When a Cake Walk Becomes a Crucible

Numbers 14:2a, 4, 11-12a, 13a, 15-16, 19 - Then all the people of Israel grumbled …. And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” … And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them ….” But Moses said to the Lord, “… Now if You kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard Your fame will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that He swore to give to them that He has killed them in the wilderness.’ … Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your steadfast love, just as You have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.”