And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Moses has pleaded for the nation, and God has answered, "I have pardoned, according to your word." Now God speaks again, this time to Moses and Aaron together. His word raises the hardest question in the chapter: how can God forgive a people and still leave them to die in the desert?
The forty years come as a fresh word, not as part of what went before. One writer notes the reversal inside it: the children their parents had given up for lost are the ones who enter.
God announces the forty years in a separate message. In them, those who had wanted to die in the wilderness would die there. But God would bring their little ones into the land — the very ones their parents had mourned over as about to fall as prey to the enemy. In the meantime those children would bear the consequences of their fathers' sin, as was needful for the children of such fathers: a year in the wilderness for each day of fruitless searching. Yet because God Himself appointed these years, we cannot call them fruitless. Divine love could inflict no useless pain, just as it cannot withhold the pain that profits.
Complaint looks like it is aimed at people. One writer names its real target.
Such grumbling was a dreadful evil. It judged God as untrustworthy when He had assured them that He would enable them to conquer the land. Let the believer remember that all mere complaint is, in its essence, against God. Is He not caring rightly for His people and all their interests?
The pardon was real, and the punishment still came. One writer gives the two names that keep this from being a contradiction.
But there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must never be forgotten; nor must these things ever be confused. The whole book of God shows the difference between grace and government. Perhaps no part of it shows this more strongly than the section now open before us. Grace will pardon. Grace will fill the earth with the blessed beams of divine glory. But notice the terrible turning of the wheels of government.
Earlier the people had cried that they wished they had died in the wilderness. God's reply hands them that wish.
Then God says, "I have pardoned, according to your word." But He adds, yet I will discipline them. And to the people He says, "as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you." You will get the thing your wretched flesh desired, for you will die in this wilderness.
Maybe the timing was wrong and it was not yet the moment to enter. One writer tests that excuse against Scripture.
Hebrews 3 puts this beyond question: "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." Someone might say that the time had not come for Israel to enter the land of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its peak. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible. They were unable to enter — not because of the iniquity of the Amorites, and not because the time had not come, but "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so, and God judged them for not doing so. The way was open. The judgment of faith spoken by faithful Caleb was clear and without hesitation: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able at that moment as they could ever be, because the One who had given them the land was the source of their power to enter it and possess it.
Right after the sentence falls, God talks to these same people about the land He is giving them.
God goes on in His purpose as calmly and quietly as if there had never been the despising of the land. For He says, "When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. He speaks in the calmness of His own purpose. After telling them of discipline, He says: You shall come into the land. It is settled with Me. I go on in the steadfastness of My own purposes.
- Heard. Complaints aimed at leaders land on God. To complain is to call Him untrustworthy.
- Answered. God takes them at their word — what they said in His hearing becomes the shape of their future.
- Distinguished. Grace pardons; government still acts. Forgiveness of the sin did not erase its consequence.
- Diagnosed. Nothing outside them barred the door. The way was open, and unbelief alone kept them out.
- Unbroken. The land they refused is still given — to their children. Rebellion could not unsettle God's purpose.
How long [shall I bear] with this evil assembly, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Israel had heard the spies' report, wept all night, and talked of choosing a new leader to take them back to Egypt. God now speaks to Moses and Aaron, and twice He says where the complaining had landed: on Him.
The complaint recorded here is not a one-off. One writer looks at the word itself, and at how often Israel used it:
The first word to look at is "murmurings." It translates a Greek word pronounced something like "gongusmos." You can almost hear the grumbling and muttering in the sound of it. The children of Israel murmured very often. It was one of their chief sins. They murmured at the Red Sea, at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim, at the return of the spies, and against Aaron.
Grumbling looks like it is about hard circumstances, or about the people in charge. One writer says it is neither:
Nothing is easier than for a murmuring spirit to get into the heart of a believer, or into an assembly. Think of the harm one murmuring believer does! That is why the command is so solemn: "nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer" (1 Cor. 10:10)... When we examine it honestly, every bit of murmuring is not against the circumstances, nor against other believers. It always comes out of sheer unbelief towards God. That is the point.
