Perhaps, as they spoke, the murmurers were gathering rocks to throw at God’s point men. I can hear the crowd now--their jeering, their demanding, their running to and fro. I call it murmurers’ madness. They could not think straight. Maybe they were grabbing at the clothes of the "good reporters." The murmurers demanded death! Maybe they were heading for the pit of execution as they screamed. It was the place where adulterers and disobedient children were stoned. It would be a pit from which Joshua and Caleb could not have escaped. I don’t know.

All I do know is that the LORD was provoked! He said to Moses, "How long will this people provoke me?" You remember the account. The children of Israel were right at the entrance of their destination--the Promised Land-- for which they all longed. God had told Moses to send one man from every tribe to spy out the land. This he did. Ten came back afraid of their own shadow. Two returned with a positive attitude. They were from the tribes of Judah and Ephraim. They believed the LORD.

Confidently, Caleb declared ". . .We are well able to overcome it.." They knew that the LORD would win the land for them. Yes, there were giants! Yes, there were walled cities! Yes, the people were strong. So what? Had not God promised to provoke and be with them?

Once again we see the anger of the LORD! One again He wanted to destroy the whole kit and caboodle! He’d had it! Once again Moses interceded! This time Moses pleaded--not for the people. No--this time his intercession was for the testimony of the LORD himself. All these men and women who had seen God’s glory in the wilderness continued to provoke Him by their unbelief.

Ten times they had complained. This time was the last straw. The LORD knew such murmuring and complaining was a pattern. It would continue and continue on and on and on. So He cursed the people whom He loved. He said, "Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness." Every last adult soul who had crossed the Red Sea with Moses would die in the desert! Only their children would cross into the Promised Land.

What can you and I take away from this story? One lesson is to look at ourselves and see how we complain about the silliest things--like our computers, like our cars, like our employers, like our co-workers, like our husbands or wives, like our fiances, like our churches, like our pastors and our pastors’ wives.

If we did not live in this wonderful age of GRACE, I dread to think how the LORD would kill us because of our incessant murmuring. No wonder the Apostle Paul enjoins us to do all things without murmuring. Why? So we can shine as lights for Jesus in this present evil world! A murmuring person is not a light!

It is a promise. (GGS)