Numbers 14:1-10

Joshua and Caleb Endeavor to Quench the Dissatisfaction

v. 1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night; they moaned and shrieked and shed bitter tears and behaved altogether like men and women whose last hope in life is dead. And the galling grief of despondency was followed by an embittered feeling against the leaders of the host.

v. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, with a threatening note; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness! Their lament was: If only we had died before starting out on this fool journey, or if we at least had died before matters had reached this stage!

v. 3. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to the borders of this so-called Land of Promise, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, be taken captive and thus be at the mercy of their victorious enemies? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

v. 4. And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, choose some determined man as leader, and let us return into Egypt. So the cowardly dissatisfaction of the people was rapidly turning into open rebellion.

v. 5. Then Moses and Aaron, after endeavoring in vain to give the people the proper courage, by reminding them of the promises of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 1:29-Obadiah :, fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. Their object was to bring the situation to the attention of the Lord and to implore Him to interfere.

v. 6. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, Caleb having registered his protest even the day before, Numbers 13:30, rent their clothes, in the excess of their grief over the stubbornness of the people;

v. 7. and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. They emphasized the exceptional merits of the land very strongly.

v. 8. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. They had so many evidences of God's grace and mercy in the fulfillment of His promises to them that even an implied doubt of His inability to help them in overcoming the enemies was an insult to His majesty.

v. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, by such open disobedience, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us, they can be devoured, overcome with ease; their defense is departed from them, literally, "their shadow, in which they were safe, has left them," and the Lord is with us; fear them not. In the Orient the shadow, which protects against the excessive heat of the sun, is a type of protection and refuge, Isaiah 30:2. The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their sins, and the Lord had now fully determined to exterminate them, Exodus 34:24; Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 20:23.

v. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, for the people were beyond the point where a sensible appeal could make any impression upon them; they were filled with stubborn spite. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before all the children of Israel. It was a mysterious manifestation by which the Lord indicated that He was about to render judgment in this matter. We have here a picture of the manner in which the unbelievers reject the proofs of God's goodness and mercy and repudiate the warnings and admonitions of God's faithful witnesses. But God will not be mocked; from time to time His judgments come upon the world with impressive exhibitions of His majesty.