Num 14.1-45 will tell us that Israel heard the bad report and they would weep, complain and cry. They even said they wanted to die in the wilderness in Num 14.2, and that is what they got in Num 14.29. Jewish tradition says the day of the bad report was the Ninth of Av. It seems that anything bad that happened to Israel in history happened on this day. For instance, both temples were destroyed on this day day. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Jews were massacred in Betar during the Bar Kochba revolt in 133 AD. Jews were expelled from England in 1290 AD and Germany declared war on Russia, moving the world into World War I. Deportations from the Warsaw ghetto in Treblinka Concentration Camp begin on that day. Get the picture?
In our own personal journey “up the ladder” of spiritual growth we will encounter obstacles. We should not allow guilt to affect us. We should allow the words of Caleb and Joshua to resonate in our minds. We are loved and favored by the Lord, but “do not rebel” (Num 14.9). We should not judge the future through the eyes of the present. You will lose hope for the future. Don’t be held back by our failure to believe in ourselves. Who cares how we look to others as long as we are following the Lord and what he has told us to do. Don’t be concerned with what others think. Be concerned with what we are looking for and what the Lord thinks.
The Lord is bringing his people back to the land today also. Scouts have been sent out and there are giants in the land like terrorists, the PLO, the Syrians, Iranians, Russians, and the United Nations. Later it will be Europe and the False Messiah. The Israelis don’t believe they can “take the land” or the Temple Mount, so they make deals. They say their wives and children are in harm’s way. They are listening to a bad report and think they must compromise to survive. The United States puts fear into them by saying they will cut off their benefits if they don’t comply. World opinion is against them and they give land away they are not allowed to do according to God’s word.
Some don’t want the promise. They reject the shaliach of the Second Redemption (Yeshua) and God, like they rejected Moses and Joshua in the First Redemption. They don’t want the Torah either. The Lord is pouring out his Spirit on the people with great military victories but most will not believe. They have come to Kadesh and they have balked at God’s purposes. But, there will be a generation brought up in the wilderness who will follow Yeshua (Joshua).
What happened to the ten scouts who gave the bad report? They died on what tradition says is the Ninth of Av. These men were princes (nasi’im) of Israel, men of renown and named in the Torah. They did not get forty years to wander in Kadesh (Wadi Rum). They died immediately. Judgment begins in the household of God (1 Pet 4.17). And what happened to the rest of the people? They died in the wilderness (Num 14.29). There were 603,550 people (men) numbered in the camp in Num 2.32. If you add the 22,273 Levites in Num 3.43, that is a total of 625,823. All of them died except for two people, Joshua and Caleb.
This is serious business here, and what this tells us is this, “Do we really thrust the Lord?” It all comes down to that. When one does not want to follow the Lord, they make things, they make things harder for their children (Num 14.33). The godly inheritance is the only inheritance that really matters. If we can get that chain of belief started, it will extend to the “thousandth” generation in our family (Exo 20.6).
When we look at Num 14.39-45 we will see that too much damage has been done for a simple “I’m sorry.” Instead of obeying, they defy God again, hoping he would change his mind. They decide they will go up and take the land now (Num 14.40). When they went up, they did not take the Ark or Moses with them (Num 14.44). This will not end in success. Only two tribes beat them, the Amalekites and the Canaanites. It’s the same with us. If we have no Torah (Moses) and no commandments (Ark) that is not obedience and there will be no success.
This is a process of self-destruction and it is based on human limitations. In Stage 1, they lose confidence in their ability to succeed because they forgot the Lord. Stage 2 is they can rattle off a host of excuses and recriminations, even indicting Moses. In Stage 3, they “wake up” and realize what they have squandered. Unable to bear it, they heroically declare, “Let us go now” to recapture what was lost, but it was too late. In Stage 4, they were unable to bear the failure and they try to enter anyway. Death is a comforting option, going down in a “blaze of glory.” This satisfies their egos but destroys their lives. But Joshua and Caleb learned the secret (Josh 1.8-9). Get in line with the plan of God and don’t go contrary (right or left). Clearly the strategy was laid out. They needed to implement what God has told them to do. Nothing is impossible if the Lord is involved. He is the one who determines the outcome.
v 1…Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept all that night (when thinking about their condition now (tradition says this was the 9th of Av, which is a “bad news” day in Israel because the first and second Temples were destroyed on that day; the first crusade began in 1096 destroying Jewish communities in France and Germany; the Jews were expelled from England in 1290; the Jews were expelled from France in 1306; the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, the day Columbus sailed to the New World; World War I was declared; Heinrich Himmler formerly approved of the Final Solution and the Holocaust; mass deportation from the Warsaw ghetto began in 1942; Jewish communities in Gaza were given over to the residents in 2005).
v 2…And al the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that wwe had died in the wilderness (and that’s exactly what will happen in 14.29)!
