Mercy and Justice | Numbers part 16
Last week, Pastor Bob discussed the rebellion of the people and their unfaithfulness to take the land God had given them. The Lord speaks with Moses and offers to remove them all from the land and start again with Moses. It’s worth noting, God had done this very thing twice in the past—once with Noah and again with Abraham. But Moses appeals to God’s character and intercedes for Israel.
Before we move into our passage today, I would like to revisit verse 18.
The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generation.
Numbers 14:18
We must be careful in how we describe God to the people around us—and careful in how we represent Him. Look at these descriptors.
The Lord is slow to anger. When we think of God, do we think of an old, cranky man waiting to send lightning down the moment we sin? If so, you have just described Zeus, not the Lord.
The Lord abounds in steadfast love. I’ve mentioned the word chesed before. The Lord’s love abounds in such a degree that English doesn’t have a proper equivalent. His mercy endures forever, as Psalm 136 declares.
The Lord forgives iniquity and transgression. The Lord is willing to forgive. The Lord is willing to cleanse us of sin. He proved that willingness and His love by sending His Son to us.
The Lord is just. The guilty will be punished, and in fact, the repercussions of their sin will be felt to the third and fourth generations.
I wanted to focus our attention on these descriptions because humans have a tendency to err on one side of God’s character or the other. For some, God is merciless punishing sin, and those who claim to follow Him in this way are militant in their ways. They will be overly legalistic, unforgiving, and unmerciful in their dealings. For others, God is a pushover. He forgives anything and everything, and those who claim to follow Him in this way are open to sinful ways and fail to hold anyone accountable for their misdealing.
In our passage today, we see both sides at work. Yes, the Lord punishes the people, and yes, the Lord forgives them. It is “both/and” not “either/or”. As followers of Jesus, we too, are called to hold ourselves and others accountable, and we are also called to show mercy and forgiveness. The two can coexist, and the Lord demonstrates how to do this in His dealings with the unfaithful Israelites.
The Lord’s Mercy | Numbers 14:20-25
Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
Numbers 14:20-25
First, the Lord does forgive the people. Moses interceded for them, and the Lord is willing to forgive them. It is worth pausing here to note we are told to intercede for the lost and the unrepentant. Jesus said,
"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
Matthew 5:44
Paul tells Timothy to lead his people to pray for all people including kings and those in high positions. Prayers, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgiving will ultimately lead to a peaceful and quiet life.
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".
1 Timothy 2:1-4
Last, James adds teeth to his writing telling us to actively help those who wander from the truth.
"My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins".
James 5:19-20
When we find ourselves confronting those who don’t believe, who are unrepentant of sin, or simply are not living as faithfully as they could, we are called to pray for them. We are to intercede on their behalf before God.
Moses is an example of how Christians can and should intercede for the lost and the wayward.
But even still, the people will not enter the Land. They will live, and they will wander for 40 years until their time on earth is done, but they will not enter the Land. The Lord is gracious and forgiving in maintaining them as His people, but He is also just in not allowing them to begin the nation in the Promised Land. Instead, the children will wander with their parents and gain 40 years of discipline and experience in following the Lord.
The Lord’s Verdict | Numbers 14:26-38
And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.
Numbers 14:26-38
The only ones who will see the Promise Land are Caleb and Joshua, because they were the only spies who told the people to go take the land. Notice, the generation that is condemned to the wilderness are those 20 years and older. There is a theological doctrine known as the “age of accountability.” Throughout Scripture, including here, the youngest children are referred to as innocent. At some point, a child becomes grown enough to know better, and the Lord holds them accountable for their sins. We do not have a particular age in the Bible, and I would argue 20 years old is not that age. A teenager is often called foolish, such as in Proverbs 22:15, but certainly not sinless or innocent. In fact, Psalm 25:7 says,
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!Psalm 25:7
And then, we have Jesus telling us that if we hope to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we should become like children. The child he brings into the midsts of the disciples and the people is a smaller child, probably not much older than an infant.
