So at the LORD's command Moses sent them [the 12 guys sent to have a look round the Promised Land] out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. -- Num. 13:3
'All of them were leaders'...whatever opinions they had of the land would have some clout.
They wandered the length and breadth of the land and looked it -- its potential, its inhabitants, its produce -- over really well.
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There the reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit." (Num 13:26-27).
So far, so good. But ...remember the negative attitude that these folks had traveling to this spot? It hasn't left them.
"But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there." (13:28)
They went on to list the different tribes in the area. There must have been a grumbling response from the people, because we see in verse 30 that Caleb had to do some shushing.
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
Alas, Caleb had the minority opinion, for he was immediately contradicted. I'm not going to quote the whole lament of the other guys; it's in Numbers 13:31 - 33, concluding with "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
Then we have what I'm going to call the Great Grumble. It's number 5 in the count, but it is the grandfather of all grumbles and it cost them dearly.
That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Or wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." (Num 14: 1 - 4)
Moses and Aaron fell face down; praying, one would suppose. Caleb and Joshua tore their clothes in grief and frustration and tried to reason with them, but the people threatened to stone them.
God had heard enough.
Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. (14:10b)
There's no mention that Moses got up and went into the Tent to hear what God had to say. I rather think there was a rumbling thunder the people heard; I don't think they comprehended the exchange between God and Moses, in which God threatened to obliterate the whole stubborn nation and start over with Moses.
It's interesting that Moses did not reason with God on behalf of the people at all...his entire argument was for the reputation of the name of the LORD, concluding,
"If you put these people to death all at once time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.' " (14:15-16)
THEN he makes his request
"In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now." (14:19)
But even then, Moses' request was not based on the needs of the people but on the character of God. And God did not destroy the whole nation.
But there were consequences.
"...I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall -- every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected." (14:27b - 31)
God promised to do exactly to them what they had pronounced over themselves: If only we had died...in this desert....
Judgement was passed and sentence pronounced.
"...your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years -- one year for each of the forty days you explored the land -- you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die." (14:32 - 34)
Then the ten guys who spied out the land with Caleb and Joshua and were responsible for the bad report that set the nation to grumbling dropped dead.
Furthermore, God sent them away from the threshold of the promise.
"Since the Amalekites and Canannites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea." (v. 25)
Well, then they were all sorry and repented of their complaining. They actually tried to take some ground in the hill country, without Moses or the Ark of the Covenant or the presence of God, and they got beaten back. The door was closed. They could no longer claim the promise. It was going to wait for their children.
After they had wandered for forty years in the desert.
The reward of complaining was...that they got precisely what they had declared they preferred to what God was giving them.
Be very, very careful about complaining. It's a big deal to God. And the desert, which was supposed to just be a temporary passage, became a graveyard.
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