The Treason of Tears: Text: Numbers 14:1-4
Introduction: The Anatomy of Unbelief
We come now to one of the most tragic and instructive episodes in all of Scripture. Israel is standing on the threshold of the Promised Land. They have been delivered from Egypt by signs and wonders, led through the sea on dry ground, sustained by bread from heaven, and guided by a pillar of cloud and fire. God has done everything but carry them on His shoulders. He has sent twelve spies into the land, and the report has come back. The land is everything God promised, a land flowing with milk and honey. The fruit is so abundant that it takes two men to carry one cluster of grapes. The promise is verified. God's word is true.
But there was a "but." There were giants in the land. The cities were fortified. The sons of Anak were there. And at this word, the faith of the entire congregation evaporates like a morning mist. Ten of the spies deliver a report born of fear, and the people, in turn, embrace that fear. What we witness in these first four verses is not simply a momentary lapse in courage. It is a full-blown, full-throated rebellion against the living God. It is the anatomy of unbelief, dissected for us so that we might learn to recognize its foul stench in our own hearts.
Unbelief is never a simple, intellectual problem. It is not a matter of insufficient evidence. The Israelites had more evidence than any people in history. Unbelief is a moral problem. It is a problem of the will. It is a deep-seated desire to be one's own god, to trust one's own senses and calculations over the clear, blood-bought promises of God. It is the sin of wanting to be the captain of your own fate, which is to say, the captain of a sinking ship. In this passage, we see how unbelief manifests itself: in emotional hysterics, in blasphemous grumbling, in a suicidal preference for slavery over freedom, and ultimately, in a formal rejection of God's appointed leadership. This is not just a story about them, back then. It is a mirror for us, right now.
The Text
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
And why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
(Numbers 14:1-4 LSB)
The Hysterics of Unfaithfulness (v. 1)
The rebellion begins not with a reasoned argument, but with a temper tantrum.
"Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night." (Numbers 14:1)
This is not the godly sorrow of repentance. This is the bitter, self-pitying weeping of unbelief. They are crying because they believe God has led them into a trap. They are mourning the death of their own plans, their own comforts, their own sense of security. Their tears are an accusation against God's goodness. They have looked at the giants and have forgotten God. They have magnified the obstacle and minimized the Almighty.
This is what happens when our emotions are discipled by our circumstances instead of by God's covenant promises. When we allow our feelings to be the barometer of our spiritual state, we are setting ourselves up for this kind of collapse. Faith is not the absence of fear, but the refusal to bow to it. These people are not just sad; they are in a state of emotional insurrection. They are weeping over the "fact" that God is untrustworthy. Their lament is a form of blasphemy. They are crying because they believe the sons of Anak are greater than Yahweh. It is a pathetic and insulting spectacle.
The Blasphemy of Grumbling (v. 2)
From the tears of self-pity, the people graduate to open, verbal rebellion.
"And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!" (Numbers 14:2 LSB)
Grumbling is the characteristic sin of the wilderness generation. It is the audible expression of a heart that believes God is incompetent, or worse, malicious. Notice who they grumble against: Moses and Aaron. This is a classic tactic of rebellion. You cannot see God, so you attack His visible representatives. An attack on God-ordained authority is always an attack on God Himself. They are shooting their arrows at Moses, but their target is the throne of heaven.
And what is the substance of their complaint? "Would that we had died in Egypt!" Think about the sheer insanity of this statement. They are romanticizing their slavery. They are looking back with fondness on the whips, the taskmasters, and the murder of their infant sons. This is what unbelief does. It distorts reality. It makes bondage look like security and freedom look like a terrifying risk. They would rather have the predictable misery of Egypt than the unpredictable challenges of walking by faith with God. They prefer the leeks and onions of slavery to the grapes of the Promised Land, because the grapes come with giants.
