Numbers 14:27-35 The Foreshadowing of Jesus and the Roman Conquest of AD 73

The foreshadowing of Jesus and the Roman conquest of AD 73 occurs in Numbers chapters 13 and 14. In today’s parallel – Within 40 years of the grapevine [Numbers 13:23] being hanged on a pole, all of the Israelites who stoned the twelve spies and refused to move into the promised land died and the Land of Canaan was conquered. Similarly within 40 years of the True Vine [Jesus (see John 15:1)] being crucified on a pole, most and perhaps all of the Israelites who stoned Stephen; attacked the rest of the Christians; and refused the kingdom of Heaven died when the Land of Canaan was conquered. The report by Josephus who witnessed the AD 73 revolt is an amazing historical parallel to Numbers 14:27:

Numbers 14:27 "How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28 Say to them, `As I live,' says the LORD, `what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me… 34 you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.' 35 I, the LORD, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die."

Josephus[The Wars of the Jews Book VI.V.1]…Those that were slain more in number than those that slew them; for the ground did nowhere appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it…

J. Clontz – Editor of the Comprehensive New Testament

Below is the list of NT items that were foreshadowed In Number chapter 13-14:

Twelve men sent throughout the Land of Canaan

Jesus crucified

The two robbers on either side of Jesus at the crucifixion

The spear wound

The two men who carried Jesus from the cross

Jesus traveling throughout the Land of Canaan for forty days after the crucifixion

Twelve men bringing the Word of God to the congregation of Israel

Twelve men showing the wondrous “fruits” of the Holy Spirit to the congregation of Israel

The stoning of Stephen

The appearance of the glory of the Lord to Stephen

The persecution of the Christian church by the congregation of Israel