Israel now blamed God Himself for where they were. One writer sees the same trap set for believers today:
See what a wretched, wicked state of unbelief they had fallen into. They blamed the Lord Himself for their trials and difficulties. Even Christians can fall into this trap. We know it is the Lord who brought us up out of Egypt. So when trials come, our hearts are apt to say, "This comes of my being a Christian; the Lord has brought me into these difficulties." But if Canaan had been on their hearts, the children of Israel would have said, "Thank God that we are this far on our way to Canaan."
So why did that generation never get in? One writer rules out every reason but one:
It is very important to note that unbelief is what kept Israel out of Canaan... Scripture is as plain as possible: "they were unable to enter because of unbelief." It was not because of the iniquity of the Amorites. It was not because the time had not come. They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so, and God judged them for not doing so. The way was open. Faithful Caleb spoke the judgment of faith, clear and without hesitation: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able at that moment as they could ever be, since the One who had given them the land was the source of their strength to enter it and take it.
God is not asking for information. He is naming a limit reached after long patience:
The Lord spoke to Moses because of Israel's rebellion: "How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?" God had been wonderfully patient with them. But how can patience continue in the face of united rebellion?
God pardons this people, and still sentences them. Mackintosh keeps the two apart:
But there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. We must never forget this, and we must never confuse the two. The whole book of God shows the difference between grace and government. Perhaps no part of it shows it more strongly than the section now open before us. Grace will pardon, and grace will fill the earth with the blessed light of divine glory. But look at the terrible movement of the wheels of government.
God's answer to grumbling comes later in the same book, when Aaron's rod buds:
God says one striking thing about the budding of Aaron's rod: "I will completely take away from before Me the murmurings of the children of Israel." Let us think about what that means to God and to us. Because we have a great high priest, we can go through wilderness circumstances without a murmur on our lips. Instead of murmuring there can be thanksgiving and praise to God.
- Heard. God says twice that He has heard, and twice that the grumbling was against Him. Complaint always travels past the people who hear it.
- Aimed. They blamed the Lord for the hardships He was leading them through. Faith would have thanked Him for how far the road had already come.
- Rooted. The grumbling was not a mood but unbelief, and unbelief, not the enemy, is why that generation never entered the land.
- Judged. God's patience reached its limit. He pardoned them, yet His government still ran its course, for grace and government are not the same thing.
- Cured. A great high priest takes the murmurings away, so that thanksgiving, not grumbling, becomes the sound of the wilderness road.
Say unto them, As surely as I live, saith Jehovah, if I do not do unto you as ye have spoken in mine ears!
Israel had just refused to enter the promised land. They told each other they would rather have died in the wilderness. God's reply here is not a new punishment invented for them — it is their own sentence, spoken back.
God's answer opens with "As I live." That is not temper. He swears by His own life, and one writer shows that this is the language of a binding oath. The New Testament records that oath too:
Yet this grievous sin brought penalties in the government of God. Verse 21 begins, "But as truly as I live …" which is the formula of an oath. The letter to the Hebrews records the unchangeable oath made to Abraham. It also records how He swore in His wrath, "They shall not enter my rest." The men who brought a bad report of the land would never enter it.
Earlier the people had cried that they wished they had died in the wilderness. God grants that wish, and stretches it over forty years:
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you will die in the wilderness. "As for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years..." God says, You will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it.
A settled principle is at work here, and it runs both ways. Faith and unbelief each reap what they sow:
Unbelief always justifies Satan and makes God a liar. Faith always justifies God and proves Satan a liar. It is always true that it will be done to you according to your faith. On the other hand, unbelief reaps as it sows. So it was with Israel: unhappy, because unbelieving.
Someone might argue that the timing was wrong, or the enemy too strong. Scripture removes every other explanation:
Scripture is as plain as possible. "They could not enter in" — not because of the sin of the Amorites, and not because the time had not come. It was simply "because of unbelief." They should have entered. They were responsible to do so, and God judged them for not doing so. The way was open... They were as able at that moment as they could ever be. The One who had given them the land was the source of their ability to enter it and take it.
