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Patriarchs and Prophets
had been complaining of God’s dealings with them, and declaring
that they would return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the
blessings which they had despised were taken from them. They had
complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep. Had
they mourned for their sin when it was faithfully laid before them, this
sentence would not have been pronounced; but they mourned for the
judgment; their sorrow was not repentance, and could not secure a
reversing of their sentence.
The night was spent in lamentation, but with the morning came a
hope. They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden
them go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when He
directed them to retreat they were equally rebellious. They determined
to seize upon the land and possess it; it might be that God would accept
their work and change His purpose toward them.
God had made it their privilege and their duty to enter the land at
the time of His appointment, but through their willful neglect that per-
mission had been withdrawn. Satan had gained his object in preventing
them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very
thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to
do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory
by leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted
the power of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of
Canaan; yet now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish
the work independent of divine aid. “We have sinned against the Lord,”
they cried; “we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our
God commanded us.”
Deuteronomy 1:41
. So terribly blinded had they
become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to
“go up and fight.” It was not His purpose that they should gain the land
by warfare, but by strict obedience to His commands.
Though their hearts were unchanged, the people had been brought
to confess the sinfulness and folly of their rebellion at the report of
the spies. They now saw the value of the blessing which they had
so rashly cast away. They confessed that it was their own unbelief
which had shut them out from Canaan. “We have sinned,” they said,
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acknowledging that the fault was in themselves, and not in God, whom
they had so wickedly charged with failing to fulfill His promises to
them. Though their confession did not spring from true repentance, it
served to vindicate the justice of God in His dealings with them.