BSF Study Questions The Life of Moses Lesson 20, Day 5: Numbers 14:20-45

Summary of passage: The Lord forgave His people as Moses asked Him too. However, the punishment for disobedience is that none of them will see the Promised Land except Caleb. God tells His people to turn around. The Lord tells Moses except Caleb and Joshua all will die who grumbled against Him–He will grant their wish to die in the desert. The children will inherit the land but only after wandering for 40 years–one year for each day the Israelites explored the land.

God struck down and killed the men who were responsible for the bad report. The Israelites repented and went to fight anyways. But this was disobeying God as well for He has ordered them to turn back. They were defeated as Moses and the ark remained encamped.

Questions:

10a) Yes. Verse 20

b) Nevertheless

c) “Not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times–not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers.” The Lord “will do the very things I heard you say: In this desert 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.” “Your children will be shepherds here for 40 years, suffering for your unfaithfulness.”

Basically, they will all die without entering the Promised Land and they are sentenced to wander the desert for 40 years to wait for them all to die and as punishment to their children.

11a) No. People today have a victim mentality and an entitlement mentality. They deserve only good things and if something bad happens to them, it’s someone else’s fault and thus they should be taken care of and given payment because of it.

b) Yes. Yes.

12a) By punishing the instigators. God struck down the men who reported the false report and thus were responsible for leading the others into sin.

b) They disobeyed AGAIN by deciding to go and take the land when the Lord had already told them they were to turn around. They were warned by Moses that the Lord was not with them, but they didn’t seem to care–they did it anyways and were defeated because of it.

Conclusions: Loved Lesson 20. Great stories. Great moments of people’s disobedience, God’s grace and forgiveness, and consequences of disobedience. In Numbers 13-14, we see the whole of the Bible condensed into two chapters. All that’s missing here is Jesus.

End Notes: Here we see the power of prayer as God says He has forgiven the people because Moses asked. God listens and He responds.

God recognized Caleb and rewarded him in front of all. The people on the other hand have more work to do.

Note even Moses and Aaron is included in those who won’t enter the Promised Land. So they knew. I wonder what they were thinking.

No excuse will work here–the people rejected the land and now they must pay the consequences. Even when they decided to obey, their hearts were not in it–they did not trust the Lord. They only felt sorry for what they did. And they paid the price.

See Psalm 95:7b-11, Psalm 106:24-27, & Nehemiah 9:16-17 for more.

They will wander only 38 years since they have already been in the desert for 2 years.

Map of Hormah and possible Route through the Desert: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bc/scriptures/content/english/bible-maps/images/03990_000_bible-map-2.jpg

Great map of where the Israelites are headed next: http://fgcp.org/system/files/images/Promise-Land-Era.jpg

Close-up of Hormah: http://www.keyway.ca/gif/hormah.gif