God had already granted Moses' plea for pardon. Yet the sentence still fell. Forgiveness and government are two different things. The next chapter shows that the sentence did not touch God's plan:
God says, "I have pardoned according to your word," but I will still chastise them. And to the people He says, "what you have said in My hearing I will do to you." You will get the thing your wretched flesh desired, for you will die in this wilderness... The Lord does chastise in the way of government. But it is blessed to see that He never gives up His purpose, though He deals with the heart according to its unbelief. His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. He speaks in the calmness of His own purpose. After telling them of chastisement, He says: You will come into the land. It is settled with Me. I go on in the steadfastness of My own purposes.
The parents had said their children would become plunder. God turns that fear on its head:
God pronounced His sentence: "Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness." Then He added, "But your little ones, who you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they will know the land that you have rejected."
Forty years later there is a second census. Its result shows that God's word is exact:
These males of twenty years and over numbered just over 600,000. Not one man from the earlier census was still alive, except Caleb and Joshua. We turn back to Numbers 14, read verses 20-32 again, and see how exactly God fulfils the word He has spoken. A solemn fact for the unbeliever, but one in which we who believe can heartily rejoice.
- Sworn. "As I live" is an oath formula — what follows is not a mood but a settled word God binds Himself to.
- Spoken. They said they would rather die in the wilderness. God gave them what they asked for. Their own complaint became the wording of their sentence.
- Sown. Faith receives according to what it believes. Unbelief reaps just as surely what it sows.
- Spared. God brought their children into the land. These were the very children they said would be taken as plunder.
- Standing. The chastening ran its course for forty years. But God's purpose never moved. He deals with the heart and still keeps His plan.
In this wilderness shall your carcases fall; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upwards, who have murmured against me,
Israel stands at the edge of the land God promised them, and instead of going in they weep to go back. This verse is God's answer: every adult who complained against Him will die in the desert — forgiven, and still under discipline.
Israel had said they wished they had died in the wilderness. God takes that sentence from their mouths and makes it their history. The children they claimed to be protecting are the ones He will bring in.
They despised their hope, and God takes it away. Not one above twenty should enter the land, except Caleb and Joshua. The little ones, for whom they pretended to care, God would bring in. In forty years that generation would waste away in the wilderness... They had charged God with bringing them to the land to die by the sword (verse 3). Their own fearful words now come back on them as judgment.
Death does not come at once. It comes slowly, on a measured timetable.
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness... Says God, You will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it. You searched the land for forty days, and you will bear your guilt for a year for each of those days (Num. 14:34). They must know death.
The age is not picked at random. It was the line of adult responsibility, and the line at which a man was counted as a soldier.
The Israelites were numbered from twenty years old and upwards. That was the age at which they were able to go out to war, and were regarded as having grown up to manhood, and fit for the service of life (Num. 1:3; 14:29; Lev. 27:3).
So the register of soldiers becomes a register of graves. One writer traces the road that led there:
The whole sad story can be summed up like this. They rejected their unseen God by making a calf. They rejected their visible leader when they proposed to elect a captain. And as a result their bodies fell outside the land of promise.
Nothing outside them blocked the way. The obstacle was inside.
They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. Faithful Caleb spoke the judgment of faith clearly and without hesitation: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able at that moment as they could ever be. The One who had given them the land was the source of their power to enter it and take it.
Earlier in this same chapter God had already forgiven them. Then comes this sentence. One writer holds the two together by separating forgiveness from God's dealings as ruler:
God may chasten us under His government for our good, or even as a testimony, as in David's case and Numbers 14:20. Yet between Himself and the guilty He may still forgive, and not impute the sin — He no longer holds him guilty.
The refusal did not just delay them. It changed the whole character of their life in the desert, and worse followed.
They are not pilgrims any more, but wanderers. They still have an aim, but it is only to stay alive for these forty years. It is so much so that the record of those years is not given to us: we have only a few chosen incidents, and they show a state of things that matches this beginning. Progress stopped does not stop decline. Decline ripens instead into the rebellion of Korah and his followers, which is the crowning sin of all.
