Numbers 14: Say No to Unbelief, Choose Trust

Introduction

"God is not your security blanket. He isn't there just to comfort you and lift your spirits." That is how Olivier Charvin opens his message, right after Communion. God is not a lucky charm either, assigned to carry out your plans, nor a senile God stuck far in the past and out of touch with reality. Communion has just reminded us who he is: the holy God who condemns evil, the God of love who took the place of his people on the cross, the wise God, the mighty God who holds the whole universe in his hands, and the God who is near, who became man.

In the church's series on the book of Numbers, the people have arrived at the promised land. In chapter 13, the spies brought back an alarming report. The people were afraid, longed for Egypt, and wanted to appoint a leader to go back. They rejected a God they saw as weak and unable to sustain them.

Numbers 14 tells what happens next: God's response, Moses' intercession, the pardon granted, the consequences that remain, and then one last mistake by the people. The preacher draws five applications from it, with a clear call: choose to trust God.

Outline of the Message

1. "Yahweh is with us"

Moses and Aaron fall on their faces. Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes: the land is "exceedingly good," and if Yahweh delights in them, he will give it to them (Numbers 14:5-9).
"Their protection is removed from over them." The preacher's rendering: these people have no spiritual protection. "To fear these people is to forget God. It is to rebel against God."
To these words of great wisdom, the people respond by wanting to stone their leaders, as if they judged them to be blasphemers.
God steps in: "How long will they not believe in me?" His patience has run out. The people have not kept the commitments of the covenant, and God announces that he will start over from Moses, who is also a descendant of Abraham.
A thought for us: "Yahweh is with us" recalls Immanuel, "God with us," and Jesus' promise: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Jesus also promised another Comforter who stays with us forever.
"We have a God who came all the way to us. We have a God who lives in each of his children." This is a powerful encouragement in the middle of our struggles.

2. Moses intercedes for the glory of God

Moses gives God two reasons not to wipe out the people (Numbers 14:13-19).
The first is his glory. The nations would say: Yahweh did not have the power to bring this people into the land. Moses is not interceding for himself, but for God's reputation.
The second is the promises. Moses relies on what God has said about himself: "slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness," he forgives without clearing the guilty. He does not base his plea on his own impressions.
God could have destroyed the people outright. He acts as if he wants Moses to intercede. He leaves room, as when he sends Jonah to announce judgment on Nineveh instead of destroying everything: a time for repentance.
Our prayers can have the same tone: "Your name be made holy." We pray that new people will recognize that the God revealed in Christ is truly God, for deliverance, for victory over sin.
"God is not my servant. He is not even my equal. He is the master, my master. He is glorified when he answers my prayers and when he doesn't, because he is at the center."

3. God forgives, but sin has consequences

"I have pardoned them according to your word." But those who saw God's glory and tested him ten times will not see the land. Caleb, who has a different spirit, will enter it (Numbers 14:20-38).
Forty days of exploring become forty years in the wilderness, a year for each day. The ten spies who slandered the land die of a plague. Only Joshua and Caleb remain alive.
How should we understand this pardon? God does not treat the people according to his justice, but according to his grace. The ten spies, princes clothed with authority, were at the origin of the rebellion and they lied: that is justice. The rest of the people stay alive.
God forgives, but he does not remove every consequence. The preacher takes the example of someone who has used drugs: God can forgive that excess and yet damage may remain in the body.
God still allows a delay. Nearly 40 years during which everyone can return to him, ask forgiveness, and agree to change how they live and think: "That's called repentance."
And God's plan goes on: the children will know the land (verse 31). They will not be models of faith, as the book of Judges shows. "In spite of me, in spite of us, in spite of a church that is beautiful but sometimes quite weak, God fulfills his plan."
"God's grace is wonderful. Yes, but it can't be an excuse to sin." God's grace is never weakness: he calls again and again, and he is also the judge of those who refuse to rely on him.

4. Five mistakes of a people who go up without God

The next day, the people want to go up and attack: "We have sinned." Moses warns them: Yahweh will not be with you. They persist, the ark and Moses stay in the camp, and the Amalekites and the Canaanites defeat them as far as Hormah (Numbers 14:39-45).
First mistake: they downplay sin. Not a word about going back to Egypt, about unbelief, about the plan to stone the leaders. "Come on, let's forget it, let's act as if nothing happened."
Second mistake: they downplay God's word. God commanded them to turn back toward the Red Sea (verse 25), and the people set off in the opposite direction. They have no desire to acknowledge God as king.
Third mistake: they confuse remorse with repentance. Remorse says: "I'm sad about the consequences sin has on me." Repentance says: "I'm sad that I drifted away from God."
To illustrate, the preacher imagines ("this is fictional") having embezzled thousands of francs by hacking a website. He feels remorse because he was caught, or because his conscience won't let him rest. Repentance is acknowledging: "I sought an idol more than God," and wanting to return to him with all your heart.
Fourth mistake: they keep disobeying. One commentator sums it up this way: the people refused to enter the land out of unbelief, then tried to enter it still out of unbelief.
Fifth mistake: pride and unbelief. Doubt is often an emotion. "Faith is: I choose to believe, not: I feel that I believe." Unbelief is the choice to oppose God, thinking "in all modesty" that my opinion is better than his. Fighting without God leads to ruin.

