The spies sent into Canaan
August 5, 2019
Commentary
God delivered His people from Egypt that they might enter the promised land and enjoy the blessings prepared for them. He had promised the land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 12:7; 13:15). He even reminded the people of this promise when they broke camp at Sinai (Duet. 1:6-8) and when they arrived at Kadesh (vv. 20,21). God’s promise was all they needed but they doubted God’s Word and began to walk by sight instead of by faith.
The Israelites took their first wavering step of doubt when they asked Moses to let them search out the land before they entered (Duet. 1:22). Twelve spies, a group representing all the tribes were chosen and their trip of 40 days took them 500 miles, from the wilderness of Zin in the south to the entrance of Hamath in the far north but they discovered nothing that God hadn’t already told them (vv. 1-25). At the end of this 40 days ten of the spies came back with a twofold report:
The land is very fruitful (v. 27) as demonstrated by the large clusters of grapes, pomegranates and figs, they brought back.The land is overrun by giants and the cities are large and fortified. By the time they finished their report, the people were beginning to catch the spirit of defeatism. Ten of the spies concluded that a conquest of the land was impossible. Only Caleb and Joshua recommended that they go in and possess the land.
Application
Just as in the case of these spies, when my eyes are upon myself and my circumstances, I will lose perspective and say and do ridiculous things. Doubt is serious because it challenges the character of God and rebels against the will of God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6).
Numbers 13:1– 33 (NET)
1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
4 Now these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph, namely, the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. 16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.
17 When Moses sent them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, and then go up into the hill country 18 and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few or many, 19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether or not there are forests in it. And be brave, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the time of year for the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, at Lebo Hamath. 22 When they went up through the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs. 24 That place was called the Eshcol Valley, because of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut from there. 25 They returned from investigating the land after forty days.
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 27 They told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 But the inhabitants are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!” 32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed like grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”
Illustration: Carl Rogers participated in a seminar on doubts
Carl Rogers, a psychologist, was 22 years old when he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1924. While there, he participated in a seminar organized to explore religious doubts. Rogers later said of the group, “The majority of members…in thinking their way through questions they had raised, thought themselves right out of the Lord’s work. I was one.” (Taken from the Book of Lists, p. 20)