Scripture later turns this moment into a warning for Christ's people.
One thing will hinder, and hinder fatally and for ever if it works out its bitter results: the sin of unbelief. So the letter to the Hebrews keeps this warning from Israel's history before its readers. Unbelief lost their fathers the land. Their bodies fell in the wilderness. Anyone who keeps giving way to unbelief will be shut out for ever from being a fellow or companion of Christ, and from entering the rest that remains.
- Words — What they said in complaint became what God decreed; their own charge against Him came back on them.
- Counted — Those counted "from twenty years old" were the grown men, fit to go to war. The army list became the death list.
- Cause — Nothing outside stopped them. The way was open, and the One who gave the land was their strength to take it. Unbelief alone shut the door.
- Pardon — Forgiveness and discipline are not rivals. God may forgive the guilt and still discipline the guilty.
- Wandering — Refusing to go forward does not hold a people still. It turns pilgrims into wanderers, and decline ripens into open rebellion.
shall in no wise come into the land, concerning which I have lifted up my hand to make you dwell in it; save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Israel stands at the edge of the land God swore to give them. Then the sentence falls: the generation that refused to go in will not go in. Only two men are spared. Why them — and what happened to God's promise?
Commentators point to one cause. Nothing outside Israel closed the land to them. Their own refusal did.
It is of the greatest importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan on this occasion. The inspired commentary in Hebrews 3 puts this beyond all question: "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." Some might say that the time had not come for Israel to enter the land of Canaan. But that is not why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about such reasons. Scripture is as plain as possible: they were unable to enter — simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so, and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. Faithful Caleb spoke the judgment of faith, clear and certain: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able at that moment as they could ever be. The One who had given them the land was the source of their strength to enter it and take it.
Moses had already won pardon for the nation. Yet the God who pardons also governs.
Notice how, at the very moment when the Lord pronounces judgment, He acts according to the exact word to which Moses had tied Him in his faith. Even if his faith did not rise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their absolute, unconditional promises, it went back to the governmental pledge of the Lord. To this pledge the Lord holds. So that generation was dealt with and purged away according to the terms of His own proclamation. He would hold fast His mercy, but He would by no means clear the guilty. There was pardon, otherwise Israel would never have gone into the land. Yet He would not clear the guilty, and so that generation fell. In this way God kept His character intact, and His hand made good what His mouth had spoken.
God Himself gives the reason for the two exceptions.
"My servant Caleb," said the Lord, "because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it." This shows how welcome Caleb's faithful testimony was to the Lord's heart. He also showed the spirit of devoted discipleship in an evil day. He followed fully, and this became his mark — a mark Caleb himself was glad to accept and recall.
The people had argued that going in would cost them their little ones. God's answer turns their fear inside out.
In this evil state of things Israel had taunted their children — or rather taunted God about them — as if they faced certain death. Unbelief had fastened on the little ones. Could children like these cross the desert safely and enter the land against such enemies? Unbelief said no. The very people who gave way to such unbelieving doubt of the Lord's care reaped the consequences themselves. The children they thought could never survive the desert were the only ones God brought in. With them went the two men who defended God and held fast to His word: Caleb and Joshua.
The sentence closes the door on a generation, but not on God's purpose. The next chapter shows it.
If you go to Numbers 15, you get the security of God's purpose beautifully set out. In Numbers 14 He says their bodies will fall in the wilderness. He pronounces judgment on the whole nation, apart from two people. Then chapter 15: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land," do this and that, and He goes on with His own intentions just as calmly as if nothing in chapter 14 had happened.
The nation was counted again later. That count shows whether God's word held.
One striking fact emerges. Among all these men of twenty and over, numbering just over 600,000, not one was left alive who had been in the earlier census, except Caleb and Joshua. We turn back to Numbers 14 and read verses 20-32 again, and we see with what complete exactness God fulfils the word He has spoken. A solemn fact for the unbeliever, but one in which we who believe can heartily rejoice.
- Cause. Unbelief alone shut them out. The way was open, and God held them responsible for refusing it.
