An Example of False Repentance

When Moses told the people God’s decision, they knew that their punishment was fair. The ten unfaithful spies, struck by God with the plague, died in the sight of all Israel, and in their death the people could see their own doom.BOE 191.4

Now they seemed to repent sincerely, but they were sorry for the result of their evil course rather than from a sense of their unthankfulness and disobedience. When they found that the Lord did not change His decision, their self-will came back and they declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In telling them to go back, God tested their outward submission and proved it was not real. Their hearts were unchanged, and they only needed an excuse to start a similar outbreak. If they had been sorry for their sin when it was faithfully pointed out to them, this sentence would not have been pronounced; but they were only sorry about the judgment. Their sorrow was not repentance and could not give them a change of their sentence.BOE 191.5

The people spent that night sorrowing, but in the morning they decided to redeem their lack of bravery. When God had told them to go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when He directed them to retreat, they were equally rebellious.BOE 191.6

God had made it their privilege and duty to enter the land at the time He had appointed, but through their willful refusal that permission had been withdrawn. Now, in the face of God’s forbidding, Satan urged them on to do the very thing that they had refused to do when God required it, leading them to rebel the second time. “We have sinned against the Lord,” they cried. “We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us” (Deuteronomy 1:41). They had become so terribly blinded! The Lord had never commanded them to “go up and fight.” He did not intend them to gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to His commands.BOE 192.1

“We have sinned,” they confessed, acknowledging that the fault was in themselves, not in God, whom they had wickedly charged with failing to fulfill His promises. Though their confession did not come from true repentance, it served to confirm the fairness of God.BOE 192.2

The Lord still works in a similar way to glorify His name by bringing people to acknowledge His fairness. God uses opposition and setbacks to reveal the works of darkness. Although the spirit that prompted the person to do evil is not radically changed, confessions are made that establish the honor of God and justify His faithful people who have reproved sin and have been opposed and misrepresented. This is how it will be when the wrath of God will be poured out at the end. Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of being condemned.BOE 192.3