Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 13:1
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
1 24. The spies are sent out, and search the land.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the Lord spake – The mission of the spies was first suggested by the Israelites themselves. See Deu 1:22.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Num 13:1-20
Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan.
Glimpses of the better land
I. The search.
II. The retreat,
III. An emblem of Gods dealings with His people.
1. The children of Israel were sent back to the wilderness on account of their sin.
2. While they are sent in judgment, they go back of their own accord.
3. Though the fruit of sin, and the token of Gods righteous displeasure, all was overruled for their good.
4. Though chastened they are not cast off.
(1) They are Divinely delivered.
(2) They are Divinely sustained.
(3) They are Divinely guided.
(4) They are Divinely chastened.
IV. Improvement.
1. Let young believers be not high-minded, but fear.
2. Let backsliders remember and weep.
3. Let tried and troubled saints take fresh courage. (Islay Burns, D. D.)
The sending forth of the spies
I. The origin of this expedition (cf. Deu 1:20-25).
1. God had Himself declared to them the excellence of the land (Exo 3:8; Exo 33:3).
2. He had promised to guide them to the land (Exo 32:34; Exo 33:2; Exo 33:14). Moreover, He was visibly present with them in the majestic pillar of cloud and fire.
3. He had promised to drive out the heathen nations and give them possession of the land (Exo 23:20-33; Deu 1:8).
4. He commanded them to go up and possess the land (Deu 1:8; Deu 1:21).
5. Yet their answer was, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the laud, &c. (Deu 1:22). Clearly their duty was not to send men to search out the land, but trusting in God, to obey His voice and go and take possession of the land. God may allow us to carry out our unbelieving plans to our own confusion. If we will lean unto our own understanding, He will let us take our way until we find what utter folly our fancied wisdom is.
II. The agents in this expedition. Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them, &c. (Num 13:2-16). Three points here require notice.
1. The wisdom of this arrangement.
(1) in sending one man from each tribe. By this arrangement every tribe would have a witness of its own.
(2) In sending a leading man from each tribe. They were approved men of influence, and therefore their testimony would be the more likely to be credited.
2. The scarcity of worthy leaders. We see here that a large proportion of even these leading men, these rulers and heads of the children of Israel, were unworthy of the position which they occupied.
3. The diversity of human fame. The names of these twelve men have been handed down to the present time; but how different are the positions which they occupy! History perpetuates the memory of Nero as well as of St. Paul, of Judas Iscariot as well as of Jesus Christ. We are making our posthumous reputation now; let us take heed that it be of a worthy character.
III. The aims of this expedition. They were to report as to the condition of–
1. The land, whether it was fertile or barren, whether it was wooded or bare, &c.
2. The towns, whether they were walled and fortified or open and unprotected, &c.
3. The people, whether they were strong or weak, whether they were few or many, &c.
IV. The spirit appropriate to this expedition. And be ye of good courage. (W. Jones.)
The twelve spies
I. Their selection.
1. One from each tribe. That each tribe, without preference or distinction, might be represented.
2. Each was a man of mark. Every one a ruler. Heads of the children of Israel. Men of judgment and discretion. This the more needful–
(1) Because the journey was perilous.
(2) Because the object was important. Men able to judge of the soil, and inhabitants.
3. They were chosen and sent by Moses. Their various characters prove the impartiality of Moses. He could doubtless have found in each tribe a man after his own heart. Probably he allowed the people of each tribe to have a voice in the matter.
II. Their commission.
1. They were to spy out the whole land. Not to give a report upon some few favourable or unfavourable aspects of it.
2. They were to observe the people, and note especially their numbers, character, habits, and strength.
3. They were to bring particulars of the dwellings of the people; whether cities, tents, or otherwise. From this, their habits and power of resistance might be inferred.
4. They were carefully to examine the soil, whether fit for pasturage or tillage, whether it was fat or lean.
5. To confirm and illustrate what they might say of the soil, they were to bring of the fruit of the land.
6. They were to be fearless. God would have them in His keeping.
III. Their journey.
1. In the glorious summer-time, thus commissioned, they set out on their enterprise. Time when the country looked most beautiful.
2. They passed up through the whole country, from the south to the extreme north; even to Hamath.
3. Returning, they visited Hebron. Should not the remembrance of him who dwelt there (Abraham) have encouraged them to believe in their conquest of the country?
4. At a place afterwards called Eshcol (the place of grapes, or the cluster), they cut down a large bunch of grapes; and collecting also some figs and pomegranates, they returned with much information after forty days.
IV. Their report.
1. Things in which they agreed. Concerning the country, soil, fruit, people. They showed the fruit they had brought.
2. Things about which they differed. Their ability to conquer this wonderful country.
3. Effect of their representations.
(1) Immediate. People discouraged and tumultuous (Num 13:30; Num 14:1-5). They began to rebel. Were for returning to Egypt.
(2) Ultimate. Delayed the stay in the desert, and the conquest of Canaan for many years.
4. Only Joshua and Caleb faithful; these were silenced and out-voted. Minorities have often been in the right. Reason: goodness and wisdom generally with the few. (J. C. Gray.)
Wise travellers
To us at this day the use may be twofold. First, to such as travel to see foreign countries, that they observe fit things in them, so make good use of their travel, not neglecting things profitable, and sucking up all venom, that the corruption of those places may yield, as too many do, to their own, not only temporal, but eternal woe, and to the poisoning of many others when they return. Secondly, to magistrates, ministers, and all of good disposition, it may be a pattern of care and endeavour, according to the places and power they have, to work liking in men of the true Canaan that shall endure for ever, and a daily disliking of the pleasures of Egypt, this transitory and sinful world, that bewitcheth so many to their endless woe and confusion. (Bp. Babington.)
The promised land
We have a heavenly Canaan, towards which we are journeying; and we are told by an oracle, even more sure than the Urim and Thummim, There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. This, then, being the case, can we do better than apply to ourselves the injunction in the text, and search out the land which is our promised abode? True it is, we cannot send men as the Jews did, for who shall ascend into heaven, save the Son of God which came down from heaven? The city which we seek is no fancy of the imagination. But shall we open the book of their record, and note what inspired lips have spoken concerning the New Jerusalem? Shall we tell you of the gates, each made of a single pearl, and the foundations of twelve manner of precious stones? When the gates of that city shall close upon the ransomed spirit, will it be on these things that the undying eye will be fixed, or rather upon the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne, the triune Jehovah, the glorified Jesus? He who hath washed us in His own blood, and made us kings and priests to God and to the Lamb, will be the supreme object of our admiration and worship. Such is the land towards which we are hastening–an inheritance not doubtful, but secured to us by two immutable things, by which it is impossible for God to lie. And now, having heard this good report, shall we gird on our swords and prepare, as disciples of the Lord, to fight the good fight of faith, and declare in the heart-stirring words of Caleb, Let us go up and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. Press forward, then; the voice of our Captain is cheering us onward–Fear not, it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Angels are rejoicing at our progress; and not only so, but fighting on our side; Satan and his apostate legions are fleeing before the triumphant cross. Shall we plead our terrors at the Anakim, while the sword of the Eternal is drawn on our behalf? Away with the thought; though they hedge us in on every side, in the name of the Lord we will destroy them. Yet let us not go on this warfare without counting the cost; the enemies against whom we have to contend are giants indeed. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. These our foes are watchful as well as powerful; they are most malignant; they know our weak parts, and can tempt us most craftily; they are in league with the corruption of our own nature, and are often most dangerous when least suspected. Are we prepared, against such antagonists as these, not only to draw the sword, but to cast away the scabbard? (H. Christmas, M. A.)
Moses called Oshea . . . Jehoshua.–
The change of Joshuas name
Originally called Hoshea, or Salvation, this name was changed, when he led the spies, to Jehoshua, or The Lord is Salvation. And it has never ceased to seem significant to the Christian that this name of Joshua should have been that by which our Lord was called. In its Greek form, Jesus, it was given to Him because He was to save His people from their sins. By His distinctive name among men He was linked to Joshua, and in the salvation He accomplishes for His people we are therefore led to expect the same leading characteristics as distinguished the salvation of Israel by Joshua.
1. We are, in the first place, reminded by this parallel that the help afforded to us in Christ is Gods help, and this in a fuller sense than was true in Israels case.
2. Again, we are reminded by this parallel, that as in the conquest of the land by Joshua, so in our salvation, is there a somewhat perplexing mixture of miracle and hard fighting. Sometimes the rivers that flow deep before us open at our approach, and we pass over dryshod. At other times we are allowed to fall into ambuscades. And just as the Israelites, when they found the Jordan open before them and the walls of Jericho fall down, supposed that the conquest of the land was to be completed without their drawing their swords, and were in consequence defeated before Ai, so are the great mass of those who enter the Christian life presuming that God will give them the land of uprightness, purity of heart, and holiness of life, with scarcely an effort on their part. And therefore, though there was miracle on the side of Israel, yet this rule was distinctly laid down as the rule by which the territory was allotted to the tribes, that each was to have what each could take, and hold against the enemy. This is the law of our acquisitions also. What becomes really ours is what we fight for inch by inch, killing as we go, slaughtering the obstinate foe on his own soil, so that the property be left to us uncontested. Gods grant is useless to us if we will not draw the sword and conquer it, if we will not wield the axe and clear it. These two united form the strongest of titles, Gods grant and our own conquest. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIII
Twelve men, one out of every tribe, are sent to examine the
nature and state of the land of Canaan, 1-3.
Their names, 4-16.
Moses gives them particular directions, 17-20.
They proceed on their journey, 21, 22.
Come to Eshcol, and cut down a branch with a cluster of grapes,
which they bear between two of them upon a staff, 23, 24.
After forty days they return to Paran, from searching the land,
and show to Moses and the people the fruit they had brought with
them, 25, 26.
Their report-they acknowledge that the land is good, but that
the inhabitants are such as the Israelites cannot hope to
conquer, 27-29.
Caleb endeavours to do away the bad impression made, by the
report of his fellows, upon the minds of the people, 30.
But the others persist in their former statement, 31:
and greatly amplify the difficulties of conquest, 32, 33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1, 2. The Lord spake unto Moses,Send thou men, that they may search the land, of CanaanCompareDe 1:22, whence it appears, thatwhile the proposal of delegating confidential men from each tribe toexplore the land of Canaan emanated from the people who petitionedfor it, the measure received the special sanction of God, who grantedtheir request at once as a trial, and a punishment of their distrust.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord Spake unto Moses,…. When in the wilderness of Paran, either at Rithmah or Kadesh; this was on the twenty ninth day of the month Sivan, on which day, the Jews say o, the spies were sent to search the land, which was a scheme of the Israelites’ own devising, and which they first proposed to Moses, who approved of it as prudential and political, at least he gave his assent unto it to please the people, and carried the affair to the Lord, and consulted him about it; who, rather permitting than approving, gave the following order; for the motion carried in it a good deal of unbelief, calling in question whether the land was so good as had been represented unto them, fearing it was not accessible, and that it would be difficult to get into it, and were desirous of knowing the best way of getting into it before they proceeded any further; all which were unnecessary, if they would have fully trusted in the Lord, in his word, promise, power, providence, and guidance; who had told them it was a land flowing with milk and honey; that he would show them the way to it, by going before them in a pillar of cloud and fire; that he would assuredly bring them into it, having espied it for them, and promised it unto them; so that there was no need on any account for them to send spies before them; however, to gratify them in this point, he assented to it:
saying; as follows.
o Ib. ut supra, (Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. & Meyer. Annotat. in ib. p. 338.) Pesikta, Chaskuni.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Numbers 13:1-17 Despatch of the Spies of Canaan. – Num 13:1. The command of Jehovah, to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, was occasioned, according to the account given by Moses in Deu 1:22., by a proposal of the congregation, which pleased Moses, so that he laid the matter before the Lord, who then commanded him to send out for this purpose, “ of every tribe of their fathers a man, every one a ruler among them, i.e., none but men who were princes in their tribes, who held the prominent position of princes, i.e., distinguished persons of rank; or, as it is stated in Num 13:3, “ heads of the children of Israel, ” i.e., not the tribe-princes of the twelve tribes, but those men, out of the total number of the heads of the tribes and families of Israel, who were the most suitable for such a mission, though the selection was to be made in such a manner that every tribe should be represented by one of its own chiefs. That there were none of the twelve tribe-princes among them is apparent from a comparison of their names (Num 13:4-15) with the (totally different) names of the tribe-princes (Num 1:3., Num 7:12.). Caleb and Joshua are the only spies that are known. The order, in which the tribes are placed in the list of the names in Num 13:4-15, differs from that in Num 1:5-15 only in the fact that in Num 13:10 Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and in Num 13:11 Manasseh is separated from Ephraim. The expression “ of the tribe of Joseph, ” in Num 13:11, stands for “of the children of Joseph,” in Num 1:10; Num 34:23. At the close of the list it is still further stated, that Moses called Hoshea (i.e., help), the son of Nun, Jehoshua, contracted into Joshua (i.e., Jehovah-help, equivalent to, whose help is Jehovah). This statement does not present any such discrepancy, when compared with Exo 17:9, Exo 17:13; Exo 24:13; Exo 32:17; Exo 33:11, and Num 11:28, where Joshua bears this name as the servant of Moses at a still earlier period, as to point to any diversity of authorship. As there is nothing of a genealogical character in any of these passages, so as to warrant us in expecting to find the family name of Joshua in them, the name Joshua, by which Hosea had become best known in history, could be used proleptically in them all. On the other hand, however, it is not distinctly stated in the verse before us, that this was the occasion on which Moses gave Hosea the new name of Joshua. As the Vav consec. frequently points out merely the order of thought, the words may be understood without hesitation in the following sense: These are the names borne by the heads of the tribes to be sent out as spies, as they stand in the family registers according to their descent; Hosea, however, was named Joshua by Moses; which would not by any means imply that the alteration in the name had not been made till then. It is very probable that Moses may have given him the new name either before or after the defeat of the Amalekites (Exo 17:9.), or when he took him into his service, though it has not been mentioned before; whilst here the circumstances themselves required that it should be stated that Hosea, as he was called in the list prepared and entered in the documentary record according to the genealogical tables of the tribes, had received from Moses the name of Joshua. In Num 13:17-20 Moses gives them the necessary instructions, defining more clearly the motive which the congregation had assigned for sending them out, namely, that they might search out the way into the land and to its towns (Deu 1:22). “ Get you up there ( in the south country, and go up to the mountain.” Negeb, i.e., south country, lit., dryness, aridity, from , to be dry or arid (in Syr., Chald, and Samar.). Hence the dry, parched land, in contrast to the well-watered country ( Jos 15:19; Jdg 1:15), was the name given to the southern district of Canaan, which forms the transition from the desert to the strictly cultivated land, and bears for the most part the character of a steppe, in which tracts of sand and heath are intermixed with shrubs, grass, and vegetables, whilst here and there corn is also cultivated; a district therefore which was better fitted for grazing than for agriculture, though it contained a number of towns and villages (see at Jos 15:21-32). “ The mountain ” is the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites (Num 13:29), and was called the mountains of the Amorites, on account of their being the strongest of the Canaanitish tribes ( Deu 1:7, Deu 1:19.). It is not to be restricted, as Knobel supposes, to the limits of the so-called mountains of Judah (Jos 15:48-62), but included the mountains of Israel or Ephraim also (Jos 11:21; Jos 20:7), and formed, according to Deu 1:7, the backbone of the whole land of Canaan up to Lebanon.