- Sentence. Mercy pardoned the nation, but government ran its course. God holds fast His mercy and yet by no means clears the guilty.
- Exception. Two names survive the sentence because one spirit marked them — following the Lord fully.
- Reversal. The little ones they claimed to protect were the very ones God brought in. Unbelief lost what it tried to keep safe.
- Outcome. God's purpose never wavered. The next chapter says "when you come into the land" as if nothing had happened — and the later count proved His word exact.
But your little ones, of whom ye said they should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land that ye have despised.
God answers the spies' report in two parts. He sentences the older generation to die in the desert, and He promises to bring in the very children they had given up for lost.
God answers the people in their own words. Unbelief gets what it expects:
Unbelief always justifies Satan and makes God a liar. Faith always justifies God and proves Satan a liar. It is always true that according to your faith it will be done to you. And unbelief, on the other hand, reaps as it sows. That is how it was with Israel — unhappy, because unbelieving.
The sentence was not arbitrary. It gave them what they had asked for:
But now God Himself steps in. They will be dealt with according to their faith; they shall perish in the wilderness, according to their wish.
They were sure the weak and the small could never survive the journey. God overturned that fear:
Unbelief had fastened on the little ones. It seemed pointless to expect that such as they could pass safely through the desert and enter the land in the face of the enemy. The very people who gave way to such unbelieving doubt of the Lord's care reaped the consequences themselves. And the children, who they thought could never survive the horrors of the wilderness, were the only ones brought in, along with the two men who defended God and held fast to His word — Caleb and Joshua.
Israel spoke as though they were shielding their families. One writer weighs what that concern was worth:
Therefore, their concern for their little ones was not love at all. The best way we can love our children is by giving them a good example by obeying the Lord. God cared far more for the children than they did.
The land was never in doubt — God had promised it. To despise it is to hold a sure gift cheaply, and the same thing happens with the glory set before believers now:
Suppose a friend gave me something as a great treasure. I am sure it is mine, yet I seldom look at it and seldom care to think about it. That would prove something. Not that I doubted it was mine, but that I despised the thing and placed no value on it. This is very often how we treat the heavenly glory that belongs to us. We do not question the truth of the promises. But when our souls are not dwelling on the glory before us and delighting in it, there is a "despising of the pleasant land."
One writer makes this a test for parents today. Words are not enough; conduct shows what we really believe:
Suppose I say I am counting on God to bring my children to Canaan, while all the time I am educating them for Egypt. That is a deadly delusion. My conduct proves my profession to be a lie. And I should not be surprised if God, in His righteous dealings, lets me be filled with the fruit of my own doings.
Still, the children paid a price for their parents' unbelief. They were brought in, but "not without undergoing, in their march, the consequences of the unbelief of the mass" (J. N. Darby).
A later count of the people put this sentence to the test:
These males of twenty years and over numbered just over 600,000. Of all who had been counted in the earlier census, not one was left alive except Caleb and Joshua. Turn back to Numbers 14 and read verses 20-32 again. There you see with what absolute exactness God fulfils the word He has spoken. It is a solemn fact for the unbeliever, but one in which we who believe can rejoice with all our hearts.
- Words: What they spoke in unbelief became their sentence — unbelief reaps what it sows.
- Fear: The children they called defenceless were the very ones God kept safe and brought in.
- Love: Talk is not love. We love our children by obeying God — He cared for them more than their parents did.
- Despising: A gift you are sure of, but seldom think about, is a gift you despise — the land then, the coming glory now.
- Fulfilment: Every word came true. The God who kept this sentence to the letter keeps His promises the same way.
And as to you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness.
At Kadesh God sentences the very people He rescued from Egypt: the generation that refused to enter Canaan will die in the desert. The words single them out — "as for you" — and commentators ask what closed the land, why the children fared differently, and what these graves warn.
The people had said they wished they had died in the wilderness. One writer notes that God grants the wish — over forty years:
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness… God says, You will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it… They had to know death.
