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Welcome. I'm Cliff Hedges. This is Pastor Cliff's Notes. This is a podcast where we are studying the Bible. We're working our way through the book of Numbers. Today is episode 1625, and we're looking at Numbers chapter 14, verses 20 through 38. So the first part of the book of Numbers, chapters 1 through 10, God was getting the Israelites ready to move on from Sinai to the promised land, the land of Canaan. The cloud lifted up from the tabernacle, that was the signal to move, and the people did move. They moved very orderly. But the grumbling started within three days. And we had these three accounts of grumbling before they ever reached the edge of Canaan. Now they are at Kadesh Barnea, at the edge of the wilderness of Peron, the wilderness of Zin, and Canaan itself. Moses sent twelve scouts, one from each tribe, to see what the land was like. They scouted out the land for forty days and came back and reported that the land was bountiful, but the cities were large and fortified, and they saw giants in the land. So ten of the scouts said it was impossible, it couldn't be done. Joshua and Caleb were two of the scouts, they said that God would make it happen. And the ten negative scouts got the people so afraid that they talked about stoning Moses and Aaron appointed a new leader and going back to Egypt. Then the glory of the Lord appeared, and God told Moses that he would destroy the Israelites and start over with Moses. But Moses interceded for the people. He appealed to God's reputation and his mercy. Now we have God's response in Numbers chapter fourteen, starting with verse twenty. The Lord responded, I have pardoned them as you requested. Yet as I live, and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord's glory, none of the men who've seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me, will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have despised me will see it. Okay, this is God's response. He says that these people will not go into the promised land. The way he phrases it here, first he starts off, okay, I've pardoned them as you've requested. That's good. But then he says, As I live and the whole earth is filled with the Lord's glory, that is saying this is a sure thing. This is not a maybe might be thing that I'm thinking about. This is a most certain judgment. And the people who've seen all this stuff, who've seen all the miracles, all the wonders, they're not going into the promised land. And said, have tested me these ten times. So a lot of people try to list them. Okay, what are the ten times? And but I think most just say, okay, it's kind of a round number. Like sometimes when we say a dozen, we don't mean twelve, we mean about that amount. And so most people say that's kind of what this means. Ten means complete number, but it's probably not necessarily counting that it's this is one more than nine, but it's a bunch of times. And these people are not going to see the promised land. Verse 24. But since my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it. So the entire generation, it seems, will not go into the promised land, but Caleb will, because of his loyalty. Caleb was the one speaking up, saying that we must do it. God will enable us to do it. Verse 25. Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. Now, what's this all about? Well, I think he was referring to lowlands, a lot of translations say valley. I think what it means is where they are right now. That they're in the area there are Amalekites and Canaanites in that area, and since they're not going to be facing the inhabitants of the promised land for a while, they're not going to go conquer the promised land, so they should just move on back toward the Red Sea. They're not going to do this for forty years from now. Verse 26. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites' complaints that they make against me. So this repeating again, how long do I have to put up with this nonsense? And you know, is he asking for their advice? No, this is just the Lord venting here of making known to Moses and Aaron, this is really upsetting. Verse 28, tell them as I live, this is the Lord's declaration. I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. Your corpses will fall in this wilderness, all of you who are registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more, because you have complained about me. I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised to settle in except Caleb, son of Jephunah, and Joshua, son of Nun. So, kind of repeating it again here, this is the details of what it's going to be, God's judgment. And again he says, Surely as I live, well surely the Lord does live. He says, I'm going to do to you what I heard you say. This goes back to verse two, where they said, It'd be better for us to have died in the wilderness than to go die fighting the giants in the promised land. He said, Okay, you will die in the wilderness. And who is it? All of you who were registered in the census. Remember back in chapter one, it started with the census, the counting of the military age men of Israel, all those twenty years old and older, because he was counting the army. This is the force that God is going to use to conquer the promised land, to take the land of Canaan, this army. Now there's a question that comes up with this. Who was counted in that census? All the males twenty years old and older, none of the tribe of Levi, none of the women. So this curse of this generation is going to die in the wilderness, does that include members of the tribe of Levi? And does it include women? It doesn't say for sure. There's a lot of clues throughout, particularly as you start looking at uh some of the Levites, that imply that no, this curse is not on them. This is the men who were counted in the census, chapter one census, not the two subsequent censuses dealing with the Levites, that they are the ones who are now going to die in the wilderness. And there's some clues that it might not include the women either. So it's not blatant. And so a lot of people think, and I go along with them, that this is basically the bin of Israel, not of the tribe of Levi, but the men who are twenty years old and older, they will all die in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua. Because we saw their faithfulness. Verse 31. I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. Remember that was part of their complaint also back in verse three of chapter fourteen. Oh woe is us, you know, you wanted us to bring us out here to die. It would have been better for us to die here in the wilderness. You're going to have our children turned into plunder. He says, Well, no, what's really going to happen is your children are the ones who are going to inherit the promised land. The next generation will take the promised land. Verse 32. But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. They're also going to bear the penalty of the unfaithfulness of their parents. They got to spend forty years in the wilderness. That's not going to be a picnic. Verse 34. You will bear the consequences of your inequities forty years, based on the number of forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. You will know my displeasure. So he links the forty years to the forty days that the scouts scouted out the land. But also forty years is enough time for everyone who's 20 years old or more to die off. This phrase, you will know my displeasure. Doesn't sound that bad. You can know I'm upset. But this word here for displeasure, it only appears here and in Job 33, 10. And then Job it says, He finds reasons to oppose me. I like the New Living Translation, the way they translate this phrase, says, Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy. That sounds pretty ominous. Verse 35. I the Lord have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against me. They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die. Verse 36. So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land. Those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. Only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephuna, remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land. This translation says struck down by the Lord. Most translations say died by a plague from the Lord. Point is they were struck down immediately. So we see immediate judgment on the ten negative scouts. See a judgment on the adults, particularly the adult males here, they will not enter the promised land. They will die in the wilderness. Not an immediate judgment, but a delayed judgment. The promised land has been taken off the table for them. We see mercy for the next generation. They will enter the promised land. They will inherit the promised land, but they are going to suffer consequences from the unfaithfulness of this older generation. The next generation is going to spend the next 40 years waiting to go into the promised land. So we had the response from God now to the disobedience of the people, the faithlessness of the people, the rebellion of the people. Remember, it wasn't just grumbling. It got to the point of we reject God's plan. We reject God's mediator. We reject God's leader. We think we maybe ought to kill him, appoint a new leader, and go back to Egypt ourselves. So this is a very serious rebellion. And so you see a very serious response from the Lord. We see judgment, but we also see mercy. And we see the continuation of God's plan to take his people to the promised land. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time as we continue working through numbers.