Numbers 14

Numbers 14
Yesterday, the twelve spies that were sent into Canaan returned with varying reports of the land. The first unanimous report is that the land is rich and flows with milk and honey, and yet the people are strong and their cities are fortified. The people don't react well to this and Caleb urges them that the Israelites are able to overcome their foes. The other eleven spies disagree and exaggerate their story; now the land "devours its inhabitants" and the people in it are giants.

The land is given to the Israelites by God, so not taking it runs contrary to God's will. The plot of the bible - the continuing tensions between God and God's people - is here exposed. This is what the bible is all about. And not obeying God's orders - well, no good comes of that.

The Israelites are recalcitrant in running against God's will. God saved them from Egypt, and now they wish to return, because the future is unsure. Slavery, in their minds, is a better fate than the unknown. For an author writing for a rebellious or anxious audience, this is the perfect story to demonstrate God's greatness and the importance of obeying him.

Did you know you can make a compromise with God?

The People Rebel: Numbers 14.1-12
The congregation is distressed at the news from the spies, and weeps through the night. They then make the classic accusation against Moses and Aaron:

Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?
(Num 14.2-3)

The Israelites go so far as to suggest choosing a captain to return them to Egypt, right back into the hands of their captors.

Aaron and Moses fall on their faces before the assembly, an action generally reserved for a deity. However, the situation is dire for Moses and Aaron and they must truly feel at the mercy of the congregation. It is two of the spies - Caleb and Joshua - who speak up for Moses and Aaron. They assure the congregation that the Israelites will conquer the land, but only if they trust in the Lord. The people "are no more than bread for us," easily defeated if the Israelites' trust in the Lord outweighs their fear of the foreigners.

The response of the congregation is to threaten to stone the two of them.

The glory of the Lord appears in the tent of meeting, and gets to the heart of the chapter, and the biblical narrative as a whole:

How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
(Num. 14.11-12)

This is not the first time that God has threatened to end all life on earth and start over. However, after Noah, God promised to never again wipe out all life on earth - so something must be done.

Moses Intercedes for the People: Numbers 14.13-25
Moses intercedes on behalf of the Israelites. But unlike Abraham, who intercedes on behalf o his brother with an appeal for righteousness, appeals to God's pride. God, it turns out, is a prideful character, and image is very important to him.

Moses' arguments goes like this: You brought the Israelites out of Egypt and everyone knows that you, unlike those other deities, reside with your people. You can be seen in the pillars of cloud and fire. if you kill your people, the surrounding nations will think it is because you cannot provide for them. That is totally against your character. After all, you promised (paraphrased from in Exodus):

The Lord is slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
to the third and the fourth generation.
(Num. 14.18)

You are a God of forgiveness, so forgive the people!

The Lord agrees. Sort of. The Lord will not allow anyone who lived in Egypt and tested him to see the promised land. The land instead will belong to their ancestors, and Caleb, who has followed the Lord from the beginning.

This is a remarkable compromise. The Israelites continue to live, but God in effect gets a new people in the promised land, a congregation that has not disobeyed him. From a God-centric point of view (which is the view I have pretty much been reading the bible with until this point) everyone gets what they deserve. Except for Moses, perhaps.

An Attempted Invasion Repulsed: Numbers 14.26-45
[This begins a different tradition, though one that is pretty consistent with the previous one. In effect, it rephrases God's punishment, and includes Joshua in the saved.] The Lord describes the terrors that will befall the wicked of the Israelites. The Lord does not have to be particularly creative about the punishments. Instead he just inflicts on the Israelites the terrors that they have feared will come, disregarding the God that will protect them.

The bodies of the Israelites over the age of 20 will fall in the wilderness, and only Joshua and Caleb will see the promised land [see above where only Caleb survives]. The numbers of the census will go from 603,550 to 2. The children will survive as shepherds in the wilderness until the last person dies. The Israelites will bear their iniquity forty years, one year for every day they spied in the promised land [a suitable punishment because the report of the land was a lie].

Indeed, ten of the spies die, and only Joshua and Caleb remain.

The people mourn their wickedness/stupidity and try to prove themselves by heading into the hill country in the morning. This is a pretty bad idea because the Lord is not with them, and not leading them in battle. Moses points this out - that the Israelites will not have the Lord's protection against the Amalekites and Canaanites. Even if you want to conquer the land, thereby fulfilling God's will, you must first ensure that God wants you to conquer the land at that time.

The people disobey God again, are defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites, and retreat as far as Hormah.

Lesson: obey God. God might seem a bit of a tyrant, but not obeying God leads to dire consequences.