Doubting and Rebelling

August 9, 2009

Background Scripture: Numbers 14:1 – 25
Lesson Passage: Numbers 14:1 – 12

Anyone who doubts the patience and mercy of God towards his children need only to read the history of God’s dealing with Israel in the wilderness to quickly vanquish such doubts. In our lesson today, God declares that this is the tenth time that the congregation of Israel has been faithless and rebelled against him. In spite of all of the miracles—including the nine times of previous rebellion—the majority of the congregation is still not completely sold out to following God. This time is more reprehensible than the others because the group wants to undo all that God has done and set up a leader over them of their choosing who will lead them back into slavery in Egypt. This is not a possible outcome of their plans; this is the stated intent of their plan! They have voiced their desire to forget about everything that God has done in Egypt and beyond and return to Egypt and submit themselves to the Egyptians as willing slaves. They preferred to serve the Egyptians than to serve God. What happened that was so awful as to bring forth such an attitude? Let’s review what brought about this latest act of rebellion by Israel.

God has now led Israel to the edge of Canaan. Canaan is the land of promise. This is the land that God promised Abraham that he would give to him and his descendants as an everlasting possession. God has delivered these offspring of Abraham out of Egyptian slavery and led them to the edge of the promise land. A committee of twelve men, one from each tribe, was chosen and appointed to go into Canaan and inspect it to see that it is all that God said it is. After touring the land for forty days and bringing back some of the abundant fruit from the land, the committee gave their report. Ten of the members declared that the land was all that God said that it was, however, they believed that there was a problem in that the current inhabitants of the land were to be feared for they would surely be too strong for Israel to fight. The other two committee members, Joshua and Caleb, concurred that the land was indeed all that God promised it to be, however, they expressed complete confidence that God would give the land to Israel in spite of the current occupants. Furthermore, the dissenting two believed that the current occupants would not be able to defend themselves against God’s people. The congregation received two contrasting reports from the committee and chose to believe the majority. After those seeds of doubt had been sown into the hearts of the Israelites, the congregation rebelled against Moses and God. They expressed no confidence in Moses’ leadership and suggested that he be replaced with someone that would do their bidding. Joshua and Caleb were grouped with Moses and it was suggested that those two be stoned to death. Israel’s rebellion was in full bloom when the glory of the Lord illuminated the tent of the tabernacle. God expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the lack of faith of Israel and declared that the faithless generation would die in the wilderness and their children would inherent what they rebelled against. In his mercy, he spared the rebellious an instant death and extended their wilderness journey up to forty years so that they would die natural deaths in the wilderness because of their doubting and rebellion. Their children, whom they claimed would be a prey for the Canaanites, would inherit what they rejected.

Robert C. Hudson
July 29, 2009