Forty Years in the Wilderness

God's question. “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?” (14:11). Reject. To reject means to push away. The people were not just refusing the land. They were pushing God Himself away. So many signs. Think of all God had done for them: the plagues in Egypt, the path through the Red Sea, manna every morning, water from the rock, and the cloud that led them. Every one was a sign of His care. A serious warning. “I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them” (14:12). Pestilence is a deadly sickness. A new offer. “I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they” (14:12). God offered to start again with Moses. Like before. God made a similar offer after the golden calf, and Moses prayed for the people then too (Exodus 32:10-12). What this means for you. Unbelief is not small. Refusing to trust God after all He has done is rejecting Him. But God was not finished with His people, and Moses was about to pray.

The glory appears (14:10). The crowd was ready to stone Joshua and Caleb when the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle. God stepped in to defend His faithful servants. “How long?” (14:11). God asks the question twice. The Hebrew na'ats (say: nah-ATS), to reject or treat with contempt, names the attitude; “not believe” names its root. Signs ignored. God points to “all the signs which I have performed among them.” The people did not lack evidence. They refused it. The disinheritance (14:12). God speaks of striking the people and making of Moses “a nation greater and mightier than they.” He had made the same offer in Exodus 32:10, after the golden calf. A test of the mediator. Both times, the offer showed what was in Moses' heart. He turned down personal greatness and pleaded for the people. The pattern in Psalm 95. “For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts’” (Psalm 95:10). God uses this moment to warn every generation, including ours, not to harden our hearts.

The people wanted to throw stones at Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent. Everyone could see it. The Lord spoke to Moses. He asked how long these people would ignore Him. When would they believe Him? God had parted the Red Sea for them. He gave them manna and water in the desert. He led them with a cloud and fire. Still they would not trust Him. God said He could send a terrible sickness. Then He would make a great nation from Moses instead. It was a serious moment. What would Moses say?

The people did not trust God. God had done many miracles. God was sad and angry. He spoke to Moses.

God's reputation. Moses prayed first about God's name. “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them” (14:13). The nations watching. Everyone had heard about Israel's God. “You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night” (14:14). What they would say. “Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness” (14:16). Moses did not want anyone to think God could not keep His promise. Great power. “Let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken” (14:17). Moses asked God to show His power by forgiving. God's own words. “The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression” (14:18). This is the memory verse. Longsuffering means patient for a long time. The request. “Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy” (14:19). Pardon means forgive. What this means for you. Moses prayed for people who had turned against him. Praying for others is a way to love them, even when they have not been kind to us.

Moses refuses the offer (14:13-16). Moses argues from God's glory, not Israel's merit. If Israel perished, the nations would conclude the Lord “was not able” (14:16). The breach. Psalm 106:23 describes the same role at Sinai: Moses “stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath.” A breach is a broken place in a wall. Quoting God to God (14:17-18). Moses repeats the words God spoke when He passed by Moses on Sinai: “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6-7). When we pray God's own words back to Him, we can pray boldly and humbly at the same time. Mercy and justice together (14:18). The same verse says He “by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children.” This speaks of the results of sin reaching the next generation; Ezekiel 18 makes clear that each person answers for his own sin. The plea (14:19). “Just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” Moses reminds God how often He has already forgiven them. A better Mediator. Isaiah 53:12 says the Servant “made intercession for the transgressors.” Moses stood in the gap for a moment; Christ “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25).

Moses did not want a great nation for himself. He wanted God to forgive the people. So Moses prayed. First he thought about God's name. He said, “The Egyptians will hear about it!” All the nations knew God was with His people. They would say God could not bring them in. Then Moses reminded God of His own words. The Lord is slow to become angry. The Lord has great love. He forgives sin. But He also punishes guilty people. Moses asked God to forgive them, as He had since Egypt. Moses stood between the people and God's anger.

Moses prayed for the people. He asked God to forgive them. God has great love. God listened to Moses.

