Numbers 14:1-8 (ESV)
“Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.
And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses & Aaron. 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!
Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’
And they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’
Then Moses & Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun & Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, ‘The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.
If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk & honey. . . .’
Numbers 14: 9-14 (NKJV)
‘Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.’
And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
Then the LORD said to Moses: ‘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?
I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’
And Moses said to the Lord: ‘Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them,
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people; that You, LORD, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. . . .’
Numbers 14: 15-19 (HCSB)
‘If You kill this people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of Your fame will declare,
“Since the LORD wasn’t able to bring this people into the land He swore to [give] them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.”
So now, may My Lord’s power be magnified just as You have spoken:
The LORD is slow to anger & rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing & rebellion. But He will not leave [the guilty] unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third & fourth generation.
Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love, just as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now.’
Numbers 14: 20-25 (NIV)
The LORD replied, ‘I have forgiven them, as you asked.
Nevertheless, as surely as I live & as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth,
not one of those who say my glory & the signs I performed in Egypt & in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times–
not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit & follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.
Since the Amalekites & the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow & set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.’
Numbers 14: 26-30 (MSG)
God spoke to Moses & Aaron:
‘How long is this going to go on, all this grumbling against me by this evil-infested community? I’ve had my fill of complaints from these grumbling Israelites.
Tell them, As I live – God’s decree – here’s what I’m going to do:
Your corpses are going to litter the wilderness – every one of you twenty years and older who was counted in the census, this whole generation of grumblers & grousers.
Not one of you will enter the land & make your home there, the firmly & solemnly promised land, except for Caleb son of Jephunneh & Joshua son of Nun.’
Numbers 14: 31-34 (NASB)
‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey -I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.
According to the numbers 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: 35-38 (KJV)
‘I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
Numbers 14: 39-45 (NLT)
When Moses reported the LORD’s words to all the Israelites, the people were filled with grief.
Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. ‘Let’s go,’ they said. ‘We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the LORD has promised us.’
But Moses said, ‘Why are you now disobeying the LORD’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work.
Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the LORD is not with you.
When you face the Amalekites & Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The LORD will abandon you because you have abandoned the LORD.’
But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant left the camp.
Then the Amalekites & the Canaanites who lived in the those hills came down & attacked them & chased them back as far as Hormah.”
Numbers 15 (Summarized w/NLT)
(1-3) “Then the LORD told Moses, ‘Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. ‘When you finally settle in the land I am giving you, you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep & goats.’ “
(12-16) “Follow these instructions with each offering you present. All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, they must follow these same procedures.
Native-born Israelites & foreigners are equal before the LORD & are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation.
The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.’ “
(37-41) “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord.
When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the LORD instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do.
The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands & be holy to your God.
I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the LORD your God!’ “
Numbers 16 (Summarized & NKJV)
(1-3) A rebellion of men & leaders rise up against Moses.
(4-7) Moses falling to his face, says God will demonstrate who is Holy & who is not.
(8-17) The rebellious leaders challenge Moses again.
(16 -19 ) “And Moses said to Korah, ‘Tomorrow, you & all your company be present before the LORD –you and they, as well as Aaron. Let each take his censer and put incense in it, and each of you bring his censer before the LORD, two hundred & fifty censers; both you and Aaron, each with his censer.’
So every man took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of meeting with Moses & Aaron.
And Korah gathered all the congregation against them at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation.”
(20) “And the LORD spoke to Moses & Aaron, saying, ‘Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”
(26) “And he [Moses] spoke to the congregation, saying, ‘Depart now from the tents of these wicked men! Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.’
(27-40) “So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little children.
And Moses said: ‘By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will.
If these men die naturally like all men, or if they are visited by the common fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.
But if the LORD creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth & swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the LORD.’
Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them,
and the earth opened its mouth & swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods.
So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.
Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, ‘Lest the earth swallow us up also!’
And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, to pick up the censers out of the blaze, for they are holy, and scatter the fire some distance away. The censers of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar. Because they presented them before the LORD, therefore they are holy; and they shall be a sign to the children of Israel.’
So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned up had presented, and they were hammered out as a covering on the altar, to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the LORD, that he might not become like Korah & his companions, just as the LORD had said to him through Moses.”
(41-50) “On the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses & Aaron, saying, ‘You have killed the people of the LORD.’
Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses & Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.
Then Moses & Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces.
So Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.’
Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people.
And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.
Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident.
So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.
Numbers 17 (Summarized & KJV)
(1-13) God tells Moses to bring rods (staffs) into the tabernacle. God tells Moses that He will choose a rod to bless & that rod will blossom. The rod of Aaron for the house of Levi is the rod that God blessed. The LORD told Moses to use this rod to remind His people not to grumble & murmur against God’s work.
Numbers 18 1-7 (MSG)
“God said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons, along with your father’s family, are responsible for taking care of sins having to do with the Sanctuary; you and your sons are also responsible for sins involving the priesthood.
So enlist your brothers of the tribe of Levi to join you and assist you and your sons in your duties in the Tent of Testimony.
They will report to you as they go about their duties related to the Tent, but they must not have anything to do with the holy things of the Altar under penalty of death – both they and you will die!
They are to work with you in taking care of the Tent of Meeting, whatever work is involved in the Tent. Outsiders are not allowed to help you.
‘Your job is to take care of the Sanctuary and the Altar so that there will be no more outbreaks of anger on the People of Israel.
I personally have picked your brothers, the Levites, from Israel as a whole. I’m giving them to you as a gift, a gift of God, to help with the work of the Tent of Meeting.
But only you and your sons may serve as priests, working around the Altar and inside the curtain. The work of the priesthood is my exclusive gift to you; it cannot be delegated – anyone else who invades the Sanctuary will be executed.”
It can be difficult for me to trust God.
In some ways, my heart rises against God like the rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16.
I reject the blessings that God has brought to me, because I can’t see “the promised land” or the land “flowing with milk and honey.”
I want a faith like Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua. I want to be a leader like Moses. I have begged God to give me this strength/faith & I still do beg.
Yet, in my own flesh, I am often more like Korah. Rebellious. Disobedient. When God is quite, when God doesn’t speak, I forget so quickly that He loves me eternally.
I start finding my own path, trying to fix my own problems. Yet, God requires faith above all things.
Faith demonstrates trust & trust demonstrates LOVE.
God, help me to LOVE YOU MORE.
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