The Land • Numbers 13:17-31
By Rick Henson
Imagine seeing the work of the Lord in Egypt as God delivered the Israelites from bondage. Though they initially questioned the validity of Moses as God’s messenger, they saw the plagues that resulted in their freedom. The final plague led to the annual celebration of the Passover, commemorating the Death Angel passing over homes that were marked by the blood of the Passover Lamb in faith according to God’s commands.
The Israelites then followed the Lord’s leadership through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai, where God gave them His Ten Commandments. From there, he led them to the wilderness of Pakan, where the Lord directed Moses to send spies into the Land of Canaan.
Canaan had been judged by God for their sinfulness, including sacrificing their firstborn sons to Molech, a false god. They would place the newborn inside a brass bull and roast the live child. Moses addressed this to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 9:3-4, Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee. Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, ‘”For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land:” but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. (KJV).
Each tribe selected a spy, so twelve men journeyed through Canaan for forty days. They traveled from Zin to Rehob, from far south to far north in the land. The land truly was a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord had told them in Exodus 3, and mentioned again in Numbers 14. After all the manna, honey surely sounded good.
They took a cluster of grapes from the valley of Eschol. It was so big, it had to be carried on a pole between the shoulders of two men. They returned also with pomegranates and figs, along with glowing reports of the fruitfulness of the land.
Yet, they also mentioned the fearsome inhabitants, including the Amalekites, Hittites, and the Canaanites. They especially talked about the Anakim, offspring of the giant Nephilim mentioned in Gensis 6:1-4. Ten spies stated they believed they could not take the land from these inhabitants. They focused more on the fortified cities than the promises of God.
Caleb, the spy from the tribe of Judah, and Joshua (spelled Oshea here), the spy from the tribe of Ephraim, strongly disagreed with the other then. In Deuteronomy 14:8-9 they stated, If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not (KJV).
The ten spies saw the obstacles, yet Joshua and Caleb saw the Lord. They remembered the mighty works of God they had seen. The ten spies only saw the size of the inhabitants. At the conclusion of the report of the ten spies, the revealed their lack of faith and their shortsightedness by saying, we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight (Deuteronomy 14:32b KJV).
Just as the Lord taught the Children of Israel that they were to defeat Canaan not because of their own righteousness but because of the wickedness of the Canaanites, the Lord would give them the land based not on the strength of the Israelite soldiers, but on the power of the Lord. The ten spies could not see that. They only focused on the size of the Canaanite cities and people.
God decided that because of their lack of trust in Him, everyone under twenty years old could enter the promised land, but not those twenty and older. Joshua and Caleb were the exceptions, based on their report. In fact, God spoke of Caleb saying, But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it, Numbers 13:24 (KJV).
In 2 Timothy 1:7, the scripture teaches what spirit Caleb had mentioned above, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (KJV). From this we learn to trust the word of God and see His strength and not the powers in the world or the obstacles to serve. May we possess the same spirit as Caleb and Joshua.
Henson is pastor of Hopewell Church, Lake.
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