Numbers 14:11-19
This interpretation is of the book of Numbers, chapter fourteen, verses eleven through nineteen, concerning the event of spies returning from the promised land and bringing with them a negative report except for two of them, Joshua and Caleb. The storyline picks up from here after the negative report and where the Israelites demonstrate a terrible lack of faith in their disobedience toward God after having such a preponderance of the evidence of God’s power and presence.
Within verse eleven, it can be determined that the Israelites are putting God to the test by their unbelief with a preponderant amount of evidence to prove contrary to their faith as a testimony of a lack of faith (Num.14:11 King James Version). This interpretation of verse eleven is self-evident according to the words God had spoken, which are recorded in these verses of interest and reflected upon throughout this brief examination.[1] Even if a person lacked the history to this point, the fact that there is unbelief is inferred by the remaining verses of intercessory interference for annihilation avoidance inferred by Moses’ earnest prayer of humility (Num.14: 12-19). Within verse twelve, God speaks of how the Israelites tempted him by an unbelieving heart and what God would do to them in destruction and disinheritance. Because of these facts, God proclaimed to raise a new generation of people to himself, bringing him glory throughout the earth as a greater nation through his believing and obedient servant Moses (Num.14: 12).
By humble supplication and prayer, Moses begins to logically plead the cause of God by not allowing this disbelieving people to bring shame against God’s Name or kingdom works upon the earth by the subjugation of the Israelites for the cause and conquest.[2] This was an interesting intercessory approach to not allow this stiff-necked culture to bring shame to God and his cause through God’s proclamation of judgment against the people (Num.14: 13-15). Something interesting happens here in that God relents from his words through the earnest, humble, sincere prayer, not for any merit of the Israelites but for his own name’s sake through the intercessory prayer (Num.14:17-19).[3] God here does relent and honors the prayer of Moses by the evidence of not following through with the proclamation in verses eleven and twelve (Num.14:11-12).
There is a valuable principle that is clearly observed here of the power of prayer and how it can cause heaven’s course of action to become swayed through a powerful God of great compassion, mercy, and longsuffering toward his people then and today (Num.14:17-19). This same principle in the power of prayer and intercessory prayer can be observed in other scriptures of the Bible, such as in the story of Nineveh when the King and city turn from their evil ways and repent, which leads God to relent from his proclamation of destruction and total annihilation of such a great city (Jon.1-4; 3:10).[4] Through prayer and repentance, God’s great name is glorified on the earth and many people are saved as the prophet Joel also points out (Joal 2:12-13). One interesting point to make here is that the events of Nineveh and those written of Joe are a proven testimony to the power of prayer and how a longsuffering, gracious, merciful God of the universe can and will relent disinheritance and destruction to the saving of people as individuals, and communities, cultures, and nations. This principle of intercessory prayer, whether it be for the individual themselves or communities at large can apply as much today as it did throughout the biblical ages as expressed within the Bible’s pages.
[1] Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978), 862–873.
[2] R. Dennis Cole, “Numbers,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 222–229.
[3] Eugene H. Merrill, “Numbers,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 231–232; Peter T. Vogt, Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook, ed. David M. Howard Jr., Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2009), 68–69.
[4] R. Dennis Cole, Numbers, vol. 3B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 232.
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