Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Numbers 14-15, Psalm 90.
Israel to God:
Dear God, we don't want your promised land. We have heard of the dangers ahead, and we don't trust you to bring us safely through them. Therefore, we are going to replace Moses with a new leader, and head back to Egypt. (my own paraphrase)
Yesterday, we saw talk of mutiny in the ranks, but today we are witness to full fledged apostasy. For the second time the people have completely offended holy God. First, in the worship of the Golden Calf, and here in their rejection of God and his promised land; by renouncing God, establishing new leaders, and their determination to head back to Egypt.
God responds to Moses:
And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses intercedes on behalf of Israel, and God honors his prayer. However, none of these adult Israelites will live to see the promised land. They will wander in the wilderness until the last of them are dead. Only their children, Joshua, and Caleb will enter the land.
Moses is an archetype of Messiah, and here we see Moses the mediator.
We are only 60 days into our journey of God's words to us, and it is already very clear that God is infinitely holy, and has no room for evil/sin in his presence.
As we begin to understand what it means to fear God, we must understand that without Moses mediating on behalf of Israel, they all would have met their certain doom. This is certainly something to be afraid of.
Furthermore, to prevent certain death, God has also been prescribing his sacrificial system so that their sins might be atoned through the death of pure sacrifices.
In spite of all of the signs provided, Israel still turns their backs on God. Hard to understand, isn't it?
Before we get too haughty, let us all remind ourselves that without Messiah's perfect sacrifice, and our living in the age of the church, we too might be facing the holy fury of God.
The New Testament talks a great deal of salvation. Our post-modern world has lost the understanding of what we are saved from! Messiah saves us from the righteous wrath of an infinitely holy God, who rightly wages certain destruction toward evil.
Fortunately, God is also gracious, and slow to anger.
Do you see this?
