20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according
to your word. 21 But
truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my
signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the
test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their
fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different
spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he
went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites
dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way
to the Red Sea.”
Numbers 14:20-25
Right at the border of
Canaan, Israel rebelled against the Lord.
Listening to the report of the ten spies, their hearts were overwhelmed
with fear. They ignored the report of
the two other spies, Caleb and Joshua.
Their fear got the best of them.
As they couldn’t manage their fear, they burst into self-pity. The result was putting blame to God and His
servants.
1Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and
the people wept that night. 2 And
all the people of Israel
grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would
that we had died in the land
of Egypt! Or would that
we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why
is the Lord bringing us into this
land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey.
Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a
leader and go back to Egypt.” Numbers 14:1-4
The rebellion did not go
unnoticed. The Lord heard everything.
But the people did not stop at grumbling. Their self-pity led them to self-righteous
feeling, which in turn gave birth to unholy anger and uncontrolled rage. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua tried to
plead with them that they would listen to the Lord
and obey. The people got raving mad
listening to them.
10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with
stones. Numbers
14:10
If God did not intervene, those four
would have died by the hands of the angry mob.
For they were ready to return to Egypt. They were ready to pick new leaders. They were challenging God’s authority. So in turn, God was burn in anger against
them. In vv. 11 & 12 God said:
11 And the Lord
said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they
not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with
the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater
and mightier than they.”
This was the second time God said
something like this. The first time was
when Israel
attempted to replace God with the golden calf in Exodus 32. Exodus 32:9-10 records the burning anger of
God:
9 And the Lord
said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, 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, in order that I may make
a great nation of you.”
The penalty for rebellion is
death. The Bible speaks of it repeatedly
that the penalty of sin is death. Romans
6:23a says it clearly: “23 For the wages of sin is death.” And so in the case of Israel’s
rebellion at the border of Canaan God also stated that the people deserved to
die.
In
our life today we often think quite lightly of our sin and its penalty. People who do not know the Lord treat the
Lord as if He doesn’t exist. So they sin
so liberally believing that there is no judgment would come to them. But worse is the so called Christians who
treat the Lord with contempt. Instead of
repenting from their sin, they find excuses to continue dwelling in sin. In their depraved way of thinking they shift
the blame to God and build arguments that all is God’s fault to make them who
they are. They think that they are
sinning because God has so ordained them to do so. Just like Israel blamed God for rescuing them
from the hands of the Egyptians, they too blame God for being sovereign over
their life. Romans 3:7-8 points out:
7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his
glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some
people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
The depraved mind always tries to find
excuses to continue in sin. In the one
that Paul points out above, people wish to justify their sinning by saying that
their sinning produces good. To these
people Paul says that their condemnation is deserved. Yet people are relentless in their pursuit
for excuses to sin. So in Romans 9:19
Paul points out another cunning excuse:
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find
fault? For who can resist his will?”
Sin drives people mad like a drug
addict is driven mad by his addiction.
They would blame anyone as long as they can enjoy the pleasure of sin. The Holy God they blame so they can dwell a
bit longer in their sin. As Israel blamed
God for liberating them from slavery, people today too blame God for making
them the way they are. No repentance, no
remorse, no feeling guilty, for all the sins they have committed. Instead, they prefer living in sin and
enjoying it every day of their life, all the while demanding God to accept them
as they are. It is as if they say to God:
“No you can’t punish me for sinning, because You have made me this way. Nothing can happen outside Your will, so I
can’t stop sinning because You have willed it for me to sin. I will continue to sin for who can resist
Your will? So when I sin, it is Your
responsibility God! If You punish me
then You are unjust! No You cannot be
unjust, can You?” Yes their condemnation
is just.
It
would be the end of the story if God would wipe all the Israelites out that
day. Since day one Adam and Eve sinned,
He could have just wiped humanity out.
He could just destroy the entire world and started anew. But He didn’t. In the time of Noah, He could wipe out the
entire world with water, yet He chose to save Noah and his family. In the time of Abraham, He could just let
Abraham and Sarah died childless, then the entire world would just collapse in
their sin and depravity. Yet God chose
to call Abraham and gave him a son. God
could also leave Israel to
rot in Egypt
under the yoke of slavery. But He chose
to rescue them with His mighty hands and wonders. And in the golden calf incident, He could
just consume Israel
in His rightful wrath. Yet He chose to
pardon them. Yes over and over again God
chose to pardon Israel. Here at the border of Canaan, God also chose
to listen to Moses and pardon Israel. Numbers 14:20 testifies of the mercy of the Lord:
20 Then the Lord
said, “I have pardoned, according to
your word.
Great is the mercy of the Lord, the saying is true. God did not opt to wipe the entire people out
from the face of the earth. He forgave
them of their offence. He pardoned their
rebellion. God showed His long suffering
and loving kindness quality even when He had every right to completely demolish
the people. If we pause here, then all
is heaven. Offenders would love to see
this as the end. That their past
offences and rebellions would just be forgotten. That their madness would bear no implication
whatsoever. That they could continue
life the way it is without any discomfort.
But the story of the people of Israel did not stop in God
pardoning them. His words to Moses did
not stop right there. In fact, He made
an executive decision that would change the entire course of the people of Israel. Their rebellion had hurt the Lord. Even though He pardoned them, He made a
drastic decision that resulted in the people’s great discomfort all their
lives. Numbers 14:21-25 tells:
21 But truly,
as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men
who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,
and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall
see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised
me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a
different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into
which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the
Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out
for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
God decided that he would not let this
generation to enter the Promised Land.
