Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Numbers 14:2-4
Chapter 14 The Response of The People Leads To Rejection From The Land.
It is not difficult to guess at what their decision would be even before we learn of it. They were frightened and therefore incapable. It would be another generation before they would become strong enough to again contemplate a serious entry into the land. What followed can be quickly summarised:
4). The People Murmur Against Moses And Are Spared At His Intercession (Numbers 14:2).
a The people murmur against Moses and long to return to Egypt and decide to choose a leader to take them back to Egypt (Numbers 14:2).
b Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before the assembly (Numbers 14:5).
c Joshua and Caleb extol the good of the land (Numbers 14:6).
d The congregation commands to stone them with stones (Numbers 14:10 a).
d The glory of Yahweh appears among the congregation (Numbers 14:10 b)
c He determines to disinherit them from the good land and destroy them (Numbers 14:10).
b Moses pleads with Yahweh on behalf of the people (Numbers 14:13).
a Yahweh pardons the people, describes what He had done in Egypt, swears that they will not see the land and sends them back on the way to the Reed Sea (Numbers 14:20).
The People Murmur Against Moses and Against Yahweh (Numbers 14:2).
‘And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!'
The people were just distraught. They blamed Moses and Aaron for their predicament. All that they could do was wish that they had died when younger so as not to face this dreadful situation. If only they had died in Egypt, or in the wilderness, how much better it would have been for them. (They would have cause to remember those words, for they would come back to haunt them. How unlucky they were to have survived, they thought. Ironically, of course, they would have their wish. They would die in the wilderness).
“ For what reason does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?”
They forgot all that Yahweh had done for them, and how He had revealed His mighty power, and delivered them from an enemy far worse than these. All they could think of was that Yahweh had brought them here to die at the edge of the sword. They would be slaughtered and their wives and little ones be at the mercy of the enemy. The best they could hope for was to become slaves. They had already been defeated in their own minds. They were certainly in no condition to take up arms.
We need not doubt that weapon training had taken place in the wilderness. Moses would have been greatly at fault if he had not seen to that. But they clearly had no confidence in their ability to use them. They had come to it too late. (It would be another thing with the next generation. They would have no slave background. They would have been hardened by the wilderness. They would have been trained to arms from their earliest years).
‘And they said one to another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt.” '
So in their panic and folly they began to think of appointing a leader who would take them back to Egypt as a bunch of slaves. It was, of course, both pathetic and madness. What could be worse than that? But at that time they were temporarily deranged. And they still had their eyes on the fish, melons, onions and garlic. What a pathetic group they were. Just like some of us can be when God challenges us in the face of difficulties.
It would be a misnomer to call this a rebellion. They were rather revealing how pathetic their condition was. They were clutching at straws and babbling foolishness. It demonstrated what they were. Men who sought the flesh and had little thought of the Spirit. But it was still a rejection of Yahweh and His covenant. For Yahweh had delivered them from Egypt, and now they were rejecting His deliverance and wishing to get back to what they were before.