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"But all the congregation bade stone them with stones . . . . . And the Lord said unto
Moses, How long will this people PROVOKE ME?" (Numb. 14: 10, 11).
Their provoking was largely due to their unbelief, for the passage continues, "How
long will it be ere they believe Me?" The Lord threatened to disinherit and smite the
people, but upon the prayer of Moses He said, "I have pardoned according to thy word".
The people therefore were a pardoned people. But does this mean that they did go up
and possess the land? No, for after pronouncing the gracious pardon the Lord added:
"But as truly as I live . . . . . surely they shall not see the land . . . . . neither shall
any of them that provoked Me see it" (Numb. 14: 21-23; see also II Sam. 12: 10-12;
Psa. 99: 8).
Here we see the difference between "Hope" and "Prize".
In Numb. 14: 22 the Lord declares that already this people had tempted Him ten
times. The Companion Bible gives the `ten times' as follows:
(1)
At Red Sea (Exod. 14: 11, 12).
(2)
At Marah (Exod. 15: 23, 24).
(3)
Wilderness of Sin (Exod. 16: 2).
(4)
About manna (Exod. 16: 20).
(5)
About manna (Exod. 16: 27).
(6)
At Rephidim (Exod. 17: 1-3).
(7)
At Horeb (golden calf) (Exod. 32:).
(8)
At Taberah (Numb. 11: 1).
(9)
At Kibroth Hataavah (Numb. 11: 4).
(10)
At Kadesh (Numb. 14: 2).
While we must honour those who have taken God at His Word, and have collected
"ten" occasions in the history of Israel's wanderings where they "tempted" the Lord, we
must remember that there were other occasions both before and after Numb. 14: 22
when Israel provoked the Lord by their unbelief, and which form an essential part of
those Scriptures which have been written for our learning. Meribah (Exod. 17: 7) was
repeated (Num. 20: 7-13) with disastrous results to Moses himself (see verse 12).
I Cor. 10: enumerates some of the "provocations" of the wilderness, and introduces that
most extraordinary testimony to the fact that Christ was before His incarnation "The Lord
God" of Israel:
"Neither let us tempt CHRIST, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of
serpents" (I Cor. 10: 9).
Dr. John Lightfoot says "The nation of the Jews delighted mightily in the number
TEN, both in sacred and civil matters. A synagogue consisted not but of ten men at least,
and the number of those who comforted the mourners after the burial of the dead,
consisted of ten at the least. "Peradventure ten shall be found there" (Gen. 18: 32), said
Abraham and apparently reached the minimum. Jacob complained of his treatment at the