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Lesson 37, Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, Patriarchal Migrations and Wanderings, The Route of the Exodus, Continued
From Hazeroth the Israelites marched through the Wilderness of Paran, encamping for a time at Kadesh-barnea, about 70 miles south of Hebron.
Numbers 13:1-3, And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
The exact location of Kadesh-barnea had long been debated.
The Arabic site known as Ain Qadeis may still be regarded as the best tentative location.
Kadesh-barnea became the center of Israelite life during thirty eight years of wandering.
From Kadesh-barnea the twelve spies were sent northward into Canaan, and the adverse report to ten of them struck such terror in the hearts of the Israelites that they refused to enter the land.
Numbers 13: 21-25, So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. 22And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
Numbers 13:31-33, But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 14:1-4, And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
God declared that the generation that lacked faith at Kadesh-barnea would perish in the wilderness.
Numbers 14:20-24, And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24But my servant Caleb, because he had 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.
Luke 9;62, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
So this unbelief was the cause of the 40 years in the wilderness.
God had spoken and none of the unbelievers would enter and so they must spend their remaining days wandering in the wilderness.
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