Day 51&52: Numbers 14-20; Psalm 95

A lot happens in these chapters. After the 12 spies went into Canaan and checked it out for 40 days they came back with a mixed report. You know how the song goes, "10 were bad and 2 were good." Ten of the guys spread the word that there's no way the Israelites could take the land because the people there are to powerful for them. The other 2 (Joshua & Caleb) say that with the Lord's help they can certainly take the land. Guess who the people believe. This starts a rebellion against Moses' leadership. It's amazing how much whining, complaining and outright rebellion Moses has had to deal with. In 14:11-12 we read this:

The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?  I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

I think that if I were in Moses place I would have agreed. But no. Moses pleads on behalf of the people and God relents.

The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 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—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. (14:20-23)

I've always thought of the Israelites 40 years of wandering in the desert as punishment for not trusting God - and I suppose on one level it is - but after reading this today it strikes me that it's really a result of God's grace and forgiveness. If Moses hadn't interceded on their behalf and asked God to forgive them the Israelites would be gone and God would have started over with a different people - the "Mosesites" (14:12). But because of His grace and forgiveness he simply waits another generation to fulfill His promise to the Israelites.

These chapters contain numerous examples of the Israelites refusal to trust God. They simply don't get it. I find myself wondering, though, about why. Why is this so difficult for them? God demonstrates His power time & time again and yet they continually complain, disobey and rebel. God responds by sending a plague, by burning people up with fire, by opening the ground and swallowing people up. It seems to me that maybe this whole period of time was used by God to teach people, all people, that He is not a God to be trifled with. He is not like all the pagan gods of the people around them. He is for real. He is holy. He is jealous. He is unique. He is all powerful. Everything belongs to Him. He demands respect and obedience. He is not some "good luck charm" or superstition. Perhaps this is all new to them. These are lessons that can only be really learned the hard way...and they are in the process of learning them.

Have we learned them? What will it take?

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
   as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested me;
   they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation;
   I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
   and they have not known my ways.’ (Psalm 95:7-10)

For the LORD is the great God,
   the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
   and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
   and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:3-5)