And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
At Kadesh on the very border of Canaan, when the ten spies discouraged Israel with an evil report of fortified cities and giants, the people wept, murmured against Moses and Aaron, and said to one another that they would choose a new captain to lead them back to the bondage of Egypt. That proposal was open rebellion and unbelief, a deliberate rejection of God's leading and of the leaders He had appointed in order to draw back from entering the land He had promised. Instead of remembering the strong arm that had destroyed Pharaoh's army and led them by miracles thus far, they limited the power of the Holy One and judged the conquest impossible by human strength alone. Because they refused the right course at the opportune moment when God was holding back their enemies, He purposed that they should wander forty years and die in the wilderness rather than enter the promised land. The call to return to Egypt therefore stands as a warning to God's people not to retreat in unbelief when His work brings difficulty and danger, but to move forward in faith toward the heavenly Canaan rather than backward toward the world.
Setting After Spies' Report
The cry belongs at Kadesh, where the encamped people proposed sending men to survey Canaan, and after direction was sought the spies were sent with permission and instructions. Ten of them returned with an evil, discouraging report that Canaan was held by strong peoples in fortified cities with great high walls, including the giant sons of Anak. That description was in many respects correct about the cities and inhabitants, and the fatal error lay not in seeing the strength but in distrusting God's power to overcome it.
It came just as Israel stood ready to enter Canaan at the border by the Jordan, when easy access had been planned and the defense of the land had departed, making it the opportune time to go up at once. At that moment an opposing working was pressing against Israel through the ten faithless spies under its control, breaking down the courage of all Israel, confusing minds, and doing the very work intended. On hearing the report the people gave vent to disappointment with bitter reproaches and wailing, wept all night, murmured against Moses and Aaron, and wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. They charged the Lord with bringing them on to fall by the sword and leave their wives and children as prey, and said it was better to return to Egypt.
While they spoke, Caleb and Joshua sought a hearing to urge going up at once to possess the land because they were well able, and Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly. The people said to one another to make, choose, and appoint a new captain, commander, and leader to abandon the journey to Canaan and take them back to Egypt. That Egypt was the land of their former suffering, bondage, slavery, and hardship, where they had been slaves and suffered much, yet fear and unbelief stirred by the exaggerated account made them reject going forward to possess the promised land. They went so far as actually appointing that captain, thereby discarding Moses their patient, suffering leader while murmuring bitterly against God.
They cast off their appointed leader and chose one of their own rebellious number, and the voices of apostasy cut Moses and Aaron to the heart. It brought sorrow, shame, and agony of soul to faithful servants like Joshua and Caleb who stood and heard it, and the maddened throng bade stone them so that the manifestation of God's glory was required to quell the people and save the lives of His servants. The same desire to abandon God's leading and return to Egypt appears when the people feared Moses would not return and suggested going back and seeking favor by carrying an image and treating it as their god.
Meaning of Rebellious Proposal
The proposal to make a captain and return to Egypt was open apostasy, rebellion, perversity and unbelief, a determined disregard of God's will and rejection of His leading. Having murmured against Moses and Aaron, wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and charged the Lord with bringing them into Canaan to fall by the sword and leave their wives and children as prey, the people determined to reject God's leadership, appoint a new captain and go back. Their voices cut Moses and Aaron to the heart and called for God's glory to interpose in the tabernacle to adjust matters. It was rebellion against God despite the signs and care they had witnessed, and it brought the sentence of wandering forty years and dying in the wilderness rather than entering the promised land.
By demanding a new leader they rejected God's leadership and distrusted the land and promise He had brought them to possess, accepting the spies' false and fearful account instead of the faithful testimony of Joshua and Caleb. They rejected God and the leaders He had appointed, deciding without seeking His guidance to replace Moses and Aaron, draw back from the risk of entering Canaan, and turn back rather than trust Him. Their cowardly complaining showed unwillingness to trust God and act on faithful warnings and true counsel. Rather than trust God to give them the land as He had promised, they blamed Moses and Aaron for bringing them from Egypt.
Their demand accused God Himself of dealing deceitfully with them by bringing them toward a land they believed they could not possess. Complaint against Moses rose into accusation against God for promising what they thought was beyond their power to take. In doing so they forgot His past deliverance and care, the strong arm of Omnipotence that had brought them out of Egypt and slavery, led them by a series of miracles, and conducted them thus far. That forgetfulness included His fulfillment of the promise to Abraham by delivering them from bondage and destroying Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea, which they dishonored by wanting to choose a leader and return. They forgot His power and disregarded the faithful counsel of Caleb and Joshua.
