Numbers 14 Have it your way

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Numbers 14:20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. 25 Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[a]”

26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

a. Numbers 14:25 Or the Sea of Reeds

"Ok", says God "You know more than I do?! Well fine! You don't have to go to Canaan to live. You can just stay in the desert and die." See, IMHO, What humans just don't understand is that God controls time. He's got all the time in the world and more. He's the one that separated the morning from the night. Humans only use the sun and the moon to tell time. God created time. So if these humans don't want to live in Canaan.... that's ok.... God has time. He can wait til the next crop of humans comes along.

This is from the easy English site.

God agreed to forgive the Israelites. But this did not mean that they would escape from his judgement. So they would not receive the good things that he had promised. The people who had left the country called Egypt would never enter the Promised Land.

The words ‘10 times’ (verse 22) might refer to the actual number of times that the people had not trusted God. Or it might just mean ‘too many times’!

However, Caleb was the exception to God’s judgement. He had remained loyal to God. So God would allow him to enter the Promised Land. Also, God allowed Joshua to enter the Promised Land. Both Joshua and Caleb had tried to persuade the people that the Promised Land was a good place (verses 7-9). Joshua had remained loyal to God, too.

God told the Israelites to turn back towards the Red Sea. They would not fight the Amalekites or the Canaanites. These were the people who lived in the country called Canaan.

They had wanted to die in the desert or to return to the country called Egypt. It seemed that God had granted their request! They would wander in the desert for nearly 40 years, until their generation had all died. God would give the Promised Land to their children, who had not rejected him.

My mom use to say "If I told you once, I told you a hundred times.... " Look at verse 22.

Numbers 14:22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—​

The commentaries say there is a controversy here. This is the commentary found in GodVine.

These ten times - Ten is the number which imports completeness. Compare Genesis 31:7. The sense is that the measure of their provocation was now full: the day of grace was at last over. However, some enumerate 10 different occasions on which the people had tempted God since the exodus.

Psalm 90, which is entitled "a Prayer of Moses," has been most appropriately regarded as a kind of dirge upon those sentenced thus awfully by God to waste away in the wilderness.​

So God says "Have it your way. You don't have to go to Canaan. I'll take Caleb and Joshua. The rest of you can just rot out here in the desert. Have it your way."

I bet He was saying "Stupid humans" under His breath.

:coffee:
 
Top