“And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. And the people
wept that night.”
The spy affair is broached in Numbers 13. The Hebrew’s reaction to the slanderous report gets recorded
here in Numbers 14: “And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried.”
Abravanel zeroes in on God’s fateful response to the faithless people’s histrionics, one that both deeply
frustrated and disappointed the Maker. “And God said unto Moses: Where will this people stop
despising Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have wrought among
them?” The Creator took the snub personally. Very much so.
Abravanel explains that the key to understanding God’s query to Moses lies at getting the right read on
the lead phrase: “WHERE will the people stop despising Me?” What does it mean?
God beheld the sorry sight of the sinning Hebrews in Egypt. The Creator, as it were, shrugged at their
backsliding and excused them. He said to Himself: The reason why the Jews transgressed in Egypt was
because of the bad influence of the pagan Egyptian milieu. I will bring them out, God vowed, and place
them under My guidance…and things will improve. Faith in the One Above would come.
At the Red Sea, God again beheld a sorry sight; Hebrews still sinned. And again, the Creator made
excuses for them, surmising that things will get better after the transmission of the Torah at Sinai. Soon,
God realized that the holiness of the Lawgiving event failed to move the needle in the faith department.
Trekking in desert wastelands witnessed more Hebrew faithlessness in the Creator. Perhaps, God
reasoned, wrongdoing is because the Jews experience desert hardships. If I, God continued, bring them
to Canaan, the people’s attitude toward Me will warm up.
And then the spies returned from the Holy Land, slanderous report in hand. “And the congregation lifted
up their voice and cried.” That’s when the lightbulb, to be colloquial, went off. “And God said unto
Moses: Where will this people stop despising Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, for all the
signs which I have wrought among them?”
God stopped making excuses for the generation He freed from Egypt. “Where will this people stop
despising Me?” The Maker realized that even in Israel, mischief makers would despise God. He pledged
that the older generation would not cross the Jordan River. A pledge became a decree: Male adults shall
perish in the desert.
Indeed, heaven’s sentence was a death knell for the older folks whose disdain for God seemed a
constant, regardless of location or circumstances. In contrast, their children would learn from their
fathers’ mistakes. They imbibed true faith; the land would be theirs to inherit.