Num 13:18-20 They were to see the land, “what it was,” i.e., what was its character, and the people that dwelt in it, whether they were strong, i.e., courageous and brave, or weak, i.e., spiritless and timid, and whether they were little or great, i.e., numerically; (Num 13:19) what the land was, whether good or bad, sc., with regard to climate and cultivation, and whether the towns were camps, i.e., open villages and hamlets, or fortified places; also (Num 13:20) whether the land was fat or lean, i.e., whether it had a fertile soil or not, and whether there were trees in it or not. All this they were to search out courageously ( , to show one’s self courageous in any occupation), and to fetch (some) of the fruits of the land, as it was the time of the first-ripe grapes. In Palestine the first grapes ripen as early as August, and sometimes even in July (vid., Robinson, ii. 100, ii. 611), whilst the vintage takes place in September and October.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Missions of the Twelve Spies. | B. C. 1490. |
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. 6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. 9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. 10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. 11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. 13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. 14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. 15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua. 17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: 18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; 19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; 20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.
Here we have, I. Orders given to send spies to search out the land of Canaan. It is here said, God directed Moses to send them (Num 13:1; Num 13:2), but it appears by the repetition of the story afterwards (Deut. i. 22) that the motion came originally from the people; they came to Moses, and said, We will send men before us; and it was the fruit of their unbelief. They would not take God’s word that it was a good land, and that he would, without fail, put them in possession of it. They could not trust the pillar of cloud and fire to show them the way to it, but had a better opinion of their own politics than of God’s wisdom. How absurd was it for them to send to spy out a land which God himself had spied out for them, to enquire the way into it when God himself had undertaken to show them the way! But thus we ruin ourselves by giving more credit to the reports and representations of sense than to divine revelation; we walk by sight, not by faith; whereas, if we will receive the witness of men, without doubt the witness of God is greater. The people making this motion to Moses, he (perhaps not aware of the unbelief at the bottom of it) consulted God in the case, who bade him gratify the people in this matter, and send spies before them: “Let them walk in their own counsels.” Yet God was no way accessory to the sin that followed, for the sending of these spies was so far from being the cause of the sin that if the spies had done their duty, and the people theirs, it might have been the confirmation of their faith, and of good service to them.
II. The persons nominated that were to be employed in this service (v. 4, c.), one of each tribe, that it might appear to be the act of the people in general and rulers, person of figure in their respective tribes, some of the rulers of thousands or hundreds, to put the greater credit upon their embassy. This was designed for the best, but it proved to have this ill effect that the quality of the persons occasioned the evil report they brought up to be the more credited and the people to be the more influenced by it. Some think that they are all named for the sake of two good ones that were among them, Caleb and Joshua. Notice is taken of the change of Joshua’s name upon this occasion, v. 16. He was Moses’s minister, but had been employed, though of the tribe of Ephraim, as general of the forces that were sent out against Amalek. The name by which he was generally called and known in his own tribe was Oshea, but Moses called him Joshua, in token of his affection to him and power over him; and now, it should seem, he ordered others to call him so, and fixed that to be his name henceforward. Oshea signifies a prayer for salvation, Save thou; Joshua signifies a promise of salvation, He will save, in answer to that prayer: so near is the relation between prayers and promises. Prayers prevail for promises, and promises direct and encourage prayers. Some think that Moses designed, by taking the first syllable of the name Jehovah and prefixing it to his name, which turned Hoshea into Jehoshua, to put an honour upon him, and to encourage him in this and all his future services with the assurances of God’s presence. Yet after this he is called Hoshea, Deut. xxxii. 44. Jesus is the same name with Joshua, and it is the name of our Lord Christ, of whom Joshua was a type as successor to Moses, Israel’s captain, and conqueror of Canaan. There was another of the same name, who was also a type of Christ, Zech. vi. 11. Joshua was the saviour of God’s people from the powers of Canaan, but Christ is their Saviour from the powers of hell.
III. The instructions given to those spies. They were sent into the land of Canaan the nearest way, to traverse the country, and to take account of its present state, v. 17. Two heads of enquiry were given them in charge, 1. Concerning the land itself: See what that is (v. 18, and again, v. 19), see whether it be good or bad, and (v. 20) whether it be fat or lean. All parts of the earth do not share alike in the blessing of fruitfulness; some countries are blessed with a richer soil than others. Moses himself was well satisfied that Canaan was a very good land, but he sent these spies to bring an account of it for the satisfaction of the people; as John Baptist sent to Jesus, to ask whether he was the Christ, not to inform himself, but to inform those he sent. They must take notice whether the air was healthful or no, what the soil was, and what the productions; and, for the better satisfaction of the people, they must bring with them some of the fruits. 2. Concerning the inhabitants–their number, few or many–their size and stature, whether strong able-bodied men or weak,–their habitations, whether they lived in tents or houses, whether in open villages or in walled towns,–whether the woods were standing as in those countries that are uncultivated, through the unskillfulness and slothfulness of the inhabitants, or whether the woods were cut down, and the country made champaign, for the convenience of tillage. These were the things they were to enquire about. Perhaps there had not been of late years such commerce between Egypt and Canaan as there was in Jacob’s time, else they might have informed themselves of these things without sending men on purpose to search. See the advantage we may derive from books and learning, which acquaint those that are curious and inquisitive with the state of foreign countries, at a much greater distance than Canaan was now from Israel, without this trouble and expense.
IV. Moses dismisses the spies with this charge, Be of good courage, intimating, not only that they should be themselves encouraged against the difficulties of this expedition, but that they should bring an encouraging account to the people and make the best of every thing. It was not only a great undertaking they were put upon, which required good management and resolution, but it was a great trust that was reposed in them, which required that they should be faithful.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
NUMBERS – THIRTEEN
Verses1-16:
After the seven days of Miriam’s separation, Israel resumed their march to the Land. They came almost to its boundary, making camp at Kadesh-Barnea, verse 26; De 1:19. There an event occurred which was to have profound effect upon Israel’s future.
Kadesh is the modern ‘Ain Gadis, in the northeast plateau of Parna. Just to the north begins the Negeb (Negev), the “south country” of Palestine. The region is ideal for pasturage, and just to the north may be found vineyards.
The proposal to send spies to scout the Land originally came from the people, De 1:22. Moses agreed, indicating his own desire to walk by sight. The Lord permitted what the people and Moses desired, and gave direction for the mission. However, it appears God was not pleased with this evidence of their lack of faith. He had already promised to be with Israel, and to give them the Land. And He had prepared the way for victory by implanting in the hearts of the Canaanites a terror of Israel and her God, Jos 2:9-11.
God may allow what He does not directly approve. It is always in man’s best interest to choose God’s direct will, and not settle for second best. Victory already belonged to Israel; they merely needed to claim it.
The twelve spies chosen were from among the rulers of the tribes, but they were not the chieftains previously selected, Nu 1:5-16, et.al.
Only two of these men are mentioned by name after this incident: they are Caleb and Oshea. Moses had previously changed the name of Oshua (Help) to Joshua (Jehovah is help). He was Moses’ chief lieutenant.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MARCHING AND MURMURING
Numbers, Chapters 1-19.
THE Book of Leviticus is hard to outline and to interpret. It is lengthy, and introduces so much of detail of law and ceremony that its analysis is accomplished with difficulty. And yet Leviticus took but thirty days to declare and put its every precept into actual practice. In that respect the Book of Numbers quite contrasts its predecessor. It covers a period of not less than thirty-eight years, and the plan of the volume is simple. Four keywords compass the nineteen chapters proposed for this mornings study. They are words necessitated by the wilderness experience. Leviticus sets up a sanctuary and a form of service; but in Numbers, we read of men of war, of armies, of standards, of camps, and trumpets sounding aloud. Through all of this, these key-words keep their way, and the mere mention of them will aid us in an orderly study of the first half of the volume; while we will not be able to dispense with them when we come to the analysis and study of the latter half. I refer to the terms mustering, marching, murmuring, and mercy.
MUSTERING
The first nine chapters of Numbers have to do almost entirely with the mustering. Chapters one and two are given to arranging the regiment, as we saw in our former study:
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the Children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. * *
As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. * *
Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. * *
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard (Num 1:1-4; Num 1:19-20; Num 2:1-2).
After all the centuries and even the millenniums that have come in between the day of Numbers and our day, wherein have men improved upon Gods plan of mustering armies and arranging regiments? True, we permit our boys to enter the service younger than twenty, but we make a mistake, as many a war-wrecked youth has illustrated. True, we make up our regiments of men who are strangers to each other, and in whose veins no kindred blood is flowing. But such an aggregation will never represent the strength, nor exhibit the courage that the tribal regiment evinces in fight. The almost successful rebellion of our Southern States demonstrated this. Our standard speaks of the nation, and appeals to the patriotic in men. Their standard represented the family and addressed itself to domestic pride and passion. It is well to remember, however, that the primary purpose of these Old Testament symbols is the impression of spiritual truths. And the lesson in this arranging of regiments is the one of being able to declare our spiritual genealogy, and our religious standard.
Every Israelite, when he was polled, was put in position to declare his paternity and point unmistakably to his standard; and no Christians should be satisfied until they can say with John, Now are we the sons of God, because we have discovered that the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And no standard should ever be accepted as sufficient other than that which has been set up for us in the Word. Long ago God said, Behold I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people, and in Christ Jesus He has accomplished that; and every one of us ought to be able to say with C. H. M., Our theology is the Bible; our church organization is the one Body, formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and united to the living and exalted Head in the Heavens. To contend for anything less than this is entirely below the mark of a true spiritual warrior.
Chapters three and four contain the appointment of the Priests. When Moses numbered the people, the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered (Num 1:47). God had for them a particular place in the army, and a peculiar part to take in this onward march. Their place was roundabout the tabernacle, at the center of the host, and their office was the charge of all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belonged to it. They were to bear the tabernacle, to minister in the tabernacle, to encamp roundabout it; to take it down when they were ready to set forth; and when the army halted in a new place, they were to set it up (chap. 2). In one sense they were not soldiers; in another they were the very captains and leaders of Jehovahs army. Their men from twenty to fifty were not armed and made ready for the shedding of blood, but they were set in charge of that symbol of Jehovahs presence without which Israels overthrow would have been instantaneous, and Israels defeat effectual. The worlds most holy men have always been, will always remain, its best warriors. The Sunday School teachers of the land fight the battles that make for peace more effectually than the nations constabulary; while the ministers of the Gospel, together with all their confederatesconscientious laymenput more things to rights and keep the peace better than the police force of all towns and cities. Every believer is a priest unto God. We should be profoundly impressed with the position we occupy in the great army which is fighting for a better civilization, and with the responsibility that rests upon us in the bringing in of a reign of righteousness.
Chapters five to nine, we have said, relate themselves to the establishment of army regulations. They impose purity of life upon every member who remains in the camp; they require restitution of any property falsely appropriated; they insist upon the strictest integrity of the home-life, and they declare the vows, offerings, and ceremonies suited to impress the necessity of the keeping of all these commands. In this there are two suggestions for the present time, namely, the place that discipline has in a well-organized army and the prominence it ought to be given in the true Church of God. That modern custom of making a hero of every man who smells the smoke of battle, and the complimentary one of excoriating every moral teacher who insists that even men of war are amenable to the civilities of life and ought to be compelled to regard them, has filled the ranks of too many standing armies with immoral men and swung public opinion too far into line with that servile press which indulges the habit of condoning, yea, even of commending, an army code that makes for criminal culture.
Sometime ago I went, in company with a veteran of 61 to 66, to hold a little service at the grave of two of his comrades. On our way we met another veteran of that bloody war, and as we looked into his bloated face, and listened to his drunken words, this clean, sober, Christian ex-soldier uttered some things about the necessity of better discipline in the army that were worthy of repetition, and ought to be heard by those officials who have it in their power to aid the young men of our present army to keep the commandments of God; but who too often lead them by example and precept to an utter repudiation of the same.
But the Church of God is Jehovahs army, and if we expect civilities from the unregenerate, we have a right to demand righteousness of the professedly redeemed. Much as discipline did for the purity and power of Israel, if rightly employed, it would accomplish even more for the purity and power of the present organized body of believers. Baron Stowe, a long time Bostons model pastor, in his Memoirs says, touching the importance of strict discipline, A church cannot prosper that connives at sin in its members; and that charity which shrinks from plain, faithful dealing with offenders, is false charity, and deeply injurious. A straightforward course in discipline, in accordance with the rules laid down by the Saviour, is the only one that will insure His approbation. Any serious student of the Scriptures must be often and profoundly impressed with the parallelisms, and even perfect agreements, of the Old Testament teachings with those of the New. Touching discipline, the Lord said unto Joshua,
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you (Jos 7:11-12).
When Paul found in the Corinthian Church a similar condition of transgression, he wrote,
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. * * Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person (1Co 5:11 f).
MARCH
The tenth chapter and thirty-third verse sets our organized army into motion. And they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days journey. Touching this march there are three things suggested by the Scripture, each of which is of the utmost importance.
First of all it was begun at Gods signal.
And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.
And the Children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of Moses (Num 10:11-13).
Going back to the beginning of this tenth chapter you will find that the priests were to assemble the armies with the silver trumpets. A single blast called together the princesheads of the thousands of Israel. When they blew an alarm, the camps that lay on the East went forward. A second alarm summoned the camps from the South, and an additional blast brought the congregation together. The same God at whose signal Israel was to march, speaks in trumpet tones by His Spirit, and through the Word, to the present Church militant. When whole congregations go sadly wrong, much of the trouble will be found with the men whose business it is to. use the silver trumpet, and thereby voice the mind of God. Too many preachers have been snubbed into silence or cowed to uncertain sounds. The silver trumpets through which they ought to call the people to battle have been plugged up with gold pieces, and in all too many instances they are afraid to blow an alarm, calling to the camps that lie on the East, lest when they sound the second, those that lie on the South should refuse to respond.
Joseph Parker suggests that when ministers become the trumpeters of society again, there will be a mighty awakening in the whole nation. In Italy they have a saying to this effect, There has never been a revolution in Europe without a Monk at the bottom of it. And when the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully fill up their offices, there will never be a division of Gods army, marching Canaan-ward, without a preacher at the head of it; and he will not be a man who has accommodated himself to the cry of the times in which we live Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, but rather one who will sound the alarm of Divine command, and whose word will be to the people, Gods signal. Every element of success enters into that assurance which comes from a conviction that one is marching according to the Divine command. The reason why public opinion, almost insuperable obstacles, and even royal counsellors, could not turn Joan of Arc from her purpose, existed in the fact that she kept hearing a voice saying, Daughter of God, go on, go on! And if we will listen, there is a voice behind us saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.
