Commentaries:
No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Numbers 14:33.
Numbers 14:27-34
Excerpted from: Sovereignty and 'Once Saved Always Saved'God went back on His word. Now how could He do this? We shall continue to see why He could do it. Don't forget that I am going through this in order to help you understand that even as He has likewise promised to bring us into the Kingdom of God, it is not unconditional.
Why didn't they make it? As a people, Israel tempted God ten times. God specifically mentions complaining, murmuring against His provision for them, and He outright called them evil. Now to tempt is to provoke or entice Him to do something wrong. But there is strong basis and just cause for God's judgment of them, because no sin stands alone. Murmuring is not a simple stand-by-itself sin, especially in regarding that the murmuring is against God. I want you again to consider that Israel entered into a covenant with God shortly after leaving Egypt. Let's go back to Exodus 19 and review that, and then in a little bit we'll get back to this murmuring again.
Here, in these brief four or five verses, the covenant is stripped bare of everything except its most essential parts. Those most essential parts are that God would be their God, and that He would provide for them. That appears in verse 4. Those are examples of how He provided. He would be their God, and He would provide for them, as He had already demonstrated that He could do in bringing them out of Egypt.
Very briefly, Israel's part was to obey Him. More specific terms are spelled out beginning in Exodus 20:1 and going all the way through Exodus 21, 22, into chapter 24 and up to verse 8. So in Exodus 20 through Exodus 24:8 are the specific terms of the agreement between the two.
A covenant is an agreement. It is a contract binding both parties to its conditions, or its terms. If one party does not hold up its end of the deal, the other party is not obligated to follow through on its part because of fraud. The other party in this agreement happened to be the holy, sinless, perfect-in-character Creator God.
Now parties entering into a contract do so in order that the partnership created by the agreement will be mutually beneficial. Contracts have clearly-stated terms, and each party agrees to fulfill those terms. Israel did not come anywhere close to fulfilling the terms of this agreement. Ten times they rejected Him, provoked Him. God was justified in His judgment of them.
The reason God specifically mentioned murmuring is because murmuring also involves presumption. This is bad. The complainer against God presumptuously regards his view as to how things ought to be as superior to the holy, sinless, perfect-in-character God, as if God is unaware what is going on in His family. Murmuring against God is presumption. God plainly says in Numbers 15 that this will not be forgiven. In one sense you could almost say that Israel committed the unpardonable sin in their complaining because of the presumption that is in it. That's how serious it is.
Secondly, murmuring involves ingratitude. It deprecates blessings received, and any inconvenience is exaggerated. Ingratitude easily forgets past kindnesses. That person is always operating on the idea, the approach, the concept of "What have you done for me lately?" Murmurers think that everything done by themselves is too much, as if they're being put upon, and that they should not be required to do this. The other side of that coin is everything done for them is too little, that it's never enough. Finally, murmuring is active antagonism against the holy God.
It's interesting that the author here says, "any of you should seem to come short of it." There is no doubt at all that he was thinking about the Exodus experience, and especially the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Those who died in the wilderness came short of it. It's another way of saying that if we act like they did, we're not going to be there either.
The point is this: God, without doubt, made the solemn promise. He admitted that. However, Israel entered … . . .
Numbers 14:31-35
Excerpted from: The Faith of IsraelIsrael 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 14:32-35
Excerpted from: Five Major Problems in the WildernessIn this case the people said, “Boy, it’s a good-looking land all right, but the trials of overcoming the present residents and their fortified cities isn’t worth making. They’re too strong, and they’re too entrenched, and we will be overcome." So they had a very severe lack of faith.
All of those over twenty were held accountable and judged because they believed this evil report. Now was God unfair? The very fact that Joshua and Caleb were not judged the same way shows that God was judging each person individually. If He was judging everybody in the body with the same paintbrush, those two would have died as well, but He set them apart.
What is the lesson? It is obvious. God wants us to hold our faith regardless of the way the crowd is going, even in the midst of other church members. Those twenty and over who were condemned were people who were just going along with the church, in today’s lingo, but what we always have to think of and always take into consideration is personal responsibility. That is the lesson there. God holds us accountable personally.
Numbers 14:33-35
Excerpted from: Numbers: The Book of JudgmentSo here we have tribal leaders who went into the land, gave an exaggerated report against the great promises and the faithfulness of God. What they said was, "Yeah, it's a good looking land all right, and it really does produce. But the trials of overcoming the present residents and their fortified cities is not worth making." They said, "Those people look too strong and entrenched." They were calling God into account! They were saying that He was lying. Think of yourself as we go along here.
Do you know what the sin was here? They believed the evil report. That is a sobering one.
The very fact that Joshua and Caleb were not judged in the same way shows that God was judging each person individually. Now, this one has very serious ramifications. How many people do you know who are going along with the church in today's trial, believing an evil report? Are they aware of what is written in this book of judgments about their personal responsibility?
Numbers 14:26-35
Excerpted from: Sovereignty and SubmissionJust 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
Excerpted from: Re-education (Part 2)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.
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