Jacob is referring to the ways in which the children of Israel provoked the Lord to anger by their insolence while in the wilderness of Sinai. The most obvious example is the making of the golden calf (Ex 32:1-4,19-20). These rebellious events continued until the final “provocation.” The Lord sent spies to investigate the land of Canaan. The spies returned without faith that the Israelites could conquer the peoples of the land, even though the Lord had promised them, The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace (Ex 14:14). This lack of faith and trust in the Lord was the last straw for the Lord. He thereby covenanted that none of the children of Israel should possess the land, that all of them (except Joshua and Caleb) should wander in the wilderness for forty years (See Numbers 32:11-13).
Here Jacob is making an analogy between our journey towards the kingdom of God and the children of Israel’s journey towards the land of Canaan. If we are as rebellious as they were, we will be denied access—we will not be allowed to enter into his rest.