In this march Gods leadership was sought.
And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.
And when it rested he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel (Num 10:33).
There is a simplicity and a sincerity in that prayer which is truly refreshing. There are plenty of men who consult their circumstances; who take into account all the factors that can affect the march of life, and who try to keep as their constant guide a well-balanced intellect; but Moses preferred God. He esteemed His presence above all favorable conditions, and above the highest human judgment. And the man who rises up in the morning, offering his prayer to God to be guided for that day, and who, when he lies down at night, prays again, Return, O Lord, unto me, and watch over my slumber, is the man who has no occasion to fear because even the fiercest foe will fall before him.
Lewis Albert Banks says that about the year 1600 a man by the name of Heddinger was chaplain to the Duke of Wartenberg. The Duke was a wayward, wicked man. Heddinger was one of these genuine, faithful souls like John the Baptist who would stand for the right and God. He rebuked the Duke for his great sins. This terribly enraged his Honor, and he sent for the brave chaplain thinking to punish him. Heddinger came from his closet of prayer with his face beaming. The Duke, seeing the shine in every feature, realized that he was enjoying the actual presence of the Lord, and after putting to him the question, Why did you not come alone? sent him away unharmed. Ah, beloved, whether we be on the march or at rest; whether we be fighting the battles of life or enjoying its victories; whether we be proclaiming the truth or are on trial for having taught it, we have no business being alone, for we seek the Divine presence. The Lord will lead us in the march and lift over us His banner when we lie down to rest.
Nor can one follow this march without being impressed with the fact that God was guiding His people Canaan-ward. By consulting a good map you will see that the line from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was as direct as the lay of the land made possible. God never takes men by circuitous routes. These come in consequence of leaving the straight and narrow way for the more attractive but uncertain one of by-path meadow. Had they remained faithful to Divine leadership, forty days would have brought the whole company into Canaan. But when, through the discouragement of false reporters, they turned southward, putting their backs to God, they plunged into the wilderness fox a wandering of forty years, and even worse, to perish there without ever seeing the Land of Promise. What a lesson here for us! There is a sense in which every man determines his own destiny. It is within our power to trust to Divine leadership and enjoy it, and it is equally within our power to mistrust it, and lose it. One commenting upon this says, Israel declared that God had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and He took them at their word. Joshua and Caleb declared that He was able to bring them into the land, and He took them at their word. According to your faith be it unto you.
MURMURING
The eleventh chapter sounds for us a sad note. There the people fall to petty complaints and criticisms. And when the people complained. There are those who can complain without occasion. Criticism is the cheapest of intellectual commodities. And yet the critic always has a reason for his complaint, and however he may seek to hide the real cause, God is an expert in uncovering it. Here He lays it to the mixed multitude that was among themthey fell a lusting. That mixed multitude (or great mixture is the word in the original) consisted of Egyptians and others who had come out of Egypt with Israel, and whose Egyptian tastes were not being satisfied by enforced marches, holy services and manna from on High. It is a good thing to get Israel out of Egypt, to get the Church of God out of the world; but it is an essential thing also to get Egypt out of Israel, the unregenerate out of the Church of God, for if you do not they will fall a lusting, and the first complaint they will make is touching the food divinely provided for them. The Gospel of Jesus ChristGods provided mannanever did satisfy an unregenerate man, and it never will. What he wants is the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. Yes, even the garlick of the world; and when you set before him manna, he insists that his soul is dried away.
I went to talk with a mother about her little daughters uniting with the church. She told me that she was opposed to it; and when I asked her why, she boldly replied that she united with the church herself when she was young, and thereby denied herself all the pleasures of the world. She had never ceased to regret it, and she proposed to save her girl from a similar experience. A lusting for the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick! If such is ones feeling, just as well go back to the world! It does not make an Egyptian an Israelite to go over into that camp, and it does not make an unregenerate man a Christian because you write his name on the church book.
This spirit of criticism spread to the officials and leaders. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. Their complaint was slightly different from that of the mixed multitude, but directed against the same man.
From the complaint of these leading officials the trouble spread, and when the ten spies rendered their report of the land which God had promised, the whole congregation broke into revolt. That was the opportunity that Korah and Dathan and Abiram and On took advantage of.
And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the Children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? (Num 16:2-3).
Here is the new complaint of the critics! Moses is domineering; his administration is that of a one-man power. He has not given sufficient attention to the princes of the assembly, and to the chief members of the congregation.
This is no ancient story. From that hour until this, the Church of God, whether in the form of Israel or that of the body of baptized believers, has experienced the same rebellion with the same reasons assigned. In Pauls day the Church at Corinth had to be counselled by the great Apostle and the members thereof reminded that they were of one body. The feet are enjoined not to complain of the hands, and the ear not to criticise the eye, and the eye not to envy the hand, nor yet the head the feet, that there should be no schism in the body, since when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and when one member is honored all the members should rejoice with it. In our own day the chief men have sometimes set aside the servant of God. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, once a man of the highest education and personal culture, honored by the members of his profession for his spirituality, and for the success that had attended his ministry, was set aside because he interfered with the Egyptian desires of the children of certain chief men of his congregation. Years ago, in New York, Americas most famous pastor and preacher, after passing through a series of sicknesses and bereavements in his family, came to the thirtieth anniversary of his pastorate to find himself retired from office by a few of the officials of the church who were influential. His reinstatement by the body at large came too late to save him from the collapse that attended this severe experience. A New York correspondent, writing of this, said, Such action makes every pastor in New York City feel sick at heart.
Attend to the way Moses met this! If the ministers of the present time learned his way, their course would be a more courageous one and their burdens better borne. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel (Num 14:5). That is the way he met the first rebellion. When the rebellion of Korah came, it is written, And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will show who are His (Num 16:4-5). We may suggest here, prayer to God, the best possible reply to complaints and criticisms. If one has been guilty of that charged against him, such prayer will bring him to a knowledge of his guilt and give him an opportunity to correct it; and if he has not been guilty, such prayer will cause God to lift him up and establish his going, and put into his mouth a song.
Constantine the Great was one day looking at some statues of famed persons, and noting that they were all in standing position, he said, When mine is made Id like it in kneeling posture, for it is by going down before God I have risen to any eminence. Moses has taught us how to conquer all complaint, and all criticism, and come off victorious by falling on our faces and waiting until God shows who are His.
MERCY
The conclusion of this study presents a precious thought; in the midst of judgment, mercy appears.
At Moses intercession, God removes His hand. Every time there is a rebellion, and judgment is visited upon the people, Moses appears as intercessor, and when the people fell to lusting for the leeks, and the onions of Egypt, Moses cried unto God, Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Their cries were the anguish of his soul! When Miriam and Aaron were in sedition against their brother, it was Moses who interceded, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee. And when the whole congregation lifted up their voices of murmuring at the report of the spies, Moses was on his face again in such an intercessory prayer as you could scarce find on another page of sacred Scripture. He was ready to die himself, if they could not be delivered and when Korah and his company attempted his overthrow, he plead with God until the plague was stayed. Therein is an example for every true Christian man.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. * *
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is what Christ said,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven (Mat 5:44-45).
The richest symbol of Gods mercy is seen in this nineteenth chapterthe red heifer! She was preeminently the type of Gods provision against the defilement of the wilderness experience. She prefigured the death of Christ as the purification for sin and contained the promise of Gods mercy toward all men, however dreadful their rebellion or deep their stains. Who can read this nineteenth chapter and remember how this offering of the red heifer covers the most grievous sin of man without seeing how great is Gods mercy, and how Divine is His example. Henry Van Dyke says, When we see God forgiving all men who have sinned against Him, sparing them in his mercy, * * let us take the gracious lesson of forgiveness to our hearts. Why should we hate like Satan when we may forgive like God? Why should we cherish malice, envy, and all uncharitableness in our breasts? I know that some people use us despitefully and show themselves our enemies, but why should we fill our hearts with their bitterness and inflame our wounds with their poison? This world is too sweet and fair to darken it with the clouds of anger. This life is too short and precious to waste it in bearing that heaviest of all burdens, a grudge.
And you will see in this nineteenth chapter, also, a new emphasis laid upon the necessity of personal purity. The red heifer was provided for cleansing, and God imposed it upon the cleansed to keep themselves unspotted from the world. That is the major part of true religion to this day, to keep onesself unspotted from the world. This whole chapter is Gods attempt to so provide us with the blood of the slain, and surround us with the cleansing ceremonies, that we may be able to resist the floods of defilement that flow on every side. Realizing, as we must realize, the beauty and blessedness of a holy life, we can enter into a keen appreciation of that most beautiful beatitude, and sing with John Keble:
Blest are the pure in heart,
For they shall see their God:
The secret of the Lord is theirs;
Their soul is Christs abode.
The Lord, who left the heavens,
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men,
Their pattern and their King.
Still to the lowly soul
He doth Himself impart,
And for His dwelling and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we Thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Oh, give the pure and lowly heart,
A temple meet for Thee.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Num. 13:1-2. And the Lord spake unto Moses, &c.
It appears from Deu. 1:22-23, that the sending of the spies to search out the land was suggested by the people and approved by Moses; and here it is permitted by the Lord. God had commanded them to go and take possession of the land; and the motion to send the spies was an expression of their unbelief.
Everyone a ruler among them. By a comparison of the names of these rulers with those of the princes of the tribes (Num. 1:5-16), we see that they were not the same in any one case. These now sent forth were doubtless selected from the chiefs of each tribe for their fitness for the work entrusted to them. In Num. 13:3 they are spoken of as heads of the children of Israel; i.e., heads of families.
Num. 13:16. And Moses called Oshea Jehoshua. Oshea, Hoshea, or Hosea signifies help or deliverance. To this Moses added a syllable of the sacred Name, and made it Jehoshua, contracted into Joshua, which signifies Jehovah is help, or deliverance; or, whose help is Jehovah. This verse does not imply that the alteration in the name was made at this time. It was probably made at the time of, and in consequence of his victory over the Amalekites (Exo. 17:8-16).
Num. 13:17. Get you up this way southward. Or, Get you up there in the south country. The Negeb (south country) primarily signifies a dry, parched district, from nagab, to be dried up, to be withered. This name was applied to the southern and least fertile district of Canaan, which extended northward from Kadesh to within a few miles of Hebron, and from the Dead Sea westward to the Mediterranean (cf. especially Jos. 15:21-32).
And go up into the mountain. The hill-country of Palestine, including the mountains of Judah and Ephraim or Israel. The expressions the south country and the mountain seem intended to set forth the whole land of Canaan.
Num. 13:19. In tents, or camps, i.e., in open or unwalled villages.
Num. 13:20. The time of the first-ripe grapes. The first grapes ripen in Palestine as early as August, and sometimes even in July; and the vintage takes place in September and October. It appears to us most probable that the spies were despatched early in August. Dr. Kitto, however, conjectures that probably they set out early in September, and returned about the middle of October.
Num. 13:21. The wilderness of Zin. The north-eastern portion of the great desert of Paran, and part of the southern border of the Promised Land (Num. 34:4; Jos. 15:1-3). (See notes on The wilderness of Paran, Num. 12:16).
Rehob as men come to Hamath, or at the entrance of Hamath, i.e., at the commencement of the territory of that name, on the northern boundary of Canaan. Rehob was probably the Bethrehob of Jdg. 18:28, near to Dan-Laish, the modern Tell el Kady.
Hamath, the principal city of Upper Syria, from the time of the Exodus to that of the prophet Amos. It is situated on the Orontes. Antiochus Epiphanes changed its name to Epiphaneia. Hamah is its present name.
The spies went through the whole land from the southern to the northern frontier.
Num. 13:22. Came unto Hebron. Hebron signifies an associate or friend. A most ancient city, situated amongst the mountains (Jos. 20:7), 20 Roman miles south of Jerusalem, and the same distance north of Beersheba. It was a well known place when Abram entered Canaan about 3800 years ago (Gen. 13:18). Trapp points out that at Hebron lay buried those three reverend couples: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah (Gen. 49:31) Here David began his reign over Israel (2Sa. 2:1), and hither came Mary to visit Elizabeth (Luk. 1:39).
The original name of Hebron was Kirjath-Arba, the city of Arba, so called from Arba, the father of Anak and progenitor of the Anakim (Jos. 15:13-14; Jos. 21:11).
Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Probably the names not of individuals, but of tribes of Anakim; for we meet with them again fifty years or more after this time (Jos. 15:14).
Anak, the name of the ancestor of the Anakim, signifies long-necked.
Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Some think, says Dr. A. Claire, it was to humble the pride of the Egyptians, who boasted the highest antiquity, that this note concerning the higher antiquity of Hebron was introduced by Moses.
Zoan, an ancient city situated near the eastern border of Lower Egypt, and called by the Greeks and Romans Tunis. At the time of the Exodus the Pharaoh dwelt at Zoan (Psa. 78:43).
Num. 13:23. The brook of Eshcol, or, The valley of the cluster, or bunch; a fertile wady, probably about two miles north of Hebron, where the largest and best grapes in the whole of Palestine are grown, besides apricots, figs, pomegranates, &c., in abundance.
One cluster of grapes and they bare it, &c. Not simply because of the size of the cluster did they carry it in this way, but chiefly to prevent its being bruised. Clusters of grapes of great size are found in Palestine. Phny mentions, says Dr. A. Clarke, bunches of grapes in Africa each of which was larger than an infant. Paul Lucas mentions some bunches which he saw at Damascus that weighed above forty-five pounds. I myself once cut down a bunch of grapes nearly twenty pounds in weight. Those who live in cold climates can scarcely have any conception to what perfection both grapes and other fruits grow in climates that are warm, and where the soil is suitable to them.
Num. 13:26. Kadesh signifies the Holy Place or Sanctuary. Great uncertainty exists as to the situation of Kadesh. Dr. Robinson identified it with Ain el-Weibeh, on the western side of the Arabah; and this identification has been generally accepted by English geographers as the most probable. Dean Stanley (Sinai and Pal., pp. 9396) identifies Kadesh with Petra. But Petra was in the heart of Edom, while Kadesh is said to be in the uttermost border of that land (Num. 20:16). And in Num. 33:37 an encampment at Mount Hor is mentioned as quite distinct from the encampment at Kadesh, and Mount Hor is situated close to Edom. Moreover, in Num. 34:4, and Jos. 15:3, Kadesh is reckoned as part of the land of Canaan. Keil and Del. are of the opinion that the name Kadesh embraces a large district of the desert of Zin, and is not confined to one particular spot. The conclusion of Mr. Hayman (Smiths Bible Dict., arts. Kadesh and Wilderness of the Wandering) seems to us satisfactory: It seems that Kadesh probably means, firstly, a region of the desert spoken of as having a relation, sometimes with the wilderness of Paran, and sometimes with that of Zin (comp. Num. 13:21; Num. 13:26); and secondly, a distinct city within that desert limit.
