Israel’s journey through the wilderness is a journey to a New Eden, A land of milk and honey. Wilderness and land are contrasted throughout the Bible. The wilderness is a place of testing, famine, exile, and death. The land is a place of water, food, prosperity, and life.
In moving from wilderness to land, Israel is, therefore, moving from death to life. It is a resurrection story in which Israel will first need to die before it can inherit the promise.
Israel has been promised the land and faith, which leads to obedience, will have a great reward. Unbelief, made manifest by their disobedience, will lead to death.
In the Book of Numbers, we learn that God’s response to unbelief is always just and His justice always leads to a display of even greater grace. God commands obedience. But it’s not blind. It is an obedience that flows from faith in God’s promises.
By contrast, disobedience is always motivated by unbelief. The consequences of which are always just and are always costly. But God is a gracious God, who not only keeps His promises but also commits to pay the cost of our unbelief.
In Numbers chapters 13-14 we learn that having arrived at Kadesh, God reminds Israel that He has promised to give them the land. In Numbers 13:2-24 men are sent from Kadesh in order to spy out the land.
Kadesh, and the places they visit, Hebron and Eschol are significant. Hebron is one of the first places the spies visit. Back in Genesis 13, God had promised this land to Abraham, and believing God, Abraham packed up his tent and moved into Hebron.
Kadesh is also part of the Abraham story. Genesis 14 recounts the first war in scripture. King Chedorlaomer and his mates had defeated the Amalekites at Kadesh plus nine other nations and then Abraham turns up with only 318 men and defeats Chedorlaomer.
Eschol, another place the spies visit, also forms part of the Abraham war story. The spies return from Hebron and Eschol and are divided in their report. Yep, the land is good, say some, but we could never take it. The people are big and numerous and live in fortified cities.
These spies didn’t think Israel had the resources. The land, they say, devours its inhabitants. Joshua and Caleb disagree. If the Lord delights in us, they say, we will have victory. Our enemies will be as bread for us.
What follows in Numbers 14:1-4 is a serious rebellion. They charge God with their impending doom. Israel’s desire to retreat and return to Egypt is prompted by a desire for safety and security. They would rather lean on the visible state-subsidised food and housing of slavery in Egypt than lean on the promises of God which were as yet unseen.
Or, to recast something Benjamin Franklin once said,
Those who give up their freedom for a little temporary safety will get neither liberty nor safety.
Here is Israel with a standing army of 600,000 men. If only they would remember and imitate the faith of Abraham who had victory right here with only 318!
Caleb tries to encourage Israel to faithfulness and they respond by trying to stone him.
The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey… Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. (Numbers 14:7-10)
At which point, God appears in a cloud of glory and Moses intercedes for Israel.
God’s response to all of this is very important. God executes justice over Israel’s unbelief but then also re-commits to His promises.
Reflecting on these events Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10, tells us that these things happened and were written down for our instruction. What then, can we learn from these events?
First, God’s punishment always fits the crime. God gives the people what they ask for. Because they refuse to enter the Promised Land, they will not enter it.
The people say they want to die in the wilderness, so, they will die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:2, 29). Israel says that they want what they had in Egypt and so God gives to them what He gave Egypt.
Israel gets everything they want. But when they get it, like so much pigeon meat, they don’t want it.
Secondly, God’s punishment is always just and according to His law.
Israel is guilty of giving false testimony. In Deuteronomy 19:16-19, we learn that the one who testifies falsely receives a judgement for his sin commensurate with, or corresponding to, the false testimony he gave.
Israel charges God with bringing them into the wilderness to die. Therefore, they will die there. God said the land was good. The spies accuse the land of devouring or killing its inhabitants. Therefore, the spies will also die as the land brings forth a plague and devours them.
The fact that Paul applies these events in Numbers to the church at Corinth teaches us something of incredible importance: Namely, That the rules of engagement have not changed. (Hebrews 3:16-4:2)
Israel saw the land that God was giving them and asked a very appropriate question: “What resources do we have that will ensure the success of this venture?
The problem was not the question. The problem was where they looked for the answer. They looked to what is seen. They looked to what was anchored in the present.
God tells them to go in and take the land because He is giving it to them. This is the obedience of faith. Faith sees the land as a promised gift and therefore obediently sets out to take it. Unbelief, by contrast, is always anchored in the present. Unbelief looks around at the visible resources or obstacles and shrinks back in disobedience.
Faith sees the land as won because Jesus is with us always and He has already claimed our town for Himself. And so faith sets out in obedience to take it. Faith sees the kingdom of God as established on earth as it is in Heaven and so sets out to establish it.
Ours is to live in obedience and faithfulness to God. Ours is to plant and build and conquer our homes, our streets and our towns with the gospel through faithful living. And we will do this until the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
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