n until they came into the wilderness. There they began to
despise God's Word, to murmur against Moses and against God and to
fall into idolatry. Whereupon God vindicated himself among them; of
all that great nation which came out from Egypt, of all the
illustrious ones who assisted Moses in leading and governing, only
two individuals passed from the wilderness into Canaan. Plainly,
then, God had no pleasure in the great mass of that host. It did not
avail them to be called the people of God, a holy people, a company
to whom God had shown marvelous kindness and great wonders; because
they refused to believe and obey the Word of God.

The prospect was good when they were so wonderfully and gloriously
delivered from their enemies, and had at Mount Sinai received from
God the Law and a noble order of worship--their prospect was good for
them to enter into the land; they were already at the gate. But even
in that auspicious moment they provoked God until he turned them back
to wander forty years in the wilderness, where they perished.

9. Their punishment was wholly the result of their odious arrogance
in boasting in the face of God's Word, of their privileges as the
people of God, upon whom he daily bestowed great kindness. "Do you
not recognize," they bragged, "the holiness of this entire
congregation, among whom God dwells, daily performing his marvelous
wonders?" In their pride and defiance they became stiff-necked and
obstinate enough to continually complain against Moses and to oppose
him whatever course he took with them. Thus they day by day awakened
God's wrath against themselves, forcing him to visit them with many
terrible plagues. These failing to humble, he was compelled to remove
the entire nation. Many times God would have destroyed them all at
once had not Moses prostrated himself before him in their behalf and
with earnest entreaty and strong supplication turned aside his wrath.
Because of their perversity, Moses was a most wretched and harassed
man. "The man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon
the face of the earth." Num 12, 3. For he was daily vexed with the
defiance, disobedience and opposition of this great company of
people; and further, he had to witness and endure for the entire
forty years the numerous and awful plagues sent upon his people, his
heart being filled with anguish for them. Then, too, it was his
continually to withstand God's wrath.

10. Terrible indeed is the thing