Num. 13:32. A land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof does not mean that it was so barren and unfruitful that it did not produce food sufficient for the inhabitants of it. Keil and Del. give what we regard as the correct interpretation: The land was an apple of discord, because of its fruitfulness and situation; and as the different nations strove for its possession, its inhabitants wasted away.
THE SENDING FORTH OF THE SPIES
(Num. 13:1-20)
The people have now arrived at the border of the Promised Land; and there seems to be no reason why they may not, if they will, speedily enter and take possession of it. But instead of this, they propose to send spies into the land to investigate it, and bring back a report to them. The results of this in the subsequent history were both great and disastrous.
Consider:
I. The Origin of this Expedition.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, send thou men, &c. (Num. 13:1-2). But we find, from the history as given in Deu. 1:20-25, that the proposal to search the land originated with the people themselves, and was an expression of their unbelief, and, at the least, a failure to render prompt obedience to the command of the Lord. Let us see how the case stood at this time.
(1) God had Himself declared to them the excellence of the land (Exo. 3:8; Exo. 33:3).
(2) He had promised to guide them to the land (Exo. 32:34; Exo. 33:2; Exo. 33:14). Moreover, He was visibly present with them in the mysterious and majestic pillar of cloud and fire.
(3) He had promised to drive out the heathen nations and give them possession of the land (Exo. 23:20-33; Deu. 1:8).
(4) He commanded them to go up and possess the land (Deu. 1:8; Deu. 1:21).
(5) Yet their answer was, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, &c. (Deu. 1:22). Clearly their duty was not to send men to search out the land, but trusting in God, to obey His voice and go and take possession of the land. Their proposition involved a sinful distrust of the presence of God with them and of His promises to them; it also involved a failure in their obedience to Him. Moses did not suspect the unbelief which had suggested their proposal; and approving it himself, he asked counsel of the Lord, who permitted it. God may allow us to carry out our unbelieving plans to our own confusion. If we will lean unto our own understanding, He will let us take our way until we find what utter folly our fancied wisdom is. (a). In this way in after years when they demanded a king, God directed Samuel to hearken unto their voice, and make them a king (1Sa. 8:5-22). Our business is not to suggest alterations in or additions to the Divine plans, but heartily to trust and promptly to obey the Divine Word.
II. The Agents in this Expedition.
Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them, &c. (Num. 13:2-16). Three points here require notice:
1. The wisdom of this arrangement.
(1) In sending one man from each tribe. By this arrangement every tribe was represented, and would have a witness of its own.
(2) In sending a leading man from each tribe. They were approved men, men of influence, and therefore their testimony would be the more likely to be received and credited.
2. The scarcity of worthy leaders. We see here that a large proportion of even these leading men, these rulers and heads of the children of Israel, were inferior men and unworthy of the position which they occupied. Here are the names of twelve men, and ten of them seem to have been feeble and common-place men, and (as we shall hereafter see) deficient in faith, in enterprise, and in courage. How many of the worlds heroes and leaders are mentally weak and morally inferior, or even corrupt men! The true hero and the worthy leader often fail of recognition except by a superior few. Hitherto in the worlds history the majority of the leaders of men have been feeble and cowardly, and very often base and corrupt. (b)
3. The diversity of human fame. The names of these twelve men have been handed down from generation to generation, and at the present time the record which contains them is to be found throughout the whole of the known world; but how different are the positions which they occupy! Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, are in the foremost rank of saints and heroes: while the other ten are known as the chief agents in arresting the progress of the nation for more than thirty-eight years. History perpetuates the memory of Nero as well as of St. Paul, of Judas Iscariot as well as of Jesus Christ. We are making our posthumous reputation now; let us take heed that it be of a worthy character. (c)
III. The Aims of this Expedition.
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up, &c. (Num. 13:17-20). They were to examine and report as to the condition of
1. The land, whether it was fertile or barren, whether it was wooded or bare, &c.
2. The towns, whether they were walled and fortified or open and unprotected, &c.
3. The people, whether they were strong or weak, whether they were few or many, &c.
Their investigation was to be thorough. Get you up there in the south country, and go up into the mountain. They were to search the whole land of Canaan. Partial investigations are apt to prove misleading.
Their report was to be verified. And bring of the fruit of the land. They were charged to bring of the fruit as a confirmation of their testimony.
IV. The Spirit appropriate to this Expedition.
And be ye of good courage. The mission with which they were entrusted would require firm and fearless hearts; for if the object of their journey had been discovered by the Canaanites, it would have fared ill with them. They needed courage, too, in order that they might view things hopefully, and bring back an inspiring report. Want of courage in its leaders is a sore hindrance and calamity to any people. The courage they needed could spring only from faith in God, and could he sustained only by faith in Him. Faith in Him is the soul of all true heroism. (d)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) A man sets his mind on standing on some high place; he points to a pillar and says that if he could ascend to its summit he would see from that lofty elevation glimpses of heaven, and he determines that he will stand upon that summit, whatever hazards he may incur. At length God grants him his request, and when the man has ascended to the eminence which he coveted, what does he find? Sand, sand, sand! Mile on mile of sandsand for mile on mile! And now he wishes to descend; but how to get down is his great difficulty. There may be no way down but that which involves suicide. Yet the man was determined to reach that elevation; nothing could stand between him and his wish; he urged God to grant him his request; with importunate desire he besought that he might have his way; and there is no punishment heavier than that which falls upon any man when God allows him to take his own course.Joseph Parker, D.D.
(b) The servile imitancy of mankind might be illustrated under the figure, itself nowise original, of a Flock of Sheep Sheep go in flocks for three reasons: First, because they are of a gregarious temper, and love to be together: Secondly, because of their cowardice; they are afraid to be left alone: Thirdly, because the common run of them are dull of sight, to a proverb, and can have no choice in roads; sheep can in fact see nothing; in a celestial Luminary, and a scoured pewter Tankard they would discern only that both dazzled them, and were of unspeakable glory. How like their fellow-creatures of the human species! Men, too, are gregarious; then surely faint-hearted enough, trembling to be left by themselves; above all, dull-sighted, down to the verge of utter blindness. Thus are we seen ever running in torrents, and mobs, if we run at all; and after what foolish scoured Tankards, mistaking them for Suns! Foolish Turnip-lanterns likewise, to all appearance supernatural, keep whole nations quaking, their hair on end Neither know we, except by blind habit, where the good pastures lie: solely when the sweet grass is between our teeth, we know it, and chew it; also when grass is bitter and scant, we know it,and bleat and butt: these last two facts we know of a truth and in very deed. Thus do Man and Sheep play their parts on this nether Earth; wandering restlessly in large masses, they know not whither; for most part, each following his neighbour, and his own nose.Thomas Carlyle.
(c) Posthumous influence invests life with enhanced dignity. While Bunyan lived he was but as a mustard-seed; now he is as a great cathedral tree, in which ten thousand voices are lifted up in laudatory and grateful song! Thou fool! that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. No living man is complete. While your heart beats you are undergoing a process. Time will mellow you; age will tone your character. Do not urge society to give you a verdict just now. Society is too heated and confused to pronounce upon you with the accuracy of deliberation and the dignity of repose. Death will befriend you. A most solemn and righteous estimation of character is often introduced by death. The green hillock in the yard of the dead is a judgment-seat which might appal an unjust judge. Your appeal, then, under all misapprehension and misrepresentation, must be to the new hours which Time has yet to strike from her bell, and which shall chime out many a reversal of condemnation, and many a fulfilment of expectation long deferred.Joseph Parker. D.D.
(d) The courage that can go forth, once and away, to Chalk-Farm, and have itself shot, and snuffed out, with decency, is nowise wholly what we mean here. Such courage we indeed esteem an exceeding small matter; capable of co-existing with a life full of falsehood, feebleness, poltroonery, and despicability. Nay, oftener it is cowardice rather that produces the result: for consider, Is the Chalk-Farm pistoleer inspired with any reasonable Belief and Determination; or is he hounded on by haggard indefinable Fear,how he will be cut at public places, and plucked geese of the neighbourhood will wag their tongues at him a plucked goose? If he go, then, and be shot without shrieking or audible uproar, it is well for him: nevertheless there is nothing amazing in it. Courage to manage all this has not perhaps been denied to any man, or to any woman. Thus, do not recruiting sergeants drum through the streets of manufacturing towns, and collect ragged losels enough; every one of whom, if once dressed in red, and trained a little, will receive fire cheerfully for the small sum of one shilling per diem, and have the soul blown out of him at last, with perfect propriety. The Courage that dares only die, is on the whole no sublime affair; necessary, indeed, yet universal; pitiful when it begins to parade itself. On this Globe of ours, there are some thirty-six persons that manifest it, seldom with the smallest failure, during every second of time. Nay, look at Newgate: do not the offscourings of creation, when condemned to the gallows as if they were not men but vermin, walk thither with decency, and even to the scowls and hootings of the whole universe give their stern goodnight in silence? What is to be undergone only once, we may undergo; what must be, comes almost of its own accord. Considered as Duellist, what a poor figure does the fiercest Irish Whiskerando make, compared with any English Game-cook, such as you may buy for fifteen pence!
The Courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully. This, when by Gods grace it has been given, lies deep in the soul; like genial heat, fosters all other virtues and gifts; without it they could not live. In spite of our innumerable Waterloos and Peterloos, and such campaigning as there has been, this Courage we allude to, and call the only true one, is perhaps rarer in these last ages, than it has been in any other since the Saxon Invasion under Hengist. Altogether extinct it can never be among men; otherwise the species Man were no longer for this world: here and there, in all times, under various guises, men are sent hither not only to demonstrate but exhibit it, and testify, as from heart to heart, that it is still possible, still practicable.Thomas Carlyle.
GLIMPSES OF THE BETTER LAND
(Num. 13:1-2)
I. The search.
II. The retreat.
III. An emblem of Gods dealings with His people.
1. The children of Israel were sent back to the wilderness on account of their sin.
2. While they are sent in judgment, they go back of their own accord.
3. Though the fruit of sin, and the token of Gods righteous displeasure, all was overruled for their good.
4. Though chastened and afflicted they are not cast off.
(1) They are Divinely delivered.
(2) They are Divinely sustained.
(3) They are Divinely guided.
(4) They are Divinely chastened.
IV. Improvement.
1. Let young believers be not high-minded, but fear.
2. Let backsliders remember and weep.
3. Let tried and troubled saints take fresh courage.J. Burns.
THE EXPLORATION OF THE PROMISED LAND BY THE SPIES, AN ILLUSTRATION OF HUMAN INQUIRIES INTO DIVINE REALMS
(Num. 13:21-25)
I. The exploration of the Promised Land by the Spies was thorough.
So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, at the entrance of Hamath. They went quite through the land from the Negeb in the south to Rehob on the northern border. In this they are worthy of imitation by inquirers into Divine realms. It is the shallow and superficial students of Nature, of Providence, and of the Bible who carp and cavil at the discoveries which they make; for such investigators can only make obscure, partial, one sided discoveries. If man would be admitted into the secrets of Nature, of Providence, or of the Bible; if he would discover the power, the wisdom, and the grace which are enshrined in them; if he would be brought into communion with the mind and spirit of their Divine Author, he must investigate them thoroughly, patiently, and reverently. (a)
II. The exploration of the Promised Land by the spies led to the discovery of difficulties.
1. They discovered formidable enemies to their taking possession of the land. And they came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. Before they entered upon the Promised Land the Israelites would have to conquer these mighty tribes. We cannot attain unto a large and correct acquaintance with the revelation of God in Nature, Providence, or the Bible, without battling with and overcoming many and grave difficulties. We cannot attain unto self-conquest, self-possession, without patient, persistent, and courageous warfare. We cannot inherit the Promised Land of Divine privileges without determined struggles with powerful foes. Our own unbelief, carnality, worldliness, and selfishness; the corrupt influences of society; and the temptations of the devil,these are the Anakim with which we must contend, and which we must conquer if we would enter into full possession of our Promised Land. No true kingdom is ever entered except through much tribulation. (b)
2. They discovered these formidable enemies where they least expected them. It was at Hebron that they found the Anakim. Now Hebron was sacred in the annals of the greatest of their ancestors. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah all found their last resting place there (Gen. 23:19-20; Gen. 49:31); yet there they find the tribes that are likely to offer the stoutest resistance to their taking the land. In that place where they expected the greatest encouragements they met with the greatest discouragements. Where the bodies of their ancestors kept possession for them the giants kept possession against them. So with us in Christian life and enterprise, it is not where we feel there is danger and are guarding against it that our real foes and grave perils are; but in places and in circumstances where we least expect them. How often have godly men failed where they seemed most strong! Abraham was preminent for faith; yet he fell into sin more than once through the failure of his faith in little trials. Peter deemed his courage unquestionable and invincible; yet it was his courage that gave way in the hour of trial.
III. The exploration of the Promised Land by the spies led to the discovery of rich treasures.
And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence, &c. (2325).
1. The discovered treasures were rich. The valley of Eshcol was celebrated for its abundant and choice fruits. One very large and rich bunch of grapes they cut and conveyed from thence to the people. They cut down from thence a branch with one cluster, and they bare it between two upon a staff, &c. (c)
How rich are the fruits of that inheritance of Divine privilege to which God calls us! What satisfaction, peace, hope, joy! &c.
2. The discovered treasures were various. Grapes, pomegranates, and figs. How various are the treasures and delights God bestows upon His people! They have joy in the new discoveries of truth; joy in high and holy fellowships; joy in Christ-like service; joy in loving and being loved, &c.
3. Specimens of the discovered treasures were carried to the people by the explorers. They cut down a branch with one cluster, &c. The probability is that Caleb and Joshua brought this cluster; for the other explorers were not disposed to encourage the people to attempt to to take possession of the land. The knowledge and enjoyments we now have of Divine things are but specimens and foretastes of what is reserved in heaven for us. The fulness of joy, and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, await us in the hereafter.
4. The discovered treasures deeply impressed the mind of the explorers and of those who saw the specimens. We see this from the fact that the valley from which the bunch of grapes was cut was henceforth called, the valley of the cluster. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. Were we not blinded and prejudiced by sin, the rich treasures of Gospel grace would so impress our hearts that we should eagerly seek Him in whom they are stored and through whom they are bestowed.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Only those who wait upon the Bible through a life-time of prayer, study, and patience, can be rewarded with an intelligent and beautiful reverence for it, as for the Wisdom of God in a mystery. Think! it is not simply Wisdom, but the Wisdom of God, and not simply the Wisdom of God, but the Wisdom of God in a mystery.
