The Government of God and the Grime of Grumbling Text: Numbers 14:20-38
Introduction: The High Cost of a Bad Attitude
We live in a soft and therapeutic age, an age that has trained us to think of sin in terms of unfortunate choices, maladjustments, or, at worst, mistakes. But the Bible speaks a far more robust and severe language. The Bible speaks of rebellion, treason, and cosmic insolence. And nowhere is the stark reality of sin and its consequences laid more bare than in this chapter of Numbers. The people of God are standing on the threshold of the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the culmination of centuries of divine promises. And they refuse to go in.
Their refusal is not a simple failure of nerve. It is a calculated act of unbelief, fueled by the corrosive acid of grumbling. Complaining is the native tongue of unbelief. It is the audible expression of a heart that believes it knows better than God. It is a declaration that God's providence is incompetent, His promises are unreliable, and His character is suspect. And as we see in our text this morning, God takes this kind of talk very, very seriously. He hates it.
The scene is this: ten of the twelve spies have brought back a bad report. They saw giants, and in their own eyes, they became as grasshoppers. Their fear was contagious, and it swept through the congregation like a plague. The people wept, they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and they even proposed appointing a new captain to lead them back to the slavery of Egypt. This was not a minor misstep. This was high treason against the King of Heaven. It was a corporate, national spurning of the goodness of God. Joshua and Caleb, the faithful two, tried to rally the people with the truth, but the congregation was ready to stone them for it. It is at this point that the glory of the Lord appears, and God renders His verdict.
What we are about to read is a sobering display of God's governmental justice. There is pardon here, yes, but it is a pardon that does not erase the temporal consequences of sin. God forgives, but the scars remain. The generation that refused the gift will not receive the gift. This is a hard lesson, but it is a necessary one. We must learn that our attitudes, our words, and our collective disposition before God have weight. They have consequences that can echo for decades. Let us therefore come to this text with fear and trembling, asking God to deliver us from the evil of a complaining heart.
The Text
20 So Yahweh said, “I have pardoned them according to your word; 21but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of Yahweh. 22Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his seed shall take possession of it. 25Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” 26 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. 28Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; 29your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. 30Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31Your little ones, however, who you said would become plunder, I will bring them in, so that they will know the land which you have rejected. 32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness. 34According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. 35I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they will die.’ ” 36 As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before Yahweh. 38But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.
(Numbers 14:20-38 LSB)
Pardon, Glory, and a Solemn Oath (vv. 20-23)
The passage begins with God's response to Moses' intercession. Moses had pleaded with God not to destroy the people, for the sake of His own name and glory among the nations.
"So Yahweh said, 'I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of Yahweh.'" (Numbers 14:20-21)
Here we see the stunning effectiveness of intercessory prayer. God relents from the immediate, total destruction He had proposed. He pardons them. This is grace. They deserved to be wiped out on the spot, but they are spared. However, this is not a blanket amnesty that pretends nothing happened. The pardon removes the death penalty for the nation as a whole, but it does not remove the consequences for the guilty generation. God's justice must still be served, and His glory must be vindicated.
And so God immediately follows the pardon with a solemn oath: "as I live." This is the most serious form of divine speech. God swears by His own existence. And what is the substance of this oath? That "all the earth will be filled with the glory of Yahweh." This is a central theme of all Scripture. God's ultimate purpose is the manifestation of His own glory throughout His creation. And paradoxically, He will display His glory not only through Israel's obedience but also through His judgment on their disobedience. His holiness, His justice, and His faithfulness to His own character will be put on display for all the world to see. This judgment is not a petty outburst of anger; it is a necessary demonstration of His glorious nature.
"Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs... yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it." (Numbers 14:22-23)
God lays out the charge sheet. The verdict is based on evidence. These are not ignorant people. They have seen His glory at Sinai. They have seen His signs in Egypt and the wilderness, the plagues, the Red Sea crossing, the manna, the water from the rock. Yet, despite this overwhelming evidence, they have repeatedly put Him to the test. Ten times. This is a number signifying a complete and persistent pattern of rebellion. Their sin is not a one-off failure; it is a settled character of unbelief. They have seen, but they have not believed. They have heard His voice, but they have not listened. Therefore, the judgment fits the crime. They spurned the promise, so they shall not see the promised land. The land was promised to the seed of Abraham, but their unbelief has cut them off from that inheritance.
The Exception and the New Direction (vv. 24-25)
In the midst of this sweeping judgment, God makes a glorious exception.
"But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his seed shall take possession of it." (Numbers 14:24)
Caleb is the antithesis of the faithless generation. He is singled out for two reasons. First, he had "a different spirit." Where they had a spirit of fear, grumbling, and unbelief, Caleb had a spirit of faith, courage, and wholehearted trust. His spirit was not shaped by the size of the giants but by the size of his God. Second, he "followed Me fully." His obedience was not partial or half-hearted. It was complete. This is the character of true faith. It doesn't just assent to propositions; it follows the Lord without reservation. And because of this, the promise that was forfeited by the nation is secured for Caleb and his descendants. God's grace always finds a remnant.
