[donfriesen1]

So God was fed up with them. It is a well known doctrine that God, while being long-suffering, nevertheless has an end to His patience with the wicked. At some point, God gives people what they want. If they don't want God, and persist in rejecting Him, He gives them what they want - He gives them over to their fate.

Agreed. This Kadesh incident is the foundation for that doctrine. The writer of Hebrews says it is impossible to renew them to repentance. I have the opinion that God could forgive such as these because he has a heart big enough to do so. The problem lies with those who by repeated 'turning-off the Lord's prompts to change' produce a permanent rut in their response process, making it then impossible to get out of it.

It is a very dangerous thing to reject truth. Any who do so, do at their own peril. Keep your heart with all diligence is the warning Solomon gives, yet himself failed to do.