Numbers 14:39-40

Now, let's go back to the book of Numbers. We'll be flipping back and forth throughout the Pentateuch as we go through this. In chapter 14, this is the time when they were sitting there, on the border of the Promised Land. The spies had come back. They heard the report of both Joshua and Caleb, as well as the other spies (who were against going back in). And everybody said, "Oh, no. We won't go in." But God says, "Why not? You should go." But they didn't do it, and they rebelled against God. Then there was a group that decided that they could go anyway. This is the story of that group.

It almost sounds like they are trying to be contrite. They are putting on a facade of being repentant. They are trying to make up for what they did wrong on the previous day, when they refused to go into the Land. But there are some times when you just can't go back; and this is one of those times.

Numbers 14:39-45

The next effort is the physical effort to go when we are stirred to action, when we are inspired to reject the world and follow Christ. Now it is important to realize that God does not simply deliver on demand. In Numbers 14:39-45, when Israel, after recanting their initial response to the spy report, went up against the Amalekites and Canaanites, and they were soundly defeated. And God does not deliver a disobedient, faithless people. He instead delivers them into the hands of their enemy.

This is the first of Israel's great lessons in no-deliverance. Those who presume on God will have their expectations reversed, as Amos later put it. Those disobedient people who long for the Day of the Lord, that is, the day of God's wrath, will receive darkness.

Numbers 14:39-45

It is important to realize that God does not simply rescue on demand. In Numbers 14:39-45, when Israel brashly went up against the Amalekites and Canaanites, after recanting on their initial response to the spy report, they were soundly defeated.

God does not rescue a disobedient people. He instead delivers them into the hands of their enemies. This is the first of Israel's great lessons in "no rescue." Those who presume on God will have their expectations reversed. As Amos later put it, those disobedient people who long for the Day of the Lord (i.e., the day of God's victory) will receive darkness.