The Review and Herald
November 5, 1903
The Twelve Spies
(Concluded.)
In their rebellion the people had exclaimed, “Would God we had died in this wilderness!” Now this prayer was to be granted. The Lord declared: “As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward.... But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.” And of Caleb he said, “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.” As the spies had spent forty days in their journey, so the hosts of Israel were to wander in the wilderness forty years. RH November 5, 1903, par. 1
When Moses made known to the people the divine decision, their rage was changed to mourning. They knew that their punishment was just. The ten unfaithful spies, divinely smitten by the plague, perished before the eyes of all Israel; and in their fate the people read their own doom. RH November 5, 1903, par. 2
Now they seemed sincerely to repent of their sinful conduct; but they sorrowed because of the result of their evil course, rather than from a sense of their ingratitude and disobedience. When they found that the Lord did not relent in his decree, their self-will again arose, and they declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In commanding them to retire from the land of their enemies, God tested their apparent submission, and proved that it was not real. They knew that they had deeply sinned in allowing their rash feelings to control them, and in seeking to slay the spies who had urged them to obey God; but they were only terrified to find that they had made a fearful mistake, the consequences of which would prove disastrous to themselves. Their hearts were unchanged, and they only needed an excuse to occasion a similar outbreak. This presented itself when Moses, by the authority of God, commanded them to go back into the wilderness. RH November 5, 1903, par. 3
The decree that Israel was not to enter Canaan for forty years was a bitter disappointment to Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua; yet without a murmur they accepted the divine decision. But those who had been complaining of God's dealings with them, and declaring that they would return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the blessings which they had despised were taken from them. They had complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep. Had they mourned for their sin when it was faithfully laid before them, this sentence would not have been pronounced; but they mourned for the judgment; their sorrow was not repentance, and could not secure a reversing of their sentence. RH November 5, 1903, par. 4
The night was spent in lamentation; but with the morning came a hope. They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden them go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when he directed them to retreat, they were equally rebellious. They determined to seize upon the land and possess it; it might be that God would accept their work and change his purpose toward them. RH November 5, 1903, par. 5
God had made it their privilege and their duty to enter the land at the time of his appointment; but through their willful neglect that permission had been withdrawn. Satan had gained his object in preventing them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory by leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted the power of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of Canaan: yet now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish the work independent of divine aid. “We have sinned against the Lord,” they cried; “we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.” So terribly blinded had they become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to “go up and fight.” It was not his purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to his commands. RH November 5, 1903, par. 6
Though their hearts were unchanged, the people had been brought to confess the sinfulness and folly of their rebellion at the report of the spies. They now saw the value of the blessing which they had so rashly cast away. They confessed that it was their own unbelief which had shut them out from Canaan. “We have sinned,” they said, acknowledging that the fault was in themselves, and not in God, whom they had so wickedly charged with failing to fulfill his promises to them. Though their confession did not spring from true repentance, it served to vindicate the justice of God in his dealings with them. RH November 5, 1903, par. 7
The Lord still works in a similar manner to glorify his name by bringing men to acknowledge his justice. When those who profess to love him complain of his providence, despise his promises, and, yielding to temptation, unite with evil angels to defeat the purposes of God, the Lord often so overrules circumstances as to bring these persons where, though they may have no real repentance, they will be convinced of their sin, and will be constrained to acknowledge the wickedness of their course, and the justice and goodness of God in his dealings with them. It is thus that God sets counter-agencies at work to make manifest the works of darkness. And though the spirit which prompted to the evil course is not radically changed, confessions are made that vindicate the honor of God, and justify his faithful reprovers, who have been opposed and misrepresented. Thus it will be when the wrath of God shall be finally poured out. When “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all,” he will also “convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.” Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of his condemnation. RH November 5, 1903, par. 8
Regardless of the divine sentence, the Israelites prepared to undertake the conquest of Canaan. Equipped with armor and weapons of war, they were, in their own estimation, fully prepared for conflict; but they were sadly deficient in the sight of God and his sorrowful servants. When, nearly forty years later, the Lord directed Israel to go up and take Jericho, he promised to go with them. The ark containing his law was borne before their armies. His appointed leaders were to direct their movements, under the divine supervision. With such guidance, no harm could come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark, and without Moses, they went out to meet the armies of the enemy. RH November 5, 1903, par. 9
The trumpet sounded an alarm, and Moses hastened after them with the warning, “Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword.” RH November 5, 1903, par. 10
The Canaanites had heard of the mysterious power that seemed to be guarding this people, and of the wonders wrought in their behalf; and they now summoned a strong force to repel the invaders. The attacking army had no leader. No prayer was offered that God would give them the victory. They set forth with the desperate purpose to reverse their fate or to die in battle. Though untrained in war, they were a vast multitude of armed men, and they hoped by a sudden and fierce assault to bear down all opposition. They presumptuously challenged the foe that had not dared to attack them. RH November 5, 1903, par. 11
The Canaanites had stationed themselves upon a rocky tableland reached only by difficult passes and a steep and dangerous ascent. The immense numbers of the Hebrews could only render their defeat more terrible. They slowly threaded the mountain paths, exposed to the deadly missiles of their enemies above. Massive rocks came thundering down, marking their path with the blood of the slain. Those who reached the summit, exhausted with their ascent, were fiercely repulsed, and driven back with great loss. The field of carnage was strewn with the bodies of the dead. The army of Israel was utterly defeated. Destruction and death was the result of that rebellious experiment. RH November 5, 1903, par. 12
Forced to submission at last, the survivors “returned, and wept before the Lord;” but “the Lord would not hearken to their voice.” By their signal victory, the enemies of Israel, who had before awaited with trembling the approach of that mighty host, were inspired with confidence to resist them. All the reports they had heard concerning the marvelous things that God had wrought for his people, they now regarded as false, and they felt that there was no cause for fear. That first defeat of Israel, by inspiring the Canaanites with courage and resolution, had greatly increased the difficulties of the conquest. Nothing remained for Israel but to fall back from the face of their victorious foes, into the wilderness, knowing that here must be the grave of a whole generation.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 391-394. RH November 5, 1903, par. 13