5. Remorse or repentance: what makes you sad?

First application: unbelief leads to rebellion. Grumbling, complaining, dissatisfaction, then rebellion: it is a spiral.
God leads me down paths I don't choose. He is beyond me and remains partly incomprehensible to my limited mind. "He is God and I want to choose to trust him."
Communion is a means of grace to feed faith and fight unbelief. Each time, we acknowledge Christ, dead and risen, as the foundation of our faith and renew this commitment before God. Otherwise, we slide toward rebellion.
Second application: repentance or regret. Am I saddened first by the consequences of my sin, or because I am not walking by the Spirit who lives in me and according to my new nature as a child of God?
The preacher mentions a child forced to ask his brother for forgiveness, who says a "sorry" that mostly shows how angry he is. The question is about the heart: am I turned toward myself or toward God?
"How often do I pray about a material matter, money, health, circumstances?" That is legitimate. But how often do I pray that God will transform my heart and make it more receptive to the Spirit's work?

6. Fighting on the strength of Christ's victory

The people were to conquer the land gradually. The Bible also presents the Christian life as a fight, where we rely on God's power: "Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
At the cross, Christ wiped out the record that condemned us and disarmed the rulers and authorities, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:14-15). Like the giants of Canaan, the devil and demons can be impressive, but they have no power before God.
For us, going back to Egypt means denying Christ and refusing the spiritual fight. Taking possession of the land means seizing the blessing and choosing to trust God.
Some situations put us in a position of weakness, like the people who went up without God: refusing to forgive, which gives the adversary an advantage (2 Corinthians 2); uncontrolled anger (Ephesians 4); in marriage, withholding yourself from your spouse as a pressure tactic (1 Corinthians 7); keeping unconfessed sins.
Another situation: refusing a truth about God, and leaving room for the father of lies (John 8:44). For example, refusing the grace granted to someone who did a great deal of harm and repented at the end of his life, or refusing to accept that a very likable person who totally rejects Christ could be condemned. "I refuse to believe what God tells me; that is a form of unbelief."

7. Sin is costly, but God fulfills his plan

Fourth application: every sin is always very serious, as God's reaction shows. The preacher mentions the way we use our eyes, the idea that my time and money belong to me with no accountability to God, secret sin, the sins of ordinary life.
Sin makes other people suffer: children wandered for years because of the previous generation. Some choices commit us for a long time, like marrying outside the covenant: it can be fully forgiven, but the consequences remain.
These passages are not there to crush us with fear, but to warn us (1 Corinthians 10). And if I have let opportunities pass out of pride, above all I must not add one sin to another: "I come humbly to God in repentance, in trust, and I want to rely on his grace."
Fifth application: God fulfills his plan. The people will enter the land in the next generation. The Messiah was born from this rebellious people. God even used the wickedness of the men who sent Jesus to the cross.
"God will fulfill his plan with or without you." The question is not what God will do, but whether I enter into dependence on him or miss out on the blessings.
Despite a rebellious, shaken world, despite the bad news, the end of the story is already written. "The human future without God is dark. The future with God is bound to be bright." Christ has won the fight and is leading his people to the land of true rest in his presence.
The preacher's conclusion: "God shows grace. Let's choose to trust him and to follow his commandments day after day."

Key Takeaways

God is not a security blanket, a lucky charm, or a servant: he is the master, and he is with us.
Like Moses, we can pray for the glory of God, relying on what he has said about himself.
God forgives, but he doesn't always remove the consequences of sin. His grace is never weakness.
Remorse looks at the consequences for me; repentance looks to God. Unbelief is a choice, tied to pride.
God fulfills his plan with or without you. Christ has already won the victory.

Personal Application

In your prayers, do you seek your comfort first or the glory of God?
The last time you asked for forgiveness, were you saddened by the consequences for you or by your distance from God?
Is there a truth in the Word that you refuse to believe because it disturbs you?
Are you giving the adversary an advantage through a refusal to forgive, uncontrolled anger, or an unconfessed sin?
Today, what concrete step of trust can you take where you were tempted to "go up without God"?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does God say "I have pardoned" in Numbers 14 while still punishing the people?

According to Olivier Charvin, God does not treat the people according to his justice but according to his grace. The ten spies who lied, princes clothed with authority, are struck down. The rest of the people stay alive: this pardon is a deferred judgment, a grace period of nearly 40 years for a people who are not yet repentant. God forgives, but he does not remove certain consequences of sin: this generation will not enter the land, but their children will.

What is the difference between remorse and repentance?

Remorse is being sad about the consequences sin has on oneself. Repentance is being sad about having drifted away from God and not having glorified him, and wanting to return to him with all your heart. In Numbers 14, the people only wanted to cancel the bad consequences of their rebellion, without returning to God.

Is unbelief the same thing as doubt?

No. Doubt is often an emotion that sweeps over us when we face questions and fears. Faith is the choice to believe, not the act of feeling. Unbelief opposes this choice: it is deciding to oppose God while knowing what he has said. It is tied to pride, because it amounts to thinking that my opinion is better than God's.