Instead of waiting, reflecting and reasoning that God who had brought them out thus far would certainly give them the land, the people yielded at once to discouragement and disappointment. They limited the power of the Holy One, called the conquest impossible, and acted as though victory depended only on human and military strength. Although the report that the cities were fortified with great high walls and held by strong people including the giant sons of Anak was in many respects correct, their fatal mistake was distrusting God's power, and that distrust alone kept them from entering at that time. When appetite was restricted, that same rebellion led them to propose choosing a new leader and returning to Egypt, a rebellion God put down by slaying many of them.
Judgment That Followed Rebellion
The proposal to appoint a new captain and return to Egypt was open apostasy and rebellion that cut to the heart, for after the evil report the people murmured, wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and charged the Lord with bringing them in to fall by the sword and leave wives and children as prey. In casting off their leader and choosing one of their own rebellious number to lead them back, their complaints blasphemed God at the very time the defense of Canaan had departed and the opportune moment to enter had come. That developed rebellion called for the presence of God Himself to adjust matters, and His glory interposed in the tabernacle and was manifested to quell the maddened throng that bade stone His servants and to save their lives.
For this rebellion God purposed to destroy Israel, and then declared the breach by which they must wander forty years in the wilderness and die there rather than enter the promised land. Their demand for a new leader expressed fear, distrust, and rejection of God's leadership and promise despite His deliverance, guidance, signs, and care, accepting the false account of the spies instead of the faithful testimony of Joshua and Caleb. That rebellion was also put down by the slaying of many of them.
The Lord was holding back the armies that inhabited Canaan, but Israel did not make the right moves at the right time, rejected the right course when the opportunity was given, and lost the favorable time to enter. After God declared they would wander, they followed human impulse and human resolve to avert that judgment by entering the land when the time had passed. That presumptuous advance after the opportunity had closed ended in defeat and plain failure, showing that acting afterward cannot undo the consequences of earlier distrust.
Their later dissatisfaction with the wilderness delay showed they still blamed God and Moses for the consequences of that rebellion and trusted their own judgment. They regarded the long stay of nearly forty years as an unnecessary delay and reasoned that they could have conquered their enemies sooner.
Warning Against Turning Back
The cry to appoint a captain for the return is a warning not to retreat into unbelief but to move forward in faith, for when God's work brings difficulty and danger His providence still calls His people to go forward and not back into Egypt. Distrust that gives up in hardship and turns away from His leading is the same spirit that predicts defeat and disaster rather than acting in faith. God's people can turn back just as they are preparing to enter the promised land, and worldly influence can turn them away from the heavenly Canaan and lead them backward toward Egypt.
Following human impulse to turn back brought the pronounced judgment, and following human impulse again to avert that judgment by a presumptuous advance brought plain failure when the favorable time was lost because Israel did not make the right moves at the right time while the Lord was holding back the armies of Canaan. The lesson is not to rush one movement upon the heels of another, confuse the work God has outlined, or let desire to get out of the place where He has put them cut across His designs, but to wait, hold their place, let His devised plan have every advantage and be fully carried out, and then receive from Him what to do next. The spies' report itself is a warning not to repeat their work, for confident but unfaithful, exaggerated and discouraging reports that predict defeat and disaster mislead others and break down courage. Fear and disappointment after such a report led to rejecting the journey into the promised land.
The proposal illustrates unwillingness to trust God and act on faithful warnings and true counsel, a failure repeated when people resist counsel, shrink from duty, reject reproof, murmur, justify themselves, and separate themselves from His work. In adverse circumstances men and women are tempted to complain and murmur against him who stands in the most responsible position in the cause and work of God, just as Israel did against Moses. The church's retreat from following Christ is compared to that return to Egypt, for turning away from its Leader leaves it spiritually weak.
The call to return was Satan's scheme carried on through ministers of the gospel who had lost their bearings and led others to walk in strange paths, working just as Israel was about to enter Canaan to confuse the minds of youth and older ones and turn them back. That same loud, boisterous voice of rebellion is repeated in modern council meetings and board meetings, when misguided leaders draw God's people aside into confusion instead of letting them go forward. Casting off their leader and choosing one of their own rebellious number brought sorrow, shame and agony of soul to faithful servants like Joshua and Caleb who stood and heard it, and their mad and blasphemous utterances, spoken when God had signified that the defense of Canaan had departed and now was the opportune time to enter, required the manifestation of the Lord's glory to quell the people and save His servants' lives from the maddened throng that bade stone them.
The image of turning back toward Egypt also marks a grave failure of leadership when influence sanctions a harmful course, as when by acting light and jovial around an inexperienced man placed in a responsible position Brother Andrews effectively sanctioned that man's harmful course. Such influence is held accountable for not promptly confronting and removing known wrongs that weakened the community. Making a captain to return into Egypt means turning backward from the way the Great Physician leads on health reform, repeated when ministers and workers stand aloof from instructing the people on this question and by precept and example in eating and drinking lead others to indulge appetite instead of advancing in the light God has given.