Very notable is the agreement between the Book, and every mans deep nature. Deep calleth unto deep. The Bible is the only profoundly human thing in the world. The world, and all that is in the world, are in agreement only with our shallow nature. When conscience awakes from its sensual slumbers, there is a marvellous agreement between its suspicions, its fears, its dark utterances, and the Old Testament. The true Mount Sinai is in the human soul. But there are also deep and far-reaching longings in man, as well as conscience, and the New Testament is a complete answer to all these longings.
The Bible seems to be the law of my own being out written. It meets every difficulty, it throws light on every mystery, it supplies every want, it leaves nothing to be desired.
There is much in the Book to exercise both patience and hope; and I need both. I need patience, under the present dark and corrupt condition of nature, and I need hope, that the mystery of God will be finished. It is finished in our Lord Jesus Christ. When all the redeemed shall have the Spirit of Christ for their spirit, and when all matter shall be like unto His glorious Body, then the mystery of God will be finished also in the universe.John Pulsford.
(b) Any service for God, if it be done at all, should be hard work. If you want to be feather-bed soldiers, go and enlist somewhere else; but Christs soldiers must fight, and they will find the battle rough and stern. We, of the Church militant, are engaged in no mimic manuvres and grand parades; our life is real and earnest; our battle, though not with flesh and blood, is with spiritual wickedness in high places, and it involves hard blows and keen anguish. You must look for real fighting if you become a soldier of Christ, and O, Sir, if the excuse for fainting be that the work is toilsome, that it is too much a drag upon you, why did you begin it? You ought to have known this at the first. You should have counted the cost. But, ah, let me add, the work was not toilsome when your heart was loving, neither would it now be so hard if your soul were right with God. This is but an unworthy excuse. Ardent spirits love difficulties; fervent love delights in making sacrifices; they would not wish to swim for ever in smooth seas of pleasure; they know that manhoods truest glory lies in contending with and overcoming that which is hard. Give to the child the easy task, but let the man have something worth the doing to perform. Instead of shrinking because the work is tedious, we ought to gird up our loins and push on the enterprise with all the greater force.C. H. Spurgeon.
(c) In conformity with the text before us, the size and richness of the clusters of the grapes in many parts of Palestine excite more astonishment than even the size and richness of the grapes. An Italian traveller, Mariti, avers, that in different parts of Syria he saw clusters that would be a sufficient burden for one man. A German traveller, Neitzschutz, declares, with some solemnity of assertion, that in the mountains of Israel he had seen and eaten from vine clusters that were half an ell long, and the grapes of which were equal to two finger joints in length. A very intelligent French traveller, Nau, is still more particular. He declares that one who had seen the vine only in the vine countries of France and Italy, could form no just conception of the size to which the clusters attain in Syria. He had himself seen clusters weighing ten or twelve pounds; and he had reason to believe that in the Archipelago clusters of thirty or forty pounds were not uncommon. A still older traveller of the same nation, Doubdan, tells us that, travelling near Bethlehem, he found himself in a delighful valley, replete with rose-trees and aromatic plants, and planted with vines. This was that which tradition regards as the valley of Eshcol, from which the spies obtained their cluster. Not being there in the season, he did not see the fruit himself; but he was assured that clusters of ten and twelve pounds were not seldom gathered from these vines. We share the doubt, however, that this was the vale of Eshcol, which seems rather to have been near to Hebron. It was in this neighbourhood that Nau saw the large vine-clusters of which he makes mention. In this quarter the hill-sides are still thickly planted with vineyards, the vines of which are laden with large clusters of delicious grapes. It is beyond a doubt that the cluster in question was gathered in the south of Palestine; for as the spies had seen these grapes in their outward way, it would have been absurd for them to gather any but at the last available point towards their own encampment. As striking an instance as any that we have quoted, has occurred in our own country, in regard to the produce of a Syrian vine at Welbeck, the seat of the Duke of Portland. A bunch from this vine was sent, in 1819, as a present to the Marquis of Buckingham, which weighed nineteen pounds. It was conveyed to its destination, more than twenty miles distant, on a staff, by four labourers, two of whom bore it in rotation; thus affording a striking illustration of the means adopted by the explorers in transporting the Eshcol cluster. The greatest diameter of this Welbeck cluster was nineteen inches and a half; its circumference four feet and a half; and its length nearly twenty-three inches.John Kitto, D.D., F.S.A.
ESHCOL
(Num. 13:23)
They came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes.
We reach the brook of Eshcol through a humbling path. When Sinai is left the march of Israel advances prosperously. There is no check. And now a few more steps will plant the pilgrim-host in Canaan.
Surely courage will new brace each nerve, &c. But is it so? Alas! they pause. The unworthy thought creeps inperchance the nations are too strong for us, &c. Thus they distrust: and tremblingly propose to search the country by spies. They follow sightnot faith. And unbelief is not dead It lurks in corners of each heart, &c. Bewarelook inward. He is the fool of fools, who tests Divine assurances in the scales of mortal vision.
The spies are named. They are sent forth to ascertain whether their God be true, &c.
Contemplate that cluster which they bearthat earnest of rich fields. These grapes are proof of Canaans exuberant fertility. So, too, there is a heavenly Eshcol before faiths eye. It shows delicious clusters. The joy before Christ cheered His heart. The joy before us should gird up our loins. The racer bounds when he discerns the goal just won. Come, then, in Eshcols grapes read faiths amazing prize.
Heaven! It is the palace of the great Eternal. Salvation for its wallsits gates are praise. Its atmosphere is perfect love. It is the home prepared of God before the worlds were made, for His redeemed children. It is the mansion which the ascended Jesus still labours to make fit. It is so fair that all Jehovahs skill cannot increase the beauty.
This cluster was the vines perfection. So, too, perfection is the essence of our heaven. Nothing can enter there to stain, &c. Oh! what a contrast to our present state! But our high home is barricaded against sin.
Here the foul tempter all day long is spreading nets. There is no saint too saintly for his vile approach. In Eden he approached the innocent. To Jesus he said, Worship me. But in heaven this misery has ceased. Satan is withoutfar offthe bottomless pit has shut its mouth upon him.
Here fears rush in. The ground is slippery. A precipice is near. We tremble on the brink. May I not, after all, fail of salvation! But fear dies at heavens gate. The happy company realize that they are lofty above injury.
Earth is afflictions home. A troop of sorrows compass us about. Death tears away the much-loved friend. Sickness invades the frame. But heaven is a wide sea of bliss without a ripple. All tears are wiped away. We bathe in oceans of delight.
Here unbelief oft gathers, as a chilly cloud. It mantles the soul in darkness. But in heaven a present God is always everywhere. We cannot move beyond the sunshine of His love.
Here we thirst for knowledge, but we reach it not. How much concerning God is utterly beyond our grasp. Blindness curtails our prospect. Clouds narrow our circumference. But heaven is a realm without horizon. We know God, as we are known. We love intelligently, &c.
In the true Eshcols cluster there is this richer fruit; Jesus is seen. This is the crown of heaven. The rising of the sun makes day. The presence of the king constitutes the court. The revelation of the Lord, without one intervening cloud, is the grand glory of the endless kingdom.
Believer, what will it be to gaze on the manifested beauty of Him, who is altogether lovely! What, to comprehend all that Jesus is! What, never to lose sight of Him!
Are you a traveller towards this heaven? When you behold the grapes of Eshcol, do you know that the vineyard is your sure heritage? The kingdom is for the subjects of the King. Are you His by faith? This is that Spirit-implanted confidence, which looks to Eshcol, and claims all Canaan as a promised home.Henry Law, D.D.
THE REPORTS OF THE SPIES, AND THE LESSONS THESE REPORTS TEACH US
(Num. 13:26-33)
I. Examine the Reports of the Spies.
First: The report of the majority. The impression produced upon ten of the explorers from their survey differed from that produced upon the other two. We will first attend to the testimony of the ten.
1. They testify to the fertility of the land. Surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it (See remarks on Num. 13:23-25, and comp. Deu. 8:7-9).
2. They set forth the difficulties in the way of taking the land. Speedily they pass from the cheering announcement of the fertility of the country to a gloomy and discouraging representation of the grave difficulties which opposed their possession of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, &c. (Num. 13:28-29; Num. 13:32-33). These obstacles which seemed to them insuperable were of two classes:
(1) The defences of the cities. The cities are walled and very great. In their eyes every town was an impregnable stronghold.
(2) The strength and stature of the inhabitants. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there, &c. All the people that we saw in it are men of great stature, &c.
3. They declare their inability to take the land. We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And yet the army of Israel numbered 600,000 able men, and was well organized.
4. They suggest the difficulty of maintaining possession of the land. It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. According to their representation, by reason of the fertility of its soil and the importance of its situation, different nations contended for its possession; so that they who held it must needs be armed and watchful, and frequently suffer loss in battle.
5. They exhibit the most despicable cowardice. Surely the tone of their report is utterly unworthy of men who a new that the army of Israel was 600,000 strong. Alas! they were almost destitute of the higher attributes of manhood. If we would estimate the cowardice of their conduct aright we have but to compare, or rather contrast it with the conduct of Caleb (Num. 13:30), or with that of David (1Sa. 17:32-37). (a)
6. They manifest the most deplorable and sinful unbelief. In framing their conclusions and delivering their report they utterly ignored the Lord God. Faith in Him was entirely absent. Unbelief was supreme. Their unbelief was aggravated in its sinfulness by reason of
(1) The promises which He had repeatedly made to them. Had He not assured them again and again that he would give them the land?
(2) The mighty works which He had wrought for them. Is it possible that they have forgotten the wonders wrought for them in Egypt and at the Red Sea? Could they discover no significance or feel no inspiration to faith in the daily miracle of the manna?
(3) The visible symbol of His presence with them. The miraculous and majestic Pillar of His Presence was visible to every eye. Yet despite all these things unbelief held undisputed supremacy within them.
Second: The Report of the minority. Caleb and Joshua seem to have agreed with the report of the ten other spies in some particulars; but in two most important matters they differed from them.
(1) Their impression of their relative power was different; they held that they were well able to overcome the inhabitants of the land.
(2) Their advice as to their practical action was different; they counselled that they should go up at once and possess the land. In considering the conduct of Caleb, who was supported by Joshua, let us notice
1. The exhortation which he addressed to the people. Let us go up at once, and possess it. He exhorts to
(1) Mutual action. Let us go up. There is far more inspiration in, Let us go, than in Let them go, or than in Go ye.
(2) Prompt action. Let us go up at once. He would lose no time in debating what they could do, or what they should do; but urges immediate and bold action.
(3) Confident action. Let us go up at once, and possess it. He does not say, Let us go up, and conquer it; he looks upon that to be as good as done already; but, Let us go up, and possess it; there is nothing to be done but to enter, and take the possession which God our great Lord is ready to give us.
2. The assurance by which he enforced this exhortation. For we are well able to overcome it. The fortified cities and the giant peoples did not appal Caleb and Joshua. They were confident that Israel could vanquish the Canaanites and take the land.
3. The faith in God which inspired this assurance. The confidence of these two brave men was neither in the strength and courage of their army, nor in the skill and spirit of their leaders; but in the Lord their God. This is made abundantly clear in Num. 13:8-9 of the following chapter. This faith of theirs had sure and splendid warranty in
(1) The divine promises to Israel.
(2) The divine performances for Israel.
(3) The Divine Presence with Israel. Their faith was profoundly reasonable. Can walled cities or armies of giants withstand the Almighty? (b) Their faith was thoroughly religious. It rested in God; it honoured Him.
II. Deduce the Lessons arising from these reports.
1. A statement may be true as to matters of fact, yet false and evil in its spirit and influence. The report of the ten spies was true as to actual facts; but the balance or proportion of its statements was false, the spirit which breathed in it was mean and cowardly, and its influence was extremely pernicious. A man may be guilty of lying while speaking the truth in words. You may lie by an accent, by disproportion of the respective branches of a narrative, by undue warmth in one thing and coldness in another, by the drapery in which bare facts are clothed. Truthfulness is a thing not merely of words, but first and chiefly of spirit.
2. The cause of God has never been left without some true witnesses. Here there were ten faithless cowards, but there were two brave believers; ten who brought an evil report, but two who brought a good report. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.
3. Majorities are not trustworthy criteria of truth and right. Of the twelve explorers only two deal faithfully and truly, the rest were treacherous and hollow-hearted hypocrites. Vox populi vox Dei, is true only in a community of holy beingstrue only in heaven. In a corrupt world like ours it is impossible for language to embody a greater falsehood. As the devil leads the world captive at his will, Vox populi vox diaboli, is the truth here. The popularity of a doctrine, or a cause, or a party, is no guarantee of its truth or righteousness. Because the many tread the wrong path our obligation to tread the right path is in no wise diminished. Error does not become truth because majorities accept it, and truth does not become falsehood because a minority only accept it. Let us follow those things which are right and true whether they be popular or not.
4. To judge by appearances only is foolish, sinful, and perilous. The report of the ten spies was based solely upon what they saw through their bodily eyes! it does not take any account whatever of the presence, or power, or promise of God. In ordinary everyday purposes and duties he is a foolish man who trusts solely to bodily sight for guidance. To walk by sight alone instead of by faith; to accept the testimony of the senses, and reject the testimony of the soul; to trust our own reasonings rather than the Word of God, is egregious folly and heinous sin. Well does Mr. Carlyle say, There is but one thing without honour; smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be: insincerity, unbelief. He who believes no thing, who believes only the shows of things, is not in relation with nature and fact at all. (c)
NOTE.The points suggested in the preceding article are too numerous and important for one discourse. Three sermons may without difficulty be arranged on this section,one, on a discouraging report; another, on an encouraging exhortation; and a third, on modern lessons from ancient reports.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Moral cowardice is the source of every mean and pitiful thing, renders a man afraid of duty, afraid of death; so that when the moment for action arrives, he equivocates, intreats, fears. Moral courage is religion in action; moral cowardice is religion in defeat. Oh, brother, exclaims a strenuous thinker, never strike sail to a fear, come gently into port or sail with God over the seas. Without courage, the courage of the heart, no one can be truly great. This is a courage that does not depend on thews or sinews, but on the soul. It animated the patriots and martyrs of old, as it animates the patriots and martyrs of to-day. Moral courage makes the man, the absence of it the knave, the driveller, and the fool. It is to the ages dishonour that its intellectual tendencies are marked with the characters of fear. Yet courage must be guided by purity and truth; since divested of these, it is shorn of half its strength.H. McCormac.
(b) He who walks by sight only, walks in a blind alley. He who does not know the freedom and joy of reverent, loving speculation, wastes his life in a gloomy cell of the mouldiest of prisons. Even in matters that are not distinctively religious, faith will be found to be the inspiration and strength of the most useful life. It is faith that does the great work of the world. It is faith that sends men in search of unknown coasts. It is faith that retrims the lamp of inquiry, when sight is weary of the flame. It is faith that unfastens the cable and gives men the liberty of the seas. It is faith that inspires the greatest works in civilization. So we cannot get rid of religion unless we first get rid of faith, and when we get rid of faith we give up our birthright and go into slavery for ever.Joseph Parker, D.D.
