Numbers 14:1

The repeated rebellions of Israel against the will of God reached their climax in this chapter with the Divine sentence that condemned that whole generation to die in the wilderness, allowing the possession of Canaan to their children, who, reared in the hardships of the wilderness, possessed the faith and ability to enable their success. First is recorded their night of weeping and the appointment of a new leader to take them back to Egypt! (Numbers 14:1-4). Moses and Aaron tried unsuccessfully to restrain the people (Numbers 14:5-10). Moses interceded for the people (Numbers 14:11-19). God indeed forgave them, but blasted them with a sentence of death in the wilderness, and ordered them to turn back southward toward the Red Sea (Numbers 14:20-25). Moses then announced God's sentence to the people, giving the additional provision that a whole forty years should elapse before any of them entered Canaan (Numbers 14:26-35). God brought upon the people a plague that resulted in the death of the ten unfaithful spies, Joshua and Caleb being spared (Numbers 14:36-38), but the rebellious people decided on their own to go up and take Canaan anyway, resulting in a disastrous defeat (Numbers 14:39-45).

The works of many critical scholars exhibit a tragic blindness to the tremendous spiritual significance of this pivotal chapter, practically all of their exegesis being devoted to tiresome disputes about whether this or that portion belongs to P or to JE, or if the account here is a fusion of two or more accounts. All such discussions are futile and essentially without meaning. The alleged "documents" never existed! The so-called evidence supporting such theories is forced, illogical, and unreasonable, justifying no such conclusions as that of Wade, who declared that, "This section is a fusion of JE and P."[1] He based the proposition on the omission of Joshua's name in Numbers 14:24, but Joshua was "the servant of Moses," and, as such, the mention of his name in that passage was not necessary. The sons of Aaron were likewise omitted in the same verse, although they also surely belonged among those who were exempted from the sentence of death. The false view that Numbers 14:24 "contradicts" Numbers 14:38, where both Caleb and Joshua are mentioned, dissolves in the light of the truth.

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fail by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."

"The children of Israel murmured ..." What an infantile demonstration of unbelief was this "murmuring"! God's unbelieving children have never ceased to indulge in such conduct. Every congregation of believers on earth has within it some whose contribution to the success of the kingdom is nothing but complaining and murmuring. God was sorely displeased with it then, and he still is.

What was the trouble with these people? The author of Hebrews pinpoints their trouble exactly: "They could not enter because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:17-19).

"Would God we had died ... in Egypt ..." What were those "good old days" in Egypt? They consisted of endless drudgery under the slave whips of their oppressors. Here the people seem to have forgotten the "service with rigor" that was their lot in Egypt, and although but a little inconvenienced by the hardships of wilderness life, they decided to go back!

"Wherefore doth Jehovah bring us into this land ..." Yes, they blame God Himself, despite all that God had done for them, pretending to be concerned for their children. That was not the real problem at all. They were the problem, for they were slave-schooled cowards unwilling to fight for liberty. We have them in our own generation, and it would be well for us to pray that our own nation does not fall into the error of the one exhibited here.

"Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt!" Well, the same alternative invariably confronts every believer. He must either fight and win in the kingdom of God, or turn back to slavery and death. "For the believer, the choice is inevitable, either he must go forward in Christ to possess the land, or go back to the world (Egypt) and die."[2] "It seems from Nehemiah 9:17 that they actually appointed another leader under whose direction they were about to return to Egypt."[3]

Behold here what an impossible alternative this was which the people desired to take. The trip from Egypt had not been easy. Now, they would return, without Moses, without God to open the sea before them and overwhelm their enemies in the flood, without God to send the manna and the quails, without the fiery-cloudy pillar, and without God to make the bitter waters sweet. What an impossibility that alternative actually was. "Yet they elected the baser course, and thought themselves prudent and careful of themselves in doing so!"[4] "The sinfulness and insane folly of their conduct are almost incredible."[5] But this is always true of unbelief. Unbelief is never either logical or reasonable. Did not the Christ himself "marvel at their unbelief" in ancient Nazareth? (Mark 6:6).

"The children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron ..." (Numbers 14:2) Right here is a glimpse of the real reason for the omission of Joshua's name in Numbers 14:30. Joshua could not have been effective in that situation.

He did not stand in any means in the same position as Caleb and the other spies. He was "the minister" and "the lieutenant" of Moses, and his fortunes were obviously tied not to those of the tribes, but to those of Moses.[6]

Therefore, Joshua's name is NOT missing in Numbers 14:30, because some "other account" accidentally omitted it, or knew nothing of it, but because Joshua did not speak on that occasion. Only Moses knew the details of this episode, and he alone could have written it.