Numbers 14:18  The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19  Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20  And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21  But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
23  Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
24  But 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.

Today is a sad day for Israel. The government decided to agree to a ceasefire with a terrorist organization that has openly declared “from the river to the sea”. This is very clear evidence of the failure of democracy. Israel has a very fragile government. The families and friends of the hostages were able to put enough pressure on the government to cause them to cave. Of course the hostages are human beings. Of course it is important to get them back to Israel safely, if possible. However, to embolden the enemy in order to maybe get a few people home, is not worth it. Beside the internal weakness of the government, there was also much pressure put on Israel by Canada and the U.S. to make a deal with terrorists. “Islamophobia”, a made up thing, is of far greater concern to the wicked world, than the peace of Jerusalem.
There will no doubt be people who would not agree with me, and that is the way life is. We need to get away from the secular mindset and into a Biblical mindset. The problem with Israel is bigger than Hamas. Their problem is with God and until they deal with their rebellion against Him, they will not know His peace. We need to continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. As we continue our refutation of the false doctrine of second chances, we can see that God operates differently than we do. He is much wiser than we are.
In our text today we look at another example of God’s justice that is far better than man’s bleeding heart. God brought the nation of Israel out of Egyptian bondage in a mighty way. Some time after they were safely on the other side of the Red Sea, God directed Moses to choose 12 men, one from each tribe, to go and investigate the land of Canaan. They were told to go and see what the land was like. These men were not armed. They were strangers coming into a strange land. No doubt they would have looked different than the people of that land. These men were protected by God. There is no better protection than that provided by the LORD.
You can read more about this account in the surrounding verses. These men came back from their search of the land and they agreed that the land was a land flowing with milk and honey. They saw the things that God wanted them to see. They also saw the people of the land. There were giants in the land.
The nation of Israel had just been delivered from a land that for all intents and purposes, had “giants” in it. They were kept under the thumb of the Pharaoh and they could not leave the land. They had no way of getting out of that situation. God demonstrated His power in giving them freedom from that external bondage. They left with riches they had not earned. The Egyptians poured treasures upon them as they left. They also saw God part the waters of the Red Sea and bring them across on dry ground. When they arrived on the other side, God closed up the waters and the Egyptian army was drowned in that Red Sea. Not one Jew was lost in that Sea. Not one of the Egyptians chasing after them managed to make it across that Sea.
The Israelites had no reason to doubt that God was able to bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, safely. The giants there were nothing for God to deal with.
Ten of the spies came back and focussed on the giants. They were convinced they could never live in that land. Two men, Joshua and Caleb saw the promise of God and they believed God was well able to bless them in the land He promised them. The ten spies were able to convince the congregation to side with them and wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb. God did not allow that to happen. We see the failure of the democratic mindset here. The majority of the people did not believe God. In fact they accused God of deceiving them. They did not want to follow God. It was the minority, and a very small minority that were on the right side. They were in a physical minority, but they were in a spiritual majority.
God decreed that the rebels in that congregation would not enter the land of Canaan. That was the majority of the adults. God loved those rebels more than any man ever could. However His holiness and greatness was of far greater importance than sparing the lives of a large number of rebels. Their children would enter the land, but that entire generation would die in the wilderness. The nation of Israel spent the next 40 years wandering in that wilderness awaiting God’s timing to kill an entire generation off and prepare the next generation to enter the land.
There was no second chance for those people. They chose to reject God’s promise and they chose to try to spread their unbelief to all the people. In Numbers 14:40 the people came back to Moses and acknowledged their sin. They were now ready to go into the land that God had promised them. However, it was too late. There was no entering for them. They had their opportunity and they blew it.
God knew these people’s hearts. He knew their repentance was not sincere. He had already observed their behaviour. They were not interested in serving the Lord. They were selfish, thinking only of themselves. They had a distorted view of reality and a distorted view of God. God wanted their children to have a better opportunity to know Him.
Some might want to argue and say that the people were just recently released from bondage and surely God could give them some breaks. Unbelief is sin. God does not accept unbelief. He shows us that there are dire consequences to the sin of unbelief. There was no second chance for this entire generation of adults, except for 2 men, Joshua and Caleb.
Again, we see that it is wise to believe what God says, rather than trying to psychologize truth into oblivion. I personally do not want to live for all eternity under the same corrupt system that runs our country. I am here for a short time and then I am going to a place that has no corruption. Not no corruption according to human terms, but according to God’s terms. I am looking forward to that final move. Until then I will continue to try to help others to see the need to also believe what the Bible says, and forget about putting a human spin on It.

Luke 11:28  But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

Let us be keepers of God’s Word.
Pastor Bartel