Numbers — Chapter 14

The whole congregation wept, murmured against Moses and Aaron, and proposed returning to Egypt under a new captain; the folly of the rebels: returning to Egypt through hostile desert was practically impossible.

Caleb and Joshua plead: \"The land is very good; if the Lord is favourable, He will bring us in and give it to us. Do not rebel against the Lord; fear not the people of the land, for they are bread for us.\"

God threatens to destroy Israel and make Moses \"a great nation mightier than this one\"; the intercession of Moses follows as the model of priestly mediation.

Moses' intercession: \"Let the power of the Lord be magnified... The Lord is patient and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and sin... forgive the iniquity of this people.\" The prayer of Moses is a model of priestly intercession for sinful people.

I have forgiven, according to thy word — the efficacy of priestly intercession; God's pardon is given in response to Moses' prayer, establishing the pattern of penitential mediation.

Those who tested God ten times and did not obey His voice shall not see the Promised Land; all men from 20 years and above die in the desert. The number ten symbolises complete obstinacy in unbelief.

My servant Caleb, who has followed me with a full heart (spiritu alio), I will bring into the land he scouted. Wholehearted faith merits the reward; Caleb alone among the ten is singled out for his courage.

Forty years of desert wandering, one year for each day of the scouting — \"you shall know my vengeance.\" The gravity of unbelief and murmuring against God is measured by its consequences upon an entire generation.