It is tempting to blame the timing rather than the people. One commentator rules that out:
It is of the greatest importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan on this occasion… Someone might say that the time for Israel to enter Canaan had not yet come. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its height. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: "they were unable to enter" — not because of the iniquity of the Amorites, not because the time had not come — but simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so, and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open.
The distinction matters for how the story is applied. According to one writer, these were not people who had faith and then lost their blessing:
Psalm 95 refers to this moment, and Hebrews 3 and 4 quote that psalm. They press the point home: unbelief lay at the root of it all. "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." We need to note this. It shows their case was not a loss of blessing through backsliding. They had entered, by profession only, into a calling they never had faith for at all. This is the point of the solemn warnings that have so large a place in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The sentence does not fall on everyone. One writer notes that the children still had to live through the effects of their parents' unbelief:
God will deal with them according to their faith. They will die in the wilderness, just as they wished. Only the faithful and the children will enter the land. Even they must bear, as they march, the consequences of the unbelief of the mass. However, other hopes and other consolations will be their portion.
Years later, Israel is counted again. One writer reads the result as proof that God does what He says:
One striking fact emerges at the end of the chapter. These males of twenty years and over numbered just over 600,000. Among them, not one man from the earlier census was still alive, except Caleb and Joshua. Turn back to Numbers 14, read verses 20-32 again, and you see how exactly God fulfils the word He has spoken. A solemn fact for the unbeliever, but one in which we who believe can heartily rejoice.
One writer turns these graves into a warning for anyone who only professes:
Take care: many profess, and many fall by the way and never get in at all. Israel all came out of Egypt, but they fell in the wilderness, and never reached the goal. There is no question raised here about a true soul going in. "We who have believed enter that rest" — no doubt about that; but you should remember Israel. They heard the report from the spies — the gospel of the rest of Canaan in their day — and never got in. The word preached by the spies did not profit them, because it lacked the divine mixture of faith: "it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it." "They were unable to enter because of unbelief."
- Wish granted — They said they wished they had died in the desert. God takes them at their word and gives them forty years to do it.
- One cause — Neither God's timing nor the state of the Amorites shut them out. Unbelief did. The way was open, and they were responsible to take it.
- Not a lapse — They did not lose a blessing once held by faith. They professed a calling they never believed. Hebrews makes that a warning.
- Next generation — Only the faithful and the children enter the land. First they must live out the consequences of their parents' unbelief.
- Word kept — The later census leaves no one of that generation alive but Caleb and Joshua. God keeps His word exactly: solemn for the unbeliever, a joy for faith.
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
A generation stood at the edge of the land they had been promised, refused to go in, and God sent them back. Verse 33 spells out the cost. Their own lives were forfeit. Their sons and daughters would also spend forty years in the desert, carrying the weight of a choice that was never theirs.
The people had cried that it would have been better to die in the wilderness. God's answer takes that complaint and hands it back to them as a verdict.
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness. "As for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness." God says: you will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it. They must know death.
Older translations read that the children would "wander in the wilderness" and "bear your whoredoms." The ESV has them "be shepherds in the wilderness" and "suffer for your faithlessness."
Some might say the timing was wrong, or that the Amorites' guilt was not yet full. One commentator rejects that.
It is of the greatest importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan... They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: "They could not enter in" — not because of the iniquity of the Amorites; not because the time had not come — but simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open.
The same writer traces the collapse to its root: they lost sight of the land itself. Instead of going on "in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm, they provoked Him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness."
What does it mean to "bear" a sin? The law uses the word with one settled sense.
If you want to see the connection of bearing sin in Isaiah 53:12 with the punishment due to it, you have only to compare Leviticus 5:1, 17; ch. 17:16; ch. 20:19; ch. 24:15; Numbers 5:31; ch. 9:13; ch. 14:34; ch. 30:15. In all of them you will see it means coming under all the consequences of the sin committed, and being answerable for it before God. So it is spoken of particular sins, as idolatry, Numbers 14:33.
The parents had said their little ones would become plunder. Those same children are the ones God keeps, though the forty years fall on them too.
