Scripture Daily

Context No. 3618 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 14:1-5: in context

1All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness! 3Why does the LORD bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?” 4They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.” 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

Hearing the fearful report of the spies, the whole congregation weeps all night and turns on Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died back in Egypt or in the wilderness, and proposing to choose a leader and go back to Egypt. It is a stunning failure of faith.

On the very edge of the promised land, after all God's miracles, the deliverance from Egypt, the parted sea, the daily manna, they long to return to slavery rather than trust God for what lies ahead. Their fear has rewritten their memory: Egypt, the house of bondage, now seems safer than following God forward. This is exactly what unbelief does. It magnifies the danger ahead and romanticizes the bondage behind, until going backward looks better than trusting God onward. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, grieved at the people's refusal to trust. There is a warning here against the fear that longs to retreat to old chains rather than press on in faith to what God has promised.

When fear tempts me to retreat to old bondage rather than trust God forward, do I press on in faith, remembering what he has already done and what he has promised?

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