What mercy was shown to the Israelites in the wilderness! their garments not getting old-God even caring for the clothes on their backs! Think of the mercy that would not let their feet swell! Then, when they wanted a way, God says, I will go before with the ark to find out a way. That was not the place for the ark at all. It was appointed to be in the midst of the camp, but God would meet them in their need. They want spies to go and see the land for them; fools that we are to want to know what is before us. They had to encounter the Amorites, high walls, giants. A land that devours the inhabitant, is their account of it, even with the grapes on their shoulders. Just like us on the way to heaven. They cannot stand these difficulties. We are as grasshoppers, they say. But the real question is what God is.
As saints, we are weaker than the world, and ought to be, but when waiting on God, what is that? When they have not confidence in God, they find fault with the land itself. What a wonderful God He is! He says, If you will not go into Canaan, you must stay in the wilderness, and He turns them, and turns back with them.