Numbers 14:26-45
In the middle of this sad episode, what a consolation it is to be able to consider Joshua and Caleb. They have "another spirit" with them (v. 24). Furthermore they do not lose their reward. Alone amongst all their generation they enter into the land. Until then they have to share the lot of the guilty nation: to wander for forty years across the barren wilderness. But during this long pilgrimage, they are continually encouraged by the memory of the land they have already visited, this country of Canaan whose fruit they have already tasted.
Moses announces the distressing news. How do the people react? When Caleb urged them to go up boldly and to take possession of the land, they wanted to return to Egypt or spoke of perishing in the wilderness (Numbers 13:31; Numbers 14:2). Now that God’s judgment makes them retrace their steps towards the Red Sea, and that He announces that they will die in the wilderness, they wish to sidestep the punishment and reply: "Lo, we be here, and will go up . . . " (v. 40). The heart of man is never in agreement with God, in particular when it is a matter of recognising faults committed, of submitting to discipline and of humbly accepting the consequences of one’s sins. Notwithstanding that Moses says to them, "Do not go up", they persist and suffer a cruel defeat.