(c) Imagine a man who disbelieves everything he cannot see with his naked eye. Suppose that it should come to pass to-morrow that everything shall be taken away which cannot be read by the naked eye, or that has not been discovered by the naked eye. What will come? Shut up the heavens, for astronomy must go; and cover over the fields, for botany shall tell little to the naked eye. All science, indeed, would be impoverished, insulted, degraded. Yet the man who cannot read his own mothers letter without the aid of an eyeglass, insists upon reading the infinite and eternal God by his own unassisted powers; says, that whatsoever is too mysterious for his natural understanding is but worthy of insult, degradation, and contempt. I charge him, before Gods face, with insulting his own common sense, and contradicting the highest experiences of mankind.Ibid.
Walking by sight is just thisI believe in myself; whereas walking by faith isI believe in God. If I walk by sight, I walk by myself; if I walk by faith, then there are two of us, and the second Oneah! how great, how glorious, how mighty is Hethe Great All-in-allGod-all-sufficient! Sight goes a warfare at its own charges, and becomes a bankrupt, and is defeated. Faith goes a warfare at the charges of the Kings Exchequer, and there is no fear that Faiths bank shall ever be broken. Sight builds the house from its own quarry, and on its own foundation, but it begins to build and is never able to finish, and what it does build rests on the sand and falls. But faith builds on the foundation laid in eternity, in the fair colours of the Saviours blood, in the covenant of grace. It goes to God for every stone to be used in the building, and brings forth the top-stone with shouting of Grace, grace unto it.C. H. Spurgeon.
Where men are called of God to go forth, it should be theirs instantly and gladly to obey, how dark soever or stormy the night into which they move. Life is a discipline. Shrewd men say they want to know whither they are going before they set out on a journey; but men of higher shrewdness, men of Christian faith, often go out into enterprise and difficulty without being able to see one step before them. The watchword of the noblest, truest souls is, to walk by faith, not by sight; faith has a wider dominion and a more splendid future.Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE ANCIENT CANAAN, A TYPE OF HEAVEN
(Num. 13:30)
I. In what respects the ancient Canaan was a type of heaven.
1. It was a promised land, and the right of possession was founded on the promise.
2. It was a land in which God was peculiarly present.
3. It was a land of fruition.
4. It was a free gift.
II. As the Israelites had dangers, difficulties, and discouragements on their way to Canaan, so have Christians in their progress to heaven.
1. There are formidable foes to be encountered.
2. There are adversaries in timid and faint hearted associates.
3. The Israelites in their progress were made dependent on the Lord for all things.
III. Consider the resolution: Let us go up at once and possess it.
1. The title to it is sure.
2. We have means and ordinances by which needed strength is supplied.
3. Here we have many foretastes of the good land.The Evangelical Preacher quoted in The Biblical Museum.
CALEB.A CALL TO INQUIRY AND COURAGE
(Num. 13:30)
Glance at the history. This incident sets forth vividly some of the difficulties which lie in the way of the higher kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and it is in this view that I intend to regard the graphic narrative.
I. The kingdom of heaven challenges the inquiry of all men. It addresses an appeal to human reason and to human trust. Though itself a revelation, and therefore not to be handled as a common thing, nor to be tested by common instruments, yet Christianity invites the most careful inquest. It does not seek to rest upon the human intellect as a burden, but to shine upon it as a light; it does not fasten itself upon the human heart as an excrescence, but blesses and enriches it with a new and mightier life. If Christianity may be represented under the image of a land such as ancient Canaan, then it is fair to say of it, that it offers right of way over its hills and through its valleys, that its fruits and flowers are placed at the disposal of all travellers, and that he who complains that the land is shut against him speaks not only ungratefully, but most falsely.
There are not wanting men who say that Christianity forbids inquiry.
The kingdom of heaven is the highest revelation of the mind of God to the mind of man. The mind must be at its highest possible point of energy in order to lay hold of the doctrines which constitute that revelation. To get the mind to the point requires the excitement of the heart; for mind is never fully alive whilst the moral powers are dormant. When the heart is moved in its deepest passions, and the mind is set in its highest key, the man is prepared to enter upon the great studies to which he is invited by the Gospel.
It is certainly true, and ought to be taken account of in this connection, that some people have peculiar notions of what is meant by inquiry. In the first instance, they dismiss everything like reverence; in the next place, they make themselves the standard and measure of all truth; and in the third place, they seek to materialize and debase everything that is spiritual and heavenly. This is not inquiry, it is insolent self-sufficiency: it is not the spirit of a student seeking light, it is the spirit of a braggart who thinks the sun inferior to his spark. The tone of mind must be in harmony with the subject considered; in every department of intellectual life it is required that a student be self-controlled, patient, docile; that his temper be subdued, and that his conclusions be reached through long and earnest watching of processes. This is required in all sciences; why not in the science of sciencesthe knowledge and worship of the true God?
II. Different reports will of course be brought by the inquirers. It was so in the case of the spiesit will be so in all inquiry. The result of the survey will be according to the peculiarities of the surveyors. As streams are impregnated by the soils over which they flow, so subjects are affected by the individualism of the minds through which they pass. Thus Christianity may be said to be different things to different minds. To the speculative man it is a great attempt to solve deep problems in theology; to the controversialist it is a challenge to debate profound subjects on new ground; to the poet it is a dream, a wondrous vision many-coloured as the rainbow, a revelation many-voiced as the tunes of the wind or the harmonies of the sea. Each inquirer will have his own way of reporting the result of his inquiry. Christian testimony is not of one unchanging sort. One Christian will report his experience in highly intellectual phraseology, as if God had entered his heart through the shining chambers of his mind; another will show that he has reached peace through many a stormy conflict with doubt; another will speak the language of music as though he had been taught it in intercourse with the angels; another will stammer by reason of sobs and tears. Yet the subject is the same, the result is the samethis is the diversity that is unity
Ten thousand thousand are their tongues, But all their joys are one.
1. Some inquirers will see all the hindrances.
2. All will confess that there is something good in the land.
3. Those who hold back by reason of the difficulties will come to a miserable end. (a) We dont escape by false reasoning. (b) We dont escape by fear.
Application:
1. Some have shown the spirit of Calebwhat is your testimony?
2. Will any resolve now, in Divine strength, to follow the Lord fully?
Observe that it is the spirit of Caleb which is commended.Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE SPIES
(Num. 13:32, and Num. 14:6-7)
The land of Canaan is a very excellent picture of religion. The children of Israel must stand as the representatives of the great mass of mankind. The great mass of mankind never try for themselves what religion is; they neither search our sacred books, nor taste and try our religion. But this is what they do; they consider those who make a profession of religion as spies who have entered the land, and they look upon our character and our conduct as the message we bring back to them. And if they find that our report is a gloomy one or an unholy one, they turn aside and they say, It is not a good land; we will not enter into it, for its difficulties are great, but its enjoyments are few.
I. The ungodly world are not to be excused for that instead of investigating religion for themselves, they usually trust to the representation of others.
The worldly man looks at a Christian to see whether his religion be joyful. By this, says he, shall I know whether there is that in religion which will make a man glad. If I see the professor of it with a joyous countenance, then I will believe it to be a good thing. But hast thou any right to put it to that test? Is not God to be counted true, even before we have proved Him? Would you not know from Scripture, if you were to take the Bible and read it, that everywhere the Christian is commanded to rejoice, because it is comely for him? Psa. 32:11; 1Th. 5:16; Php. 4:4. Again, you say you will test the holiness of Christs religion by the holiness of Christs people. The proper test that you ought to use is to try it yourselvesto taste and see that the Lord is good. Your business is yourselves to enter into its valleys and pluck its grapes; yourselves to climb its hills and see its inhabitants. Inasmuch as God has given you a Bible, He intended you to read it, and not to be content with reading men. You have no right tc judge religion from anything extra or external from itself.
It will be in vain for you to say at the day of Judgment, Such and such a man was inconsistent, therefore I despised religion. In business, &c., you were independent enough. You are asked to follow Christ Himself. Until, then, you can find a flaw in His character, a mistake in His conduct, you have no right to fling the inconsistency of His followers in the teeth of Christ, nor to turn from Him because His disciples forsake Him and flee. Every man shall bear his own burden.
II. Bring forth the bad spies.
These spies are to be judged, not by what they say, but by what they do; for to a worldling, words are nothingacts are everything.
1. I produce a man who brings up an evil report of the land, for he is of a dull and heavy spirit. If he preaches, he takes this textThrough much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom. He never mentions Gods people, without calling them, Gods tried children. He is always in the valley, &c. See him at home.
Hear him pray. These men are evil spies. Permit me to bear my testimony. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, &c. It is a land that floweth with milk and honey, &c.
2. The next one makes very boastful pretensions to piety. Everybody says when they see him in his good frames in chapel or elsewhere, What a dear good man he is! Follow him to business. He will not swear, but he will lie. He wont out-and-out rob, but he will cheat. What does the world say of religion when they see these people? They say at once, Well, if this be religion, we had better have none of it.. But while you have met with hypocrites, you have met with men whom you could not doubt. Do not believe the ill report of the hypocrite and the unholy man.
3. The Christian man,. there are times when his witness is not consistent. When you see an angry Christianand such a thing may be seen; and when you meet with a Christian who is proudand such a thing has been known; when you catch a Christian overtaken in a fault, as you may sometimes do, then his testimony is not consistent. He contradicts then what he has at other times declared by his acts. If sometimes you see a Christian man betrayed into a hasty or a wrong expression, do not set it down to our religion, set it down to our poor fallen humanity.
III. Now we have some good spies.
1. An aged Christian. Fifty and six years have I served Him, and I have never found Him once unfaithful.
2. The sufferer. He has made my bed in all my sickness; He has given me joy in my sorrows, &c.
3. A Christian merchant; he is immersed in the cares of this life, and yet he always finds time to prepare for a world that is to come. Men said of him in the Exchange and in the Market, If there is a Christian, it is that man. Such a man brings up a good report of the land.
4. My sisters, it is possible for you, too, to bring up a good report. We have known an ungodly husband converted by a godly wife. When you have done what you can for Christ, by holy, patient, quiet meekness, you are good spies; you have brought a good report of the land.
5. And you, servants, can do the same. A religious servant girl ought to be the best servant anywhere.
IV. The great necessity of bringing out a uniformly good testimony concerning religion.
1. Every unguarded word you use, every inconsistent act, puts a slur on Christ. Do not suffer His escutcheon to be tarnished; do not permit His banner to be trampled in the dust.
2. If you do wrong, the world will be quite sure to notice you. Remember, too, that the world always wears magnifying glasses to look at Christians faults. If we have more privileges, and more culture, and make more profession, we ought to live up to them, and the world is quite right in expecting us to do so.
3. If you do not bring a good testimony for your religion, an evil testimony will defeat a great deal of good. The Christian may flow on in a steady course of life, unseen, unheard; but you are sure to hear of him if he makes a fall. Be watchful, therefore, &c.
As for you who fear not God, remember, if Christians do sin, that shall not be an excuse for you.C. H. Spurgeon.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. THE PROMISED LAND REVIEWED AND REJECTED (Numbers 13; Numbers 14)
A. SELECTION OF THE SPIES, vv. 116
TEXT
Num. 13:1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4. And these were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 5. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. 6. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 7. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 8. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. 9. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. 10. Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. 11. Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 12. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. 13. Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. 14. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. 15. Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16. These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua.
PARAPHRASE
Num. 13:1. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2, Send out men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, each one a ruler among them. 3. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran by the commandment of the Lord, all those men who were heads of the children of Israel. 4. And 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 Rafu; 10. from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11. from the tribe of Joesph, from 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 Vophsi; 15. from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. 16. These are the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
COMMENTARY
When the second account of this mission is told by Moses (Deu. 1:20-25), it is the people themselves who are made to suggest the mission of the spies. The original idea may well have come from them; it is clear, on the other hand, that Moses would have carried the plan to the Lord before acting upon it. With divine approval, the spies are appointed to their work.
The men who are chosen are prominent men, but they were not the tribal princes. The journey they are about to undertake would require both youthfulness and vigor; the princes may have been a poor selection for these reasons.
Only two names in the list are noteworthy: Joshua (here called Oshea), and Caleb. The change in Joshuas name is slight, but the change in meaning is significant: from Salvation to Jehovah is salvation. Since it is a change appointed by Moses, we should not find it strange that he has used the name already several times. Such apparent anachronisms trouble the negative critic much more than they would have bothered Moses, as author of the events. It would be quite natural for him to use the name he himself had bestowed upon his successor, even in alluding to that time before the actual change was made.
QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS
230.
Explain the variation between the two accounts of the sending of the spies in the accounts given in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
231.
Why were none of the men sent chosen from the previously chosen tribal princes?
232.
No spy is sent for the tribe of Levi. Can you think of a good reason for this omission?
233.
If the change in Joshuas name was not made until Israel came to Kadesh-Barnea, how can we explain its use in the earlier records?
234.
What is the significance of the change in names?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XIII.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses . . . There is no inconsistency between this statement and that which is contained in Deu. 1:22, where the sending of the spies is represented as having originated with the people. It is there said that the saying pleased Moses well; but it would be wholly inconsistent with the character and conduct of Moses to suppose that in a matter of such importance he should have acted in a accordance with the suggestion of the people, or upon his own judgment, without seeking direction from God. The command which was given to Moses must not be regarded as implying of necessity that the expedition of the spies was, in the first instance, ordained by God, any more than the command which was afterwards given to Balaam to accompany the messengers of Balak was any indication that God originally commanded, or approved of his journey.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Send thou men Although Canaan had been promised to the Israelites as a God-given inheritance on the condition of their fidelity, yet this promise did not render the means of conquest unnecessary. All the strategy of war was required, such as the ambuscade (Jos 8:13) and spies, (Jos 2:1,) in order to success. God’s promises are not designed to supersede, but to stimulate, human activity. Moreover, this reconnaissance afforded to the spies a test of faith in Jehovah, and their report tested the whole nation.
Every one a ruler R.V., “a prince.” Spies in war are usually not men of high rank, but adventurers who court peril for gain or praise; but these spies, though not the tribe-princes named in chaps. i and vii, are rulers or princes selected from their tribes because of their eminence. From Deu 1:22, we infer that the policy of sending out the spies originated with the Israelites themselves, and was permitted by God as a concession to the weakness of their faith, with a warning to “be of good courage.” Strong faith would have accepted Jehovah’s description of Canaan, and would have leaned on his ability to bring them in according to his oft-repeated promise, without any reconnaissance. Thus suggests the Jewish Midrash. The order of the tribes differs from that in Num 1:5-15, only in the separation of Zebulun from the other sons of Leah in Num 13:10, and in Num 13:11 Manasseh from Ephraim, who together constitute the tribe of Joseph, but are always counted as two tribes, in accordance with the prediction of the dying Jacob in Gen 48:5-6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 13 The Sending Out of Scouts and the Message They Brought Back.
