Which group was God grieved with for forty years in the wilderness?
The group was the Israelites who came out of Egypt by Moses—those who sinned, provoked God at Kadesh Barnea through unbelief, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. God was grieved with that generation for forty years, and they were barred from entering His rest, Canaan.
Les explains that Hebrews 3 rehearses the event at Kadesh Barnea. The people wept all that night and the next day because the land was in front of them but they could not take it. The writer (whom Les thinks was Paul) warns, 'While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,' when they turned out into the wilderness. Some who heard provoked God, though not all who came out of Egypt by Moses. Les points out that God was grieved forty years with them who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. They were the ones who could not enter His rest, which was Canaan. While we might think of the golden calf and gross immorality a few months earlier, Les stresses that God did not remind them of their immorality; He reminded them of their unbelief at Kadesh Barnea when they said, 'We can't take it.'
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?