An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Numbers 14:11-24, “Rebellion & Judgment,” for Sunday, September 28, 2025. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can use, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

You could share this brief description of George Washington by his contemporary, and his Vice President, John Adams. Adams wrote to Benjamin Rush, and described him as having: a “handsome Face,” an “elegant Form,” and “graceful Attitudes and Movement.” (Adams letter to Benjamin Rush, November 11, 1807 GLC00424.)

AND/OR: 

Pass out some slips of paper and ask your members to write a few words they would use to describe themselves to someone who might not know them — perhaps 5-7 qualities. You might ask for some volunteers to share what they wrote.

Then transition: In today’s lesson from Numbers 14, we see how GOD described Himself to us — and how being the kind of God that He told us He is, gives us hope for grace and forgiveness. 

CONTEXT:

As we continue our study of Numbers and Deuteronomy this quarter, we left off in Numbers 13, where Israel has passed through the wilderness, and they are on the edge of the Promised Land. Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land to scout it out, and after 40 days they brought back a mixed report: yes, it is a bountiful land with giant fruit — but it also has fortified cities and giant men, and we can’t take it. Only Joshua and Caleb believed that God would help them, and that they should go and take the land. 

In the first part of Numbers 14, :1-4, the people of Israel cry all night, and then they begin to complain that Moses, Aaron, and God had just brought them there to die — and they said “Let’s appoint a leader to bring us back to Egypt.” In :5 Moses and Aaron just fall on their faces before the congregation, and in :6-9 Joshua & Caleb make an impassioned appeal to the people: this is a good land; God is with us. Do not fear the obstacles! But in :10 the people said let’s stone them with stones. It was very dire. At that moment, :10 says, the glory of YHWH Himself appeared at the tent of meeting. This brings us to our focus passage for today, in Numbers 14:11-24.

OUTLINE:

I.  The Picture of the Intercessor (:11-16)

II. The Appeal of the Intercessor (:17-19)

III. The Results of the Intercessor (:20-24)

TEXT:  Numbers 14:11-24

I. The Picture of the Intercessor  (:11-16)

:11 “The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? 12 I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

13 But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, for You, O LORD, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if You slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, 16 ‘Because the LORD could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’”

Evidently the appearance of the presence of Yahweh at tent of meeting stunned the people, and stopped them in their tracks, from stoning Moses and the others. Then it says God actually spoke to Moses in :11 and following:

God asks two questions here: “how long?” (Hebrew ad-ana)

“HOW LONG?” Sometimes we may ask God “how long?” (like David in Psalm 6:3, “But you O YHWH, HOW LONG?”

But here God asks MOSES “How long?”

— “How long will this people spurn me?”

— “How long will they not believe in Me?”

And He makes an important point in the second part of :11, “despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst.”

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What was God referring to here — what “signs did He perform in their midst”?

(There were so many: from Moses’ first appearance to them with the signs from his rod, to the 10 plagues of Egypt — leading to the death of the Egyptian firstborn, but their children were spared. Then the parting of the Red Sea, when they walked through it, the waters “like a wall” on either side of them! Then His appearance in fire on Mt. Sinai; and the provision of the manna and then the meat in the wilderness, as well leading them by the pillar of fire by day, and cloud by night. It really IS remarkable, how much they literally saw God do — and yet they turn on Him and doubt so quickly, ready to go back to Egypt. 

But of course, unfaithfulness in light of God’s faithfulness isn’t limited to Israel, is it? How much have so many of us seen and experienced of God — and yet we so quickly doubt, or turn away from Him, just like they did!

God was very patient with Israel — more patient than they deserved. But here in Numbers 14 His patience had run out. He said in :14, “I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.” God told Moses, I’ll just strike them with pestilence (Hebrew “deber,” meaning a plague that strikes people or livestock). God struck 185,000 Assyrians dead in one night, II Kings 19:15 says — and it would have been nothing for Him to do to Israel as well. 

Psalm 103:9 says, “He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.” And God’s patience with Israel had run out. They all deserved to be judged immediately. And He could start over again with Moses and the faithful few.

But something extraordinary happened: Moses interceded with God for the people. Now, let me make it clear. God did not “change His mind” here; He is omniscient. He knew all along what He was going to do. But He wanted Moses to give us this picture of the Intercessor. So in :13-16 Moses intercedes with God. He pleads on behalf of the people with God, asking Him NOT to strike them, as they deserved. 

Significantly, Moses does NOT in any way imply that the people did not deserve the judgment. They did. Instead, he appealed to the glory of God, and the witness to the world: they will say “the LORD could not bring this people into the land,” etc.  But the salient point here is: Moses became an intercessor, standing between God and the people who deserved His punishment. 

