Israelites Doomed to Wander Forty Years

Today I read Numbers 14 where the Lord tells the Israelites that because they would not hearken unto him or Caleb or Joshua, none of them who were over the age of twenty besides Caleb and Joshua, would set foot into the land of Israel.  I feel really bad for Heavenly Father, He has done so much for the children of Israel and shown them so much.  He protected them, and saved them from Egypt, and the Red Sea and has fed them manna, and yet they didn't believe that He would keep His promise to them to protect them from the inhabitants of the land.  Say what you will about their reasons, it all boils down to them not believing that God would protect them. 

The really sad thing is they realized they screwed up when Moses told them the words of the Lord, that they would not be allowed to enter into the land of Israel.  Some of them tried to go up to the land anyway, we are not told how many, and were slaughtered because God was not with them.  Moses warned them that it was too late for that but they went up anyway.  I really do have to wonder about the Israelites and their mental state because the way the narrative is written, they are really dumb!  I mean they had seen miracle after miracle and yet they still didn't believe Heavenly Father would help them. 

Of course, they are no dumber than we are today in our world.  We see miracles all the time and yet we doubt the existence of God Himself!  We see miracles where there is no rational explanation at all for what has happened except that God intervened, but we still, like Laman and Lemuel, doubt that He can help us.  Or perhaps, even worse, we think He can help us, but doubt He WILL help us.  That to me is a gross misunderstanding of God's character if that is the case.  God wants to help us and will help us.  Most of the time the only thing holding Him back, is us.  We don't accept His help.  We think our way is better, or that our knowledge is more vast than the creator of the universe.  And yet compared to Him, we are like a little ant crawling along the kitchen floor in search of food.  We have no idea what's really out there.  And yet the one being who can help us, we shun His help, blaspheme against Him and think that we know better.  The story is often repeated and always with the same results.  Heartache and misery.  The old saying goes that unless we learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it.  And history has shown just how accurate that saying is.  Until tomorrow.