Ep. 49. Numbers 13-14 | Spies and Rebellion

EPISODE 49

SPIES AND REBELLION: NUMBERS 13-14

We get two different views of the same story between this text and the one we see 39 years later in Deuteronomy 1. This shouldn't be a surprise to us. The four gospels of the New Testament give us four beautifully unique accounts of the life of Jesus. Exodus 2 is brought into crystal clear focus only when we add in Hebrews and the testimony of Stephen from Acts. And Numbers 13 is fleshed out by Deuteronomy 1:22-33. We would do well to remember the Scripture points forward to itself and backward on itself repeatedly.

Moses appointed twelve men to spy out the Promised Land just a week or so after they departed from Sinai and just about fourteen months after their departure from Exodus. This could have been the end of the journey for Israel if only they had believed in God, who had rescued and led them thus far. The spies wander through the land for forty days and return: ten with a bad report, but Joshua and Caleb are optimistic regarding God's power and promise. The ten were seemingly more persuasive to the masses, as both the masses and the ten were controlled more by their fear than they were by the work of God.

Again, the crowds grumble and weep. We'd be destined to hundreds more pages of this kind of fearful crybaby attitude if not for the grace of the author, traditionally Moses, to sum up 38 years of their journey in seven chapters. Again, they said, "Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" So, they sought a leader who would take them back to slavery. It's a ridiculous thought that one would return to slavery rather than live in freedom, but their hearts were terrified, and their affection for God was weak.

God responds to the grumbling, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?" They despised God and disbelieved in him. God would have been content to destroy them if not for the intercession of Moses, and again, we are reminded of Christ's intercession on behalf of ourselves. Moses reminds God of his high and holy character by quoting back to God the words he had originally spoken to Moses. "The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generation."

Still, judgment fell on the grumblers. They were sentenced to wander the wilderness for forty years (one year already served), and while wandering, their bodies would fall. But their children would receive the blessing of the Promised Land. This was too much for the crowd; they wept and beat their chests. They would not return to Egypt, nor would they inherit God's promises. In arrogance and presumption, they tried of their own will and power to enter the Promised Land on the following day but were turned back in their efforts. They had disbelieved God, and now they would be rejected by the land he had sought to give them.

There is a warning here for the Jews in the first century. Don't disbelieve the salvation God has supplied. The warning reminds us of Esau's pride and a rejected birthright. Faced with the true rest of God through Jesus Christ, the first-century Jew would do well to heed the warnings of Esau and the grumbling rabble and would find their hope fulfilled in Jesus. Sadly, they'd miss it for the most part and put him on the cross.

ADDITIONAL READING: Deuteronomy 1:22-33; Genesis 6; Nehemiah 9:17; Exodus 34:6-7; Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 2:14; Hebrews 3: 12-4:3; Hebrews 12: 15-17