Then comes the command that seals the fate of the generation:
"Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." (Numbers 14:25)
The door to the Promised Land is now shut. The direction of travel is reversed. They are to turn around and go back into the wilderness, the very place of their testing and failure. The path of faith leads forward into the land of giants and promise. The path of unbelief leads backward into the wasteland of judgment.
The Sentence Pronounced (vv. 26-35)
God now elaborates on the sentence, leaving no room for ambiguity.
"How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me." (Numbers 14:26-27)
Notice how God defines this community: it is an "evil congregation." And what is the defining characteristic of their evil? They are "grumbling against Me." Let us not miss this. Their sin is fundamentally a sin of the mouth, a sin of attitude. Their complaints against Moses and Aaron were rightly interpreted by God as complaints against Himself. When you grumble about the leaders God has placed over you, or the providence God has arranged for you, your complaint does not stop at the human level. It ascends to the throne of God as an accusation against His wisdom and goodness.
God then pronounces a sentence of chilling, poetic justice.
"Say to them, 'As I live,' declares Yahweh, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness...'" (Numbers 14:28-29)
They had wailed, "Would that we had died in this wilderness!" (v. 2). God says, "Your wish is granted." He takes them at their word. This is a terrifying principle. God will give rebels what they ask for. The bed they make is the bed they will lie in. They wanted to die in the wilderness, and so the wilderness will become their grave. All those twenty years and older, the generation of fighting men who refused to fight for God, will perish. Only Caleb and Joshua are exempt.
The judgment also contains a bitter irony.
"Your little ones, however, who you said would become plunder, I will bring them in, so that they will know the land which you have rejected." (Numbers 14:31)
Their excuse for unbelief was a pretended concern for their children. "Our wives and our little ones will become plunder" (v. 3). God turns this right back on them. The very children they used as a pious shield for their cowardice will be the ones to inherit the promise. The fathers rejected the land, but the sons will know it. This is a judgment on the fathers and a display of God's covenant faithfulness to the children. God's promises will not be thwarted by one faithless generation.
The duration of the sentence is then specified:
"According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition." (Numbers 14:34)
The punishment is meted out with precision. Forty days of spying, fueled by unbelief, leads to forty years of wandering. A day for a year. During this time, they will "know My opposition." They will experience what it is like to have God against them, to have His favor removed and His disciplinary hand upon them. This is the long, slow, painful consequence of a single, catastrophic failure of faith. Finally, God reiterates the certainty of this judgment: "I, Yahweh, have spoken... In this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they will die" (v. 35).
The Down Payment of Judgment (vv. 36-38)
The chapter concludes with an immediate execution of the ringleaders of this rebellion.
"As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land... who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report... even those men... died by a plague before Yahweh." (Numbers 14:36-37)
The ten faithless spies do not have to wait forty years. Their judgment is swift and decisive. They were the source of the slander against the land and the poison of unbelief that infected the people. They caused the congregation to grumble. Therefore, God strikes them down with a plague. This serves as a terrifying down payment on the larger judgment to come. It is a sign to the rest of the congregation that God is not bluffing. His word of judgment is as potent and effective as His word of creation.
And in stark contrast, the remnant of faith is preserved.
"But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land." (Numbers 14:38)
In the midst of death, there is life. In the midst of judgment, there is preservation. Joshua and Caleb stand as living monuments to the grace of God and the blessing that rests upon wholehearted faith. They are the seed of the future, the bridge to the next generation that will, by God's grace, finally enter the land.
Conclusion: From Carcasses to Christ
This is a hard passage. It speaks of corpses in the wilderness, of a generation condemned to wander until they die. It speaks of the fierce opposition of God. So where is the gospel in all this? It is everywhere, if we have eyes to see.
First, we see that this entire generation, though judged, was still sustained by God's grace for forty years. Their sandals did not wear out, and they were fed with manna from heaven. God's judgment was tempered with a strange and persistent mercy. He was chastening His son, not casting him off forever.
Second, we see in the "different spirit" of Caleb and Joshua a picture of the Spirit that is given to all who are in Christ. By nature, we all have the spirit of the ten spies. We are fearful, complaining, and faithless. But in regeneration, God gives us a new heart and a new spirit, a spirit of faith that follows Him fully. He makes us Calebs.
But most importantly, this story drives us to the cross. The author of Hebrews tells us that this generation could not enter because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). Their carcasses fell in the wilderness. But we have a better hope. There is another wilderness, and another judgment. On the cross, Jesus Christ entered into the ultimate wilderness of separation from the Father. He bore the full, undiluted opposition of God that we deserved. He became the cursed one, so that the curse that rested on this evil congregation might be removed from us. All our grumbling, all our complaining, all our faithlessness was placed upon Him, and He died under that plague for us.
Because His corpse fell, ours do not have to. Because He endured the forty years of God's opposition in three hours of darkness, we are pardoned and invited into the true Promised Land, the rest that remains for the people of God. Therefore, let us not be like them. Let us not grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer (1 Cor. 10:10). Let us instead fix our eyes on our great Joshua, Jesus, the captain of our salvation, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, and who now leads us, by faith, into the glorious inheritance He has won for us.