Numbers 14:11-39
ISRAEL were now only a step from Canaan; but in their rebellion they refused to go into the land. Then the glory of the Lord appeared. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? How long will it be before they believe me? “I will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”
It is wonderful to see the spirit in which Moses intercedes now for the people. He has not a thought for himself and will not hear of being made anything of. His first thought is, What will the Egyptians say and the inhabitants of the land? The Lord’s word and honor is what fills his heart; and to keep His name from being dishonored he prays that Israel might be forgiven.
The nations, he says, would say that the Lord was not able to bring the people into the land. He clings to God’s own words and to His ways of mercy and grace with Israel all the way from Egypt until now. He had spared them this far; it was unthinkable that He would give them up now.
It is indeed wonderful to hear Moses thus taking God at His word, telling Him that according to the character He had given of Himself He must act in mercy and long-suffering. And it is very beautiful to see how he always comforts himself by what God is in Himself. Here was one who had come to know the Lord and he loved and trusted Him with his whole heart.
God hears Moses’ prayer and passes over the people’s sin, while maintaining His own honor. He would pardon and show mercy, but He would by no means clear the guilty; for, said He, those men who have seen My glory and My miracles, and have tempted Me these ten times and have not obeyed My voice, they shall not see the land. Every one that was numbered from twenty years old and upward should die in the wilderness.
However, Caleb would live and go in and possess the land because he had fully followed the Lord. Joshua too would live.
We read in verse 10 that “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation bore all the children of Israel.” In a coming day God who ever maintains the honor of His name, will show mercy to Israel but will display His righteousness in judgment. Then His glory shall fill the earth. For a time Israel have been driven from the land; the ungodly shall never possess it. But there is mercy for “the little ones” — the remnant, who shall enter in and possess that good land. How sweet to see in Moses the Spirit of Christ pleading for His people that these purposes of love might all be brought to pass.
ML-10/07/1973