v 3…And why is the Lord bringing into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder (God sees us in a multi-generational sense, get the chain of belief started and it will reach to the thousandth generation; its natural to want to protect them but don’t let them get between God’s plan for you; the real issue here is, “Can I really trust Yehovah with my family?”; to really protect them we must follow God’s ways, even when we fail; he will repair whatever damage we did and he will repair the breach in the next generation; the point of all tis is they could have been freemen (Exo 3.7) but they were thinking like slaves); would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
v 4…So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader (rosh) and return to Egypt (modern Israelis don’t think they can take the land today either so they make deals; this also alludes to the False Messiah who will be a “pseudo-rosh”-Rev 13.1-18, 12.1-17, who will try to lead Israel back to “spiritual Egypt” and replacement theology).”
v 5…Then Moses and aaron fell on their faces (in sorrow) in the presence of all the assembly (kahal) of the congregation of the sons of Israel.
v 6…Then Joshua the son of Nun (Bin Nun not Ben Nun) and Caleb the son of Jephunneh of those who had spied (toured) out the land tore their clothes (in mourning);
v 7…and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out (tour) is an exceedingly good land.
v 8…If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us-a land which flows with milk and honey (see 13.27 notes).
v 9…Only do not rebel against the Lord (we don’t have to be perfect for God to help us, only don’t be rebellious), and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey (Hebrew “bread for us”). Their protection (or “shadow” meaning “protection”) has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”
v 10…But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory (kivod/radiance) of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.
v 11…ANd the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?
v 12…I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you (like a second Abraham) into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
v 13…But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by thy strength you brought up this people from their midst,
v 14…and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land. They have heard that you, O LOrd, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while your cloud stands over them; and you go before them in a pillar of cloud b y day and in a pillar of fire b y night.
v 15…Now if you slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of thy name shall say,
v 16…’Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which he promised them by oath, therefore he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
v 17…But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great (Hebrew “Yigadol” and it has an enlarged “Yod” which is the number ten in Hebrew, meaning this was a test-see v 22), just as you have declared.
v 18…The Lord (Yehovah) is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness (chessed), forgiving iniquity abd transgression; but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers in the children to the third and fourth generations (of those who hate him-Exo 20.5).
v 19…Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy lovingkindness, just as you also have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now (this shows that the people have been continually sinning, regardless of the goodness of Yehovah).
v 20…So the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word (his petition to not totally destroy the nation-v 12),
v 21…but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord (when he visits with retribution those who are guilty of distrusting him, just like the fame of what has been done in Egypt has spread).
v 22…Surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put me to the test these ten times (meaning “frequently” meaning they have filled up the measure of their iniquities and punishment must come-Exo 14.11, 15.23, 16.2, 16.12, 32.1 and here in Num 14.1) and have not listened to my voice (What is the test? Will you believe and trust in the Lord),
v 23…shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned me see it.
v 24…But my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit (from the rest; he is mentioned because he tied to still the agitated people) and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it (in particular Hebron-Josh 15.13).
v 25…Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites (Amorites) live in the valleys; turn (and don’t go forward because they will be defeated) tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea (Deut 1.19-and they cmae to Kadesh Barnea or Wadi Rum).”
v 26…And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
v 27…How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against me (Num 14.28)? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against me.
v 28…Say to them, ‘As I live’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I shall surely do to you (they will get what they wanted in 14.2);
v 29…your corpses shall fall in this wilderness (Wadi Rum), even all your numbered men (603,550 numbered in Num 2.32; if you add the numbered Levites of 22, 273 in Num 3.43, that is a total of 625, 823 men; all of them died except for Joshua and Caleb), according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me.
v 30…Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore (lifted up my hand in an oath) to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun (for in interesting article that presents the case that Caleb was a non-Jew, see the article called, “Caleb the Goy” by Dean and Susan Wheelock).
v 31…Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey (14.3)-I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.
v 32…But as for you, your corpses shall fall in the wilderness.
v 33…And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they shall suffer for your unfaithfulness (whoredom) until your corpses lie in the wilderness (all their unbelief did was to make their lives more difficult and miserable for their children; a godly inheritance is the best thing we can give them).
v 34…According to the number of days which you spied out (toured) the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you shall know my opposition (revoking of my promise).
v 35…I, the Lord (Yehovah), have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered against me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they shall die.’ “
v 36…As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out (tour) the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him (Moses) by bringing out a bad report concerning the land;
v 37…even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land, died by a plague before the Lord (immediately either by disease or some other way).
v 38…But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went in to spy out (tour) the land (they learned the secret-Josh 1.8-9 and were in line with God’s word).
v 39…And when Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.
v 40…In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill (mountain) country (where they went into the land in Num 13.17) ,saying, “Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised (too much damage has been done for a simple “I’m sorry.” Instead of obeying, they defy God again, hoping he would change his mind).
v 41…But Moses said, “Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord (which was to turn back into the wilderness), when it will not succeed?
v 42…Do not go up, lest you be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.
v 43…For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.”
v 44…But they presumed to go up to the ridge of the hill (mountain) country, nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord (the cloud remained at the Mishkan) nor Moses (the leader and general) left the camp.
v 45…Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill (mountain) country came down, and struck them and beat them down (a crushing defeat) as far as Hormah (devoted to destruction; named this because of what happens here; southwest of the Dead Sea; only two tribes defeat them; it is the same with us; if we have no Torah (Moses) and no commandments (in the ark) that is not obedience and there will be no success).
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