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.