In my readings from Deuteronomy today, I came across passages where Moses reminded the children of Israel about the places where they rebelled against God in their forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
(1) At Horeb:
Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was angry with you to destroy you.
Deuteronomy 9:8 World English Bible
At Horeb (Mount Sinai), while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from the LORD, the people of Israel told Aaron to make them a golden calf for them to worship. The people celebrated a feast to the calf. They sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. In fact, they were stark naked (Exodus 32:25, Noah Webster Bible)!
Moses was so angry when he saw them that he threw the two tablets of Commandments on the ground and broke them. He destroyed the golden calf, and ordered the Levites who stood by him to kill three thousand rebellious Israelite men. See the detailed account in Exodus 32:1 - 35.
(2) At Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Hattaavah, and at Kadesh Barnea:
22 At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. 23 When the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice.
Deuteronomy 9:22 - 23 World English Bible
At Taberah, the LORD was angry when the children of Israel complained about their sojourn in the wilderness. The LORD sent fire to destroy some of the Israelites in the outskirts of their camp. A detailed account is found in Numbers 11:1 - 3
At Massah (Testing), also called Meribah (Strife), the Israelites quarrelled with Moses when they were thirsty and didn't have enough water. See detailed account in Exodus 17:1 - 17
At Kibroth Haattavah (Graves of Greed), the children of Israelite were not content with eating manna and demanded meat from Moses. The LORD sent a wind to bring in quails from the sea. While the meat was "yet between their teeth", the LORD struck the Israelites with a great plague. Read detailed account in Numbers 11:10 - 35.
At Kadesh Barnea, ten of the twelve spies who were sent into the land of Canaan came back with a fearsome report of the power of the Canaanites, causing the children of Israel to rebel against the LORD's command for them to occupy the Promised Land. Only two spies, Caleb ben Jephunneh and Joshua ben Nun, had faith in the promise of the LORD.
It was a great and "final" rebellion, and the LORD told Moses that the rebellious Israelites would have to wander in the wilderness for forty years, corresponding to the forty days the 12 spies spent spying out the land of Canaan. During those forty years, all Israelites who were twenty years and above would perish in the wilderness. Only their children would get to enter the Promised Land. See the account written in Numbers 10:11 - 14:45
(3) Dathan and Abiram rebelled against the LORD:
and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel;
Deuteronomy 11:6 World English Bible
The location of rebellion by Dathan and Abiram (together with Korah and 250 men) is not mentioned in the Old Testament. A detailed account of this rebellion is found in Numbers 6:1 - 50
Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us also remind ourselves of how we have, from time to time, rebelled against the will of God in our lives. Let us repent.
