Matthew Henry Commentary Numbers 14
Matthew Henry Commentary
Numbers 14
Matthew Henry Commentary
Numbers 14
"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." — Numbers 14:1-4 (ASV)
Those who do not trust God continually vex themselves. The sorrow of the world worketh death. The Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in them reproached the Lord. They look back with causeless discontent. See the madness of unbridled passions, which makes people wasteful of what nature holds most dear: life itself.
They would rather wish to die as criminals under God's justice than to live as conquerors in his favor. At last, they resolve that instead of going forward to Canaan, they would go back to Egypt. Those who do not walk in God's counsels seek their own ruin. Could they expect God's cloud to lead them, or his manna to accompany them?
Suppose the difficulties of conquering Canaan were as they imagined; those of returning to Egypt were much greater. We complain of our place and lot, and we wish to change; but is there any place or condition in this world that does not have something in it to make us uneasy, if we are disposed to be so? The way to improve our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame.
See the folly of turning from the ways of God. But people press on to the certain fatal consequences of a sinful course.
"Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel." — Numbers 14:5-10 (ASV)
Moses and Aaron were astonished to see a people throw away their own mercies. Caleb and Joshua assured the people of the goodness of the land. They made little of the difficulties in the way of their gaining it. If people were convinced of the desirability of the gains of religion, they would not hesitate at its services.
Though the Canaanites dwelt in walled cities, their defense had departed from them. The other spies took notice of their strength, but these focused on their wickedness. No people can be safe when they have provoked God to leave them. Though Israel dwelt in tents, they were fortified.
While we have the presence of God with us, we need not fear the most powerful force against us. Sinners are ruined by their own rebellion. But those who, like Caleb and Joshua, faithfully stand for God, are certain to be taken under his special protection, and will be hidden from human rage, either under heaven or in heaven. (Numbers 14:11–19)
"And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." — Numbers 14:11-19 (ASV)
Moses made humble intercession for Israel. In this, he was a type of Christ, who prayed for those who spitefully used him. The pardon of a nation's sin is the turning away of the nation's punishment; and for that reason, Moses is so earnest here. Moses argued that, consistently with God's character and in his abundant mercies, he could forgive them.
"And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word: but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me, surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation. I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." — Numbers 14:20-35 (ASV)
The Lord granted Moses' prayer insofar as He did not immediately destroy the congregation. But disbelief in the promise forbids the benefit. Those who despise the pleasant land will be shut out of it. The promise of God would be fulfilled to their children.
They wished to die in the wilderness; God made their sin their ruin, took them at their word, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness. They were made to groan under the burden of their own sin, which was too heavy for them to bear. You will know my breach of promise—both its causes (that it is brought about by your sin, for God never leaves anyone until they first leave Him) and its consequences, which will bring about your ruin.
But your little ones, now under twenty years old, which you, in your unbelief, said should be a prey, them will I bring in. God will let them know that He can make a distinction between the guilty and the innocent, and cut them off without touching their children. Thus God would not utterly take away His loving kindness.
"And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly." — Numbers 14:36-39 (ASV)
Here is the sudden death of the ten evil spies. They sinned in bringing a slander upon the land of promise. Those greatly provoke God who misrepresent religion, raise dislike in people's minds toward it, or give an opportunity to those who seek one to do so.
Justly are murmurers made mourners. If they had mourned for the sin when they were faithfully reproved, the sentence would have been prevented; but as they mourned for the judgment only, it did them no good. There is in hell such mourning as this; but tears will not quench the flames, nor cool the tongue.
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