Moses has led the Jew's out of Egypt, and the Lord has given them his laws to live by and told them how to build the ark of the covenant, which they did. He told them how to worship Him and gave them the feasts they were to keep etc. He performed many, many wonders and miracles for them over the last two years since freeing them. In fact, it was about 2 years and almost 3 months since He'd led them out of Egypt when chapters 10-14 take place, and there'd been almost constant miracles during that time as they learned what God expected of them and what He promised in return. God was preparing them, growing them up so they'd be ready to enter the Promised Land as His children when they got there. (just like He is preparing us in this life so we'll be ready to enter our promised land in Heaven)
In chapter 11, The Lord has them begin the journey. It's just a short 3 day one so they can practice how to set up and break down the tabernacle and the rest of the camp and do things orderly. And trouble starts...they begin to complain. They're tired of their miraculous food and want meat instead. This really makes God angry! How dare they! (I've written a lot in the study forum about how complaining about anything or anyone is actually complaining against the Lord and is not a good thing to do!
) God was so angry that after he provided yet another miracle to meet their new demands, He killed a whole lot of them right then and there 
while they enjoying the new miracle! 
Then, just days later, in chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam begin to criticize Moses and insinuate that because of who he married, he wasn't fit to be God's spokesman, or at least not His only one...that they were holier then he was, etc... Talk about angry! Oh boy, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near there! God came down "immediately" to handle that one!
He told them off good and then struck Miriam with Leprosy and told Arron to put her outside the camp as she was now unclean. But Moses intervened and prayed for her so the Lord relented a little bit... this is what He said: Numbers 12:14 —The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” * So, basically, Miriam got put in "time out" for a week to think about what she'd done. Finally, in chapter 13, they're ready to begin exploring the first part of the land they'll be taking over and God has them send out spies to learn the lay of the land. They're gone for 40 days. I'm sure you know the story...they come back and tell the people that the land itself is fantastic, just like God said it would be, BUT there's no way they could ever win a war with them, no matter what the Lord said. 
All but two of the spies give that same report, but Joshua and Caleb stand firm for the Lord and urge the people to listen to Him. Chapter 13 ends with the spies still talking to the people and giving them bad advice. 
Now comes chapter 14. The people are in open rebellion now. They're scared to death and worried. They've decided that the hard life they lived in Egypt as slaves with evil masters, was preferable to declaring a war they couldn't win. They've obviously decided that God is a liar and in spite of the constant miracles and provision and love they'd seen for the last couple of years, that He had only brought them here to kill them all off. So He's not only a liar, but He's evil too....not to mention sneaky....and stupid if He thinks they won't realize it! What's the "root sin" they're acting out now? It's the sin of unbelief. They're believing what other people say instead of what God has said. They're believing what their eyes see instead of what the Lord says is true. Instead of taking their thoughts, feelings and imaginations captive, they're dwelling on "what if's" and "possibilities" that they've made up in their minds and imagining all kinds of possible terrible outcomes were they to obey God. 
Here's some of what they came up with: Numbers 14:2–4 —All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! *Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” *And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” *
Can you believe it????? But then again, how dare we judge them since we do exactly the same thing ourselves... Our precious Lord knows this and that's one reason He includes this in His Word; so we can learn by their mistakes and not have to keep making the same mistake ourselves.
As you can imagine, God was angrier then ever now and was ready to wipe out the entire 2 million or so adults in the camp, except for Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb of course, since as soon as they saw what was happening, they fell on their faces and began to alternately pray and talk sense into the people.
Did anyone listen? Of course not! In fact, they got angry and wee going to stone them! I didn't think the Lord could get any angrier then He already was, but that did it! He was going to wipe them all out, but Moses never stopped asking Him to forgive them, so He relented to a degree.... Like any good Father, He was going to make sure they learned a lesson from their sins, and since He is not just a good Father, but is perfect, right and fair in all He does.
I want to also explain something about when I say God was angry. Yes, God does get angry at us, but there's a big difference in His anger and ours. (like there's a difference in His love and ours) The only kind of anger God has is righteous anger, and He obeys His own laws about everything, including anger. That means that as angry as He might get, He never reacts in anger. When He disciplines or punishes someone or a group, He does it in love, not anger. For us to do that, would mean we'd need some "cooling off time" first, but being God and being perfect, He doesn't need to cool off. He's always in complete control of His emotions. It can get sticky when we talk about the Lord's emotions, because of course He does have feelings, but we tend to associate every feeling with how we feel it and how we handle it, and that's not true of God, it's only true of us. So, while we'd get furious in a situation like this and instantly react and start pounding the person or persons, God doesn't. He listens to Moses and the others with him.
Then He explained what He was going to do:
Numbers 14:20–23 —The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. *Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, *not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— *not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. *
He tells Moses to tell the people this:
Numbers 14:28–35 —So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: *In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. *Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. *As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. *But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. *Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. *For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ *I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die.” *
I can't read that second line I underlined without almost weeping every time. "As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected" All I can hear, is my Father's broken heart and horror that anyone would ever think that He would harm a child!
How could they think such a thing after all He'd shown them of Himself, of His heart for them? His love, care, and tender concern? After He Himself had taught them about love, how to care for and teach their children so they'd grow up to be upstanding responsible people living under His blessings? Had they been sleep walking for the last two years??? Even lately when He'd had to discipline and/or punish some of the adults, He'd always told them and explained why first, and had never done anything in anger or needlessly. He'd even been the one to teach them what kinds of consequences there were for sinning in the first place! Well, you can probably guess what happened next. The people realized, at least to some extent, their sin and admitted it. But then, even in confessing that sin, they sinned again!
Of course, they were now scared because of what God had told them was now going to happen, so they were trying to find a way around it. Like a child trying to get their time out or grounding reduced, they told Moses that they realized they'd sinned by not being obedient and doing what God said, so now they'd go do it. There! That would make everything all better wouldn't it? They'd go attack those towns right now! They'd missed the whole point... 
or at least a good portion of it. They'd allowed their thoughts to run wild and relied on their own faulty hearts, and minds, ("wisdom"), instead of listening to God and those He'd placed in authority over them. They decided that at least in this situation, they obviously knew what was "best" for them, and were going to base their decisions on that. They'd manipulate things to happen the way they wanted them to...
Moses did his best to stop them...He told them not to go because God would NOT be with them and they'd all die!
Numbers 14:41–43 —But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed! *Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, *for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” *
And so this is how chapter 14 ends:
Numbers 14:44–45 —Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. *Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. *
Although just a short time ago they had again vowed to do all the Lord had said. See how fickle our hearts and minds are? How prone to sin? The Lord warns us truly when He tells us that our hearts are deceitful! We truly do need to train our hearts and minds to think the Truth and focus on that and not the illusions of this evil world. God loves us; He is our Father! The perfect Father who will never abandon us and He has wonderful plans for our future that He cannot wait to fulfill for us! Let's trust Him, He certainly deserves at least that much from us doesn't He?
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