Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day two thousand seven hundred seventy-five of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.

Today, we continue our difficult but necessary journey through Psalm One Hundred Six, trekking through the heart of the wilderness rebellion in verses thirteen through thirty-three, in the New Living Translation.

In our previous trek, we stood on the shores of the Red Sea. We saw the waters part, the Israelites walk through on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh swallowed by the deep. We ended with verse twelve, where the people finally believed God’s promises and sang His praise. It seemed like a happy ending. It seemed like the lesson had finally been learned.

But as we turn the page to verse thirteen, we discover a tragic truth about human nature: Singing on Sunday does not guarantee obedience on Monday.

The faith that is born only from seeing a miracle often dies as soon as the miracle fades from view. Today, we will witness the "Cycle of Amnesia." We will see a generation that had everything—the presence of God, the leadership of Moses, and the bread of heaven—yet threw it all away for a golden statue and a meal with demons.

We will look at the tragedy of the Golden Calf, the envy of Korah, the refusal to enter the Promised Land, and the dark idolatry of Baal-Peor. This is a heavy section, but it serves as a mirror. It forces us to ask: How quickly do we forget?

So, let us walk carefully through this catalog of rebellion, lest we repeat it.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses thirteen through fifteen.

Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!  In the wilderness their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.  So he gave them what they asked for, but he sent a plague along with it.

The ink was barely dry on their song of praise when the amnesia set in: "Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!"

The Hebrew phrasing here is vivid; it literally means, "They made haste to forget." They didn't just passively drift away; they rushed back to unbelief. They ignored the "counsel" of God—His plan and His timing—because they were driven by their appetites.

This refers to the incident in Numbers Chapter Eleven, where the people grew tired of the manna. The manna was the perfect, supernatural food described in Psalm One Hundred Five as the "bread of heaven." But they wanted meat. They wanted the leeks and onions of Egypt. They allowed their physical cravings to dictate their spiritual reality. They "tested God" by demanding He cater to their palate rather than trusting His provision.

And here is one of the most frightening verses in the Bible: "So he gave them what they asked for, but he sent a plague along with it."

The King James Version renders this, "He sent leanness into their soul."

God answered their prayer, but it was a judgment, not a blessing. He sent the quail—piles of meat—but while the meat was still in their teeth, a wasting disease struck them.

This teaches us a profound lesson about prayer. Just because God grants a request does not mean He approves of the heart behind it. Sometimes, the worst thing God can do is let us have our own way. We must be careful that in satisfying our flesh, we do not starve our souls.

The second segment is: The Envy of Authority: The Rebellion of Korah.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses sixteen through eighteen.

The people in the camp were jealous of Moses and envious of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.  Because of this, the earth opened up; it swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and the other rebels.  Fire fell on their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.

The rebellion moves from the stomach to the ego.

This recounts the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in Numbers Chapter Sixteen. They looked at the leadership structure God had established and claimed it was unfair. They said, "The whole community is holy... Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?"

They framed their rebellion as a democratic movement, but the psalmist calls it what it was: Jealousy. They wanted the priesthood for themselves. They despised the "holy priest" God had chosen.

In the Ancient Israelite worldview, the priesthood was not a career; it was a dangerous proximity to the Divine Presence. Aaron was the "Holy One of Yahweh"—set apart to handle the lethal holiness of God. By envying Aaron, Korah was trivializing the holiness of God.

The punishment was swift and terrifying: "Because of this, the earth opened up; it swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram... Fire fell on their followers."

The earth opened its mouth, and fire descended from heaven. This is de-creation language. The ground (structure) gave way, and the fire (judgment) consumed. It demonstrated that you cannot appoint yourself to leadership in God’s Kingdom. Authority is given, not grasped.

The third segment is: The Great Exchange: Trading Glory for Grass.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses nineteen through twenty-three.

The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed before an image made of gold.  They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull.  They forgot God, their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt,  such wonderful things in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.  So he declared he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people. He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.

Now we reach the climax of their spiritual treason: The Golden Calf.

This happened at Mount Sinai (Horeb), the very place where they had sworn the covenant. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving the tablets of the Law, the people were down in the valley breaking the first two commandments.

The Hebrew here is devastatingly sarcastic. They exchanged their Glory (Kavod)—the radiant, uncreated weight of Yahweh’s presence—for the "likeness of an ox that eats grass."

In the Ancient Near East, bulls (like the Apis bull in Egypt) were symbols of power and fertility. But the psalmist strips away the mystique. He reminds us: "It’s a cow. It eats grass. It defecates." To trade the Creator of the stars for a barnyard animal is the ultimate insanity of idolatry.

Why did they do it? "They forgot God, their savior..."

Once again, Amnesia. They disconnected the miracles of Egypt from the Person of Yahweh. They wanted a visible god they could control, rather than an invisible God they had to obey.

God’s response was righteous wrath: "So he declared he would destroy them."

God was ready to wipe Israel out and start over with Moses. But then we see one of the greatest acts of intercession in history:

Literally, Moses "stood in the breach" (perets). Imagine a fortress wall that has been broken open by an enemy ram. The soldiers rush to stand in the gap to hold back the invasion. Moses stood in the broken wall of the covenant, facing the wrath of God, and pleaded for mercy. He saved the nation not by strength, but by intercessory prayer.

The fourth segment is: The Scorn of the Inheritance: The Refusal to Enter.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses twenty-four through twenty-seven.

The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.  Instead, they grumbled in their tents and refused to obey the Lord.  Therefore, he solemnly swore that he would kill them in the wilderness,  that he would scatter their descendants among the nations and exile them to distant lands.

After the calf, came the spies. In Numbers Chapter Thirteen and Fourteen, the people stood on the border of Canaan.

The Hebrew word for "refused" is actually "despised" (ma’as). They looked at the inheritance God had prepared—the land flowing with milk and honey—and said, "No thanks. The giants are too big." They despised the gift because they didn't trust the Giver.

This is the sound of unbelief: murmuring. It is the quiet, poisonous talk inside the home that undermines faith.

Because they refused to enter the land, God raised His hand in an oath: "Therefore, he solemnly swore that he would kill them in the wilderness..."

That entire generation was sentenced to die in the desert. But the psalmist adds a prophetic detail: "...that he would scatter their descendants among the nations and exile them to distant lands."

This refers to the later Exile (Babylon). The psalmist connects the dots. The spirit of unbelief that started at Kadesh Barnea eventually led to the destruction of Jerusalem centuries later. Disbelief has a long, tragic echo.

The fifth segment is: The Yoke of the Dead: The Horror of Baal-Peor.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses twenty-eight through thirty-one.

Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor; they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!  They angered the Lord with all these things, so a plague broke out among them.  But Phinehas had the courage to intervene, and the plague was stopped.  So he has been regarded as a righteous man ever since that time.

Near the end of the wilderness journey, another disaster struck.

The phrase "joined in" (or "yoked themselves") implies a binding covenant. They didn't just visit; they shackled themselves to Baal, the storm god of the Canaanites.

This is a chilling detail understood through the Divine Council worldview. The "dead" (metim) here likely refers not just to lifeless idols, but to the spirits of the dead or the underworld ancestors (the Rephaim) worshipped in Canaanite necromancy cults.

Israel was eating a ritual meal—a communion—with demons and the dead. They were engaging in spiritual adultery of the darkest kind, seeking life from the realm of death.

God sent a plague, but one man acted: "But Phinehas had the courage to intervene, and the plague was stopped."

Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, saw a prominent Israelite taking a Midianite princess into his tent for ritual sex right in front of the Tabernacle. In holy zeal, he took a spear and executed them both.

The text says this act "was counted to him as righteousness." This echoes Abraham’s faith. Phinehas’s zeal for God’s honor stopped the judgment. Sometimes, radical evil requires a radical stand for holiness.

The sixth segment is: The Breaking of the Leader: The Waters of Meribah.

Psalm One Hundred Six: verses thirty-two through thirty-three.

At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord, causing Moses serious trouble.  They made Moses angry, and he spoke foolishly.

Finally, the psalmist recounts the tragedy of Moses.

This refers to Numbers Chapter Twenty. The people complained about water (again). God told Moses to speak to the rock. But Moses, worn down by forty years of their rebellion, struck the rock twice and shouted, "Must we bring you water out of this rock, you rebels?"

Literally, "They embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips."

This is heartbreaking. Moses, the man who stood in the breach to save them (verse 23), was finally broken by them. The constant drip, drip, drip of their rebellion provoked the meekest man on earth to sin, costing him his entrance into the Promised Land.

It serves as a sober warning to all leaders: the sins of the people we lead can tempt us to sin ourselves. We must guard our spirits against bitterness, even when dealing with rebels.

Psalm One Hundred Six, verses thirteen through thirty-three, is a mirror we dare not look away from.

We see the cycle:

And through it all, we see the danger of Amnesia. They forgot God.

But we also see the power of Intercession. Moses stood in the breach. Phinehas stood up for righteousness. Even in the midst of rebellion, God looks for someone to stand in the gap.

As you walk your trek today, ask yourself: Is there a "golden calf" in my life—something tangible I trust more than the invisible God? Is there a "bitter spirit" like Moses had at Meribah?

Let us break the cycle of forgetting. Let us remember His works, trust His counsel, and enter the pleasant land He has prepared.

If you found this podcast insightful, please subscribe and leave us a review, then encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of, ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.   As we take this Trek of life together, let us always: Live Abundantly.   Love Unconditionally.   Listen Intentionally.   Learn Continuously.   Lend to others Generously.   Lead with Integrity.   Leave a Living Legacy Each Day.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, reminding you to’ Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday! See you next time for more daily wisdom!