Yesterday I taught Numbers 14 in which the Israelites rebel against the Lord and lose the kingdom. I want to go beyond Moses’s day now and identify an important parallel that may provide some clarity in thinking about Jesus’s ministry.
To refresh on Numbers 14, the Israelites listened to their leadership (ten spies) in refusing to believe God’s promises and enter Canaan to receive their inheritance. Consequently the Lord sentenced the treacherous generation to death, delaying the kingdom entrance until a faithful generation arose.
When Jesus came, the Israelites listened to their leadership in rejecting Jesus as their king (Matt 27:20). Accordingly the Lord sentenced the treacherous generation to death, delaying the establishment of the kingdom until a future generation arose that would welcome the Messiah (Matt 23:36-39; cf. 21:43; 24:30; 25:34).
With neither the wilderness generation nor with Jesus’s generation did the Lord revoke his promises, annihilate the nation, or transfer the land to the Moabites. But in both cases there was a delay until the old generation had died off and a new generation responded in faith.
In Joshua’s day, the people marched forward across the Jordan, trusting the Lord to do what he promised. In the future, the people will look on him whom they have pierced and repent of their sin (Zech 12:10-13:1; Rom 11:25-32). The Messiah once spurned will be the Messiah embraced.
I would submit, then, that an overlooked verse that supports the so-called “dispensational” view of Israel’s future hope is Numbers 14:18:
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 fathers to the third and fourth generation.
The notion of a kingdom delay that seems so hard for many to accept today is actually a tried and true way that the Lord both keeps his promises but avoids fulfilling them to those who despise him.
Thus the writer of Hebrews explained to his Jewish audience that the promised land/kingdom awaited. From chapter 4:
Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
It still remains that some will enter that rest.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall [in the wilderness!] by following their example of obedience.
While we await Jesus’s return, we (and moreso the Jewish people!) are in the wilderness. Those who turn away from Jesus will die in the wilderness without receiving the inheritance. But the hope of entering the rest of the Messiah’s kingdom on earth still stands for those who persevere in faith.
Some years ago I wrote a bit about how the notion of “delay” fits in with the book of Acts and the church (pdf).
Thank you for these thoughts! They have come to mind numerous times since I read them last week. The wilderness days came to an end for the sons of Israel, as they will for us. Thankfully, many will enter the “Promised Land,” but, sadly, many more will not. We end our Lord’s Table services with “Even so, quickly come, Lord Jesus.” as we did last night. Even so, quickly come, Lord Jesus!