An even bigger thing, is that what Moses did here, points to the Ultimate Intercessor who was yet to come.  Later, in Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses told Israel: ““The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” Theologians tell us this verse is one of the prime Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah.  God used Moses’ example in this incident in Numbers 14 to point us to this coming Messiah, Jesus, who like Moses would intercede with God for His people — unlike Moses, Jesus’ intercession would be on behalf of the whole world! 

+x I Timothy 2:5-6 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”

Jesus interceded for the world, through His death on the cross, so that whoever would repent and trust Him as their Lord & Savior, would be saved. Without Moses’ intercession, Israel would have perished; without Jesus’ intercession, we all would have perished! 

ILLUSTRATION

Carl Sandburg tells this story of Abraham Lincoln. A man was in prison during the Civil War. “The guard (outside the White House) Crook took note of a woman intercepting (President Lincoln’s son) Tad in a corridor, telling Tad her boys and girls were starving because their father was shut up in prison and couldn’t work for them. Tad ran to his father with the story. The father sat at a desk with papers, an almost absent look on his face, said he would look into the case as soon as he had time. Tad clung to his father’s knees and begged till his father listened. And ran back and told the woman her husband would be set free. The woman blessed him and cried, and Tad cried — and Crook said he had to cry too.” (Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years and the War Years, p. 590)

That prisoner was delivered from his punishment by the intercession of the President’s son. In the same way, we too are saved from our deserved punishment, by the intercession of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in His body on the cross, making peace between us and His Father. 

One of the most important applications we can make from this text, is that Moses intercession here in Numbers 14 foreshadows the intercession of Jesus for us all. He is the Ultimate Intercessor, who staved off the judgment of God for all who would come to Him in repentance and faith. 

Another application we can make is that Moses’ and Christ’s examples of intercessors also challenge US to be intercessors on behalf of others. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart’s desire, and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” He was referring there to how he prayed and interceded for his Jewish brethren. We call this “intercessory prayer” — praying to God for salvation and other needs on behalf of others. Moses did this for Israel, foreshadowing how Jesus did this for us — and we should follow His example and intercede on behalf of others.    

But it’s important that we know what the hope of the intercessor’s prayer is based upon — which we see in the next section:

II. The Appeal of the Intercessor (:17-19)

17 “But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’

19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

So Moses pictures for us the ultimate Intercession of Christ. But notice the BASIS of His appeal. As I mentioned above, His intercession was NOT based on anything “good” in the Israelites. They did not “deserve” His mercy.Rather Moses’ hope as an intercessor was based on the character of God Himself: he asked God to be gracious, because that is the kind of God He is!

ILLUSTRATION

If you don’t use the “self-description” exercise to introduce the lesson, you might use it in this section — and then point out that the qualities Moses shares here are God’s own self-description.

OR you might consider sharing some “Twitter bios” in which people write a brief description of themselves — and then point out that this is what we have here: God’s own “Twitter bio,” or description about Himself. 

In :18 Moses proceeds to list some of the attributes of the character of God. But it’s important that Moses didn’t just “dream up” this list. At the end of :17 he says, “Just as You have declared.” Where did God “declare” these things? He declared them to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7! Moses had asked God in Exodus 33, “Show me Your glory.” God told him he could only get a glimpse of His glory from the cleft of the rock. Then Chapter 34 says “And the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed: “The LORD (YHWH), the LORD God, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, (:7) who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 

Does that sound familiar? This is God’s “self description” (like in our exercise/or a Twitter bio) — and THESE are the words Moses used to appeal to God in his intercessory prayer here Numbers 14! He’s quoting God’s character right back to Him! He’s saying, God, have grace and mercy on these people — not because they “deserve” it — but because that is the kind of God You said You are! 

I don’t think God’s self-description here has been given the attention and priority that it deserves. What God proclaimed to Moses when He passed before Him in the cleft of that rock, was His essence; His innate attributes. This is who God says He is; His own “self-description.” Because this is how God describes Himself to us, we should pay very careful attention to it:

(— In Exodus 34 God begins describing Himself with the word “Compassionate.” And I think this is so significant about God, that THE FIRST WORD He uses to describe Himself is the word “compassionate”?! His first word was not “holy,” or “just” or anything else — but “compassionate”! What a comforting thought. Before everything else, God is compassionate. 

And doesn’t He show it?)

However, here in Numbers 14, Moses actually skips right to the THIRD attribute God mentions in Exodus 34, which is “slow to anger.” I think we can guess why he did that: because God was angry with His people because of their grumbling, lack of faith, and rebellion.” So Moses reminds Him of that here: “Remember You said You are slow to anger!” 