In them, those who had wanted to die in the wilderness would die there. Their little ones, whom they had mourned over as certain to fall to the enemy, would be brought into the land. Meanwhile those children would bear the consequences of their fathers' sin, as was needful for the children of such fathers: for each day of fruitless search, a year in the wilderness. Thank God, however: because He Himself appointed these years, we cannot call them fruitless. Shall we say that of any of the Lord's ways with us here? No — the more painful, the more profitable. Divine love could inflict no useless pain, just as it cannot withhold the pain that profits.
The believing few did not escape the march.
God will deal with them according to their faith. They shall perish in the wilderness, just as they wished. He will bring only the faithful ones and the children into the land. Even those must undergo, on their march, the consequences of the unbelief of the mass. However, other hopes and other consolations will be their portion.
The forty years were self-inflicted. God did not respond by withdrawing.
If Israel brings a pilgrimage of forty years upon themselves, the Lord will be in the wilderness with them for forty years... The God of the camp is the Guide and Companion of the camp. He may be grieved, and He may have to show His displeasure, but He never leaves them. His arm is not shortened, nor is His ear heavy.
- Cause — Unbelief kept them out, not God's timing and not the Amorites. The way was open, and God judged them for refusing it.
- Sentence — They had said they wished to die in the wilderness. God made their own words the terms of their punishment.
- Bearing — To "bear" a sin means coming under all its consequences. It means answering for it before God.
- Reach — The cost spread past the guilty. Their children and the faithful few marched the same desert.
- Result — God appointed the years, so none of them were wasted. He stayed in the wilderness the whole forty with them.
After the number of the days in which ye have searched out the land, forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know mine estrangement [from you].
Israel stood at the border of Canaan, searched the land for forty days, then refused to go in. God's sentence matches the sin — a year of wandering for each day of searching — and it ends with a hard word: they will know His displeasure.
The forty years were not an arbitrary number. The people had said aloud that they wished they had died in the desert, and God simply granted the request — slowly.
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness... Says God, You will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it. They must know death.
God then deals with them by the measure of their own faith.
But now God Himself steps in. They will be dealt with according to their faith; they shall perish in the wilderness, according to their wish. Only the faithful and the children will be brought into the land. But on their march they must still go through the consequences of the unbelief of the crowd.
The wandering was measured out, a year for each day. One writer then asks a harder question: were those years wasted?
The children they had mourned over, as certain to fall to the enemy, would be brought into the land. Meanwhile they would bear the consequences of their fathers' sin, as was needful for the children of such fathers: for each day of fruitless search, a year in the wilderness. Thank God, however, that because God appointed these years, we cannot call them fruitless. Shall we say so at last of any of the Lord's ways with us here? No — the more painful, the more profitable. Divine love could inflict no useless pain, just as it cannot withhold the pain that profits.
Older translations render the closing phrase "you shall know my breach of promise." One writer explains what that phrase means.
"My breach of promise": "alienation" or withdrawal from something; hence, figuratively, "enmity."
They had already accused God of doing that very thing. Their charge now comes back on them as the sentence.
They despised their hope, and it is taken away. Not one over twenty would enter the land, except Caleb and Joshua. The little ones, whom they pretended to care about, God would bring in. In forty years that generation would waste away in the wilderness. So they would know God's breach of promise. They had charged God with bringing them to the land to die by the sword (v. 3). Now their own dreadful words come back on them as judgment.
Caleb and Joshua had not shared the unbelief. They still shared the forty years.
Caleb and Joshua had to go the long way round too. They had not joined the people in the evil. But the unbelief of the others had made the march painful and hard, and they had to go along with the people and bear part of it. This is what we must make up our minds to. If the Church has failed, we must make up our minds to accompany it in its course of sorrow, though not in its course of sin.
Commentators differ over whether this verse sets a rule for reading prophetic time. Some treat it as a precedent in Scripture for counting a prophetic day as a year.
But allow a year to pass for each day; that is, 483 years from the command to rebuild Jerusalem... For this plan of allowing a year for a day we have a precedent in Scripture. (See Numbers 14:34.)
Others think this one case cannot carry that much weight.
God dealt with Israel in the desert to repay their sin. That is plainly a weak basis for interpreting symbolic prophecies given many centuries later.
