Numbers 14:11-23

Now it is clear from reading this passage that God’s longsuffering—patience—is not without bounds. He will reach a breaking point at some time. We can wear His patience very thin. We can wear it out completely, if we take it that far.

However, this story is actually an example of just how extensive His patience and longsuffering is. I mean, think about what Israel was doing here. Like He said, they had tested Him 10 times, even though they had seen all those things that He had done for them—starting way back with the first plague all the way through until this point, over two years of God’s constant work on their behalf. Plague after plague in Egypt, and then He brings them out after destroying that land. He saves them in the Red Sea. They see their enemy dead on the coast. Then they go trudging through the wilderness, hardly any food or water in the whole place, and He provides it for them—water for millions of people—gallons and gallons and gallons, a lake full of water for them every day. And then, He also rained manna from heaven for them, and they were given quail.

God went out of His way to give them the things that they needed. He defeated their enemies. All Moses had to do was hold his arms up, and their enemies fell. He showed them the way across the wilderness, not only by day in a Pillar of Cloud, but He also lit it up in the evening and so they had a fiery presence of God at night. They knew He was there. They did not think that He was way off in heaven. He was right there with them all the time—two years so far in this story, but it eventually ended up being 40 years. And if we go into Deuteronomy, He tells us that their shoes did not wear out, their clothes did not wear out, that everything just remained constantly good and usable for all that time.

And yet, they were rejecting Him, because these silly people across the border were taller than they were! It is incredible.

They were rejecting His plan, and His promises that He made to them, as well as to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then to all of them back on Mount Sinai. They were rejecting His law, they were rejecting His servants, they were rejecting His providence, and they were rejecting everything about God. Though He was tempted to start over, and voiced that to Moses, yet He pardons them, and puts up with them for another 38 years until they died. That is just incredible patience—incredible longsuffering. His nose is very long, as it were.

Just think—put yourself in God’s place—of all the complaining that He heard in those 40 years. All the reluctance to do anything that He, through Moses, told them to do. And of course, there was all the disobedience starting with idolatry, and fornication, and who knows all the things they did there in the wilderness. They gave Him grief, after grief, after grief for all that time. It must, to Him, seemed like an interminable journey across the wilderness. Yet, He patiently endured them and all their unbelief. It sounds a lot like that story I gave you as I began, that God endured this man for 80 years, “can’t you endure him for one night?” He endured the children of Israel for 40 years. And that is enough to turn anyone’s hair absolutely white. It would us.

I am surprised that Moses ended up like he was. It says his natural vigor had not abated, even when he was 120 years old, and his eye was not dim. He took it. He was in many ways similarly patient with the people of Israel, because he understood God’s patience. And, that is what we are supposed to be doing—learning God’s will in all this—to be patient and start doing this thing ourselves, showing this same patience toward one another.

Did you know that it says in Deuteronomy 7 that God did all this to Israel those 40 years because He loved them! All of His longsuffering He did because He loved them, His people Israel. And then, despite all that they had done, He would keep His oath, He would bless them, and multiply them in the land.

That … . . .

Numbers 14:20-23

It is getting pretty bad. God was just about ready to wipe them off the face of the earth. And He would have, except Moses interceded for the people; so He did not kill them.

Their murmuring was rebellion, and the penalty was that they were going to fulfill their own prophecy. They were going to die in the wilderness. And their bones were strewn from one end of it to the other for forty years, because they complained.

Is it not true that even the most uncomplaining among us will complain, at times, about leadership? That is really what the crux of the situation was here. They were not happy with the way God was leading them through Moses and Aaron. It says that very clearly in verse 2. They were murmuring against Moses and Aaron. And if you murmur against His servants, you are murmuring against God! If those servants are generally the righteous kind, they generally do what is good. They generally follow God's commands. And they are trying their best to lead the people in a way that would please God. Then God takes it personally when a servant is attacked.

I think many of us think that we can lead better than our leader. And, you know what, that might be true, because sometimes God picks for leaders those who are not the best suited for it. They have to develop their leadership abilities over time. And they too have things to overcome. Sometimes they slip. But if they are chosen of God, you have to think of Romans 8:28—All things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are the called.

If we believe in God's sovereignty, we have to understand that—if God chose that leader—it was for a reason. And we have to make sure that we learn how to submit and follow that leader without complaining. We do not have to agree, all the time. But we do have to learn to submit without complaining.

