Do we mourn our sin or repent of our sin?

Numbers 14:30-45  from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link available on links page)

³⁰ Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹ Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. ³² But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’”

³⁶ As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, ³⁷ even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

Israel Repulsed

³⁹ When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰ In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.” ⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed? ⁴² Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. ⁴³ For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴ But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.

Our text today begins where we left off yesterday. God brought the nation of Israel to the edge of the promised land. He directed them to go in and spy out the land. Twelve men were sent, one from each tribe of Israel. When they came back ten of the twelve gave a bad report, saying that the inhabitants of the land were too powerful for the Israelites. The nation, as a whole rebels against Moses and God, saying they will not go in and that they would have been better off staying in Egypt. God closes the door of opportunity and pronounces what will happen, the Israelites will wander in the wilderness for forty years until all of this generation that rebelled and rejected God died.

In verses 39-45 above we see the Israelites response when they realized they were wrong.  ... the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰ In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.”   It says the people mourned greatly. They admitted that they had sinned. There is a difference though between admitting our sin, mourning the consequences of our sin and truly repenting of our sin. Many times we, like the Israelites, are sorry for the consequences of our decisions or actions. We mourn or grieve the circumstances we have come into, admitting we are wrong and then try like the Israelites to fix our mistake without truly repenting and seeking God. In doing this we, like they, forget the truth that David declares in Psalm 51:4.

Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

All sin is against God. No matter how we or others are affected by our actions and decisions, sin is against God. God had spoken. He had judged their sin. Yet the Israelites were determined to fix their mistake. What they failed to recognize was the greatest consequence of sin is not the circumstances that result from our decisions and actions. The greatest consequence of sin is separation from God. Sin causes us to be separated from God. We can admit we are wrong and  be sorry for the problem we have caused, but unless we truly repent, seeking God, not the solution for our problem, we will like the Israelites tend to try to go on without God. The text says:  inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.”  

That's what we face when we go on without God.

We see how that turned out for them.  Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. ⁴³ For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴ But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.      We too, if we go on without God, will fail.

So what are we to do when our sin has caused us to suffer consequences? Are we simply to view our consequences as God's punishment and suffer in the wilderness for our entire life? Surely not! Our answer is to repent, to both confess our sin and change our heart and mind regarding our sin, to recognize that the most important thing is that we restore our relationship with God. The Israelites lived under the covenant of the law. We live under the covenant of grace. We, through the finished work of Jesus Christ, have been redeeemed, forgiven of our sins and restored to relationship with God. Through Christ,  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:9) The key there is that we confess our sin, recognizing that all sin is against God. Our confession then seeks to restore what has been broken in our relationship with God, not just to fix our problem. God is  faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This cleansing puts us back in a place where we can have fellowship with God.

Even though the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, because Moses had intervened and interceded for them, God was with them. He provided for them. We too may have times in our lives when we will continue to live with the consequences of our sin. That is not God's punishment. The punishment for sin is death.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.(Romans 6:23) Some of the consequences of our sin, our wrong decisions and actions may last our entire lifetime. Still our first action must be to correct the worst consequence of sin, separation from God. It is better to walk with God through the wilderness than to try to go on without Him.

James 1:2 says:  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Romans 8:28-29 says:  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 

If we will seek God first, recognizing that the most important thing in our life is our relationship with Him, then we will indeed be restored. 1 Peter 5:6 says: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time

As our faith is tested by our indurance we will be  perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. As we make God our priority, submitting to His will and His plan, we will find that He indeed will  cause all things to work together for good. His purpose for us is that we become conformed to the image of His Son. We become like Christ. Focused not on the things of this world, but rather on the Father, His will and His kingdom. That after all is our inheritance, the promise we obtain, that in our lives and through our lives, His kingdom will come and His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.