Pardoned. “Then the Lord said: ‘I have pardoned, according to your word’” (14:20). God answered Moses' prayer right away. God's glory. “But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (14:21). Israel's failure could not stop God's plan. Ten times. They “have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice” (14:22). Heeded means listened and obeyed. The result. “They certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers” (14:23). God forgave them, but the grown-ups who refused the land would not receive it. Caleb. “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went” (14:24). God noticed Caleb's faithful heart. A new direction. “Tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea” (14:25). Instead of going into Canaan, they would turn back to the desert. What this means for you. God forgives, but sin still brings hard results. Following God fully is always worth it, even when nobody else does.

Pardon granted (14:20). “I have pardoned, according to your word.” The nation would not be wiped out. God's covenant with Abraham stood. Pardon and discipline. Forgiveness did not cancel the discipline. The generation that refused would not enter. The Bible shows this more than once: David was forgiven but still faced the results of his sin (2 Samuel 12:13-14). God's oath (14:21). “As I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Israel's failure could not stop God's purpose for the world. Habakkuk 2:14 later repeats this hope. “These ten times” (14:22). Since leaving Egypt the people had doubted and grumbled again and again: at the Red Sea, over water, over food, and at Sinai with the golden calf. A different spirit (14:24). Caleb is singled out by name; Joshua is added in 14:30. The Hebrew phrase for “followed Me fully” is literally filled up after Me. Turn back (14:25). “By the Way of the Red Sea” pointed them away from Canaan. The road toward the promise became a road into the wilderness.

God answered Moses' prayer. He said, “I have forgiven them as you asked.” God did not destroy the people. But their choice would still bring a result. Some things happen because of what we choose. Those men had seen God's glory and His miracles. Yet they tested Him ten times. They did not listen to Him. So God said they would not see the land He promised. But God had something good to say too. His servant Caleb had a different spirit. Caleb followed God completely. God would bring him into the land he explored. Caleb's children would own it someday.

God said He had forgiven them. But they did not trust Him. They would not go in. Caleb trusted God.

God heard. “I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me” (14:27). God hears every word we say. Their own words. “Just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you” (14:28). They had wished to die in the wilderness (14:2), and now God gave them what they said. Two exceptions. “Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun” (14:30). The two men who trusted God would go in. The children. “But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised” (14:31). The parents had used their children as an excuse, but God loved those children. Forty years. “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years” (14:34). God's word stands. “I the Lord have spoken this” (14:35). What this means for you. God is just, and He is kind to children. He kept His promise to the next generation. The children who seemed weakest received the land.

Measure for measure (14:28). “Just as you have spoken in My hearing.” The people had said, “If only we had died in this wilderness!” (14:2). Judgment took them at their word. From twenty years old (14:29). The adults counted in the census of Numbers 1 would die in the wilderness over the years. Joshua 5:6 confirms it happened: they “walked forty years in the wilderness” until that generation was gone. The children (14:31). The very children the adults used as an excuse would inherit. Deuteronomy 1:39 adds that they “have no knowledge of good and evil.” God's grace reached the next generation. Shepherds in the wilderness (14:33). The children would “bear the brunt” of their parents' unfaithfulness, living as nomads. The results of sin are real, but so is God's care: Deuteronomy 8:2 says God “led you all the way these forty years.” Forty days, forty years (14:34). God Himself explains the number: a year for each day of spying. The forty years matched the forty days the spies had spent in the land. The rest of the chapter (14:36-45). The ten spies died by a plague, and the people tried to go up without God and were defeated. Moses warned, “this will not succeed” (14:41).

God told Moses and Aaron what would happen. God had heard every complaint the people made. The grown-ups who complained would not enter the land. They would live in the desert the rest of their lives. Only Caleb and Joshua would go in. Then God said something kind about the children. The people had said their children would be taken away. But God would bring the children into the land! They would enjoy what their parents refused. The spies explored the land for forty days. So Israel would wander for forty years. That was one year for each day. God still fed them and led them all that time. His love never stopped.

The people stayed in the desert. They stayed forty years. God brought the children in later. God kept caring for them.