Daily Devotion | Numbers 14:11–25 | 2026 May 06

Title: Daily Devotion | Numbers 14:11–25 | 2026 May 06

Scripture: Numbers 14:11–25 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 May 06

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Alright, brothers and sisters, peace be with you. We thank God for His grace that we have come to a new day to study the Daily Devotion together. The passage we are studying today is Numbers chapter 14, verses 11 through 25. Let us pray. God, we thank You. We truly need Your great mercy and grace. Lord, we truly see that You are in heaven interceding for us. Lord, we ask the Father to forgive our sins. Lord, how wonderful this is. Because of Your intercession for us, we are able in this life to follow You, to obey Your will, and to understand Your statutes and ordinances. Lord, we ask that You would continue to help us, and also make us people who lead others into Your way. In Christ’s name, Amen. Alright.

The passage we are looking at today is Numbers chapter 14, verses 11 to 25. Here, when the Israelites became stubborn and rebellious — yesterday we spoke about two voices: one was the voice of the Israelites, and the other was the voice of Joshua and Caleb. But these Israelites wanted to stone these two men of faith to death. Then God once again supernaturally intervened. God began to speak to Moses. God said to Moses.

And what did God say to Moses? He said, “How long will this people despise Me? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs that I have done among them?” So here you can see that God continually revealed His miracles and glory to His people. And what was the purpose of that? The purpose was that people would honor Him. The purpose was that people would believe Him. So verse 11, we could say, is like a monologue from God. God is opening His heart to Moses.

“Moses, look at these people. How long will they despise Me?” Right? “After so many miracles, they still will not believe Me.” So from this we can reason backward, because God is unchanging — yesterday, today, and forever, God does not change. Therefore from this passage we can read God’s character. God delights when we honor Him. God delights when we believe Him. God hates when we despise Him. God hates unbelief. Yes, this is what you must grasp.

Why? Because in our daily lives, God is the same God. If our lives are lived completely without faith, then in reality we are despising Him. We are not believing Him. So this passage must become a warning and lesson for us. We must remember that we should constantly honor God and constantly trust in God.

Then in verse 12, God begins to speak His judgment. “I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them.” These people — “I will let them die here, right here.” And then another thing: “I will make your descendants into a great nation, greater and mightier than they.” So here God says three things to Moses. First, God expresses His attitude toward these people to Moses: “These people do not believe Me, and they have provoked My great anger.” Then comes the result of judgment. First, “I will strike them with pestilence.” Second, “I will make your descendants into a great nation.”

Brothers and sisters, I do not know what you think when you hear this matter. Because this same thing already happened once in the book of Exodus. Back in Exodus 32, when they worshiped the golden calf, God already said something like this. In Exodus chapter 32 verse 9, the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” So now this is already the second time God has said this.

Brothers and sisters, when we read this, our understanding of Moses should deepen even further. Back in Exodus 32, Moses had already once restrained God, saying, “Do not let Your wrath burn hot.” We already discussed that earlier. And the reasons Moses gave there are basically the same as the reasons he gives here. But now, when this situation comes again, Moses once more gives an even more detailed plea, asking God to turn from His anger.

So here we see that Moses was completely God-centered. What he cared about was God’s glory. He did not care about himself at all. In this respect, Moses truly is our example. Right? Because if it were an ordinary person, hearing such wonderful news — “Your descendants will become a great nation” — that would be an incredible thing. It would be as if Moses himself were becoming another Abraham, right? Becoming another Abraham again. His two sons would be rebuilt into a great nation. From any human perspective, this is good news. “My name will be exalted.”

But Moses did not think from that angle at all. Moses never considered this matter from the perspective of himself. He did not think about preserving his own name forever. And what makes this even more remarkable is that this proposal came directly from God Himself. That makes Moses appear even greater in this situation. This was not Moses asking for this. It was not Moses saying, “Let my descendants become a great nation.” Absolutely not. God Himself actively proposed it: “I will make your descendants into a great nation, greater and mightier than they.” Yet Moses restrained God.

