But then there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must never be forgotten, nor must these things ever be confounded. The whole book of God illustrates the distinction between grace and government; and no part of it, perhaps, more forcibly than the section which now lies open before us. Grace will pardon, and grace will fill the earth with the blessed beams of divine glory; but mark the appalling movement of the wheels of government as set forth in the following burning words: “Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it: but My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” (Ver. 22-25.)
This is most solemn. Instead of confiding in God, and going boldly on into the land of promise, in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm, they provoked Him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness. “The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, ‘How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know My breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against Me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’” (Ver. 26-35.)
Such, then, was the fruit of unbelief, and such the governmental dealings of God with a people that had provoked Him by their murmurings and hardness of heart.
It is of the utmost importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan on the occasion now before us. The inspired commentary in Hebrews iii. places this beyond all question. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” It might perhaps be said that the time was not come for Israel’s entrance upon the land Of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its culminating point. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to enter the land. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: “They could not enter in,” not because of the iniquity of the Amorites—not because the time was not come, but simply “because of unbelief.” They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so, and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. The judgment of faith, as uttered by faithful Caleb, was clear and unhesitating—“Let us go up _at once_, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” They were as well able at that moment as they could ever be at any moment, inasmuch as the One who had given them the land was the spring of their ability to enter upon it and possess it.
It is well to see this, and to ponder it deeply. There is a certain style of speaking of the counsels, purposes, and decrees of God—of the enactments of His moral government, and of the times and seasons which He has put in His own power—which goes far to sweep away the very foundations of human responsibility. This must be carefully guarded against. We must ever bear in mind that man’s responsibility rests on what is _revealed_, not on what is _secret_. Israel was responsible to go up at once and take possession of the land, and they were judged for not doing so. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, because they had not faith to enter the land.