Yahweh Declares That He Has Had Enough of These People (Numbers 14:11-12).
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” '
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, who had almost certainly been continually interceding for the people. He asked him how long these people could be allowed to despise Yahweh. How long could they go on not believing in Him in the face of the signs and wonders which He had wrought among them? Let Moses explain why He should not now destroy them all. He would smite them with pestilence and remove them from under the promises to the patriarchs, disinheriting them. Then He would fulfil His promises by raising up from Moses, who was a son of Abraham, a nation greater (more numerous) and mightier than them.
Here faith is revealed as a central issue in the covenant. Faith, while not prominent as a specific subject in the Old Testament, in fact underlay its whole message. Men responded to Yahweh because they believed. It was the whole basis of the covenant. Thus Abraham believed in Yahweh and He counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), and it was because he believed His covenant promises and acted on them that he was blessed. Faith was basic to the commencement of Yahweh's deliverance in Egypt (Exodus 4:31). It was greatly strengthened by their deliverance at the Reed Sea (Exodus 14:31). Lack of it was a blot on Israel (Deuteronomy 1:32; Psalms 78:22) and on Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:12). But when they did believe they sang His praise (Psalms 106:12). It was only if Israel believed that they would be established (Isaiah 7:9). Men were to believe in the sure foundation laid down by Yahweh, and then they would be at rest and not be in a hurry (Isaiah 28:16). It was central to God's whole purposes (Isaiah 43:10).
Thus the fact that these people did not believe in spite of the signs that He had performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, made it clear that they were not open to His deliverance. It demonstrated that they had closed minds.