Like I said, in this particular case the people murmured at Moses and Aaron, who were generally righteous men. Both of them sinned publicly a time or so. Aaron grievously sinned there at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He allowed the people to talk him into building a golden calf. Blatant idolatry! Aaron was specifically responsible for that. But, you know what? God still honored him as high priest. Could you imagine that?

Could you imagine someone of the stature of, let us say, Herbert Armstrong—leading a Lutheran service? And then God honoring him and still working through him as the leader of His true church? It is hard to imagine, is it not? That never happened, of course. But the point is that, the way God looks at it, there should not have been any complaints. God was working with that man and He would straighten him out. And He did!

You know what? Later on, Aaron himself rebelled against Moses—with Miriam, their sister. And it was for that second time that God told him that he would not enter the Promised Land. And then Moses himself rebelled when he struck the rock. In front of all Israel, he sinned—disobeyed God. He got angry and struck the rock, when God told him just to speak to it. And for that, he was not allowed to enter the Land. He was given the same punishment as the rest of the children of Israel, yet he would die there in the wilderness. But God still honored him as His chosen servant and continued to use him to lead the children of Israel. What a lesson!

Think of the heinous crimes of David—sins (not just crimes) such as adultery in the sight of all Israel. Murder of a righteous man, Uriah—a man who would not even go home but slept at David's doorway until he was needed. Quite a man! And then to publicly kill him, which is basically what David did. "Joab, put Uriah in the front of the battle so that we make sure that he dies." But God still honored David as the leader of His people—king and prophet, and a type of the Messiah.

God wants us to learn to submit to His chosen leadership without complaining. When we complain, what we are doing is … . . .

Numbers 14:20-24

But Caleb was different. Notice verse 20:

Caleb had a different attitude. As a matter of fact, there are more modern translations that actually put that word in there. “Caleb, My servant, had a different attitude.” He was not rebellious. He did not have that slave mentality. He was not pessimistic. He was not focused on himself. He did not want just what he could eat and drink. He wanted what God wanted. He had his eye on the goal. He saw what God was doing and he worked for it. He worked with God in it.

Caleb had a better attitude than all the other Israelites. God picked him out from the crowd to give him what he deserved—praise—for his different spirit, his better mindset. He was set apart by that mindset.

Caleb did not see just giant men and rough terrain and impregnable fortresses. He saw God. He saw God’s power. He remembered all that God had done in Egypt and in their wanderings up to that point for Israel and for everyone. He had a ‘can do’ attitude based on his experiences with God, and his outlook then—his attitude—made him confident and bold. He knew, from his hair to his toes, that if they would just go into that land, it would fall before them with hardly any effort (It would take some effort, obviously. Look at what they had to go through ultimately when they did go in). But compared to what it would be without God, it would have been easy.

Now notice how God explains here why Caleb was different: He said, “He followed Me fully.” That was what made Caleb different. That was what his attitude was centered on—following God fully.

Like Abel, Caleb’s attitude put him in the right frame of mind to obey God in everything. He started with the right outlook. His outlook was that he was going to obey God, no matter what. So when God gave him a difficult assignment, he said: “This might be difficult, but I’m going to obey God because that’s what God wants me to do.” And he did it. That was his attitude. It set him up for success, it set him up for praise, and it set him up for reward.

When God gave him something to do, he did not hold back because if God gave him something to do, he was going to follow God despite the entire nation of Israel standing against him with stones in their hands. For that faithful and bold and positive attitude, he was rewarded with entrance into the Promised Land unlike everybody else, except for Joshua. He was rewarded with a long life and he got a lot of land around the city of Hebron for himself and for his descendants.

God loved that man. He loved the example that he gave to the rest of Israel and He just poured it on him in reward for his obedience and his good attitude. He had a different spirit, a spirit that was set to fully obey God.

Numbers 14:20-23

So, Moses intercedes for the people. He gets down on his knees and asks God to spare the people. And God responds:

God says, "Ok. I am not going to wipe them out today. But, you can be certain that by the time that we cross over Jordan, they will all be dead and gone. I have had enough of their rebellion these ten times, and they have not listened to me. I have had it" This is a Parent who has just been totally exasperated, and lays down the law, and lowers the boom. Look at the next verse: