top of Mt. Sinai Israel was caught up in worshipping a golden calf. The next day Moses returned into the presence of God and the following dialogue was recorded.

1). Exodus 32:31-33  And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

2). Because of the mercy and forgiveness of God, many of that generation surely went to paradise when they died, but many didn’t. Tens of thousands died because of subsequent sins and I don’t believe were right with God when they perished. The point I want to make is this, regardless of whether they died righteous or not they not only lost their Divine calling, but their history, their deeds, their actions are not recorded and in a sense blotted out of remembrance, no memorial, no remembrance.