And so, we have in Scripture this understanding the Lord treats different ages differently, but nonetheless, children grow up and are called to mature. Even still, the iniquity of the guilty is visited “to the third and fourth generation” as we read in verse 18. Here, the children will suffer the consequences of their parents. And because their lives will mature in the wilderness, their children’s lives will also begin in the wilderness. It won’t be until the fourth generation the Israelites will not know some time in the wilderness.
A life of sin affects more than just the person. And even when a person turns to the Lord, all those who were impacted by the life still deal with the consequences of the sinful person. Children are affected, and if they do not repent and seek the Lord, it will affect their children as well.
Childhood innocence does not negate the impact of unfaithful parents.
Also with this passage, notice the 10 who spied the land and gave the bad report are punished quickly. They will not wander the wilderness with Israel because they succumb to a plague and die. And how long is Israel supposed to wander? The Lord says they will wander for 40 years because they had 40 days to spy the land. They had 40 days to muster the courage and faith to lead the people to take the land. Instead, they spent the 40 days becoming more and more scared. Those who led the people to unfaithfulness are punished quickly, and the people are given a period of time to learn faithfulness.
This point is worth taking a pause. The people will not enter the Promised Land, but God will not destroy them either. So, what is their purpose now? Again, they are raising the next generation that will enter the land. They will have 40 years to prepare the next generation to do better.
If you find yourself in a situation of life where you’ve messed up and wasted a number of years in unfaithfulness, that does not have to be the end of your story. Not only can Jesus redeem you and your time on this earth, but He can also help you prepare the ones that come after you. There is a wisdom that comes from a restored life that needs to be passed on to the next generation.
The 40 years of wandering will be a time of preparation for the next generation of Israel.
The People’s Response | Numbers 14:39-45
When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.
Numbers 14:39-45
There’s an irony to the people’s reaction. Moses has given them the Lord’s verdict (including the part where God won’t kill them right away), and yet they still choose to disobey. They mourn their lack of faith and say, “We’ll go now. That way we can make everything alright.” Now they are ready to take the land. Added to this, for many, many months they have complained about the wilderness. God has just told them they are going back to the wilderness, and even worse back to the Red Sea where they got started.
Can you hear at least one guy yelling, “NO! Not back to the manna!”
They have decided to follow the Lord’s lead, but it is too late. The opportunity to take the land has passed. This reality reminds us,
Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
But this situation also reminded me of a parable of Jesus. In Matthew 21, Jesus tells the story of two sons who were told by their father to work in the vineyard. One son answers ‘no,’ but later repents and heads to work. The second agrees to work, but never makes it into the field. Jesus asks, “Who did the will of the father?”
The answer is obviously the first. So why is it the Israelites are unable to take the land? Why does God refuse to allow them to enter?
I believe the answer is in the fact that opportunities have a limited time offer. We know this from everyday life.
It doesn’t matter how qualified nor how much you want a job, if they have already hired someone else.
It doesn’t matter how good of a farmer you are, if you start planting in late summer or the fall.
Saving money early in life will yield far more returns than someone waiting til late in life.
I recently learned I have passed the age when I should try certain sports. I’m not near as fit as I once was, and quite frankly, I’ve never been that athletic. So, maybe taking up waterskiing is just not for me.
Spiritual opportunities are similar. The Lord will guide you to many, many opportunities in life. Some, though, if you fail to take them at the time, will pass by and not return. These could be the opportunity to witness to a particular person, the opportunity to take a vocational risk for the kingdom of God, or the opportunity for some mission endeavor. The older we get, the more we will look back and see these opportunities for what they were.
But, if you find yourself looking back with more regret than risk-taking, I have some good news for you. The Lord is not done with you, yet. Perhaps you found yourself in your own wilderness wandering. The Good News is Jesus has already come, and if you have breath in your lungs, you can still call on His Name and be saved. Even more so, He will guide you out of the wilderness and into His marvelous light.
We can and will enter our Promised Land, if we will take the opportunity to surrender in faith to Jesus.