Numbers 14:1-12 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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an Unbelieving and Rebellious People

Numbers 14:1-12

What in any other nation would have been described as a panic of fear, was, in the case of Israel, a panic of unbelief, which deserved the reproachful expostulation of Jehovah in Numbers 14:11. The transition is easy from unbelief to open rebellion against God, as expressed in the words, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” The connection between the fearful and unbelieving is very close, Revelation 21:8. On the other hand, we have the exhortation of 2 Peter 1:5 (A.V.), “Add to your faith virtue (or courage),” as exemplified in the language of Joshua and Caleb. But their words of faith and encouragement only elicited hatred and murder.

Compare Numbers 14:10 with Genesis 4:4 and Hebrews 11:4. God's two stalwart witnesses did not minimize the strength or the numbers of the foe, but magnified the mighty power pledged to fulfill the ancient covenant with Abraham: “The Lord is with us; fear them not.” He cannot fail the trustful soul!

Related Commentaries of Numbers 14:1

Numbers 14:1-12

1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:

7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defencea is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.