The Lord is not going to strike the entire camp with a plague, but He will pass sentence on the ten men who stirred the people to rebellion. If these ten men had returned from spying out the land of Canaan with faith-filled reports like Joshua and Caleb did, the assembly would not have fallen into such disbelief that they accused the Lord of intending to let all their soldiers be killed and their women and children taken captive. The assembly would not have proposed killing Moses and Aaron and then choosing a new leader to take them back to slavery in Egypt. The crime of these ten men is a capital crime in the Lord's eyes. They caused the people to speak out bitterly against the Lord who loves them and who is providing faithfully for them. They caused the people to prefer slavery in Egypt to freedom as a sovereign nation in the promised land. The Lord decides these ten men are too dangerous to be left alive because they will keep on stirring up strife and enticing their fellow man to turn away from the Lord.
"So the men Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it---these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord. Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived." (Numbers 14:36-38) What was the "bad report" these men spread? Was it that many of the cities were large and fortified by walls? No, this was true. Was it that some of the giant, warlike Anakim were in the land? No, this was true. Their bad report was that, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." (Numbers 13:31) The reason this is a bad report is that the Lord is on the side of Israel. Who is stronger than the Lord? No one! Therefore the people of Canaan are not stronger than the Israelites. This is why Caleb said, "We can certainly do it." (Numbers 13:30. This is why Joshua said, "The Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." (Numbers 14:9)
When the ten men told the people they weren't strong enough to take the promised land, what they were really saying was that the Lord wasn't strong enough. The ten men were attacking not only the power of the Lord, but also the integrity of the Lord, because the Lord made the promise on oath to Abraham that Abraham's descendants would be given this land and become a great nation in it. The ten men are saying, "The Lord's word is no good." In this moment in Chapter 14 the people are looking at and listening to the ten faithless men instead of looking at and listening to the Lord. Because the ten men hold too much sway over the people, and because there is a very real and present danger of the men inciting the assassination of Moses and Aaron, and because the people are ready to turn back to slavery instead of moving forward in faith, the Lord cannot allow the ten men to go on living. If He does, they will prevent the tribes of Israel becoming the nation of Israel. They will cause the Israelites to return to slavery in Egypt where, over time, they would assimilate into the Egyptian culture and eventually forsake the God of Abraham.
"When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying, 'Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised. Surely we have sinned!'" (Numbers 14:39-40)The people are shocked to learn the ten men have perished from the illness that suddenly struck them. Their shock turns to sorrow that they ever trusted the men at all. They realize the death of these men is the judgment of the Lord and now they know they were wrong to doubt the Lord and believe the bad report of the men. It's appropriate for them to feel sorry for doubting the Lord, and it's definitely appropriate for them to repent, but they are wrong for deciding that now they will go up and attack the inhabitants of the promised land. The reason this is an unwise decision is because the Lord has already sentenced them for their former faithlessness by declaring that forty years will pass before Israel takes possession of the promised land. And during that forty years, every man of fighting age who spoke against the Lord's ability to give them the land will perish in the wilderness. It's too late to say, "Now we will go up and fight for the land," because the Lord is not with the army at this time.
"But Moses said, 'Why are you disobeying the Lord's command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, He will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.'" (Numbers 14:41-43) Moses tries to prevent them from going to battle by reminding them what the Lord has said. They've repented of their previous rebellion, which is good, but they have entered a new rebellion. The Lord could not have been more clear when He said that the current generation of fighting men will not take possession of the land but that it will be the next generation to whom He will give it. In attempting to fight the Amalekites and Canaanites now, they are rebelling against God who plainly said He would not give success to the generation of Israel's soldiers who doubted Him: "In this wilderness your bodies will fall---every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against Me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun." (Numbers 14:29-30)
The army ignores Moses and forges ahead. "Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord's covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah." (Numbers 14:44-45) Moses remained in the camp because he knew the Lord was not with the army. Moses was not going to put his "seal of approval" on this doomed endeavor by going out with the troops. Also the ark of the covenant remained in the camp, signifying that the Lord was not with the army. Later in the Bible, when Israel is doing what's right by seeking the Lord's will before going into any battles, we'll find them taking the ark along with them to symbolize the Lord's presence in the army. But they aren't allowed to take it now, in Chapter 14, because the Lord is not with the army. Shame, defeat, injuries, and loss of life occur because the soldiers engage the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle during a time when they know the Lord isn't with Israel's soldiers. This didn't have to happen.
When our plans go awry it's important to stop and consider whether our plans were the Lord's plans to begin with. Did we forge ahead and do what we wanted without consulting Him? Did we make sure we were in the Lord's will or did we just assume we were in the right and that the Lord would back us up? The Lord is never obligated to "get on board" with what we're doing. On the contrary, we are obligated to get on board with Him. This is why the Bible instructs us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6) The smartest thing we could ever possibly do, before making any big decision, is to make sure this is the direction the Lord wants us to go. We cannot assume we are in the right, for, "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 14:12) We can't trust in human wisdom or follow our hearts because the human heart is "deceitful above all things". (Jeremiah 7:9) When we encounter defeat we must ask ourselves whether we brought it upon ourselves by going in a direction the Lord never intended us to go. If God is for us, no one can be against us. But if we've gotten out of the Lord's will and done a thing He never wanted us to do, we are responsible for our own defeat. The appropriate action to take is to feel sorry for our sin and confess it and repent of it, having learned that the best way to live victorious lives is to seek the Lord's will before making any big, potentially life-altering decisions.
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