Who was God grieved with during the forty years in the wilderness?
God was grieved with those who heard His voice yet provoked Him in the wilderness—the Israelites who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and who were not allowed to enter His rest. The context identifies them as those who came out of Egypt but provoked God and worshipped the golden calf.
Les teaches from Hebrews chapter 3 that Israel’s failure at Kadesh Barnea began when they would not simply take God at His word. God had said to go in and take the land, promising to drive out the enemy and even send hornets ahead of them. Instead, Israel asked to spy out the land first. God condescended to their request, but the spies came back saying they could not drive out the Canaanites and were as grasshoppers in their sight. Hebrews 3 asks, “With whom was God grieved those forty years?” The answer is those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom He swore they should not enter His rest—those who worshipped the golden calf.
But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?