Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 14-15.

Today I want to comment on the fact that the ten men who explored the Promised Land but spoke against going into it died of a plague after the Israelites refused to enter the land based on their report.  A straight up reading of the passage suggests that their deaths contributed to the Israelites changing their minds and attempting to invade the land the following morning.  It makes me wonder if there was a connection between what they did while they were exploring the land, their fear of invading the land, and the plague which killed them.  We know from the passage that the last two were connected,. but what about that first one.  From other passages, we know that Joshua was devout in his faith in God.  We know from Caleb’s promotion of the invasion here and his speech when he claimed his part of the land that he also was enthusiastic in his faith in God.  On the other hand, we do not know much about the other ten spies.  So, today when I read about them dying of plague it occurred to me that perhaps they caught the plague by participating in some of the “detestable practices” of the people of the land (I put detestable practices in quotes because that term is used by the Bible to describe the practices of the people living in the land without going into detail).  That led me to wonder if perhaps the reason they testified against invading the land was because of the things they did while exploring the land.

One of the things which I have learned over the years is that many of the most vehement atheists are people who have made lifestyle choices which are condemned by God.  They reject the idea of God rather than admit that they have made bad choices.  In the same way, I wonder if the ten spies who were afraid of invading the Promised Land abandoned their faith in God rather than admit to themselves that they had sinned when they took part in various practices among the people of the land.  Perhaps they had dallied with temple prostitutes, or maybe they had eaten non-kosher foods as part of sacrifices to idols.  Either of those might possibly have given them a disease which led to their death.  My point here is that perhaps the reason these ten men did not have faith that God would help the Israelites overcome the people of the land was because they did not want to admit to themselves that violating His commands was a bad thing to do.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.