GraceLife Thoughts – Train to Reign (Part 29)

Grace Thoughts

GraceLife Thoughts – Train to Reign (Part 29)

After spending about a year training in the wilderness, the ‘armies’ of Israel are on the move. However, things didn’t go as Moses had hoped. Israel made several ‘fatal’ errors. More training would be necessary.

Israel’s Fatal Errors

Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Numbers 11:1-3

God called the children of Israel ‘stiff-necked people’ (Exodus 32:9). Even after seeing the power of the Almighty God, even after receiving God’s Laws, even after all of their training in the wilderness, ‘the people complained.’ This was just the first of several ‘fatal errors’ that Israel would make in the days and weeks after they left Sinai and headed for the ‘promised land.’

Error #1

Their first fatal error was to complain about the food God had given them to eat. They should have trusted God to take care of them, even as He had promised, but they didn’t. They reverted to their old ways of thinking –

Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes! Numbers 11:4-6

God and Moses were angry with the people. You can read the details of their response in Numbers 11, but here’s the fatal result. –

Now a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving. Numbers 11:31-34

After burying the dead, Israel followed God and Moses from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, ‘and camped at Hazeroth’ (Numbers 11:35).

Error #2

The next error came from an unlikely source – Moses’ brother and sister. They ‘spoke against Moses’ because he married a woman from Ethiopia. It’s possible that Moses’ first wife (a Midianite) died and that Moses married a second wife. Based on the Law God had given directly to Moses, I seriously doubt that Moses would have committed adultery. Here’s what happened next –

Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. Numbers 12:4-5

God spoke clearly to Aaron and Miriam that Moses was His chosen prophet, unlike any other prophet –

I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses? Numbers 12:8

God’s anger ‘was aroused against them, and He departed.’ When the cloud departed from the tabernacle, Miriam suddenly became leprous, ‘as white as snow.’ Aaron begged Moses to ask God to heal her. Moses cried out to the Lord and asked Him to heal his sister. God did heal Miriam, but not before she faced the shame of being a leper. Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and Israel waited until her week was complete. Then, the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Error #3

God told Moses to select a man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel ‘ to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel’ (Numbers 13:1). Moses selected men from each tribe and sent them out –

Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, ‘Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.’ Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. Numbers 13:17-20

The men returned to Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran, but the message of ten of the twelve men was not encouraging. They reported that though the land flowed with milk and honey, the people who lived there were very strong and lived in large, fortified cities. The people they saw included the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and Amorites, the Canaanites, and the descendants of Anak. They were apparently tall, powerful people, because the ten spies said, ‘we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight’ (Numbers 13:33). Bottom line, ten of the spies didn’t trust God to fight and win their battles.

What about the other two spies, Joshua and Caleb? Their perspective was different than the others –

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.’ Numbers 13:30

Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and spoke to the children of Israel –

The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Numbers 14:7-9

Notice that Joshua and Caleb viewed the people’s refusal to enter the ‘promised land’ as ‘rebellion’ against God. That’s another important ‘training’ principle to learn.

How did the people react to what Joshua and Caleb said? They said ‘to stone them with stones’ (Numbers 14:10). However, the ‘glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.’

Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. Numbers 14:11-12

Notice that God views ‘rebellion’ as ‘rejection.’ He was read to strike down the people and disinherit them. However, Moses once again interceded for Israel –

Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. Numbers 14:19

God did pardon the people, but said that because Israel had put Him to the test ‘now these ten times, and have no heeded My voice,’ He would not allow them to ‘see the land of which I swore to their fathers’ (Numbers 14:22). God did say that He would allow Caleb to enter the land. We also know that Joshua was also allowed to enter the land because he actually led Israel in the ‘promised land.’

God told Moses to lead Israel ‘out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’ What was God’s plan? First, the ten spies who brought Israel a bad report about going into the ‘promised land’ died of a plague. Second, Israel would wander through the wilderness until all of the people who had complained against Him were dead –

But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ Numbers 14:32-35

Believe it or not, the people of Israel continued to make fatal errors as they rebelled against God. More training would be necessary before Israel was ready to enter the ‘promised land.’ You can read the details from Numbers 17 – 36.

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You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

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Next Time

Moses also made a major error that would keep him from entering the ‘promised land.’ We’ll look into that and learn more about how God trained Israel to ‘reign’ with Him in the next part of our special series – Train to Reign.

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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts