In this episode the people rebel against God and Moses because they don’t want to fight for the promised land.

After the spies gave a negative report about the promised land the people cried and wept all night.
They said, they wished they had died in Egypt or that they had died in the wilderness.

They were no longer in the deep part of the wilderness. They were now very close to the promised land. The moment they had been waiting for had arrived. But they didn't want to go on, because they were afraid of the giants in the land.

They decided to select a captain to lead them back to Egypt. This caused Moses and Aaron to fall on their faces and Caleb and Joshua tore their clothes, they knew the people were committing a great error.

Joshua and Caleb tried to talk them out of their plans but they picked up stones to stone them. But as they were about to stone them the Lord started speaking.

He asked Moses how long will this people provoke me and not believe the signs I’ve shown. I will smite them with pestilence and disinherit them and make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

Moses responded by saying what will the Egyptians think if you kill all the people. They will think you couldn’t bring them into the land. Then Moses appealed to God using His own words saying, "you said you are longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”

God gave heed to the words of Moses and we will see that God did not clear the guilty. The 10 men that brought the slanderous report about the land died. And all the other men, the soldiers and their families, were sentenced to spend 40 years in the wilderness. One year for each day they spied out the land.

They spent 40 days spying out the land, now they will spend for years in the wilderness and never leave it, there they will die. But their children will inherit the land.

God said the all the people gathered against Him. All of the soldiers, all of the elders, all of the people from the 12 tribes gathered against him and refused to enter into the promised land. So none of them will inherit the promised land but Caleb and Joshua.

Yet, Joshua and Caleb will suffer because of their unbelieving, unfaithful, murmuring brethren. Their entrance into the promised land will be delayed for 40 years.

From the beginning Caleb has been the most vocal in his response to the spies negative report. He tried to dispel fear and encourage the fighting men, to go up and fight for the land.

And in this chapter God mentions Caleb saying, He had another spirit “with” him.

Here’s the text:

Numbers 14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

Numbers 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

The spirit the others had was different from the one Caleb had. They had the spirit of the world with them.

Paul mentioned the spirit of the world in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 12.

Here's the text:

1Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Paul also said, the spirit of the world works in the children of disobedience and is under the control of the prince of the power of the air, the devil.

Here’s the text:

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

James said, in chapter 4 verse 4, "He that will be a a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

So even just wanting to be friends with the world makes us God’s enemy.

Why?

Because John said, in 1 John chapter 5 verse 19, the whole world lieth in wickedness.
The world is wicked it’s evil.

Thayers says, lieth points to the fact that the world, lies in the power of the evil one, it is held in subjection by the devil.

So in1 John chapter 2 verses 15 through 17, John reminds us not to love the world nor the things in the world.

Here's the text:

1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

We can have the spirit of God “with” us or we can have the spirit of the world “with” us.

The only way to overcome the spirit of the world, demonstrated by active disobedience is to believe in Christ and follow Him, by obeying His commands.

John reminds us of this in the following text:

1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1John 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?