This generation had rebelled against the Lord ten times. Even though they were pardoned from the total
annihilation, they would not enjoy life that they dreamed about their entire
life. The decision of the Lord was set and the people of this
generation would not enter the land except Caleb and Joshua. This was not a punishment of their rebellion. For the only fitting punishment was
death. God made a decision to grant
their deepest desire that refused the Lord’s
design. They wanted to die in the desert
rather than obeying the Lord to
possess the land (Numbers 14:2). Numbers
14:26-35 discloses the painful decision God made:
26 And the Lord
spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How
long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the
grumblings of the people of Israel,
which they grumble against me. 28 Say
to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord,
what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness,
and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward,
who have grumbled against me, 30 not
one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except
Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become
a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your
dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And
your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer
for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the
wilderness. 34 According
to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year
for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my
displeasure.’ 35 I,
the Lord, have spoken. Surely this
will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me:
in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
God’s displeasure was displayed in that
decision. The execution of His decision
was to be completed in the span of forty years.
Israel
had to suffer God’s displeasure. They
did not die the ultimate death. Yet they
could not enjoy life. The goodness of
the land was withheld from them. They
could only taste the sweetness of the fruit of the Promised Land one time, and
that’s about it. They took God for
granted. They did not honor Him the way
they should. Yet a punishment deserving
their rebellion was not applied to them.
God’s mercy let them live another forty years. In a way God also waited patiently for them
to repent. They needed to learn to honor
God. They needed to learn to know
God. They needed to learn not to take
God for granted.
Isn’t
it true that God’s mercy to Israel
at that time is also often displayed to us from time to time? God does not smite us right away. God doesn’t give us the punishment we
deserve. We are not wiped out from the
face of the earth after we sin. More
often than we realize, God gives us time to repent. He has pardoned us through His Son Jesus
Christ for all eternity. He wants us to
know Him. He wants us to learn to honor
Him. He gives us plenty of opportunities
to learn to obey Him. He might show His
displeasure however. Our life would not
be fun anymore. We would not be able to
enjoy life the way we desire it anymore.
But it is still God’s mercy for us to grow as His children. But in our sin we often consider the
inconvenience of life that God decides for us subsequent to our transgression
as our just punishment. The story of Israel above
proves that it’s not true. Our just
punishment is death. The inconvenience
of life we often experience subsequent to our sin is meant to give us time to
be better people. It is true that not
every transgression will be followed by a discomfort life. But when it is, consider it as God’s mercy
for us to grow. It is also true that not
every discomfort is always following a transgression one commits. But do remember that He has pardoned our
sin. When life is still granted us, it
means that God is waiting for us to return to Him.
Consider
the life of Jacob. Jacob’s story is a
reflection of how God is merciful to each individual person even after a
terrible sin is committed. Jacob
deserves death, but he gets more time to learn and to repent. Jacob’s sin is that he steals the blessing of
Isaac that is supposed to be given to Esau by way of deceiving his father into
thinking that he is Esau. That is a
grave sin. The blessing from Isaac is
not rightfully his, but yet his mother and him devise and execute a plan to
steal it when Esau is away. And so when
Esau comes back from hunting and is ready to be blessed by Isaac, no more
blessing can be given to him. Jacob’s
theft causes a terrible pain to Isaac and Esau.
Certainly his sin offends God.
Jacob deserves death. But God
shows mercy, even though through great inconvenience. Jacob has to flee to his uncle Laban in Padan
Aram. Jacob leaves home with practically
nothing. Suddenly he becomes poor. In Laban’s house he is treated as a slave. Jacob is the second son of a very wealthy and
successful man in Canaan. But now he has to work extremely hard to
survive. A great discomfort. But it is not a punishment. God has so decided that Jacob is to go
through some difficulties. And through
the inconvenience Jacob may learn to know God, learn to obey Him, learn to
humble himself and repent. So he
does. He learns to humble and
repent. He learns to obey the Lord. He learns to know the true God of
his grandfather and father. Jacob no
longer seeks blessing from man. He now
seeks blessing from the Lord. Jacob no longer relies his life on earthly
possessions. He has learned to depend on
God completely. His sin has been
pardoned. And there are many other
examples in the Scripture that portrays God’s pardon yet the person pardoned
lives an inconvenient life. Miriam for
example, has to suffer a discomfort of leprosy for one full week because of her
rebellion, even though she is pardoned by God.
Moses has to be greatly disappointed because he can’t enter the Promised
Land even though he is so close, and all because he dishonors God. Certainly Moses is pardoned by God, but God
decides to not allow Moses to enter the land he so desires to enter. David is pardoned as he repents from his terrible
sin he commits, adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, yet he has to
suffer a huge discomfort when Absalom launches his coup d’état.
If
you can read this, it means you are still alive. Time is still given to you. Perhaps today your life is not
comfortable. Perhaps this uncomfortable
life is directly following your transgression because God has so made a
decision to display his displeasure to you.
In that way you may learn to know Him.
Through it you may learn to honor him.
And then you may learn to obey him in every way. The discomfort is not a punishment for your
sin. We all know that the punishment for
sin is death. Yet the Son has died in
our place. So you have been pardoned. The “forty years desert wandering” is an
opportunity for you to repent. To those
He loves God does this. Never consider
inconvenience of life as God hating us.
A wise man once said that beware of the time when after committing sin
your life remains the way it is, no problems, no difficulties, but instead your
life becomes merrier and more successful.
Beware, because it might mean that God is not giving you time to repent,
but instead you are blinded by your success that you are walking down the path
toward eternal death. In that case, it
might mean that God does not pardon your sin.
And that’s a great disaster. So
be glad when God gives you time to repent through a life of discomfort. Forty years in the desert is nothing compared
to eternal death.
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