So I truly think Moses becomes our example here. He completely did not consider himself. As I read through his prayer, I think it can actually be summarized by one line of prayer — even including the first line of the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be Your name.” That is Moses’ attitude. “May Your name be honored as holy.” This is Moses’ heart.

So Moses truly gives us a wonderful example here. Let us specifically look at what Moses says. Moses begins to persuade God. “The Egyptians will hear of this.” Right? “You brought this people out by Your mighty power. And the Egyptians have already told the people of Canaan about what happened in Egypt. The Canaanites have also heard that the Lord is among us, because You have been seen face to face. Your cloud stands over them. By day You go before them in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire.”

Then in verse 14, what is Moses saying? He is saying, “God, You cannot do this.” Why? “Because You brought us out, and the Egyptians already know that You are among us. Now the Egyptians have told this matter to the Canaanites. You are among us, and You have been visibly seen among us face to face. This is already a fact.”

Then verse 15 says that if You now kill these people, the nations who have heard Your fame will say, “The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, so He killed them in the wilderness.” Then Your name would be dishonored. Right? Look, these Gentile nations do not understand all the details involved here. They do not understand the rebellion of the people. What they see is simply that You killed Your own people in the wilderness. And because they are Your people, they will think this way.

So now Moses says, “Please let the Lord show His great power, according to what You Yourself have spoken.” God Himself said that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, yet by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

“Now therefore, please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your steadfast love, just as You have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.” So Moses is persuading God and calming His anger. “God, do not be angry. Please forgive them. Do not deal with them according to their sins and transgressions. Continue to forgive them.”

So from this we see that Moses’ heart was completely centered on God’s glory. He cared only about God’s glory. But I think when people read this passage, it can easily produce a misunderstanding, as if Moses were more righteous than God. Right? It can almost create that kind of illusion. Of course, that is not the correct understanding. The things God says here are true. But when God does these things, it is not that Moses is somehow more righteous than God. We must understand God from a higher level.

Namely, God ordained all these things in order to display His glory. The reason Moses was able to say these things was also because God’s grace came upon him, enabling him to speak this way. We must have this understanding. Otherwise we end up dragging God down, as if God were merely an immanent God — merely near to us — and not the transcendent God. That becomes a very dangerous tendency.

So what we see here is that Moses was able to do all these things because God’s gracious power came upon him. And I think the greater pointer here is even clearer: Moses is actually a type, a foreshadowing, of another Mediator. The more perfect Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, reconciles God and man. In God’s grace and mercy, God gave His Son Jesus Christ to us. He became flesh and came into the world. He became the sacrifice for sin. He Himself also became the High Priest who offered the sacrifice, offering Himself as the sacrifice, thereby satisfying the wrath of God.

And here we also need to pay attention to certain theological issues. We will only mention them briefly. We should not come away with the feeling that the Father is very harsh, while Jesus is gentle, as if Jesus merely calmed down the Father’s anger. That is not the correct understanding. If you think that way, then your understanding is wrong again. Because John 3:16 says it very clearly: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

So the source of the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace is in the Father Himself. It is the Father who was willing to save us, and therefore He gave Jesus Christ to us. There are indeed some theological issues involved here. Some of these matters are complicated and require explanation. But because we are only doing a devotional study here, we do not need to resolve every theological question in detail. However, I do want to remind everyone not to fall into these misunderstandings.

The first misunderstanding is to think that Moses was somehow more righteous than God, or that God is just a God who easily loses His temper and Moses had to comfort Him. That is completely wrong. On the contrary, the proper understanding is that the reason Moses could do these things was because God’s grace guided him. Although Moses is our example and did well in honoring God’s name as holy, all praise and glory belong to God alone, not to Moses. This is the first thing we must not get wrong.

