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The sentence of wandering for forty years in the wilderness pronounced upon Israel
until all that generation that had come out of Egypt with the exception of Caleb and
Joshua had died, provides another illustration:
"Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you
dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 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" (Numb. 14: 30, 31).
Ten of the twelve who went in to spy out the land brought up a SLANDER upon the
land (Numb. 14: 36). While there is no real connection between the words `espied' and
`despised' they look and sound enough alike to suggest a paronomasia. God espied the
land (Ezek. 20: 6) but many of the generation that came out of Egypt despised it. Coming
a little nearer to our times, we find this same word that is translated `despise" used in the
book of Samuel:
"They have not REJECTED thee, but they have REJECTED Me, that I should not
reign over them" (I Sam. 8: 7).
Saul, the people's choice, and the symbol of their rejection of the Lord, is himself
charged with rejecting the word of the Lord (I Sam. 15: 23-26), is reminded that rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft, and is himself `rejected' as King (I Sam. 16: 1); `refused' in
verse seven being the same in the original. The depth of this rejection can be estimated
when we read Lam. 3: 45:
"Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people",
and remember that this is often the estimate of the false seed of the true, as the Apostle
indicates, when he said:
"We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this
day" (I Cor. 4: 13).
When the raven was sent out of the Ark, seeing that it could feed on the carcasses that
floated everywhere after the Flood had done its work, as an unclean bird it found what
suited it. The dove however returned, finding no place for the sole of its foot and nothing
congenial to its nature. So the two seeds give occasional indication of their basic
character by the things that they `despise'. The culmination of this attitude is seen in the
despising and the rejecting of the Saviour Himself (Isa. 53: 3), and it is on those who are
`despisers' that the doom of Acts 13: 41 is pronounced. When Moses in his great
prophetic song saw that some of Israel would not bear the mark of being the children of
God (Deut. 32: 5) but were a perverse and crooked generation, he put his finger on the
root of the evil saying that they `lightly esteemed' the Rock of their salvation. They who
crucify unto themselves afresh the Son of God and put Him to an open shame, like Esau,
the profane person, find no room for repentance, the two passages, Heb. 6: and 12:,
being in true structural correspondence. In direct contrast with this act of despising the
Divine plan and provision is the delight taken in it by the true seed. If Numb. 14: tells
us that the ten spies together with those who agreed with them `despised' the land of