At Kadesh on the very border of Canaan, when the ten spies discouraged Israel with an evil report of fortified cities and giants, the people wept, murmured against Moses and Aaron, and said to one another that they would choose a new captain to lead them back to the bondage of Egypt. That proposal was open rebellion and unbelief, a deliberate rejection of God's leading and of the leaders He had appointed in order to draw back from entering the land He had promised. Instead of remembering the strong arm that had destroyed Pharaoh's army and led them by miracles thus far, they limited the power of the Holy One and judged the conquest impossible by human strength alone. Because they refused the right course at the opportune moment when God was holding back their enemies, He purposed that they should wander forty years and die in the wilderness rather than enter the promised land. The call to return to Egypt therefore stands as a warning to God's people not to retreat in unbelief when His work brings difficulty and danger, but to move forward in faith toward the heavenly Canaan rather than backward toward the world.
Setting After Spies' Report
The cry belongs at Kadesh, where the encamped people proposed sending men to survey Canaan, and after direction was sought the spies were sent with permission and instructions. Ten of them returned with an evil, discouraging report that Canaan was held by strong peoples in fortified cities with great high walls, including the giant sons of Anak. That description was in many respects correct about the cities and inhabitants, and the fatal error lay not in seeing the strength but in distrusting God's power to overcome it.
It came just as Israel stood ready to enter Canaan at the border by the Jordan, when easy access had been planned and the defense of the land had departed, making it the opportune time to go up at once. At that moment an opposing working was pressing against Israel through the ten faithless spies under its control, breaking down the courage of all Israel, confusing minds, and doing the very work intended. On hearing the report the people gave vent to disappointment with bitter reproaches and wailing, wept all night, murmured against Moses and Aaron, and wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. They charged the Lord with bringing them on to fall by the sword and leave their wives and children as prey, and said it was better to return to Egypt.
While they spoke, Caleb and Joshua sought a hearing to urge going up at once to possess the land because they were well able, and Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly. The people said to one another to make, choose, and appoint a new captain, commander, and leader to abandon the journey to Canaan and take them back to Egypt. That Egypt was the land of their former suffering, bondage, slavery, and hardship, where they had been slaves and suffered much, yet fear and unbelief stirred by the exaggerated account made them reject going forward to possess the promised land. They went so far as actually appointing that captain, thereby discarding Moses their patient, suffering leader while murmuring bitterly against God.
They cast off their appointed leader and chose one of their own rebellious number, and the voices of apostasy cut Moses and Aaron to the heart. It brought sorrow, shame, and agony of soul to faithful servants like Joshua and Caleb who stood and heard it, and the maddened throng bade stone them so that the manifestation of God's glory was required to quell the people and save the lives of His servants. The same desire to abandon God's leading and return to Egypt appears when the people feared Moses would not return and suggested going back and seeking favor by carrying an image and treating it as their god.
Meaning of Rebellious Proposal
The proposal to make a captain and return to Egypt was open apostasy, rebellion, perversity and unbelief, a determined disregard of God's will and rejection of His leading. Having murmured against Moses and Aaron, wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and charged the Lord with bringing them into Canaan to fall by the sword and leave their wives and children as prey, the people determined to reject God's leadership, appoint a new captain and go back. Their voices cut Moses and Aaron to the heart and called for God's glory to interpose in the tabernacle to adjust matters. It was rebellion against God despite the signs and care they had witnessed, and it brought the sentence of wandering forty years and dying in the wilderness rather than entering the promised land.
By demanding a new leader they rejected God's leadership and distrusted the land and promise He had brought them to possess, accepting the spies' false and fearful account instead of the faithful testimony of Joshua and Caleb. They rejected God and the leaders He had appointed, deciding without seeking His guidance to replace Moses and Aaron, draw back from the risk of entering Canaan, and turn back rather than trust Him. Their cowardly complaining showed unwillingness to trust God and act on faithful warnings and true counsel. Rather than trust God to give them the land as He had promised, they blamed Moses and Aaron for bringing them from Egypt.
Their demand accused God Himself of dealing deceitfully with them by bringing them toward a land they believed they could not possess. Complaint against Moses rose into accusation against God for promising what they thought was beyond their power to take. In doing so they forgot His past deliverance and care, the strong arm of Omnipotence that had brought them out of Egypt and slavery, led them by a series of miracles, and conducted them thus far. That forgetfulness included His fulfillment of the promise to Abraham by delivering them from bondage and destroying Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea, which they dishonored by wanting to choose a leader and return. They forgot His power and disregarded the faithful counsel of Caleb and Joshua.
