Forty years is a long time in anyone’s life. That was how long the Israelites had to further wander in the wilderness as punishment for their disobedience. ‘For forty years, one for each year of the forty days you explored the land, you will suffer for your sins and know what its like to have Me against you.’ Numbers 14:2
How awful to have God as an enemy, that is what sin does, separates us from God. God had performed so many miracles for the Israelites – escaping Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, provision of manna and then quails, but that was not enough. Rejecting the Promised Land was the final straw. They would never enter the land, they would grow old and die still wandering in the desert. It was an almost complete breakdown of of a once great nation.
Do we sometimes forget God’s great power and the many blessings He has given us? Have we lost the ‘fear of the Lord.’