This is the Bible Book Club. And we're in the book of numbers. Welcome to the club.

In chapters 11 and 12, poor Moses was dealing with the Israelites' scary, fast transition from faith to defiance, and that was happening a lot, unfortunately, for Moses.

They started complaining, like they often did, about the hardships at Tabra. Then they complained

about the lack of meat. And then Miriam and Aaron complained about Moses's superior position with God.

Moses was definitely under attack last episode, and that is not going to change. Those

Israelites were a bunch of whiners. I know. Just wait to see how angry God gets. All right. This

episode, our people are camped at the very edge of Canaan in the desert of Peran at Kadesh

Barnaya. And we have a map of this area in the show notes. So you can just

picture them there in your head. We are poised at the very edge of the heart of the book of numbers.

In this episode, a generation of people lose the opportunity of a lifetime and a lifetime of opportunity.

In this episode, one single moment of weakness is going to lead to a life of wandering in the

wilderness. As one commentary I read put it, God has time and the wilderness has sand,

meaning God has the time for a disbelieving generation to die and the wilderness has

enough sand for them to be buried in one by one. All right, who are the characters in this episode?

Along with God, Moses, and Aaron, there are a few new characters who have a role in

this scene.

There are the 12 leaders from the 12 tribes who are younger, stronger men who can handle

the mission they're going to be sent on.

Two of those 12 leaders are Joshua and

Caleb. Now Joshua has a different name. He's called Hoshaya. But Moses gives him the new name

Joshua. This is a fatherly action on Moses's part, similar to what God did with Abraham, it marked Joshua as special to Moses,

and it also marked him for greatness, which he is going to have. He's going to get a book of his own

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