This desire to return to Egypt is the constant temptation for the people of God. It is the desire to go back to a life where we are not required to trust God for our next meal, our next victory, our next breath. It is the desire for a manageable, predictable, godless existence. It is the voice that whispers, "It was better before you were saved, before you had to fight these battles, before you had to walk this narrow road." It is a damnable lie, born in the pit of hell.
The Accusation Against God (v. 3)
The grumbling now escalates to a direct, formal charge against God Himself.
"And why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" (Numbers 14:3 LSB)
They drop the pretense of complaining about Moses and Aaron and name their true adversary: Yahweh. They accuse the covenant-keeping God of deception and murder. They claim His intention is to have them all slaughtered. This is the ultimate slander. God, who brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, is now accused of leading them into an ambush.
And notice the pious-sounding cover for their cowardice: "Our wives and our little ones will become plunder." This is a classic move of the faithless. They dress up their unbelief as responsible concern for their families. "I can't take this radical step of obedience because I have to think of my wife and kids." What they are really saying is, "I do not believe God is capable of protecting my wife and kids." They are using their families as human shields to hide their own rebellion. It is a disgusting and cowardly tactic. The very ones God had promised to bless, they now use as an excuse to disobey Him.
Their conclusion is a rhetorical question that reveals the depth of their depravity: "would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" They have weighed God's promise against Pharaoh's slavery and have concluded that slavery is the better deal. They have done a cost-benefit analysis and decided that the giants are too big and God is too small.
The Formal Act of Treason (v. 4)
Finally, the rebellion moves from words to action. They decide to formalize their coup d'etat.
"So they said to one another, 'Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.'" (Genesis 14:4 LSB)
This is high treason. They are rejecting God's chosen leader, Moses, in order to appoint a leader of their own choosing. And what is the platform of this new leader? To lead them back to slavery. This is a formal, congregational rejection of the entire Exodus. They are voting to undo their own salvation.
This is the end game of all grumbling and unbelief. It begins with a tear of self-pity, moves to a word of complaint, then to an accusation against God, and it culminates in the appointment of a new god, a new leader, a new savior. They want a captain who will listen to them, a leader who will affirm their fears, a shepherd who will lead them back to the slaughterhouse because it feels safer than the green pastures where the giants roam.
They are seeking to replace the prophet of God with a politician of their own making. They want a leader who will represent their will, not God's will. This is the essence of all apostasy. It is the rejection of divine authority in favor of autonomous, democratic rebellion. And the first order of business for their new, man-made government is to march them straight back to hell.
Conclusion: The End of Unbelief
The rest of this chapter details God's righteous judgment upon this generation. They wanted to die in the wilderness, and God granted their request. For forty years, they wandered until every last man of that rebellious generation had fallen. Their children, whom they used as an excuse for their unbelief, were the ones who entered the land.
The apostle Paul warns us not to follow their example. "Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer" (1 Corinthians 10:10). The writer to the Hebrews holds them up as the prime example of those who fail to enter God's rest because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:16-19). Unbelief is not a small thing. It is a soul-destroying, covenant-breaking, God-insulting poison.
Every day, we stand at the border of our own promised land. God has given us promises in His Word, promises of victory over sin, of the growth of His kingdom, of the triumph of the gospel in history. And every day, the world, the flesh, and the devil send us a report about the giants. The culture is too corrupt. The enemies are too strong. The task is too great. And we are tempted to weep, to grumble, to accuse God, and to look for a new leader who will take us back to the familiar slavery of compromise and retreat.
But we have a greater Joshua, a greater leader, who has already gone into the land and conquered. His name is Jesus. He did not shrink back from the giants. He faced the cross, the grave, and the full wrath of God, and He triumphed. The report that He brings back is not one of fear, but of victory. "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
The choice before us is the same one that was before Israel. Will we believe the evil report of the ten spies, or will we believe the good report of Joshua and Caleb, who said, "the LORD is with us; do not fear them" (Numbers 14:9)? Will we weep in our tents, or will we march forward in faith? Will we appoint a captain to take us back to Egypt, or will we follow the Captain of our salvation into the glorious inheritance He has won for us?