1). The Scouts Sent Out ( Num 13:1-16
The first section from Num 13:1-16 basically covers:
a Yahweh’s command to send out men to spy out the land (Num 13:1-2 a).
b The spies to be sent out one for each tribe (Num 13:2 b).
c Moses at Yahweh’s command sends out spies (Num 13:3).
b The names of those sent, one for each tribe (Num 13:4-15).
a These are the names of thos sent out to spy out the land (Num 13:16).
Num 13:1
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,’
Again we have confirmation that here we have Yahweh’s words to Moses. The writer could not make it more clear that he intends us to see what he wrote as the actual words of Moses, spoken to him by the Voice from the throne (Num 7:87).
Num 13:2
‘Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a prince among them.’
Yahweh gave the command to send out spies or scouts to spy out the land of Canaan which He was giving to the children of Israel. A scout was to go out from each tribe, and each scout was to be a prince of the tribe. He intended that those who reported back would be men of substance, and men of authority.
Note the emphasis on the fact that the land was God’s gift to them. Thus any failure to respond would be a refusal of God’s gift. Yet it was also on the other hand Yahweh’s assurance that they need not fear, for the gift was at His disposal and He could ensure its reception. All the tribes were to be involved (apart from Levi). The purpose of sending ‘princes’ was probably so that their word might carry authority with all the people. This was a ‘search and see’ expedition being carried out on their behalf in order to see how they would respond.
This command of Yahweh was, however, a response to the people’s own ideas, for in Deu 1:22 we learn that the people had first approached Moses with a view to sending out scouts, which would be a normal procedure. God was here confirming His agreement with the plan. God regularly works in with men’s determining. The purpose of the people was in order to discover what lay ahead.
Num 13:3
‘And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.’
Ever obedient to Yahweh’s command Moses sent men out from the wilderness of Paran, where the people were encamped at the oases of the Kadesh region, and all who were sent were chieftains.
Num 13:4-15
‘And these were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.’
The names of the chosen scouts were now given. They were different from the princes of chapter 1 but that was to be expected. Those were the supreme heads of the tribe, these were younger princes, the men who would also be responsible to lead into battle. The use of ‘Hoshea’ instead of Joshua confirms that the list is indeed ancient. No later generation would have inserted his name in that fashion.
Num 13:16
‘These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea, the son of Nun, Joshua.
Confirmation is given that these were the names of the scouts who were sent out. And one of them was Hoshea, the son of Nun. To him Moses had given the name Joshua (Yehoshua), because he was supremely a man of Yahweh. That was why he had chosen him as his ‘servant’, his second-in-command. The prefix signified Yahweh, as did the Yo in the name of Moses’ mother or ancestor Yochebed. Here we learn for the only time that Joshua was a man of princely descent.
The name Hoshea means ‘he saves’. The name Joshua means ‘Yahweh is salvation’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Moses Sends out Twelve Spies Num 13:1-33 records the popular passage of Moses sending out twelve spies into the Promised Land.
While praying in the spirit and interpreting the tongues in English (1Co 14:14-15), the Lord said to me to take the cluster of grapes to His people and show them His works that they might glorify him (see Num 13:23). He also said to me that His paths would drop fatness and be full of pleasure and joy (Psa 65:11, Joe 3:18, Amo 9:13). [25]
[25] Gary Everett, Co-pastor of Alethia Fellowship Church, Panama City, Florida, 1983-88.
Num 13:23, “And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.”
Psa 65:11, “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.”
Joe 3:18, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.”
Amo 9:13, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”
Num 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 13:2 Num 13:2
Num 21:32, “And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.”
Jos 2:1, “And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.”
Spies were also used by the Danites:
Jdg 18:2, “And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.”
Num 13:16 Word Study on “Oshea” Strong says the Hebrew name “Oshea” ( ) (H1954) means “deliverer.”
Word Study on “Jehoshua” Strong says the Hebrew name “Jehoshua” ( ) (H3091) means, “Jehovah-saves.” PTW says the name means, “YHWH is salvation or help.”
Comments – Moses changed the name from Oshea (meaning – help or welfare) to Joshua (meaning – help of Jehovah). What did this new name mean prophetically? Joshua could not save or help Israel without God’s help in anointing him to do so.
Moses = the Law. Joshua = Jesus. Jesus saved us when the law could not, God did not ordain the law to save us, nor did God ordain for Moses (the Law) to lead the people of God in, but God chose Joshua (a type of Jesus) to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land (a type of heaven).
Num 13:24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
Num 13:24
Num 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
Num 13:25
Num 14:34, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”
Num 13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
Num 13:26
Num 13:30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
Num 13:30
Num 13:30 Comments – Caleb understood Paul’s concept of God in Rom 8:31 and John’s concept in 1Jn 4:4.
Rom 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
1Jn 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
Num 13:30 Scripture References – Note:
Mat 28:18, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Rom 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Rom 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Eph 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”
Eph 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Jas 1:22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
Num 13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Num 13:32
Num 14:37, “Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Sending of the Spies
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 2. Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, explore and inspect it from every angle, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. v. 3. And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the Wilderness of Paran; v. 4. And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, the son of Zaccur.
v. 5. of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori.
v. 6. of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh v. 7. of the tribe of Issachar, Igal, the son of Joseph.
v. 8. of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea, the son of Nun.
v. 9. of the tribe of Benjamin, Paiti, the son of Baphu.
v. 10. of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, the son of Sodi.
v. 11. of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi, the son of Susi.
v. 12. of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, the son of Gemalli.
v. 13. of the tribe of Asher, Sethus, the son of Michael.
v. 14. of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, the son of Vophsi.
v. 15. of the tribe of Gad, Geuel, the son of Machi.
v. 16. These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea, the son of Nun, Jehoshua, v. 17. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, v. 18. and see the land, what it is, v. 19. and what the land is that they dwell in, v. 20. and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE REBELLION AT KADESH (Num 13:1-33, Num 14:1-45).
Num 13:2
Send thou men, that they may search the land. If this account of the mission of the spies be compared with that given in Deu 1:20-25, it may be seen in a striking instance how entirely different a colour may be put upon the same circumstances by two inspired narratives. No one indeed will affirm that the two records are contradictory, or even inconsistent, and yet they leave an entirely different impression upon the mind; and no doubt were intended to. It is important to note that the Divine inspiration did not in the least prevent two sacred authors (cf. 2Sa 24:1 with 1Ch 21:1), or even the same author at different times, from placing on record very distinct and even strongly contrasted aspects of the same facts, according to the point of view from which he was led to regard them. In Deu 1:1-46, Moses reminds the people that on their arrival at Kadesh he had bidden them go up and take possession; that they had then proposed to send men before them to examine the land; that the proposal had pleased him so well that he had adopted it and acted upon it. It is unquestionably strange that facts so material should have been omitted in the historical Book of Numbers. It is, however, to be considered
1. That there is no contradiction between the two accounts. We may be certain from many a recorded example that Moses would not have acted on the popular suggestion without referring the matter to the Lord, and that it would be the Divine command (when given) which would really weigh with him.
2. That the recital in Deuteronomy is distinctly ad populum, and that therefore their part in the whole transaction is as strongly emphasized as is consistent with the truth of the facts.
3. That the narrative of Numbers is fragmentary, and does not profess to give a full account of matters, especially in such particulars as do not directly concern the Divine government and guidance of Israel. It is not, therefore, a serious difficulty that the record only begins here at the point when God adopted as his own what had been the demand of the people. If we ask why he so adopted it, the probable answer is that he knew what secret disaffection prompted it, and to what open rebellion it would lead. It was better that such disaffection should be allowed to ripen into rebellion before they entered their promised land. Miserable as the desert wandering might be, it was yet a discipline which prepared the nation for better things; whereas the invasion of Canaan without strong faith, courage, and self-restraint (such as they showed under Joshua) could but have ended in national disaster and destruction. Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man. This was not part of the original proposition (Deu 1:22), but was agreeable to the general practice in matters of national concern, and was no doubt commanded in order that the whole people might share in the interest and responsibility of this survey. Every one a ruler among them. This does not mean that they were to be the tribe princes (as the names show), for they would not be suitable in respect of age, nor could they be spared for this service. They were “heads of the children of Israel” (verse 3), i.e; men of position and repute, but also no doubt comparatively young and active, as befitted a toilsome and hazardous excursion.
Num 13:4
These were their names. None of these names occur elsewhere, except those of Caleb and Joshua. The order of the tribes is the same as in Jos 1:1-18; except that Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and placed after Benjamin, while the two sons of Joseph are separated from one another. In Jos 1:11 “the tribe of Joseph” is explained to be “the tribe of Manasseh;” elsewhere it is either common to both, or confined to Ephraim (see Rev 7:8, and cf. Eze 37:16). No spy was sent for the tribe of Levi, because it was now understood to have no territorial claims upon the land of promise, and to stand altogether by itself in relation to the national hopes and duties.
Num 13:6
Caleb the son of Jephunneh. In Num 32:12 he is called “the Kenezite” (), which appears in Gen 15:19 as the name of one of the ancient races inhabiting the promised land. It is possible that Jephunneh may have been connected by descent or otherwise with this race; it is more likely that the similarity of name was accidental. The younger son of Jephunneh, the father of Othniel, was a Kenaz (), and so was Caleb’s grandson (see on Jos 15:17; 1Ch 4:13, 1Ch 4:15). Kenaz was also an Edomitish name.
Num 13:16
Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua. The change was from (Hoshea, help or salvation) to (Jehoshuathe same name with the first syllable of the sacred name prefixed, and one of the vowel points modified). It was afterwards contracted into (Jeshua; cf. Neh 8:17), and has come to us in its current form through the Vulgate. The Septuagint has here , and so the name appears in the New Testament. It is an obvious difficulty that Joshua has already been called by his new name at Exo 17:9, and in every other place where he has been mentioned. In fact he is only once elsewhere called Hoshea, and that in a place (Deu 32:44) where we should certainly not have expected it. There are two ways of explaining the difficulty, such as it is. We may suppose that the change of name was really made at this time, as the narrative seems (on the face of it) to assert; and then the previous mentions of Joshua by his subsequent and more familiar name will be cases of that anticipation which is so common in Scripture. Or we may suppose, what is perhaps more in harmony with the course of Joshua’s life, that the change bad been already made at the time of the victory over Amalek. In that case the Vav consec. in (and called) must be referred to the order of thought, not of time, and a sufficient reason must be shown for the interpolation of the statement in this particular place. Such a reason may fairly be found in the probable fact that the names of the spies were copied out of the tribal registers, and that Joshua still appeared under his original name in those registers. As to the significance of the change, it is not easy to estimate it aright. On the one hand, the sacred syllable entered into so many of the Jewish names that it could not have seemed a very marked change; on the other hand, the fact that our Saviour received the same name because he was our Saviour throws a halo of glory about it which we cannot ignore. In the Divine providence Hoshea became Joshua because he was destined to be the temporal saviour of his people, and to lead them into their promised rest.
Num 13:17
Get you up this way southward. Rather, “get you up there () in the Negeb.” The Negeb, meaning literally “the dryness,” was the south-western district of Canaan, which bordered upon the desert, and partook more or less of its character. Except where springs existed, and irrigation could be carried out, it was unfit for settled habitation. See Jos 15:19; Jdg 1:15, where the same word is used. Go up into the mountain. From the Negeb they were to make their way into the mountain or hill country which formed the back-bone of Southern Palestine, from the Wady Murreh on the south to the plain of Esdraelon on the north. In after ages it formed the permanent center of the Jewish race and Jewish power. Cf. Jdg 1:9 where the three natural divisions of Southern Palestine are mentioned together: ( ), the mountain; ( ), the steppe; ( ), the maritime plain.
Num 13:18
Whether they be strong or weak, few or many. It would appear that Moses was guilty of some indiscretion at least in giving these directions. Whether the people were strong or weak, many or few, should have been nothing to the Israelites. It was God that gave them the land; they had only to take possession boldly.
Num 13:20
And what the land is. It is impossible to suppose that Moses needed himself to be informed on such particulars as are here mentioned. The intercourse between Egypt and Palestine was comparatively easy and frequent (see on Gen 1:7), and no educated Hebrew could have failed to make himself acquainted with the main features of his fathers’ home. We may see in these instructions a confirmation of the statement in Deu 1:1-46; that it was at the desire of the people, and for their satisfaction, that the spies were sent. The time of the first-ripe grapes. The end of July: the regular vintage is a month or more later.
Num 13:21
From the wilderness of Zin. The extreme southern boundary of the promised land (Num 34:3, Num 34:4; Jos 15:1, Jos 15:3). There seems to be but one marked natural feature which could have been chosen for that purposethe broad sandy depression called the Wady Murreh, which divides the mountain mass of the Azazimeh from the Rakhmah plateau, the southern extremity of the highlands of Judah. The plain of Kudes communicates with it at its upper or western end, and maybe counted a part of it. Unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. Septuagint, . Hamath, now Hamah, was in Greek times Epiphaneia, on the Orontes, outside the limits of Jewish rule. The southern entrance to it lay between the ranges of Libanus and Anti-libanus (see note on Num 34:8). The Rehob here mentioned is not likely to have been either of the Rehobs in the territory of Asher (Jos 19:28-30), but the Beth-rehob further to the east, and near to where Dan-Laish was afterwards built (Jdg 18:28). It lies on the route to Hamath, and was at one time a place of some importance in the possession of the Syrians (2Sa 10:6).
Num 13:22
And came unto Hebron. This and the following details of their journey are appended to the general statement of Num 13:21 in that inartificial style of narrative still common in the East. On the name Hebron, and the perplexities which it causes, see on Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2. Where Amman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. “Anak’s progeny.” Septuagint, , means simply “descendants of Anak.” The Beni-Anak (Beni-Anakim in Deu 1:28; Anakim in Deu 2:10, &c.) were a tribe whose remote and perhaps legendary ancestor was Anak son of Arba (see on Jos 14:15). These three chiefs of the Beni-Anak are said to have been expelled from Hebron fifty years later by Caleb (Jos 15:14; Jdg 1:20). The gigantic size which the Anakim shared with the Emim and Rephaim, other remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants, may have been accompanied by remarkable longevity; or they may have been quite young at the time of this visit; or, finally, they may not have been individuals at all, but families or clans. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zean in Egypt. Hebron was in existence at the time of Abraham. Zoan was Tanis, near the mouth of the eastern branch of the Nile (see on Psa 78:12, Psa 78:43). If it be true that the Pharaoh of the exodus had his royal residence at Zoan, Moses may have had access to the archives of the city, or he may have learnt the date of its foundation from the priests who gave him his Egyptian education. That there was any real connection between the two places is extremely problematical, nor is it possible to give any reason for the abrupt insertion here of a fragment of history so minute and in itself so unimportant. There is, however, no one but Moses to whom the statement can with any sort of likelihood be traced; a later writer could have had no authority for making the statement, and no possible reason for inventing it.
