Rebellion - Numbers 13-17

 Numbers 17:12-13 (ESV)

And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

To understand the above verses we would need to read the preceding chapters (14, 16 and 17, specifically).   Moses sent spies out to survey the “promised” land.  The 12 spies all brought a great report about the blessings of the land, but 10 of them saw the obstacles and not the opportunities.   Only Caleb and Joshua believed God could bring them into the land that flowed with milk and honey but also giants and chariots.     God subsequently started to discipline the nation and that is when the rebellion of leadership started to gain momentum.   Although they thought they were pushing back on Moses and Aaron, they were really rebelling agains God.  That is when God stepped in and destroyed almost 15,000 of them.    The above two verses are the feelings and words of those who witnessed God destroy their fellow Israelites.    They feared for their lives.    Andy they should fear for their lives.   During this process of rebellion and disciplined they learned what we read about in the New Testament:

Hebrews 10:31 (ESV)

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

They learned that God does not mess around with rebellion.   In the last days, one of the things we read will be more and more prominent is a rebellious spirit:

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)

Godlessness in the Last Days

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

We might be seeing more and more of this behavior in our current days, but it was always in the heart of mankind, all they way back to the spies.   The spirit of rebellion is a dangerous spirit to have in one’s heart.  It only leads to certain destruction.   We ought to live in fear of the Lord, but not because He will consume our rebellious hearts, but because we honor and worship Him and see that He is awesome.