MORE MURMURINGS

NUMBERS

CHAPTER 14:1-23

            Hi everyone and welcome back again!  Daily Bread is ready to take you on another adventure with us into the book of Numbers.  Let's look back for a moment and see where we left off.  The spies who searched out the Promised Land returned to the children of Israel and Caleb gave an encouraging report about the land flowing with milk and honey, just as God described it to their forefathers.  But most of the other spies only had fearful things to say about the land of Canaan.

            The whole congregation cried that night and the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron once again.  They complained to them saying, If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this wilderness!  Why has the Lord brought us here to this land, to be killed in battle, and so that our wives and our children would be taken as prey?  Isn't it better for us to go back to Egypt?  (Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!)

            The people got together and  planned with one another to appoint a NEW captain among them and he would lead them and they would all return into Egypt.  Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire congregation, they were so upset.  Joshua and Caleb were the only two who disagreed with the people's plan and they tore their clothes in sorrow.  They tried to convince the people that the land was good and they said, If the Lord is happy with us, then He'll bring us into this land, and give it to us, flowing with milk and honey.  Just don't rebel against Him or fear the people that live in the land.  They'll give the land to us because God has taken away their strength and He'll be with us.  Don't be afraid!

            The congregation wouldn't listen.  They wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb.  Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation so all the children of Israel could see.  The Lord said to Moses, How long will these people provoke me?  How long will it be before they believe all the signs that I've showed them?  I'll strike them with pestilence, and disinherit them and I'll make of you a greater nation and mightier than they.  What God was saying was that He was ready to revoke His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and make a new and even better promise with Moses, because the children of Israel had such little faith.

            But, the humble Moses answered God, and said ... Then the Egyptians will hear about it, because you freed these people from them mightily, and they'll tell the people of Canaan.  They've heard, Lord, that you live among these people, that you are seen face to face and that your cloud stands over them.  They know you go in front of them in the daytime in a pillar of a cloud and in a pillar of fire at night. 

            Moses continued, If you kill all your people, all the nations that hear about it will say, The Lord couldn't bring His people into the land that He promised them, so He killed them all in the wilderness.  I beg you, Let your power be recognized like you described to me when you said, The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.  (Moses was talking about when the Lord proclaimed His name to him when he took the tablets up into mount Sinai the second time, when Moses asked God, Show me your glory.)

            Moses went on, I beg you, forgive the sins of these people, according to the greatness of your mercy as you've forgiven them since they left Egypt until now.  And the Lord said, I have forgiven, like you asked, but as sure as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.  Because all those men that have seen my glory and my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these 10 times, and haven't listened to my voice, they surely won't see the land that I promised their fathers.  (The wish of the people, not to proceed further is coming true.)

            Do we read about this and wonder why God put up with it?  Do we wonder why God's people continually disappointed Him?  When we think about sin in our own lives, we understand it a little more and we're thankful that He puts up with it.  When we think about why we continually sin when we know better, we understand things a whole lot more.  It's easy to be quick to judge other people and other situations, until we take a look at our own lives.  Here's a reminder that you've heard once before, but it never hurts to be reminded again.  Jesus said it best when He said, He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.  It doesn't matter if these people lived thousands of years ago, or are alive today, Matthew 7:1 says, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

            Now that we've left the decisions up to the Lord, be sure and join us again next time and find out what God decides to do with the children of Israel next at Daily Bread.

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