Forty Years of Wandering in the Wilderness
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sins of blasphemy and willful Sabbathbreaking received the same
punishment, being equally an expression of contempt for the authority
of God.
Many who reject the Sabbath as Jewish urge that, if it is to be
kept, the penalty of death must be inflicted for its violation. But
blasphemy received the same punishment as did Sabbathbreaking.
Though God may not now punish the transgression of His law with
temporal penalties, yet in the final judgment death is the portion of
those who violate His sacred precepts.
During the entire forty years in the wilderness, the people were
every week reminded of the Sabbath by the miracle of the manna.
Yet God declares through His prophet, “My Sabbaths they greatly
polluted.”
Ezekiel 20:13-24
. And this is enumerated among the reasons
for the exclusion of the first generation from the Promised Land.
The period of their desert sojourn being ended, “the people abode
in Kadesh.”
Numbers 20:1
. Here Miriam died and was buried. From
that scene of rejoicing on the shores of the Red Sea to the wilderness
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grave which ended a lifelong wandering—such had been the fate of
millions who with high hopes had come forth from Egypt. Sin had
dashed from their lips the cup of blessing. Would the next generation
learn the lesson?
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