20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times– 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Numbers 14:20-24 (NIV)
First, the context: Moses had sent 12 spies, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, to go into the land to check it out. When they came back, what they had to say was impressive to say the least: The land was incredibly fertile, as witnessed by a huge bunch of grapes that they had carried out tied to a pole on the shoulders of two men. That was the upside. The downside was that the land was filled with giants living in massive walled cities that would surely squash the Israelites like a bug if they should try to fight them.
This report was very discouraging to the Israelites, despite the fact that Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were insistent that with God backing them they would be able to take over the land, giants or no giants. In fact the people finally decided after a short discussion (and a lot of wailing and moaning) to elect a leader to take them back to Egypt, figuring that being live slaves was better than being dead Israelites.
This is all too much for God. He tells Moses that He is just going to destroy them all, and that He will make of Moses a nation even greater than they are. But Moses pleads on their behalf for forgiveness, and that is where our passage above starts.
Surprisingly, God agrees to forgive the people. But that doesn’t mean that everything is just magically okay all of a sudden. Look at what He says: 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times– 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. Even though the people are forgiven, there are still consequences to their refusing to follow the Lord – they lose the Promised Land, all except Joshua and Caleb, who had faith in God.
Later on, when the people hear God’s judgment that they will all die out over the next 40 years as they move about the desert, and their children will be the ones to enter into the Land, they decide that they will now go ahead and obey God (a form of repentance), and start to move north. But God is not with them – He is no longer going to go with them to conquer the Land and, left to their own strength and power, they are whipped by the local people.
There is a huge lesson for us in these few short verses and their context. So often we figure that if we sin against God, disobeying one of His commands or leaving undone something that we know He wants us to do, all we have to do is repent and ask for forgiveness and then everything is okay. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. (And it doesn’t teach it anywhere!) Instead, it teaches us, just as it says here, that sin, disobedience to the God of the universe, has consequences. Whereas we can be forgiven for our sins and have our relationship with God restored, oftentimes the sin has consequences that God does not erase. Take for example the husband who cheats on his wife. Even if he repents and gets forgiveness from God before his wife finds out about the affair, there are still consequences that are likely to unfold – the woman (or someone else) may tell his wife at some point in the future, destroying the trust that is an essential element of the marriage; a child may have been conceived during the affair; the affair may have been observed causing damage to the reputation of the man and/or the woman. Even though He is willing to forgive whatever sin we sincerely repent of, God is not required to (and usually does not) remove the consequences for the sin. We end up having to pay the piper for the dance.
This even holds true at an organizational level, as we can see from the example in this Scripture. If a congregation refuses to do the job or fulfill the mission that God has called them to do, there will be serious consequences. Even if they later decide to ask for forgiveness and to go ahead and do the job, they may very well end up trying to do it in their own strength as God has removed from them the “Promised Land” of success in their mission, even if He does forgive their rebellion.
Too many of us have been taught that if we ask for forgiveness, then everything magically resets to zero – it’s just as if the rebellion never happened. But the Bible tells us a different story. We are free to choose to rebel against God’s will for us, but we are NOT free to choose the consequences of our disobedience. I think that’s one of the main reasons why none of the Bible writers every say, “Go ahead and sin if you want, because you can just ask for forgiveness later, and then everything will be all right again.” Instead, with one voice they shout loud warnings against sinning! The God we serve, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is free to forgive and still leave the consequences in place.