God answers Moses’ prayer, while Moses holds God to His promises in Num. 14:11-19 and God’s answer continues from Numbers 14:20 through v. 35. Then the ten men who gave the evil report, “died by the plague before the LORD,” in v.37. However, the LORD started out in vv. 20& 21, by saying, “I have pardoned according to thy word,” according to Moses’ plea or prayer. So, in answer to your question, “Does God answer prayer?” Here He says, that He does! “And as truly as He lives, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” As a result of His mercy, grace and pardon for answered prayer.

Webster defines pardon as: a means to release from further punishment; to cancel or not exact a penalty; to excuse or forgive for some minor fault or discourtesy; to overlook, forgive, or a mild apology; “Pardon me.”  God’s pardon on the other hand always involves payment of some sort and usually the life of something or someone; and the bigger the pardon, the bigger the payment. We have two basic words in Hebrew for pardon, (sa-lakh) #5545 – to forgive, pardon, spare, the primary idea seems to be that of lifting up; Num. 14:20: And (na-sa) #5375 – to lift up, bear up, carry away or off, to be swept away or taken away. So, we can see where we get the concept for (Tashlikh) to take away their sins. This word is found in Micah 7:8. These two words go back and forth through out the Hebrew Scriptures, except in II Chron. 30:18-19, there we have the word (ka-far) #3722 translated pardon, this word means to cover, purge, make atonement, reconciliation, propitiation: to cover with pitch or blood. “But Hezekiah prayed for them saying, The good LORD pardon (ka-far) every one, Who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” The LORD had already told them at Mt Sinai the cost of atonement, the price for a pardon, Lev. 17:11. These men died by ‘the plague’ (mag-gepa) #4046 – blow, strike, slaughter, before the LORD in Num. 14:37, I get the idea that this was not very pleasant.

In Micah 7:18-19, it says, “Who is a God like unto Thee, (this is a play on Micah’s name which means, ‘Who is like the LORD’) who pardons iniquity, and passes by transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Then He puts up a sign that says, “No Fishing!” On ‘Rosh Hashanah’ the ‘Jewish New Year’ the orthodox Jewish people will go to a river or a running stream and empty their pockets of crumbs into the water to symbolize the casting of their sins into the sea. By the way, the ‘Mariana trench’ in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines is over 36,000 feet deep. Many have thought of it as a nuclear waste dump site, not a good idea. The Jewish people call this religious ritual on ‘Rosh Hashanah’ (Tashlikh) which means, casting off. I wish removal of our sins was as easy as going to the beach and emptying our pockets of some crumbs once a year and reciting Micah 7:18-20 and the Lord’s prayer. However, His Son had to die on a cross and we have to believe it and ‘Be – Live‘ it! Before God can pardon our sins, something or someone must die!

Now the LORD says He will pardon Israel and not wipe them out. However, all of those men and women over the age of 20, who have seen His glory and His miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put Him to the test these “Ten Times” shall not see the ‘Promised Land.’ I have tried to trace those ‘ten times’ mentioned in Num. 14:22 and have found most of them but not all of them. What is significant is the fact that God says in v. 27 that all the murmuring and complaining by the children of Israel was not against Moses and Aaron but it was really against God! So, when we murmur and complain about the leadership in our churches or our churches in general, if it is not heresy, or unorthodox procedures, then we may be, “kicking against the pricks,” like Paul in Acts 9:4-5. Where we see that anything done against the body of Christ, it is done against Christ Himself! It is important to remember that although these Jewish people had obeyed God by killing the lamb and applying its blood to the lentil and door posts of their homes in Exodus 12 and came out of Egypt, they did not enter into Canaan’s rest due to unbelief, Heb. 3:18-19.

Therefore, although they were members of a redeemed nation, they were for 40 years a grief to the heart of the LORD! In the same sense we can march all the way to Calvary and apply the “Blood of God’s Lamb” to the lentil and door posts of our hearts, but then do we ‘Walk the Walk’ or do we just, ‘talk the talk?’ Are we a member of a redeemed congregation, but a grief to the very heart of God? The wilderness is part of the necessary discipline of a redeemed people, but not necessarily the wandering, that is the result of unbelief which leads to rebellion which is as the sin of witchcraft, I Sam. 15:23. The Red Sea, the waters of Marah, the wells of Elim, Mt Sinai, the Manna, the Quail, etc, etc. These were all ways God used to develop and discipline His people, to mature them and help them grow. We see their counterpart in our Christian experience; the Red Sea suggests the cross which was the death to Christ but life for the Christian; Marah is where God’s power turns bitterness into blessings; Elim is where God’s grace and mercy give us rest and refreshment on our journey with Him; in Mt Sinai we see God’s holiness and our unholiness. We are just pilgrims on a journey, foreigners as Paul said, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look, (eagerly wait) for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Are you, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ?” Or are you complaining, murmuring, groaning, and griping? Till next time, I hope to meet you in my prayer closet on my knees or, “…Between The Lines…” 

“God’s Pardon For Moses’ Prayer” Num. 14:20-35 2/10/16