It was a long time before all the sinners died; but the long-suffering of God had its limit, and in the end every rebel died in the wilderness. They lived on, some of them, for all the forty years; but they could not pass the bound. Perhaps they said, “Ah! this ban from God will never take effect on us.” Yet, ere the years were up, the survivors of the doomed race had to share the common fate. Not a man of those whom Moses and Aaron numbered at Sinai could pass the line of fire which closed in the forty years. God waits, waits in infinite mercy; but the punishment of the wicked is none the less sure. “Their foot shall slide in due time.” The Lord hath bent his bow, and made it ready”, and when their hour is come, they shall find that he is not slack concerning his word. Do not, I pray you, doubt the terrible certainty of divine threatenings because they are long in taking effect. Say not, “Where is the promise of his coming?” He will come; and when he comes it shall be “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Some of the unbelieving generation were, no doubt, full of vigor, and they said, “We are as strong as old Caleb, and quite as likely as he to cross the Jordan. Our eyes are as clear as those of Moses, and we shall outlive the forty years appointed us.” But death chilled the coals of juniper, and quenched their vehement flame. The stalwart man of war laid down his weapons, vanquished by the unconquerable foe of men. “There was not left a man of them.” How like a knell those words sound in my ears! The mighty in the day of battle were no longer mighty when their hour had come. “They could not enter in because of unbelief”; but “their carcases fell in the wilderness.” All their days were passed away in the wrath of God. Beware, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. It is vain for you to indulge a hope, “larger” or smaller, if you die in your sin. The justice of the Most High is not to be escaped. In that last great day, when the throne shall be set, and every man shall give an account for the things done in his body, whether they be good or whether they be evil, the strict Judge will by no means clear the guilty, but they shall be driven away in his wrath to the place where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Oh that you would flee to Christ for refuge! Look to his cross, I pray you, that you may be saved! As the Lord fulfilled his threatenings, so did he cause his promises to come to pass. Caleb lived on, and so did Joshua. They were often in danger. Did not the rebels take up stones to stone them? They were of often near to death: Joshua was commander-in-chief of the army, and Caleb was a man of war from his youth up. They endured the common risks of soldiers; but nothing could kill them, for God had promised that they should enter the land. They believed God and honored him by their conduct, and therefore he kept them until the hour came to go in unto the land to possess it. There were only two of them; but God did not therefore overlook them. He keeps covenant with individuals as well as with nations. They were not men who kept themselves out of harm’s way, neither were they timorous, and therefore afraid to advance their opinions. No doubt they came in for a special share of envy and malice, but their reward with God was sure. If you believe in Jesus, though you should be the only one of your family, yet you shall be saved. Though you know none of your kith and kin that fear the Lord, yet the God of Israel will not forget the lone one who is separated from his brethren. Though the faithful should become so few that all the saints together should only make a handful, yet it is written, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
God’s word standeth. “The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” Jehovah’s threatenings and promises are of equal force. “Hath he said, and shall he not do it?” There shall be no change even to a jot or tittle in this wondrous book. God forbid that we should begin to doubt it; for if we once begin, where shall we end? With this striking confirmation before us, we believe that the word of the Lord must stand. Let us be as the man whom the Lord blesses, because, saith he, “he trembleth at my word.”
IV. Our last point is this: learn from my text THE ABIDING NECESSITY OF FAITH. Those people came out of Egypt with Moses, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea when they came forth into the wilderness. One would have hoped that they all would march to Canaan, but it was not so. The first census is taken, their names are on the roll; but, sad to say, at the next numbering all those names have vanished. What a difference between the church-roll at Sinai and the book of life by Jordan!
If you profess to be the people of God, we count you among his children: you are written among the living in Zion; but what an awful thing it would be if your name should not be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life at the last! What if you should lie on the threshing-floor in the great heap before the winnowing, but should be gone with the chaff as soon as the Lord has come, “whose fan is in his hand”! Oh, that none of us may provoke the Lord to swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest!
Learn, first, that no man is, was, or ever shall be saved without faith. “He that believeth not shall be damned” is our Lord’s solemn declaration. It is written, “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” This is as true to-day as when it was first spoken.
Learn, next, that no privilege can supply the lack of faith. We read that they heard, as you do; but some, when they had heard, did provoke.” Their provocation lay mainly in their unbelief. No hearing, nay, not hearing the apostles themselves, could save you without faith. “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Hearing may minister to condemnation if the truth is not believed.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”