CHAPTER 14

(1490 B.C.)

REBELLION

¹And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night (it was the weeping of unbelief).

²And all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! (They were to get exactly what they said. That entire generation died in the wilderness.)

³And wherefore has the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? (God is now blamed, whereas before they had only blamed Moses and Aaron.)

⁴And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. (Pulpit says, Nothing less than an entire and deliberate revolt was involved in the wish to elect a captain for themselves, for the Lord was the Captain of this host [Josh. 5:14-15]. The proposal to depose Him, and to choose another in His place, marked the extremity of the unbelief, and the ingratitude of the people.)

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the Assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel (this was not so much to make intercession for them, but mostly because of the enormity of the sin, and what Moses and Aaron knew would follow).

JOSHUA AND CALEB

⁶And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them who searched the land, rent their clothes (the tearing of their clothes was meant to serve as a symbol unto the people of the extremity of the situation, hoping to turn them around):

⁷And they spoke unto all the company of the Children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

⁸If the LORD delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear you the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. (If the Lord be with us, who can be against us?)

GODS ANGER

¹⁰But all the congregation bade stone them with stones (that was the answer to the Faith of Joshua and Caleb). And the Glory of the LORD appeared in the Tabernacle of the congregation before all the Children of Israel (whatever type of demonstration there was, the Children of Israel observed it all).

¹¹And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shown among them? (Signs and wonders, even those which are real, will little turn the head of doubt. It is simple faith in Gods Word which one must have [Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8-9].)

¹²I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a greater nation and mightier than they. (I personally feel that this was a test for Moses, as it regarded personal ambition. If that, in fact, is correct, he passed it with flying colors.)

INTERCESSION

¹³And Moses said unto the LORD, then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for You brought up this people in Your might from among them;)

¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that You LORD are among this people, that You LORD are seen face to face, and that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them, by day in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if You shall kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of You will speak, saying,

¹⁶Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness. (Pulpit says, Moral or religious difficulties could not be comprehended by the heathen nations as standing in the way of Gods purposes. Physical hindrances were the only ones they could understand; so if the Lord killed all the Israelites in the wilderness, it could only be in order, or so they would think, to cover His Own defeat and failure before the rival deities of the surrounding nations.)

¹⁷And now, I beseech You, let the Power of my LORD be great, according as You have spoken, saying (Moses brings before the Lord His Own argument, which, as would be obvious, was a telling force),

¹⁸The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression (if proper Repentance is engaged), and by no means clearing the guilty (if Repentance is not forthcoming, judgment will definitely come), visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation (that is, if there is no Repentance).

¹⁹Pardon, I beseech You, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Your mercy, and as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. (The Lord pardoned the iniquity of the Israelites only so far as stopping the judgment of total destruction. Unfortunately, they really did not ask for forgiveness, and engaged in no true Repentance.)

PUNISHMENT

²⁰And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to your word (The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much [James 5:16]):

²¹But as truly as I live, all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the LORD (this will come about to a great extent during the coming Millennial Reign, and totally in the coming Perfect Age, which will last forever [Rev., Chpts. 21-22]).

²²Because all those men which have seen My Glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My Voice (the ten temptations were: Red Sea, Ex., Chpt. 14; Marah, Ex., Chpt. 15; Sin, Ex., Chpt. 16; Manna, Ex. 16:20; Manna, Ex. 16:27; Rephidim, Ex., Chpt. 17; Horeb, Ex., Chpt. 32; Taberah, Num., Chpt. 11; Kibroth, Num., Chpt. 11; Kadesh, Num., Chpt. 14);

²³Surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them who provoked Me see it (all who were twenty years old or older would die in the wilderness; it seems that the Levites were exempted from this curse, inasmuch as they had no representative among the spies):

²⁴But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it (God honors Faith wherever it is found).

²⁵(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. (It seems this statement was made in reference to Caleb. When, some forty years later, his inheritance was given to him, the Vale of Hebron was occupied by two hostile peoples; nevertheless he, and again because of his Faith, would definitely prevail.)

²⁶And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

²⁷How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the Children of Israel, which they murmur against Me (as should be obvious, the Lord hears all; we as Believers should remember that, and speak accordingly; the Lord honors Faith words, but delights not at all in doubt words).

²⁸Say unto them, As truly as I live, says the LORD, as you have spoken in My Ears, so will I do to you (they had wished to die in the wilderness, and in the wilderness they would die! [14:2]):

²⁹Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against Me (this included all who had been enrolled as soldiers of the Lord, but had refused, and had incurred the guilt of mutiny; that offense is punishable by death [Chpts. 1-2]).

³⁰Doubtless you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun (as stated, God honored the Faith of these two men).

³¹But your little ones, which you said should be a prey (to the enemy), them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised (how so much this should be a lesson to all modern Believers; God cannot abide doubt and unbelief).

³²But as for you (said with contempt), your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

³³And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness (until this generation died off, the younger ones could not go into the Promised Land).

³⁴After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know My breach of promise (they were to know and understand that the quantity and quality of their punishment was entirely due to themselves; and it needed no other justification; if God assigns reasons at all, He assigns such as can be understood by those to whom He speaks).

³⁵I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die (faithlessness is always against God).

DEATH OF THE TEN SPIES

³⁶And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against Him, by bringing up a slander upon the land (when we slander Gods gift, we slander God; wherever God places the Believer, even in a wilderness, the Believer must thank the Lord constantly, and never allow a word of doubt to come out of his mouth),

³⁷Even those men who did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD (it seems they all died at one time, by what method we arent told, but which was visible to the entire congregation).

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men who went to search the land, lived still (in one way or the other, that plague continues to operate; it is only Faith which spares mankind, and, we might quickly add, Faith in Christ and the Cross [I Cor. 1:17]).

³⁹And Moses told these sayings unto all the Children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. (However, it seems that their mourning did not lead them to true Repentance.)

ISRAEL DEFEATED

⁴⁰And they rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD has promised: for we have sinned (theirs was not a true Repentance, but merely consisted of a frantic effort to avoid the punishment which their sin had incurred).

⁴¹And Moses said, Wherefore now do you transgress the Commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. (Concerning this, Williams says,Verses 39 through 45 illustrate the presumption of the natural heart, just as the closing Verses of Chpt. 13 illustrate the cowardice. The carnal mind [Rom., Chpt. 8] cannot serve God; it is timid when it should be bold, and bold when it should be timid. It advances when it should stand still; and it stands still when it should advance.)

⁴²Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that you be not smitten before your enemies.

⁴³For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

⁴⁴But they presumed to go up unto the hill top (they operated on presumption): nevertheless the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp (this attitude shows that their repentance was not true; they are still disobeying the Lord).

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah. (God with them, they could not be defeated; without the Lord, they were already defeated.)