The second thing we must not misunderstand is that Moses serves as a representative, a type, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? We are all under God’s wrath because of our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ personally bore our sins. And of course the intercession of the Lord Jesus is far more glorious than the intercession of Moses. The Lord Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice and accomplished atonement. So this is the second point: Moses is a type and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The third thing we must not misunderstand is the idea that the Father is the “bad God” while Jesus is the “good God,” and that Jesus merely calmed God’s anger. Never think this way. Never. Because John 3:16 makes it very clear that the entire source of redemption is in the Father. It is because the Father loves us that He gave His Son to us.

God’s wrath toward us is righteous wrath. He is righteous because we have not followed His statutes and ordinances, and therefore God is angry with us. It is not that God is somehow a God who simply enjoys being angry. On the contrary, this is the manifestation of His glory. This is the manifestation of His attributes. Holiness must hate filth. Holiness must hate sin. This is inevitable. It is not that there is some problem in God Himself. The problem lies with us.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed the Father’s command, He brings us back to the Father through His blood. This too is righteous. So God is always righteous. God’s wrath toward us is righteous, and the fact that Jesus Christ saves us and dies for us on the cross displays even more clearly that God is righteous. So I will only say these things briefly, lest everyone misunderstand.

When reading this passage, do not come away thinking that Moses is somehow greater than God. Never think that way. Alright. Then in verse 20, God listens to Moses’ prayer. “Then the Lord said, ‘I have pardoned, according to your word.’” But then He says, “Nevertheless, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord...”

What does this mean? It means that what God cares about most is His own glory. The glory of God alone. During the Reformation, among the Five Solas, the ultimate goal was the glory of God alone. God’s glory alone must be exalted. And God Himself says that all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

In sermons and teachings we have repeatedly mentioned that when God’s glory is exalted, all creation is put back into its proper place. We will not go into detail here again. But the point is this: the glory of God alone must be exalted.

There is another thing we must clearly understand. Even if God had completely destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness and raised up Moses’ descendants into a great nation, that still would not have hindered God’s glory. We must have this penetrating perspective. God’s name will always be exalted. Even if the Israelites had truly been struck down in the wilderness, and Moses’ descendants had become a great nation so that human history was rewritten into some kind of “nation of Moses,” God’s glory still would have been displayed.

We must remember this clearly. It is not as though God’s glory would disappear if He did such a thing. On the contrary, by doing such a thing, God’s glory would once again be manifested. God’s glory will certainly triumph. This is another thing we need to see.

Then God says that these people have seen His glory and the signs He performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet they have tested Him ten times and have not obeyed His voice. “Moses, you prayed to Me, and I will not destroy them with pestilence. But despite that, these people have tested Me ten times and have not obeyed My voice. Therefore I will still punish them.”

And what is the punishment in verse 23? They shall not see the land that God swore to give to their fathers. That is the punishment. They once saw the land before them, and God told them to enter it, but they refused to go in. So now what happens? Now they will not see it. “None of those who despised Me shall see it.”

Then verse 24 says, “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.” When we read this, we may immediately think, “Wait, weren’t there two people? Caleb and Joshua?” Right? “Why does it sound as though only one person is being remembered? Why is Joshua not mentioned?”

But that is not the meaning here. Clearly, what God is expressing is that this is the kind of person whom He delights in — a man of faith. And very obviously, both Joshua and Caleb are included within this blessing. But why is Caleb specifically mentioned here? There may be a reason. Caleb belonged to the tribe of Judah.

And ultimately the kingly line would come from the tribe of Judah. Perhaps there is that implication here. Why is Joshua not mentioned? Yet in terms of position, Joshua’s status was actually higher than Caleb’s. Why? Because Joshua would inherit Moses’ leadership office. So why is Caleb singled out here? We can say there are two reasons. First, because he belonged to the tribe of Judah. Second, because God was in fact distinguishing Joshua and Caleb from one another. Joshua’s office was actually higher.

