Numbers 14:20-23 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to your word:… I. THE EXTREMITY OF THE SENTENCE IS RECEDED FROM (ver. 20). "I have pardoned," so as not to cut them all off at once and disinherit them. See the power of prayer, and the delight God takes in putting an honour upon it. He designed a pardon, but Moses shall have the praise of obtaining it by prayer; it shall be done "according to thy word." Thus, as a prince, he hath power with God and prevails. See what encouragement God gives to our intercessions for others, that we may be public-spirited in prayer. See how ready God is to forgive sin, and how easy to be intreated. "Pardon," saith Moses (ver. 19); "I have pardoned," saith God (ver. 20). David found Him thus swift to show mercy (Psalm 32:5). He deals not with us after our sins. II. THE GLORIFYING OF GOD'S NAME IS IN GENERAL RESOLVED UPON" (ver. 21). It is said, it is sworn, "All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Moses in his prayer had showed a great concern for the glory of God. "Let Me alone," saith God, "to secure that effectually, and to advance it by this dispensation. All the world shall see how God hates sin even in His own people, and will reckon for it; and yet how gracious and merciful He is, and how slow to anger." Thus when our Saviour prayed, "Father, glorify Thy name," He was immediately answered, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28). Note, those that sincerely seek God's glory may be sure of what they seek. III. THE SIN OF THIS PEOPLE WHICH PROVOKED GOD TO PROCEED AGAINST THEM IS HERE AGGRAVATED (vers. 22, 27); it is not made worse than really it was, but is shown to be exceedingly sinful. It was an evil congregation, each bad, but altogether in congregation very bad. 1. They tempted God — tempted His power, whether He could help them in their straits; His goodness, whether He would; and His faithfulness, whether His promise would be performed. They tempted His justice, whether He would resent their provocations and punish them or no. They dared Him, and in effect challenged Him, as God doth the idols (Isaiah 41:23) to do good or do evil. 2. They murmured against Him. This is much insisted on (ver. 27). As they questioned what He would do, so they quarrelled with Him for everything He did or had done, continually fretting and finding fault. It doth not appear that they murmured at any of the laws or ordinances that God gave them, through they proved a heavy yoke; but they murmured at the conduct they were under and the provision made for them. Note, it is much easier to bring ourselves to the external services of religion and observe all the formalities of devotion than to live a life of dependence upon and submission to the Divine Providence in the course of our conversation. 3. They did this after they had seen God's miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness (ver. 2). They would not believe their own eyes, which were witnesses for God that He was in the midst of them of a truth. 4. They had repeated the provocations ten times, i.e., very often. God keeps an account how oft we repeat our provocations, and will sooner or later set them in order before us. 5. They had not hearkened to His voice, though He had again and again admonished them of their sin. IV. THE SENTENCE PASSED UPON THEM FOR THIS SIN. 1. That they should not see the promised land (ver. 2), nor come into it (ver. 30; Psalm 95:11). Note, unbelief of the promise is a forfeiture of the benefit of it. The promise of God should be fulfilled to their posterity, but not to them. 2. That they should immediately turn back into the wilderness (ver. 25). Their next remove should be a retreat; they must face about, and instead of going forward to Canaan, on the very borders of which they now were, they must withdraw towards the Red Sea again. "To-morrow turn ye"; that is, "Very shortly you shall be brought back to that vast howling wilderness which you are so weary of; and it is time to shift for your own safety, for the Amalakites lie in wait in the valley ready to attack you if you march forward." Of them they had been distrustfully afraid (Numbers 13:29), and now with them God justly frightened them. 3. That all those who were now grown up to men's estate should die in the wilderness; not all at once, but by degrees. They wished they might die in the wilderness, and God said "Amen" to their passionate wish, and made their sin their ruin. 4. That in pursuance of this sentence they should wander to and fro in the wilderness, like travellers that have lost themselves, for forty years, i.e., so long as to make it full forty years from their coming out of Egypt to their entrance into Canaan (vers. 33, 34). Thus long they were kept wandering — (1) To answer the number of the days in which the spies were searching the land. They were content to wait forty days for the testimony of men because they could not take God's word; and therefore justly are they kept forty years waiting for the performance of God's promise. (2) That hereby they might be brought to repentance, and find mercy with God in the other world, whatever became of them in this. (3) That they might sensibly feel what a dangerous thing it is for God's covenant people to break with Him. "Ye shall know My breach of promise, both the causes of it — that it is procured by your sin, for God never leaves any till they first leave Him; and the consequences of it — that it will produce your ruin. You are quite undone when you are thrown out of the covenant."(4) That a new generation might in this time be raised up, which could not be done all of a sudden. V. THE MERCY THAT WAS MIXED WITH THIS SEVERE SENTENCE. 1. Mercy to Caleb and Joshua; that though they should wander with the rest in the wilderness, yet they, and they only of all that were now above twenty years old, should survive the years of banishment and live to enter Canaan. 2. Mercy to the children even of these rebels. ( Matthew Henry, D. D..) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: |
    |