Yahweh Now Confirms The Future of the Current Generation of Israelites And How Their Children Must Suffer With Them (Numbers 14:26-35).
Later Yahweh came to Moses again and detailed out the position He was now taking up.
a Because of their murmuring the children of Israel will die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-30).
b Their little ones will be brought in and know the land (Numbers 14:32).
b But first they will wander in the wilderness for forty years for the sake of their fathers' behaviour (Numbers 14:33-34).
a The evil congregation will die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:35).
Yahweh Confirms The Fate of the Rebellious People (14:26-30).
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,'
Again it is confirmed that this is Yahweh's word to Moses which is being recorded.
“ How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, who murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.”
Yahweh first expressed His exasperation at the behaviour of His people. He wanted it to be quite clear that He had heard the murmurings of the people against Him, and that He was not sure how long He could put up with them. This was of course speaking of God from a human point of view. He had in fact known all along that this would happen. What He wanted them to face up to was what it was like and the appearance that it gave and that they must watch out for themselves. In fact as Deuteronomy points out His mercy did continue. He would continue to put up with them and would continually watch over them so that they did not become too poverty stricken and fall apart. There Moses could say of them, ‘Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand. He knows your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing' (Deuteronomy 2:7). But Numbers tells us nothing about it at this stage. The emphasis here is on their punishment.
“ Say to them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upwards, who have murmured against me, surely you will not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell in it, apart from Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.' ”
Moses was to point out to them the consequences of their actions. They had wished that they had died in the wilderness. Well, they would have their wish. Their dead bodies would fall in the wilderness. And this applied to all who earlier with such confidence had been numbered and mobilised as Yahweh's host in Numbers 1-2. Under no circumstances would they enter the land which He had promised them, the only exception being Caleb and Joshua. They had been numbered with such hope. Now their numbering would count against them.
Here Caleb is mentioned first as the man who had stood out against the majority. But of course Joshua was also to be included.
“ But your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.”
But in startling contrast, their little ones, of whom they had declared that they feared that they would be victims of the Canaanites, they would be brought in and know the land, the land which these had rejected. Rather than being a prey they would make others a prey and hunt them down and destroy them, Anakim and all. Rather than being a prey they would possess the land.
“ But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.”
But as for the faithless adults of Israel, their dead bodies would fall in the wilderness just as they had wished (Numbers 14:2). One by one they would die until none remained.
“ And your children will be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and will bear your whoredoms (unfaithfulness), until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.”
Meanwhile their children would have to bear the punishment of their fathers' unfaithfulness by wandering with them in the wilderness for forty years (of which they had already done two) as shepherds, until their fathers' dead bodies were consumed in the wilderness. They would have no settled lifestyle. They would possess no land of their own. Note the stress on the fate of the adults. That their carcasses would fall in the wilderness is repeated three times for emphasis and for certainty (Numbers 14:29; Numbers 14:32-33. See also Numbers 14:35).
“ After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.”
So would their punishment fit their crime. For forty days they had spied out the land through their chieftains, so having despised it now they would suffer a year for a day, forty years in the wilderness. During that period the covenant would be suspended as regards its final fulfilment. They would be aware that His full favour was not towards them. For them the covenant would not be one of glorious hope. As far as entry into the land was concerned, He was alienated from them, and they from Him.
“ I, Yahweh, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”
The words were certain, for they were the words of Yahweh. Yahweh had spoken. Thus there would be no turning back from it. All who had gathered together against him, as the adult males of the tribes had, would be consumed in the wilderness. And there would they die. For they were an evil congregation, one which would not trust Yahweh and had rebelled against Him.