— “Abounding in lovingkindness”

“Lovingkindness” here is the Hebrew word “chesed,” which we have talked about previously. It is such a rich word that it is almost untranslatable by a single word into English: it means undeserved goodness, mercy, love — Martin Luther said it was the best Old Testament expression of New Testament “grace.” And significantly, notice what it says: He is “ABOUNDING in chesed”! Not only does God have undeserved goodness, mercy, and grace towards us — as the hymn says, “grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt” — He “ABOUNDS” in it! Thank God!

— “forgiving iniquity and transgression”

The word “forgiving” here is the Hebrew “nasa,” which means to “lift up” or “carry away.” God “carries away” our sins — Psalm 103:12 says “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us”!

So God ABOUNDS in grace; He carries away our sins — that’s the kind of God He is in His character. But these things are balanced by another of His character qualities that Moses mentions here at the end of :18:

— “but by no means will He leave the guilty unpunished”

In Hebrew this is an emphatic expression, “Clearing He will NOT clear” — it’s an expression they use to emphasize something, so in English we usually translate it something like “by no means.” The point is, God’s really emphasizing here, HE WILL NOT JUST LET THE GUILTY “GET OFF” FREE. Justice must be satisfied. Punishment must be meted out. So many people think, “Oh, God will just let me off in the end,” like a grandfather who decides not the punish his grandkids after all. But this verse (and others like it) tell us: GOD WILL NOT DO THAT. He cannot and will not “just let you off.” 

This is why God did what He did in sending Jesus. God loves us. He is “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.” He wants to forgive us. So in His unfathomable grace, He came to Earth as Jesus Christ, and died for our sins — the one and only way He could be “just and the justifier of the one who as faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26). But this was THE ONLY way we could be forgiven. That’s why Jesus said “I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” If we reject that One way, there is no other way. (That’s why when Jesus asked if there was any other way at Gethsemane, the Father sent Him to the cross — because there was no other way!) 

All of which points back to this verse: if a person does not receive the one and only way that God can possibly forgive our sins that He provided at the dearest cost, HE WILL NOT JUST “LET YOU OFF”! He “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” This is why we must encourage everyone we know to accept the compassion, grace, and mercy that He offers us in Jesus. There is no other way to escape the judgment of God which He must pour out upon sin. This what people miss when they say “Oh, God won’t send anyone to hell; He’s a God of love.” He IS a God of love — but they miss that it’s also part of His innate character that He is holy and just, and must punish sin.

So these are the attributes of God that Moses prayed back to Him. This is His innate character that He revealed to us in Exodus 34— and which are repeated throughout scripture. We need to know them, and count on them.

In an almost comical fashion, the prophet Jonah counted upon these same qualities of God, in Jonah 4. Jonah had looked forward to God’s judgment coming upon Nineveh, because their people were vicious and had been towards Israel. As we know, Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh to preach, but it was NOT because he was afraid of them, but as he said in 4:2, after they repented at his preaching: “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

Jonah was like, God, I just KNEW You were going to forgive these wicked people — that’s why I didn’t want to go in the first place. You’re such a “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger God”! It was almost an accusation from Jonah — “I just KNEW You’re like that; I just KNEW You’d forgive them!” — but aren’t we glad that He IS that kind of God! Since He truly is so compassionate and gracious and slow to anger — it gives US hope, that He will show that same compassion and grace towards US, if we will just repent and return to Him!

So these are the attributes of God that Moses based his intercession upon. He asks in :19, “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.”

Notice He does NOT say, “Lord, forgive the people, because they are basically good,” or “God, forgive them because they don’t deserve to be punished,” or anything like that. He knew the people WERE guilty. They DID deserve to be wiped out. His appeal for forgiveness had NOTHING to do with the goodness or “deservingness” of the people — instead Moses’ appeal to God to forgive was based on HIS CHARACTER: that He just IS a God of grace, love, and forgiveness. 

This is the gospel we need to personally accept today, too: Our hope for forgiveness from God is NOT based on any goodness in us. It’s only based on HIS love, mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. It’s like the old hymn says:  “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.”  We don’t come to God claiming forgiveness because we are good, or because we are GOING to be good; or anything like that. We come admitting our sin and unworthiness — but claiming the grace and forgiveness He has for us in Christ. 

And as intercessors for others like Moses, that should be our prayer for the lost and those needing God’s grace. DON’T pray: “Oh God, have mercy on them, they’re basically good.” No, they aren’t. They’re sinners, and they don’t “deserve” His forgiveness. Instead intercede for them based on God’s character, just like Moses does here: pray, God You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness — so have mercy on this child/friend/loved one to the praise of the glory of Your grace. Our intercession, like Moses’ should be based on the unchangeable character qualities God revealed to us in His word.