The sentence ends a chapter, but not the story.
But even after all this, the very next chapter begins, "When you come into the land." All their sin does not change it: they are looked at as if they were already there.
- Their word. They said they wished to die in the desert; God gave them just that, stretched over forty years.
- Their measure. Forty days of faithless searching set the scale: a year of wandering for each day.
- Their charge. They accused God of leading them out to die. His words "you shall know my displeasure" hand that accusation back as judgment.
- Their company. Caleb and Joshua bore the long march too — sharing the sorrow of failure without sharing the sin.
- Their God. God appointed the wandering in love, not as useless pain, and the next chapter still says, "When you come into the land."
I Jehovah have spoken; I will surely do it unto all this evil assembly which have gathered together against me! in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
At Kadesh the people refused to go into the land, and said they wished they had died in the desert. Verse 35 is God's answer — a sworn sentence, spoken in His own name, that the whole assembly will die in that wilderness, just as they had said.
The verse does not say the people gathered against Moses or against the spies. One commentator fixes on that detail as the reason for the sentence, and on God's own word as the guarantee that it would happen.
Verse 35 stresses God's displeasure. He speaks of Israel gathering together against Him. For that reason He would bring on them the terrible discipline of dying in the wilderness. He had spoken, and He would carry out this unsparing sentence.
Some say the time was not right for Israel to enter. Scripture gives a different reason, and one the people had to answer for.
Someone might say the time had not come for Israel to enter the land of Canaan. The sin of the Amorites had not yet reached its highest point. But that is not why Israel refused to cross the Jordan... Scripture is as plain as possible. They "were unable to enter" — not because of the sin of the Amorites, and not because the time had not come, but simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. It was their responsibility, and God judged them for not doing it.
Earlier in the chapter the people had wished aloud that they had died in the desert. The sentence hands them the very thing they asked for, stretched out over forty years.
God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you will die in the wilderness... God says, You will have to die. Only it will take you forty years to do it: "According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years" (Num. 14:34). They must know death.
Pardon and consequences are not the same thing. One commentator shows how God can forgive a sin and still let His government run its course.
Grace can pardon — freely, fully, and forever. But the wheels of God's government roll on, with crushing power and awful seriousness. Grace pardoned Adam's sin. Government still drove him out of Eden, to earn a living by the sweat of his brow, among the thorns and thistles of a cursed earth. Grace pardoned David's sin; but the sword of government hung over his house to the end.
The forty years were not just a delay. They changed what the nation's life in the desert meant.
They are not pilgrims any more, but wanderers. They are not without an aim, yet their aim is only to keep themselves alive for these forty years. So much so, that we are not given the record of them... Stopping their progress does not stop their decline. Instead the decline ripens into the rebellion of Korah and his company, the crowning sin of all.
The sentence spared Caleb and Joshua. The long detour did not. That has a practical edge for anyone who stands apart from a failure they did not cause.
Caleb and Joshua must go the long way round, too. They had not joined the people in their evil. But the march was painful and hard, and the unbelief of the others had caused it. They still have to go along with the people, and bear their share of it. This is what we must make up our minds to. If the Church has failed, we must make up our minds to accompany it in its course of sorrow, though not in its course of sin.
The chapter ends in death, but the next chapter opens as though the refusal had never happened.
In Numbers 14 He says their dead bodies shall fall in the wilderness. He pronounces judgment on the whole nation, except two persons... Then in chapter 15 we read, "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land," and so on. God goes on with His own intentions, as calmly as if nothing in chapter 14 had happened.
- Cause — Unbelief shut that generation out, not bad timing. They were responsible to go up, and God judged them for refusing.
- Charge — God calls them an assembly gathered against Himself, and that is the ground He gives for the sentence.
- Consequence — They get the very death they had wished for, one year for each day the spies searched the land.
- Cost — Pardon is real, yet God's government still runs its course. Pilgrims became wanderers, and even the two believers walked the long road.
- Continuity — The sentence fell on one generation, not on the promise. God moves straight on to "when you come into the land."