The land, which I am going to give...

Numbers 13   Spies View the Land

from the daily reading in the One Year Bible( link available on links page)

 Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ² “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” ³ So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. ⁴ These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; ⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ⁶ from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; ⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; ⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; ¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; ¹¹ from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; ¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; ¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; ¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; ¹⁵ from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. ¹⁶ These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. ¹⁹ How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? ²⁰ How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, at Lebo-hamath. ²² When they had gone up into the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³ Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs. ²⁴ That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.

The Spies’ Reports

²⁵ When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, ²⁶ they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” ³² So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. ³³ There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Today as we reflect on this Old Testament reading we should keep in mind the context of where we are in the timeline of the nation of Israel's journey to the promised land. They had left Egypt, been delivered by God at the Red Sea, had fresh water supplied from bitter water at Marah. They had also had water supplied from a rock. God has sustained them by providing mana every day. They have recieved the 10 commandments and the law. They have built and seen God inhabit the tabernacle and now they are ready to enter into the promised land. All together the time since they left Egypt was probably a little over one year. Twelve men are chosen, one from each tribe of Israel, to go and spy out the land.

Look at what God says to Moses. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ² “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel.        Now look at Moses instruction to the spies.  “Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. ¹⁹ How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? ²⁰ How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.”   God's instruction was to spy out the land. Moses added the ands. God was not concerned with the inhabitants of the land because He had said,

 I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. ²⁹ I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. ³¹ I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. (Exodus 23:27-31)

God's plan was that He would take care of the inhabitants. He wanted the Israelites to see the promise. Moses introduced the a level of doubt into the situation by including instruction concerning the numbers, the strength and the fortification of the people, as if it was going to be by their own strength that Israel possessed the land. This wrong focus sets the stage for what happens when the spies go into the land.

 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

They had indeed focused on the obstacles, the things or in this case the people who would hinder them from obtaining their inheritance.  In verses 30-33 we see that despite Caleb's efforts to convince them to follow God, they belived the report concerning the people in the land rather than the good report about the land itself, which God had promised to them. This wrong focus, seeing the obstacles or the circumstances rather than trusting God, caused the nation of Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years.  In numbers 14:34 God says:  "According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition." God wanted them to see the promise and instead they focused on the problem.

What about us, as individuals and collectively as the church? Are we focusing on the promise of God or the obstacles that stand in the way? Do we listen to those who give all the reasons we can't or do we listen to God and believe His word and His promises. The church has an inheritance to possess. It is to be a mighty ruling force here on earth.

Jesus says:   I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”(Matthew 16:18-19) He says: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.(John 14:12) He says:  “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

That's the promise, the inheritance we have as individuals and as the church. For far too long, much longer than the forty years the nation of Israel spent in the wilderness, the church and God's people have listened to the wrong report. We need to see the promise of God, not the obstacles in our way. We need to believe that just like He planned to fight for the nation of Israel, He will deliver us from all of our trials and defeat our enemies. We need to stop wandering in the wilderness of fear and doubt.

Psalm 60:11-12 says:

O give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain. Through God we shall do valiantly, And it is He who will tread down our adversaries.

May that be your prayer today. May you focus on and see the promise of God. May you possess the promise of all that God has for you. Believe God!