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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring
into the land whereinto he went, and his seed shall possess it.”
The Lord bade the Hebrews to return, and go into the wilderness
by the way of the Red Sea. They were very near the good land, but
by their wicked rebellion they forfeited the protection of God. Had
they received the report of Caleb and Joshua, and gone immediately
up, God would have given them the land of Canaan. But they were
unbelieving, and showed such an insolent spirit against God, that they
brought upon themselves the denunciation, that they should never enter
the promised land. It was in pity and mercy that God sent them back
by the Red Sea, for the Amalekites and Canaanites, while they were
delaying and murmuring, heard of the spies, and prepared themselves
to make war with the children of Israel.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying. How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against
me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they
murmur against me.” The Lord told Moses and Aaron to say to the
people that he would do to them as they had spoken. They had said,
“Would God we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had
died in this wilderness.” Now God will take them at their word. He
tells his servants to say to them, that they should fall in the wilderness,
from twenty years old and upward, because of their rebellion and
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murmurings against the Lord. Only Caleb and Joshua should go unto
the land of Canaan. “But your little ones which ye said should be a
prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have
despised.”
The Lord declared that the children of the Hebrews should wander
in the wilderness forty years, reckoning from the time they left Egypt,
because of the rebellion of their parents, until their parents should all
die. Thus should they bear and suffer the consequence of their iniquity
forty years, according to the number of days they were searching the
land, a day for a year. “And ye shall know my breach of promise.”
They should fully realize that it was the punishment for their idolatry,
and rebellious murmurings, which had obliged the Lord to change his
purpose concerning them. Caleb and Joshua were promised a reward
in preference to all the host of Israel, because they had forfeited all
claim to God’s favor and protection.