Numbers 14 records the tragic story of Israel’s decision to rebel against Yahweh and Moses. Twelve spies had been sent into the land to bring back a report to Israel. All twelve spies agreed: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 13:27). And they brought proof: “and this is its fruit” (13:27). But ten of the spies added: “Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. . . . We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we” (13:28, 31). The vast majority of the Israelites were persuaded by the report of the ten spies: “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has Yahweh brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’” (Numbers 14:1-3).

At this point, they decided to appoint a leader to take them back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the people, while Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and urged the people to trust in Yahweh and not rebel. The people responded by determining to kill Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb (14:10a). Suddenly, the glory of Yahweh appeared, saving Moses and the others. Yahweh suggested that He kill them all make a new nation from Moses (14:11-12), but Moses interceded for Israel, calling on the long-suffering Yahweh to pardon the people, as He had before (14:13-19). Yahweh pardoned their sin, but determined that the generation who rebelled would die in the wilderness for their unbelief and rebellion (14:20-35).

Israel had unrighteously determined death for Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb. They had decided to murder the servants of Yahweh. As such, the just penalty would seem to be death, something like capital punishment for a whole generation of foolish people. Though Yahweh had suggested to Moses that He strike them with pestilence, ending the nation instantly (14:12), Moses interceded for Israel with the result that Yahweh prescribed a different form of punishment, one that would preserve the nation and prepare for the future.

Occasional outbursts of extreme rebellion did bring instant judgment at various times, as the example of Korah, Dathan and Abiram shows (Numbers 16). But for most of the Israelites the judgment would have been very different. A man of 21 at the time of the rebellion at Kadesh could have lived for a little less than 40 more years until he was about 60. He could see his children and grandchildren and be with them as they grew up.

His life in the wilderness would have been hard from one perspective, for the wilderness was not a land flowing with milk and honey. It was, in the words of Moses, that “great and terrible wilderness” (Deuteronomy 1:19; cf. 2:7; 8:15; 32:10). However, that does not mean that daily life was worse than their life in Egypt, which was called an “iron furnace” (Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4), where they were oppressed with heavy labor.

On the contrary, when the Israelites left Egypt and entered the wilderness, Yahweh carried Israel as a man carries his son (Deuteronomy 1:31), a picture of tender fatherly care. After their rebellion, they had to march, but even then, Yahweh was “with” them, a formula of blessing: “For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7). During the whole time in the wilderness, Yahweh kept Israel “as the apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10).

In Deuteronomy, Moses emphasized the grace of Yahweh during the wilderness wandering: “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh your God chastens you” (Deuteronomy 8:5). Though the wilderness might be a terrifying place, “that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water” (Deuteronomy 8:15), nevertheless, Yahweh brought them water out of the flinty rock (8:15). However often they complained about the lack of water, Yahweh always gave them to drink, never leaving them to die of thirst.

The Israelites also complained of hunger, which had some basis in truth, for Yahweh allowed them to hunger in order to teach them: “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh” (Deuteronomy 8:3). For their whole wilderness journey, even before they reached Sinai, Yahweh had provided “bread from heaven” to feed them (Exodus 16:4). That meant that though they had to march in a wild wilderness, there was still a partial deliverance from the curse of the fall, for they did not really have to eat their bread in the sweat of their face (Genesis 3:19).

In addition to their basic needs of food and water, their clothes and sandals were preserved so that they did not have to make new clothes in a wilderness without the necessary material (Deuteronomy 29:5). Yahweh provided. Their feet did not even swell, in spite of all the marching (Deuteronomy 8:4).¹

In other words, the environment was severe, but Yahweh was not. He disciplined them like a loving Father. But to what end? Marching is the first thing in basic training. Israel was being trained as Yahweh’s army to bring covenantal judgment on the land of Canaan for its rebellion against Yahweh and all the abominations they committed in the land. Sodom and Gomorrah had been judged directly and miraculously. The rest of Canaan would be judged through Yahweh’s people, though miracles continued to be essential to Yahweh’s leading.

“Capital punishment” for Israel was life-imprisonment in the wilderness, but life imprisonment with family and friends — bearing children and grandchildren, worshipping Yahweh, fellowshipping with Israelite brothers. Food and water was provided without sweaty labor; clothing and shoes were preserved for forty years. In all of the history of the world, no individual or nation has been blessed with such abundantly gracious “capital punishment.”

Why such gracious punishment? Is it a model for us? Yahweh treated Israel with so much mercy because they were foolish and rebellious children, not hardened criminals. In the law, murder — whether by hardened criminals or as a crime of passion — is to be punished with swift justice, the death penalty — though I do believe the criminal should be given a last chance to repent of his sins before he is sent to the afterlife. Nothing in the Bible suggests that Yahweh’s punishment of Israel might be a model for us — putting men in prison with their families and feeding them until death! No, the Torah is clear about dealing with murder, but Yahweh treated His people with special favor because He looked upon them as erring children. Thus, He prevented them from committing actual murder and disciplined them and their children to prepare for a future of blessing in the land.

Strictly speaking, then, the punishment in the wilderness should not be called “capital punishment,” even though it was a sort of death sentence. The Biblical story draws special attention to Yahweh’s abundant grace in spite of Israel’s unbelief and rebellion.

Ralph Smith is pastor of Mitaka Evangelical Church.

1. Even though I do not march, I have no shoes that are any where near 40 years old and my feet occasionally swell. ↩︎