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Numbers 14:1-45
That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them,“ If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”And they said to each other,“ We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothesand said to the entire Israelite assembly,“ The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.The Lord said to Moses,“ How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”Moses said to the Lord,“ Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,‘ The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’“ Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared:‘ The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”The Lord replied,“ I have forgiven them, as you asked.Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth,not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.”The Lord said to Moses and Aaron:“ How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.So tell them,‘ As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say:In this wilderness your bodies will fall— every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.For forty years— one year for each of the forty days you explored the land— you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord.Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly.Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying,“ Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised. Surely we have sinned!”But Moses said,“ Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed!Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies,for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp.Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. (niv)
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Psalms 78:22
for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance. (niv)
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Numbers 16:1-17
Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites— Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth— became insolentand rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them,“ You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”When Moses heard this, he fell facedown.Then he said to Korah and all his followers:“ In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him.You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censersand tomorrow put burning coals and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”Moses also said to Korah,“ Now listen, you Levites!Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them?He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too.It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said,“ We will not come!Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us!Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves? No, we will not come!”Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord,“ Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.”Moses said to Korah,“ You and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow— you and they and Aaron.Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it— 250 censers in all— and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” (niv)
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Numbers 21:1-6
When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them.Then Israel made this vow to the Lord:“ If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.”The Lord listened to Israel’s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;they spoke against God and against Moses, and said,“ Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. (niv)
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John 12:37
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. (niv)
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Ezekiel 20:13
“‘ Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws— by which the person who obeys them will live— and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness. (niv)
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Psalms 78:11
They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. (niv)
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Numbers 25:1-18
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.The Lord said to Moses,“ Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”So Moses said to Israel’s judges,“ Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his handand followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.The Lord said to Moses,“ Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal.Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.The Lord said to Moses,“ Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them.They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident.” (niv)
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Luke 16:31
“ He said to him,‘ If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (niv)