III. The Results of the Intercessor (:20-24)

:20 “So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word; 21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.”

So what happened when Moses interceded?

— First, God says in :20 that He has pardoned Israel. He will not destroy the entire nation of them immediately. Moses intercession “worked” — but of course it was no credit to the people of Israel; it was not because of any goodness in them, but only because of God’s undeserved mercy and grace. 

— But that does not mean that there were no consequences for what they had done. In :22 He said, “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs … yet have put Me to the test these ten times … (:23) shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers.” This rebellious generation would not see the Promised Land.

It’s interesting that God specified “TEN TIMES” that Israel tested Him in the wilderness. Some believe that by saying “ten” He just meant “a lot of times.” But the Jewish Babylonian Talmud specified the “ten times”:

1) at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:11-2)

2) at Marah (Num. 15:23)

3) in the Sin wilderness (Num. 16:2)

4 & 5) twice at Kadesh, Num. 16:20, 27)

6) at Rephidim/Massah/Meribah (Num. 17:2-7)

7) at Sinai (Num. 32:1-35)

8) at Taberah (Num. 11:1)

9) at Kibroth hattaavah (Num. 11:4-34)

10) here at Kadesh (Num. 13:1-14:45)

The rabbis taught that these 10 were in contrast to the 10 plagues of the Egyptians, and described them as “two at Kadesh, two for water, two for food, two for flesh, one for the golden calf, and one for the spies.” (R. Dennis Cole, New American Commentary, p. 233)

God’s prohibition against this rebellious generation entering the Promised Land reminds us that sin always has consequences. And just because God may forgive the guilt of a sin, does not mean that all of its earthly consequences are removed. We would do well to remember this as well!

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What are some contemporary examples of how God may forgive a sin, but not remove all of its earthly consequences?”

(Examples:  a person may be forgiven for some kind of immorality, but still get a transmitted disease or a broken home;  a criminal may come to Christ, but still have to pay for his crimes to the state; etc. You/your group can think of many.)

This serves to remind us, that although there is no sin which God cannot forgive here on earth, we should not presume upon His grace, and sin lightly — for there may still be strong earthly consequences for our sin, even if God forgives us. 

— BUT :24 says, “Caleb … I will bring into the land …”. 

And WHY would he do this? “Because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully.” What was that “spirit”? It was a spirit of faith, instead of a spirit of doubt and unbelief. 

As we know, Joshua also had that same spirit of faith, and he also was able to enter the Promised Land. God said later here in Numbers 14:30 “Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” So of all Israel, only Joshua and Caleb would enter the Promised Land — not even Moses (as we shall see next week in Numbers 20:12). (Num. 32:11 does say this includes those 20 years old and upward; so it did not include the children.)

This is yet another reminder — as we see all through scripture — that God is looking for FAITH from us as His people. “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him,” Hebrews 11:6. Faith is indispensable for salvation, as well as for our daily walk to please God.  

AND: don’t miss what God said in :21, “but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD.”

God showed Moses a “peek” at His glory in the cleft of the rock in Exodus 34, and shared His innate character with him. But He says, one day, the whole earth will see My glory. 

God’s glory is what we were made to be satisfied by. It is the longing and greatest desire of every human heart. Our sins separated us from the glory of God, just as Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.” But one day, His promised Messiah would come, and as John says, “We beheld His glory.” And by His death on the cross, Jesus paid the redemption price for all (I Timothy 2:6) so that now our access to the glory of God is restored. II Thessalonians 2:14 says, “It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Everyone who trusts in Jesus as their Lord & Savior tastes of the glory of God in Christ here on earth — and will bask in His glory forever, where as Psalm 16:11 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” 

This message of His glory is not just for Israel, but for the whole world. And indeed the message of Christ has gone out through all the world. The whole world has seen His glory — and will see it even more clearly, very soon!  

Until that time, let’s make sure that each of us has drawn near to God, and tasted of His glory by trusting Jesus as our Lord & Savior. And let us follow in His footsteps, who is the Ultimate Intercessor, the One foreshadowed by Moses’ example in this passage, who came between God and us, who deserved His judgement, and interceded on our behalf, that we might be saved. Let us imitate Him by also being intercessors on behalf of others, offering prayers like Paul, “My heart’s desire, and my prayer to God is for their salvation.” 

We’ll pick up the story next time in Numbers 20 — it doesn’t get any easier — but more good lessons for us from God’s word!

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