All the people wailed in distress and grumbled against Moses. Now look at what is happening.
What is the truth of the situation? If the people will trust God, then He will lead them into the Promised Land, they will face opposition, but God would enable them to overcome all opposition. In doing so He will fulfil the desires of their hearts.
What do the people think the situation is? They have left a place (Egypt) that they had got used to. They were under cruel slavery, but they had got used to it. It is amazing what we can get used to! Now they had the chance to go to a better land. However, that land is occupied by powerful people, people far more powerful than the Israelites were. So it seems that God's promise of a new land is worthless.
Why this sharp divergence of views of the situation? It is because God's perspective and His assessment of what is possible is always based on people putting their trust in Him, it is always based on what we can do when we work together with Him. Our perspective is so often based on what we can do with our own abilities alone.
Joshua and Caleb implore the people not to give up and rebel against God. When we refuse to take steps of faith we are rebelling against God. The people refused to change their mind.
God offers to destroy all the people and form a new nation out of Moses. Now God is probably doing this to see what is in Moses' heart, and Moses declines the offer. Moses is motivated by the glory of God. Instead Moses asks God to forgive the people. Remember that these people were all for stoning Moses.
God does forgive the people, but their actions are not without consequences. Since they refused to go in, none of the people (except Joshua and Caleb) would enter the land. This applied to all the people who had seen the glory of the Lord and His signs and wonders. Ie the people had had ample opportunity to learn who God was and His power for them.
The people make a vain attempt at repentance, but it was now too late. They had to live with the new situation.
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