ISRAEL'S FAILURE AND OUR DANGER.
By Stephen N. Haskell
“THERE are eleven-days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.” Deut. 1:2. “And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them.” Deut. 2:14. Kadesh-barnea was on the borders of Canaan, and God designed to take his people through at once. For lack of faith, they chose twelve spies to go over and search the land. “And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.” Num. 13:25. Ten of the twelve spies brought an evil report, saying, “The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” Verse 29. The effect that this had upon the people was very disastrous. But “Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 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. And 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. And 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.” Verses 30–33. This caused a great murmuring among the children of Israel. “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! And 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? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” Num. 14:2–4. God was displeased with this, and said to Moses, “How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” Verses 11, 12. But Moses prayed for them; and the Lord said, “I have pardoned according to thy word.” Verse 20. But to Israel he said, “Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” Verses 29, 30. Thirty-eight years they wandered in the wilderness, until this wonderful saying of God was fulfilled. Now why was it that these ten spies and the whole congregation failed to enter the land? Why was it that they could not see that the God who had brought them thus far could carry them through? Had not God spoken concerning the very method that he would adopt to drive out these nations, which afterward was fulfilled? See Joshua 24:11, 12. TWO YEARS BEFORE, the following testimony was given to Israel:— “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” Ex. 23:27–30. The fact that a Testimony has been given one or two or more years in the past, does not detract in any way from its strength. God will fulfill every promise he has given to those who believe; and we should keep in memory what God has given all the way down. There is danger of our forgetting the Testimonies given in the past, even when we have them in our houses. They are not read. “Testimonies for the Church,” which contain instruction to help us over every difficulty, are left on the shelves, unread, while we go stumbling and grumbling along the Christian (?) way, just as Israel went stumbling and murmuring through the wilderness, simply because they did not heed testimonies that had been given to them in the past. The apostle forcibly calls the minds of God’s people to this fact, when speaking of the failure of Israel’s entering into the land of Canaan because of unbelief. He says: “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Heb. 4:1, 2. The same failure of entering into rest by Israel of old, by refusing to keep in memory the testimony of the Lord that had been given years before, lies in the pathway of God’s people at the present day. S. N. H.