Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: The people refuse to believe that they can take the promised land, so God swears that they will wander 40 years in the wilderness until all those who have disbelieved die out, except for Joshua and Caleb; the people try to take the land after the Lord's judgment and fail, and Moses asks the Lord for wisdom, mercy, and joy (Psalm 90.)
The whole congregation lifts up their voice and cries and says to Moses that they wish they had died in Egypt or even in the wilderness. They say it would be better to return to Egypt and want to select a leader to take them back. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, and Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes and say to the people that the land is good, and that if the Lord delights in them, He will give them the land, and also they warn them not to rebel or to fear the people. They say that "they (the giants in the land) will be [their bread,]" that the giants have lost their protection, and that the Lord is with Israel, and again not to fear the people. However, the people of Israel do not listen and want to stone them. The glory of the Lord appears in the tabernacle before all Israel, and the Lord asks Moses how long the people will reject and disbelieve Him with all the signs He has performed. He says He will strike them with a pestilence and disinherit them and make of Moses an even greater and mightier nation. Moses reasons with the Lord that the Egyptians will hear and tell the Canaanites how He has leads them through the cloud and fire, and that if He kills them now, the nations will say that it is because He was not able to fulfill His promise to bring them into the land. (Moses really cares about God's glory and name!) He reminds the Lord of Who He is, that He is long-suffering and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, yet not clearing the guilty but visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. And He asks Him to pardon the people for His name's sake, just as He has forgiven them before. The Lord says He will heed Moses, and that He will fill the whole earth with His glory, because the Israelites who have seen it and His signs have put Him to the test and not heeded His voice. Therefore, He says they will not see the land that He swore to their fathers. He tells Moses to go to the wilderness by way of the Red Sea. He asks Moses and Aaron how long He must bear with the people who complain against Him. He tells them to tell Israel that He swears that they will all die in the wilderness, all those aged 20 and above, except for Caleb and Joshua, who gave a good report. But the people's little ones will see it, the land "which [they] have despised." Because of their unbelief and disobedience, they will live as shepherds for 40 years in the wilderness, and their children will suffer for their infidelity until they all die out. It will be 40 years, one year for every day that they spied out the land, and they will "know [the Lord's] rejection," since they "gathered together against Him." The ten spies who gave an evil report about the land die by a plague before the Lord, but Joshua and Caleb live. Then Moses tells Israel what the Lord has said, and they all mourn. Then, they arise early and go to the top of the mountain and confess their sin and say they will go where the Lord says. However, Moses tells them that the Lord is no longer among them, and that if they go up now, they will "fall by the sword." But they try to go anyway. However, Moses and the ark do not go. And the Amalekites and Canaanites come down and attack them and drive them back.
The Lord gives Moses instructions (again) on how to make offerings to Him once Israel enters the promised land. He also gives instructions on making offerings whenever they eat bread. If they as a congregation sin and break any of these instructions that the Lord has given to Moses unintentionally, then the whole congregation must offer specific offerings to the Lord, and the priest will make atonement for them. He also gives instructions for when an individual sins unintentionally. The strangers must follow this law as well. However, if someone sins presumptuously and intentionally, that person "brings reproach upon the Lord" and will be completely cut off because "He has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment," and "his guilt will be upon him."
Israel finds a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, and they bring him to Aaron and Moses. The Lord commands that he be put to death by stoning outside the camp, and the whole congregation of Israel stones him outside the camp.
The Lord tells Moses to tell Israel to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and put a blue thread in the tassels. This is to remind them to follow the commandments of the Lord and to do them, and "not do the harlotry to which [their] own eyes and hearts are inclined." The Lord tells them must be holy because He is the Lord their God.
Psalm 90 (A prayer of Moses):
Moses praises the Lord who has been Israel's "dwelling place" throughout all generations. He praises God for making the earth. He says that to God, 1,000 years is like a day, and that man is like a flower that grows up in the morning and withers in the evenings. He admits that Israel has been consumed by God's wrath and says their days have passed away in it and that they finish their days with a sigh. He says their lives have been filled with only labor and sorrow. He asks the Lord to teach them to number their days so that they may gain a heart of wisdom. He asks the Lord to return and have compassion on them. He asks Him to satisfy them with His mercy that they may rejoice and be glad all their days and be glad according to the days they have been afflicted and seen evil. He asks that God's word would appear to them and His glory to their children, that His beauty would be upon them, and that He would establish the work of their hands.
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
Truly one of the saddest portions of the Bible. God does so much for them, and on what is to be a glorious occasion- while the nation is yet in its infancy- the people bring tragedy upon themselves. It's quite depressing.
We would be wise to ask the Lord to teach us to number our days so that we would know wisdom, as Moses did and to ask Him that we would see His goodness.