Day 60: Numbers 14-15

Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's March the 1st and we'll be looking at Numbers 14 -15.

Now today's reading records one of the most decisive and tragic turning points in the story of Israel.

The land is before them, the promise has been confirmed, the fruit has been tasted and yet in Numbers 14 -15, fear overrules faith.

A redeemed people stand at the edge of fulfillment and they choose retreat instead of trusting God and what follows is sobering.

Judgment and mercy are intertwined, discipline is announced and covenant hope is preserved but it is preserved through pain.

Now Numbers 14 begins with a collective panic. The nation lift up their voices and weep and they accuse

God of bringing them into the wilderness in order to kill them. They speak openly of appointing a brand new leader who's going to help them return back to their chains in Egypt.

This isn't just anxiety, this is rebellion. Joshua and Caleb at this point plead with him and they say, no, the land is good, the

Lord is with us, do not fear. And yet the crowd talks about stoning them for their faith and God declares a judgment on the people.

He says the generation that refused to believe is not going to enter the land and then 40 days of spying is going to become 40 years of wandering in the wilderness until everyone from that generation is dead.

One year for every single day of unbelief. The wilderness is going to become their graveyard.

Now Moses intercedes for the people and he appeals to God's character and his covenant name and his steadfast love and God does pardon the nation.

The nation is not going to be completely wiped out but forgiveness is not going to erase their consequences.

They doubted God and they will not see the land of promise. Their children is going to inherit what they themselves forfeited.

And then as numbers 14 comes to a close, numbers 15 shifts unexpectedly. After announcing decades of wandering in the wilderness,

God gives laws about offerings to be brought when they enter the land, not if, when.

Which is an astounding promise of grace. Then instructions are given for unintentional sin.

Then after that, a man gathering wood defiantly on the Sabbath is judged and the chapter ends with the command to wear tassels on their garments as visible reminders of God's commandments.

Why? Because they so easily forget them. So even in discipline, God's covenant with this people is continuing on in grace.

Now as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. What does unbelief actually cost and how does

God preserve it despite our failure? Numbers 14 through 15 shows that refusal to trust

God does carry consequences but it doesn't cancel God's covenant promises. And in that, a central pattern in these chapters is forgiveness through discipline.

God pardons the people under Moses' intercession so that they're not annihilated but the outcome changes.

The inheritance is delayed to the next generation. An entire generation of people lose their future because of their disobedience and rebellion.

And this is deeply instructive for us as well because forgiveness doesn't always remove our earthly consequences.

God's mercy spares the ultimate destruction that we would face by going to hell but discipline still shapes our current moment and our current trajectory and even our future.

And yet I want you to notice the remarkable stability of God's covenant promises.

Immediately after announcing 40 years of wandering, God speaks about future worship in the land because he is going to still give them what he promised.

He gives instruction as though their entry is certain. Unbelief delays the promise, yes, but it doesn't defeat it.

So in that way, God's purposes are sturdier than our human fear and even our human rebellion.

The tassels on their garments become daily reminders. Remember who you are, remember whose you are, and remember what that God has promised you.

In the wilderness, it may last a lifetime, but God's covenant stands forever. Now as you look at Numbers 14 through 15, you have to reckon with the fact that it points directly to Jesus.

Because Moses intercedes for the people and judgment is restrained in the same way Christ intercedes for us and judgment is absorbed permanently and totally.

Moses pleads for mercy and then the nation survives. Christ is going to bear the wrath and secure eternal redemption for his people forever.

Where Israel refuses to enter into the land of rest because of their unbelief,

Christ opens up a greater rest through his own blood and obedience. Where a generation falls short because of fear,

Christ remains faithful unto death and will bring his people successfully as the true and greater

Joshua into the land of promise. And even the tassels, which were external reminders for the people to obey under the new covenant, the spirit guides us and writes his law upon our hearts so that we do not continue to despise and dishonor

God. The promise doesn't rest on our human ability, it rests on the divine faithfulness that is fulfilled in Jesus.

He is the obedient son where Israel failed. He secures the inheritance when we never would have.

And as you read Numbers 14 through 15 today, I want you to feel the weight of a generation who chose fear over faith and the tragic consequences that came from that.

Now tomorrow we're going to see rebellion intensify and authority being challenged even further and the earth itself is going to respond in defiance against God's appointed order.

But with that, read your Bible carefully, devotionally and joyfully and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow.