Pardoned, Yet Turned Back

Numbers 14 records Israel's great refusal at the edge of the promised land. All the congregation lifted up their voice and wept that night. They murmured, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! They proposed to choose a captain and return. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and pleaded: If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land. Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land. Yahweh is with us.

The congregation called for stoning them, but the glory of Yahweh appeared. God declared He would strike the people and make a greater nation from Moses. Moses interceded. He argued that the nations would say God could not bring them in, and he appealed to God's own words: Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience. God replied, I have pardoned according to your word. But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with Yahweh's glory.

Pardon came with discipline. The adults who had seen God's signs yet tested Him ten times would not see the land. Their children, whom they feared would be captured, would enter. For forty days of spying, they would bear forty years. The ten spies died by plague; Joshua and Caleb lived. The next morning, the people tried to take the land on their own, but Moses warned, Yahweh isn't among you. They were beaten back. Hebrews 3 and 4 use this story to urge believers: Today, if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, and to enter God's rest by faith.