Forty Years for Forty Days 

     The people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. - Numbers chap. 13

     Joshua and Caleb said, "we can." The other leaders said, "we can't." 

     All the people ... raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, 'If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert!'

     Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt? We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. The assembly talked about stoning them. 

     The Lord said to Moses, How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?

     God said he would strike them down with a plague and make Moses into a nation greater and stronger. Moses was thinking of the Lord's reputation, not his own.  

     Moses noted the progress so far, and said to God, The nations who have heard this report about you will say, 'The Lord was not able ... so he slaughtered them...' 

     He quoted the Lord's own declaration back to him: The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

     The Lord replied, I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, not one of the men who saw my glory and miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me ... will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 

     Then the Lord ruled, For forty years - one year for each of the 40 days you explored the land - you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you. 

 Tomorrow: Even Moses Stumbles