The Book of
Numbers 14
45 verses≈ 9 min4 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–10Ready at SinaiCounted and ordered
- 11–14GrumblingTo Kadesh and refusalChapter 14
- 15–21Forty yearsRebellion and mercy
- 22–25BalaamA curse turned to blessing
- 26–36A new generationReady for the land
Israel’s Rebellion
Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.
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The Israelites
All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.
Joshua and Caleb
Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”
If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.
Numbers 14:8
But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.
And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”
Reflect
Refuse to believe
God asked, “How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?” Israel had seen the sea open and bread fall from the sky, and still the giants looked bigger than God. Where have you seen God’s faithfulness, and yet still fear what is in front of you? Write down one sign of His goodness you have already seen, and one ‘giant’ you are facing now. Then set the first beside the second.
Moses Intercedes for Israel
But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, ‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:
‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’
Numbers 14:18
Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”
Question
Quick question
Moses asked God to act “just as You have declared,” and then prayed words he had heard before.
Whose words did Moses pray back to God in 14:18?
God’s Forgiveness and Judgment
God
But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.
Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”
Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me. So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.
Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.
0:41
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
God
As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.
Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”
Why they could not enter
Whiteboard
The land was “an exceedingly good land,” and the spies said so. What kept Israel out was not the giants but unbelief: they would “refuse to believe” the God who had shown them His signs. Hebrews reads this night as a warning to us. The same promise of rest still stands, and the word is ‘Today’: hear His voice, and do not harden your heart.
Pray
Pardon, and a whole heart
Moses prayed, “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people,” and God answered, “I have pardoned them as you requested.” Thank God that in Christ your sins are pardoned too. Then ask Him for what Caleb had: a heart that has “followed Me wholeheartedly,” that trusts Him when the walls look high. Lord, forgive my unbelief, and give me a whole heart for You. Amen.
The Plague on the Ten Spies
So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land— those men who had brought out the bad report about the land—were struck down by a plague before the LORD. Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.
And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.
The Defeat at Hormah
Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country.
The Israelites
“We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.”
Moses
But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed! Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you. For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”
But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp.
Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.
You’ve experienced
Numbers 14
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A verse to carry with you
If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!
Numbers 14:8–9
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