Numbers 14:31-35

Israel refused to believe that God would be with them, and this event was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Numbers 14:22 says that this was the tenth time that Israel had tested God. After ten occasions, it was pretty clear that this generation of Israelites did not have hearts which trusted God, and so God swore that they would not enter.

But Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf (Numbers 14:13-19), and God relented. Every Israelite should have been dead at this point, except for the faithful leaders. Yet God showed mercy in allowing the next generation to grow up enough to be capable of inheriting the land. Even though God relented and did not destroy the whole nation, He still determined that the nation—as it says in verse 34—was going to know His rejection. God was also merciful in counting the time they had already been in the wilderness as time served, as it were. But the remaining 38 years were about Israel knowing God’s rejection. Every step they took, and every day that passed without being in the land, was a reminder that they had rejected God, and now they were estranged.

Numbers 14:26-35

Just as Joshua had foreshadowed in his words to them, they failed to submit and they became rebels. And you know what they got for their rebellion? An extremely stiff sentence from God. Verse 26:

That's stiff and He was quite angry. You can tell by the words He used that He said, "Enough! You've rejected Me once too often, now I reject you."

Numbers 14:31-35

When God gets into this kind of mood, He means it; and He did. A couple of million people died in the wilderness during those 40 years. Not one of them, except Joshua and Caleb, and most likely, their families lived through it.