Then in verse 25, God tells them, “Turn back.” The Amalekites and the Canaanites are already dwelling in the valleys. The Canaanites have already prepared their defenses. If you go up to fight now, you cannot win. Although the deeper reason they cannot win is because God is no longer among them. If God were with them, they could win. But God no longer permits this matter.

So what should they do? “Turn back toward the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.” They are to wander in the wilderness. They will not see the land anymore. So here we see the Israelites’ sin, God’s wrath, Moses’ intercession, and finally God’s punishment.

And in all this, we clearly see that the turning point was Moses’ prayer. Through Moses’ intercession, God relented. Then when we connect this to the gospel, we see that because of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the true Priesthood of Jesus Christ — a Mediator greater than Moses — God’s wrath toward us has been satisfied, and we are reconciled to God.

And from this perspective, the Israelites were still within the covenant. Because God still regarded them as His covenant people. Their wandering in the wilderness became covenant discipline. Because even at this point, God never said that He would abolish His covenant with them. This is something we must pay attention to.

Even the matter of God raising up Moses did not break the covenant, because Moses was also a descendant of Abraham. It would simply have been a new beginning. God did not break His covenant. So everything was still taking place within the covenant. Therefore we see that God truly keeps covenant and shows steadfast love. Even with such a people, God still did not cast them outside the covenant. On the contrary, He continued to discipline them within the covenant.

Finally, I want to mention something about our interaction with God. There are two mistaken viewpoints here. One viewpoint says: since God is transcendent, and since God has already ordained all things from eternity, then there is no need for me to pray. “God has already determined everything anyway.”

Then there is another viewpoint. Because people see examples like this, they desperately try to use their own ideas to change God’s will. They pray obsessively, hoping to get whatever they want, as though God could truly alter His eternally ordained plan because of their prayers. These are two errors, and both must be avoided.

One error only sees God’s transcendence, and therefore refuses to pray. The other error only sees God’s nearness and immanence, so that in prayer people fall into the kind of charismatic mindset that says, “Whatever you want, just pray for it — healing from sickness, finding a spouse, becoming wealthy.” This is also wrong.

The true way to pray and truly interact with God is to care both about God’s transcendence and His immanence. God is transcendent. He has ordained all things. But the things He ordained in eternity are also brought to pass through our prayers.

Why do we need to pray? Because prayer is commanded. The purpose and reason for prayer are both rooted in God’s decree. And God often uses our prayers to bring about changes in things. Therefore, whenever something is according to God’s will, we should pray for it. “Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Of course we may also pray for ourselves: “Give us this day our daily bread.” So the prayer of the Lord’s Prayer should constantly be living and active in our hearts. We should pray according to the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer.

The final questions of the Westminster Larger Catechism teach us how to read Scripture, how to partake of the sacraments, and how to pray. These methods are things Christians should become very familiar with. We must constantly learn how to pray according to God’s will.

And Moses’ prayer here is very obviously according to “Hallowed be Your name.” Right? “If You do this, Your name will be dishonored.” So Moses prays, “God, may Your name be regarded as holy among the nations. May You be honored as the great God among the Gentiles.” And God listened to Moses’ prayer.

So these things become training for our own prayers. What does it mean to pray according to God’s will? First go and read the final questions of the Westminster Larger Catechism. By God’s grace, may we learn to offer prayers that accord with His will. And God will gladly hear our prayers and even change situations through them.

God truly is this kind of God. This indeed is a mystery. We ourselves do not fully understand why God ordains a plan and yet still commands us to pray, and why He also brings about changes through prayer. We truly do not fully understand it. But this is a mystery. Mystery does not mean contradiction. A mystery simply means we do not fully know. But it is not contradictory. Mystery and contradiction are two different things.

Therefore we still must pray. We should imitate Moses’ prayer. We should also pray for the people around us, asking God to save them, because this is God’s decree and command for us. Alright, we will simply share this much today. May God lead us.