Numbers 14:26-45 - The Penalty Of Unbelief And Rashness
The old translation in Numbers 14:34 was unfortunate. "Breach of promise" is rendered in r.v. "my alienation." It is still better to notice the marginal reading, "the revoking of my promise." But even this hardly gives us the true meaning of the words, which teach us that God's promises are conditional on our faith. He cannot do what we fail to trust Him to do.
The key of faith will unlock every drawer and cupboard in the divine treasury, but we must use it. If we will not trust God with our life we shall be left to perish in the wilderness of drought, of restlessness and of peril. Unbelief paralyzes God's arm. See Matthew 13:58, And let us learn from the closing paragraph that the might of our own right hand will never avail to accomplish what is forfeited by unbelief. "It shall not prosper." [source]
Chapter Summary: Numbers 14
1The people murmur at the news 6Joshua and Caleb labor to still them 11God threatens them 13Moses intercedes with God, and obtains pardon 26The Murmurers are debarred from entering into the land 36The men who raised the evil report die by a plague 40The people that would invade the land against the will of God are smitten
What do the individual words in Numbers 14:26 mean?