Numbers 14:10-11

A cry went up. Gather your stones! Find your bricks! Find your boulders! Let's stone them! And God said, "This has to stop here."

Do you think He said (softly), "how long will these people reject me?" Do you think He said it like that? He said, "How long will these people reject Me?!" God was angry at their rebellion! He had made it very plain in the promises He had made that He would bring them into the land. His word backed this up. "I will bring you into the Promised Land." There's no need for anything more than that. God said it. He's going to do it. His word doesn't return to Him empty. If He says He's going to perform it, it's going to be performed.

How many times had He demonstrated His power to these 2½ to 3 million people? There were ten plagues in Egypt. He killed all the firstborn, both of men and beast. He had parted the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh was drowned there. He had taken water out of a rock. He performed all those miracles on Sinai. Moses had come down with a shining face. They had seen the tables that had been written with the hand of God.

How many other things did He do? Every day manna fell from the sky. They ate the proof every day that God would do as He said and still, they refused. They rejected Him out of hand. And then, of course, you had the eyewitness testimony of men like Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb and the other elders. Remember, there were seventy elders that went up on the mount and saw Him and ate with Him. What more proof do you need that God will do what He says? But the people rejected Him.

Numbers 14:1-11

It would seem as though Israel had every evidence that God was with them, and that He was clearly powerful enough for them to trust Him. But that evidence—what He did to the Egyptians; the dividing of the Red Sea; His providing two million people plus with manna every day, with water as was needed, and even quails for them, clothing that did not wear out; and He even provided them with shade during the heat of the day—was not enough.

And their faith evaporated when fears (for their own safety, for the preservation of their flesh, and the satisfying of their appetites) overrode the trust of almost everyone. Their fear overcame whatever level of faith they had, and it motivated rebellion. It led directly to the death of everyone over twenty, except for Joshua and Caleb. Do you get the point?

Fear kills! That is its ultimate fruit.

This illustration here in Numbers 13 and 14 is clear evidence that these people were walking by sight. What they saw were giants, and it intimidated them—as if God was not bigger, greater, more powerful, smarter than giants. So God has to ask, "How long is it going to be before they believe Me?" It is like He says, "What can I do that might give them more faith?"