The Bible Slam: Numbers Chapter 14

Upon hearing that the promised land is filled with giants who would overpower them, the Israelites complain to Moses and Aaron about leading them out of Egypt into an impossible situation, so Moses and Aaron "fall on their faces" before the entire congregation.

The Israelites talk about creating a new captain and heading back to Egypt.  Two guys, Caleb and Joshua, try to talk them out of this, saying they could take over the land of milk and honey. Sick of promises, the people are about to stone the two men.  Before they do so, God appears in all his glory.   God, of course, is real mad about the people's rebellion.

The ten spies who gave reports of the land are killed. God wants to kill all the people, but Moses talks him out of it. So God dooms his chosen people, saying, "And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness." Only Caleb, who in Chapter 13 said the Israelites would win any war, will get to see the promised land.

The chapter concludes with the Amalekites killing off the Canaanites and taking over the land.

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Discussion Points.

Why are people always falling on their faces in the Bible, and how exactly is this done?

14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

Is this not an oxymoron?

14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

An example of falling on your face:

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