Instead of waiting, reflecting and reasoning that God who had brought them out thus far would certainly give them the land, the people yielded at once to discouragement and disappointment. They limited the power of the Holy One, called the conquest impossible, and acted as though victory depended only on human and military strength. Although the report that the cities were fortified with great high walls and held by strong people including the giant sons of Anak was in many respects correct, their fatal mistake was distrusting God's power, and that distrust alone kept them from entering at that time. When appetite was restricted, that same rebellion led them to propose choosing a new leader and returning to Egypt, a rebellion God put down by slaying many of them.
Judgment That Followed Rebellion
The proposal to appoint a new captain and return to Egypt was open apostasy and rebellion that cut to the heart, for after the evil report the people murmured, wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and charged the Lord with bringing them in to fall by the sword and leave wives and children as prey. In casting off their leader and choosing one of their own rebellious number to lead them back, their complaints blasphemed God at the very time the defense of Canaan had departed and the opportune moment to enter had come. That developed rebellion called for the presence of God Himself to adjust matters, and His glory interposed in the tabernacle and was manifested to quell the maddened throng that bade stone His servants and to save their lives.
For this rebellion God purposed to destroy Israel, and then declared the breach by which they must wander forty years in the wilderness and die there rather than enter the promised land. Their demand for a new leader expressed fear, distrust, and rejection of God's leadership and promise despite His deliverance, guidance, signs, and care, accepting the false account of the spies instead of the faithful testimony of Joshua and Caleb. That rebellion was also put down by the slaying of many of them.
The Lord was holding back the armies that inhabited Canaan, but Israel did not make the right moves at the right time, rejected the right course when the opportunity was given, and lost the favorable time to enter. After God declared they would wander, they followed human impulse and human resolve to avert that judgment by entering the land when the time had passed. That presumptuous advance after the opportunity had closed ended in defeat and plain failure, showing that acting afterward cannot undo the consequences of earlier distrust.
Their later dissatisfaction with the wilderness delay showed they still blamed God and Moses for the consequences of that rebellion and trusted their own judgment. They regarded the long stay of nearly forty years as an unnecessary delay and reasoned that they could have conquered their enemies sooner.
Warning Against Turning Back
The cry to appoint a captain for the return is a warning not to retreat into unbelief but to move forward in faith, for when God's work brings difficulty and danger His providence still calls His people to go forward and not back into Egypt. Distrust that gives up in hardship and turns away from His leading is the same spirit that predicts defeat and disaster rather than acting in faith. God's people can turn back just as they are preparing to enter the promised land, and worldly influence can turn them away from the heavenly Canaan and lead them backward toward Egypt.
Following human impulse to turn back brought the pronounced judgment, and following human impulse again to avert that judgment by a presumptuous advance brought plain failure when the favorable time was lost because Israel did not make the right moves at the right time while the Lord was holding back the armies of Canaan. The lesson is not to rush one movement upon the heels of another, confuse the work God has outlined, or let desire to get out of the place where He has put them cut across His designs, but to wait, hold their place, let His devised plan have every advantage and be fully carried out, and then receive from Him what to do next. The spies' report itself is a warning not to repeat their work, for confident but unfaithful, exaggerated and discouraging reports that predict defeat and disaster mislead others and break down courage. Fear and disappointment after such a report led to rejecting the journey into the promised land.
The proposal illustrates unwillingness to trust God and act on faithful warnings and true counsel, a failure repeated when people resist counsel, shrink from duty, reject reproof, murmur, justify themselves, and separate themselves from His work. In adverse circumstances men and women are tempted to complain and murmur against him who stands in the most responsible position in the cause and work of God, just as Israel did against Moses. The church's retreat from following Christ is compared to that return to Egypt, for turning away from its Leader leaves it spiritually weak.
The call to return was Satan's scheme carried on through ministers of the gospel who had lost their bearings and led others to walk in strange paths, working just as Israel was about to enter Canaan to confuse the minds of youth and older ones and turn them back. That same loud, boisterous voice of rebellion is repeated in modern council meetings and board meetings, when misguided leaders draw God's people aside into confusion instead of letting them go forward. Casting off their leader and choosing one of their own rebellious number brought sorrow, shame and agony of soul to faithful servants like Joshua and Caleb who stood and heard it, and their mad and blasphemous utterances, spoken when God had signified that the defense of Canaan had departed and now was the opportune time to enter, required the manifestation of the Lord's glory to quell the people and save His servants' lives from the maddened throng that bade stone them.
The image of turning back toward Egypt also marks a grave failure of leadership when influence sanctions a harmful course, as when by acting light and jovial around an inexperienced man placed in a responsible position Brother Andrews effectively sanctioned that man's harmful course. Such influence is held accountable for not promptly confronting and removing known wrongs that weakened the community. Making a captain to return into Egypt means turning backward from the way the Great Physician leads on health reform, repeated when ministers and workers stand aloof from instructing the people on this question and by precept and example in eating and drinking lead others to indulge appetite instead of advancing in the light God has given.