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Page 25
And the Lord, out of this glory, spoke to Moses, and said, "How long
will this people disobey me and despise me? They shall not go into the
good land that I have promised them. Not one of them shall enter in,
except Caleb and Joshua, who have been faithful to me. All the people
who are twenty years old and over it shall die in the desert; but their
little children shall grow up in the wilderness, and when they become
men they shall enter in and own the land that I promised to their
fathers. You people are not worthy of the land that I have been keeping
for you. Now turn back into the desert and stay there until you die.
After you are dead, Joshua shall lead your children into the land of
Canaan. And because Caleb showed another spirit and was true to me, and
followed my will fully, Caleb shall live to go into the land, and shall
have his choice of a home there. To-morrow, turn back into the desert by
the way of the Red Sea."
And God told Moses that for every day that the spies had spent in
Canaan, looking at the land the people should spend a year in the
wilderness; so that they should live in the desert forty years, instead
of going at once into the promised land.
When Moses told all God's words to the people they felt worse than
before. They changed their minds as suddenly as they had made up their
minds.
"No," they all said, "we will not go back to the wilderness; we will go
straight into the land, and see if we are able to take it, as Joshua and
Caleb have said."
"You must not go into the land," said Moses.
But the people would not obey. They marched up the mountain and tried to
march at once into the land. But they were without leaders and without
order--a mob of men, untrained and in confusion. And the people in that
part of the land, the Canaanites and the Amorites, came down upon them
and killed many of them and drove them away. Then, discouraged and
beaten, they obeyed the Lord and Moses, and went once more into the
desert.
And in the desert of Paran, on the south of the land of Canaan, the
children of Israel stayed nearly forty years; and all because they would
not trust in the Lord.
THE STORY OF GIDEON AND HIS THREE HUNDRED SOLDIERS
At last the people of Israel came into the promised land, but they did
evil in the sight of the Lord in worshipping Baal; and the Lord left
them to suffer for their sins. Once the Midianites, living near the
desert on the east of Israel, came against the tribes. The two tribes
that suffered the hardest fate were Ephraim, and the part of Manasseh on
the west of Jordan. For seven years the Midianites swept over their land
every year, just at the time of harvest, and carried away all the crops
of grain, until the Israelites had no food for themselves, and none for
their sheep and cattle. The Midianites brought also their own flocks and
camels without number, which ate all the grass of the field.
The people of Israel were driven away from their villages and their
farms, and were compelled to hide in the caves of the mountains. And if
any Israelite could raise any grain, he buried it in pits covered with
earth, or in empty winepresses, where the Midianites could not find it.
One day, a man named Gideon was threshing out wheat in a hidden place,
when he saw an angel sitting-under an oak-tree. The angel said to him:
"You are a brave man, Gideon, and the Lord is with you. Go out boldly,
and save your people from the power of the Midianites." Gideon answered
the angel:
[Illustration: _The angel touched the offering with his staff_]
"O, Lord, how can I save Israel? Mine is a poor family in Manasseh, and
I am the least in my father's house."
And the Lord said to him: "Surely I will be With you, and I will help
you drive out the Midianites."
Gideon felt that it was the Lord who was talking with him, in the form
of an angel. He brought an offering, and laid it on a rock before the
angel. Then the angel touched the offering with his staff. At once, a
fire leaped up and burned the offering; and then the angel vanished from
his sight. Gideon was afraid when he saw this; but the Lord said to him:
"Peace be unto you, Gideon, do not fear, for I am with you."
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