DBG - February 20 - Numbers 14-15

This chapter covers the refusal of the people to enter the Promised Land and its immediate fallout.

vs. 1-4 – The people rebel against Moses and God.  They give in to fear and refuse to enter the Promised Land.  They would rather go back to slavery than see if God would deliver the land to them.

vs. 5 – Moses and Aaron react by falling on their faces.  Prayer is not mentioned directly.  It is possible this was out of shock or shame.

vs. 6-9 – Caleb and Joshua try to sway the people but are unsuccessful.

vs. 10-12 – God intervenes when the people prepare to stone Moses and the faithful men by his side.  He threatens to wipe out the nation of Israel and begin anew with Moses.

vs. 13-19 – Moses intercedes for the people.  It is one of the most dramatic scenes in the Bible and pictures the work of Christ interceding on behalf of sinners. 

vs. 20-38 – God pronounces judgment on the unbelieving and rebellious nation.  According to vs. 22 this it the tenth time the Israelites had tested God.  John Gill writes that the ten specific occasions are: “twice at the sea, Exodus 14:11; twice concerning water, Exodus 15:23; twice about manna, Exodus 16:2; twice about quails, Exodus 16:12; once by the calf, Exodus 32:1; and once in the wilderness of Paran, Numbers 14:1, which last and tenth was the present temptation”.  In vs. 29 it is decreed that all Israelites over the age of 20 die in the wilderness and not enter Canaan.  Only Joshua and Caleb are excepted.

vs. 39-45 – The people rebel against God’s judgment.  They feign repentance but take it upon themselves without the Lord’s leading to try to enter the Promised Land.  They approach the same mountain the spies had embarked from in 13:17.  The Amalekites and Canaanites attack and defeat those that made the attempt.

In this chapter we see additional regulations that would take effect in the Promised Land.

vs. 1-2 – A new section of commandments about sacrifices begins, but we must note how it begins: “When he be come into the land of your habitations”.  God had not completely forsaken and rejected His people.  He would purge them through judgment, and the purified remnant would continue on.

vs. 3-13 – Here is commanded that when they enter Canaan the Israelites were to add offerings of flour, oil, and wine to their sacrifices.  These work out to be as follows:

For a lamb, 1/10 ephah (2 quarts) of flour, ¼ of hin (1 quart) oil, ¼ hin (1 quart) of wine

For a ram, 2/10 ephah (4 quarts) of flour, 1/3 of hin (1.5 quarts) oil, 1/3 hin (1.5 quarts) of wine.

For a bullock, 3/10 ephah (6 quarts) of flour, ½ of hin (2 quarts) oil, ½ hin (2 quarts) of wine.

vs. 14-16 – These regulations apply to the Israelites and any strangers that dwell among them.

vs. 17-21 – The Israelites were to offer the first part of their grain harvest as heave offerings to the Lord.  This relates to the Feast of Firstfruits in Leviticus 23:16.

vs. 22-29 – “sins of ignorance” are the trespasses of the Law that the sinner was not aware of, but, when made aware of, they repent and offer the prescribed sacrifices. 

vs. 30-31 – Presumptuous sins are those willfully committed against God with no repentance. 

vs. 32-36 – More than a year after the Ten Commandments were given, someone willfully violates the Sabbath command.  They are put to death.  This was no accident and was an act of open rebellion.

vs. 37-41 – The Jews were to put blue tassels or fringes on their garments as a visible reminder of their duty to serve the Lord.

In the midst of one of the most tragic events in Scripture (Israel’s refusal to enter the Promised Land), we have one of greatest descriptions of God given by Moses in Numbers 14:18, “ The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”  God is a God of justice, yes, but He is also a God of mercy.  He could have eradicated the Israelite nation because of their constant rebellion and complaining.  Those sins did have consequences, but God limited His Divine wrath and Israel as a nation endured.  We as sinners deserve the full wrath of God, but He in His great love and mercy extends His grace to us.  Neither case violates the perfection of His justice.  In our case, it is because Christ endured that wrath in our place.  God does not have to love us, forgive us, save us, pardon us, or even embrace us.  Yet He does.  “For God SO LOVED…”

The opening c

Our hymn today is “My Soul, Repeat His Praise”, written by Isaac Watts in 1719.  It is included in his “Psalms of David”  attached to Psalm 103:8-18 and with the heading “Abounding Compassion of God; or, Mercy in the Midst of Judgment”.  It echoes Moses’ beautiful description of God in Numbers 14:18.

My Soul, repeat his Praise,
Whose Mercies are so great;
Whose Anger is so slow to rise,
So ready to abate.

GOD will not always chide;
And when his Strokes are felt,
His Strokes are fewer than our Crimes,
And lighter than our Guilt.

High as the Heav'ns are raised
Above the Ground we tread,
So far the Riches of his Grace
Our highest Thoughts exceed.

His Pow'r subdues our sins,
And his forgiving Love
Far as the East is from the West
Doth all our Guilt remove.

The Pity of the Lord,
To those that fear his Name,
Is such as tender Parents feel;
He knows our feeble Frame.

He knows we are but Dust,
Scatter'd with every Breath;
His Anger, like a rising Wind,
Can send us swift to Death.

Our Days are as the Grass,
Or like the Morning Flow'r;
If one sharp Blast sweep o'er the Field
It withers in an Hour.

But thy Compassion, Lord,
To endless Years endure;
And Children's Children ever find
Thy Words of Promise sure.