Num 13:23
The brook of Eshcol. Rather, “the valley of Eshcol,” for it is not a land of brooks. Probably between Hebron and Jerusalem, where the grapes are still exceptionally fine, and the dusters of great size. They bare it between two on a staff, not on account of its weight, but simply in order not to spoil it. Common sense dictates the like precaution still in like cases.
Num 13:24
The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster. It is very probable that it was already known as the valley of Eshcol, from the friend of Abraham, who bore that name and lived in that neighbourhood (Gen 14:13, Gen 14:24). If so it is an admirable instance of the loose way in which etymologies are treated in the Old Testament: what the place really received was not a new name, but a new signification to the old name; but this appeared all one in the eyes of the sacred writer.
Num 13:25
They returned after forty days. This is a period of time which constantly recurs in the sacred books (see on Exo 24:18). It points to the fact that their work was completely done, and the land thoroughly explored.
Num 13:26
To Kadesh (see note at the end of Num 14:1-45).
Num 13:27
It floweth with milk and honey. According to the promise of God in his first message of deliverance to the people (see on Exo 3:8).
Num 13:28
Nevertheless. . “Only that.” Septuagint, . The people be strong. Moses himself had directed their attention to this point, and now they dwell on it to the exclusion of everything else.
Num 13:29
The Amalekites. These descendants of Esau (see on Gen 36:12) formed wild roving bands, which (like the Bedouins of the present day) infested rather than inhabited the whole country between Judaea and Egypt, including the Negeb. They are not numbered among the inhabitants of Canaan proper. The Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. It is not easy to say in what sense the word “Canaanites” is used here. At one time it is the name of one tribe amongst many, all descended from Canaan, the son of Ham, which dwelt in the land of promise; at another time it is apparently synonymous with “Amorites,” or rather includes both them and the allied tribes (cf. e.g; Jdg 1:9). It is possible, though far from certain, that “Canaanites” in this place may mean “Phoenicians,” since Sidon was the first-born of Canaan (Gen 10:15), and the northern portion of the maritime plain was certainly in their possession, and probably the upper part of the Ghor, or coast of Jordan. It would appear that the Philistines had not at this time made themselves masters of the plain, although they dwelt in some parts of it (see on Exo 13:17).
Num 13:30
Caleb stilled the people. That Caleb alone is named here, whereas Joshua is elsewhere joined with him in the matter (as in Jos 14:6, 30), has been considered strange; but it is not difficult to supply a probable explanation. Joshua was the special companion and minister of Moses, his alter ego in those things wherein he was employed: for that reason he may very well have given place to Caleb as a more impartial witness, and one more likely to be listened to in the present temper of the people; for it is evident from Deu 1:1-46, that that temper had already declared itself for evil (see on Num 14:24).
Num 13:31
For they are stronger than we. In point of numbers the enormous superiority of the Israelites over any combination likely to oppose them must have been evident to the most cowardly. But the existence of numerous walled and fortified towns was (apart from Divine aid) an almost insuperable obstacle to a people wholly ignorant of artillery or of siege operations; and the presence of giants was exceedingly terrifying in an age when battles were a series of personal encounters (cf. 1Sa 17:11, 1Sa 17:24).
Num 13:32
A land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. This cannot mean that the people died of starvation, pestilence, or other natural causes, which would have been contrary to facts and to their own report. It must mean that the population was continually changing through internecine wars, and the incursions of fresh tribes from the surrounding wastes. The history of Palestine from first to last testifies to the constant presence of this d anger. The remarkable variation in the lists of tribes inhabiting Canaan may be thus accounted for. All the people are men of great stature, “men of measures. ” Septuagint, . The “all” is an exaggeration very natural to men who had to justify the counsels of cowardice.
Num 13:33
The giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, . The Nephilim, Beni-Anak, of the Nephilim. The Septuagint has only . The Nephilim are, without doubt, the primaeval tyrants mentioned under that name in Gen 6:4. The renown of these sons of violence had come down from those dim ages, and the exaggerated fears of the spies saw them revived in the gigantic forms of the Beni-Anak. There is no certainty that the Nephilim had been giants, and no likelihood whatever that the Beni-Anak had any real connection with them. As grasshoppers. We have no means of judging of the actual size of these men, unless the height assigned to Goliath (six cubits and a span) be allowed to them. Probably men of this stature were quite exceptional even among the Anakim. The report of the spies was thoroughly false in effect, although founded on isolated facts.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
THIRD SECTION
The Fall of the Old Generation in the Wilderness of Paran. The Spies. The Despondency, the Stubbornness and the Judgment
Num 13:1 to Num 14:45
In this section we read the history of Israel in the wilderness in the narrower sense, the tragic history of their first cardinal and temporary rejection. God never rejected His entire people, though He did reject single generations of the nation in a conditional sense. This first time one generation died in the wilderness; another time two generations died in the Babylonish captivity; and after the destruction of Jerusalem and later, countless generations fell under the sentence of dispersion. Moreover, individual tribes more or less detached themselves from the total of Israel before the deportation of the Ten Tribes to Assyria. But never did the entire nation go to destruction. Again and again the prophets renew the promise of salvation to a pious remnant, an election, and that in a form ever greater and more glorious. But as, on the one hand, the entire nation is never meant, so also, on the other, the single individual as such is never meant. Even the vacillating, lost multitude is indeed judged as a nation, but not in the relation of the individual to Jehovah, and in the end there shall issue from each visitation a fruit of righteousness. It is the history of humanity on a reduced scale. It is characteristic, that several modern critics, from goethe on, have desired to eliminate this providential central point of the wanderings of Israel, the proper theocratic idea of it, in order to make prominent in the history what remains almost an insignificant military caravan expedition through the desert.
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The Spies and their Report
Num 13:1-33
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 1Send thou men, that they may 22search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a 3ruler among them. 3And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: 4all those men were heads of the children of Israel. And these were their names; 5Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. 6Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 7Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 8Of the tribe of Ephraim. Oshea the son of Nun. 9Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. 10Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. 11Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, 12of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. 13Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. 14Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. 15Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel 16the son of Machi. These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua.
17And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way 4southward, and go up into the mountain: 18And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many. 19And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in 5tents, or in strong holds; 20And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
21So they went up, and 6searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. 22And they ascended 7by the south, and came unto Hebron; 8where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23And they came unto the 9brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24The place was called the1brook 10Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25And they returned from 11searching of the land after forty days.
26And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are 12walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 1329The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32And they brought 14up an evil report of the land which they had fsearched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are 15men of a great stature. 33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num 13:22. It is generally thought that instead of we should read , for a plural precedes, and such is the reading of the Sam., 2 Codd. K, and all the ancient versions except Onkelos and Gr. Ver. Maurer.
Two facts are mentioned in Num 13:22-24, which occurred in connection with their mission, and were of great importance to the whole congregation. These single incidents are linked on, however, in a truly Hebrew style, to what precedes, viz., by an imperf. with Vav consec, Keil. See further in Exeget. and Crit.Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The sending out of the spies, Num 13:1-20. The occasion of this is, on the one hand, the desire of the people (Deu 1:22), on the other the command of Jehovah. The locality from which the sending proceeds is the wilderness of Paran (Num 12:16), or, more exactly defined, Kadesh (Num 13:26; Deu 1:20). On the site of Kadesh see Keil in loc. [and Translators note below]. The men who were chosen for the expedition were required to be princes of the branch of a tribe from the individual tribes, (not the princes of the several tribes themselves), men of importance and reliable.16 They are definitely enrolled according to the particular tribes. All twelve tribes are represented, except Levi, which is omitted according to its destination. But Knobel is at pains to make it appear that Ephraim, too, is without representation, or that, according to one source, Joshua was not among the spies, while, according to the other, he was (see the note in Keil, in loc.).
The official change of the name Oshea to Joshua, which Moses effected on the occasion of this expedition, was already prepared by previous significant things, just as the official naming of Peter in the Evangelical history. The significant thing is that such names grow up by degrees until they are punctuated. One may still distinguish from this the authors prolepsis.
2. The instruction to the spies, Num 13:17-20. (a). Whither? Into the south-land (Negeb) of Canaan, and then to the mountains. Against Knobel, who thinks that only the mountains of Judah are meant, Keil justly maintains that all the mountain land of Canaan is meant, the mountains of the Amorites (Deu 1:7; Deu 1:19). [See Translators note below]. As a matter of course, Knobels aim is to detect a discrepancy.
(b). For what object? To inspect the land, (1) the people; (2) the cities (whether fenced or encampments); (3) the vegetation. They were to bring back with them samples of the fruits of the land. It was about the season of the first ripe grapes. In Palestine the first grapes ripen in August, partly even in July (comp. Robinson, II., p. 100), whereas the vintage takes place in September and October (comp. V. Schubert, R. III., p. 112 sq.; Tobler, Denkbltter aus Jerusalem, p. 111).
3. The journey, Num 13:21. The most northern part of the wilderness of Paran was the wilderness of Zin (in the Talmud: low palm). From this latter (the Wady Murreh) they started and came as far as Rehob, to come to Hamath, i.e., from where one comes to Hamath. In any case this Rehob lay in the extreme north of Palestine, for Hamath, called later Epiphania, was situated on the Orontes. Robinson supposed he identified Rehob in the place Kalat Honin which Keil disputes [see also Smiths Bib. Dict., sub. voc.Tr.].
Here connects the statement of their return, Num 13:25.
At this point Keil makes a very appropriate remark with reference to Ewald, where see his note. It is a peculiarity of Hebrew historic narrative that it places the end and result of events as much as possible at the head of the account, and then afterwards brings in the details of the more important accompanying circumstances. Keil cites as examples 1Ki 6:9; 1Ki 6:15; Jos 4:11 sqq.; Jdg 20:35 sqq. In poetry this is the character of the novel as distinguished from the form of the romance. In this way Genesis 2 is related to Genesis 1 Thus here the narrative in Num 13:22-24 is overtaken, because with the antithesis: the large grapes, but the children of Anak, too, the tragic knot is tied. Thus then they came to Hebron (union), there were Ahiman (brother of the gift?), Sheshai (the white?) and Talmai (abounding in furrows? fruit-land), the sons of Anak an ancient giant race (long-necked), Deu 9:2 Goliath is an example of there being straggling remnants of these in later times. They were descended from Arbah, from whom Hebron was called Kirjath Arbah; but Anak designates the people, see Jos 15:14; Jdg 1:20. Hebron was a very ancient city (see on Gen 13:18); it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, Num 13:22. Zoan, i.e., Tanis of the Greeks and Romans, San of the Arabians, Dschane in the Coptic writings, was situated on the east side of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, not far from its mouth, and was the residence of Pharaoh in Moses time, Keil, see Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2 sqq.
It is still a question whether is to be substituted for . The narrator says: and one came also. And what reason could he have for that? It seems to be wholly assumed that the twelve spies always remained together. Verily not a good method of scouting. Moreover, at a later period, Joshua sent out only two spies to Jericho. One may assume that these twelve also subdivided themselves variously. Thus, then, a few in particular came to Hebron.
Thus, also, after another episode they came to the brook Eshcol (cluster of grapes, grapes) Num 13:23. And they cut down the great cluster that two men bore on a pole. This could only be on their return home. Their motive for so carrying it was to preserve it fresh. They took in addition some pomegranates and figs. It has been conjectured that a valley to the north of Hebron is meant, where grow the largest and most beautiful grapes of the land, also pomegranates, figs and other fruits in abundance (Keil with reference to Robinson, I. p. 316 compared with p. 314, and II. p. 442). In that case the spies with their great cluster needed care to get by the children of Anak unobserved (see Keil on a double derivation of the name). [On Eshcol see Translators note below].
4. The Report of the Spies, Num 13:26-33. The spies give confirmation before the assembly of the people, that the land agrees with the old promise, and they exhibit their fruits; then, however, there immediately follows a but, butthe : a strong nation; fenced cities; sons of Anak are there; Amalekites in the south; Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites in the mountains; Canaanites in the lowlands by the sea and by Jordan (Gen 20:1). Caleb seeks to soothe the excited people by resolute confidence of conquest. That Joshua does not make a speech confirms Knobel in the assumption that he was not one of them. The rest of the spies, of course, oppose Caleb. The land, they say, eateth up its inhabitants. The strange expression would say: they so press one another for its possession that they grind each other up. A second exaggeration: all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And still further they contradict themselves: we also saw giants there; of course they would make the impression that these children of Anak were like the dreadful giants that lived before the flood. In the last exaggeration was manifested the extravagance of the cowards: we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Truly an expressive type of the lying fear with which worldly-mindedness has ever depicted the difficult approaches to the kingdom of God.
[Kadesh, Num 13:26. In a copious note at the end of chap. 13, the Editor of The Bible Comm. maintains that Kadesh is to be identified with Ain–el–Weibeh, which lies in the Arabah, about ten miles north of the place in which Mt. Hor abuts on that valley. Robinson (II., 12., June 2) leads in this view, and is followed by many. The view commended by Lange in referring to Keil, and which is maintained by Ritter, Kurtz and Mr. Thrupp, the original writer on Numbers in the Bib. Comm. and many others, is that advocated by Messrs. Rowlands and Williams (Holy City, I. 463 sqq.), and by Mr. Wilton (Negeb. pp. 79, 80). This view identifies Kadesh with el–Ain, which is about sixty miles west of Mt. Hor, and twenty miles further north (according to the map in Palmers Desert of the Exodus), or about fifty miles west of Ain–el–Weibeh. In this view E. H. Palmer concurs, who says: The name Kadesh (though belonging more particularly to the open space immediately below the cliff (Sela) in which Ain Gadis, or the spring of Kadesh, rises, might easily have been extended to the whole region, as the name of the spot in which the most important events took place. This would account for the apparent discrepancies in the Biblical references to the locality, which at one time is said to be in the wilderness of Paran (Num 13:26), at another, in the wilderness of Zin (Deu 32:51), and again, is defined with Heshmon as being one of the uttermost cities of the tribe of Judah southward [Jos 15:3-4; Jos 15:27].
I concur with Wilton (The Negeb., p. 124) in believing that the wilderness of Paran comprised the whole desert Et Tih, and that Mt. Paran was the southernmost portion of the mountain plateau in the northeast, at present inhabited by the Azazimeh Arabs and known as Jebel Magrah. To one encamped in the wilderness of Kadesh, that is the open plain into which Wady Gadis debouches, Jebel Magrah would be always the most conspicuous object in the scene, and would completely shut out the view of the more fertile mountains beyond.
The Israelites were encamped, according to my theory, at the foot of the line of cliffs in which Ain Gades takes its rise, and their intention was evidently to march straight upon Palestine by the short and easy route which skirts the western edge of the mountains. The spies were to get them up by the way of the Negeb [south-land], not by the plains in which the Canaanites were assembling, but to go up into the mountains. This they could only do by skirting the southern end of the Azazimeh mountains, and striking into the heart of the plateau at Wady Ghamr. Having then penetrated into Palestine by this road, and searched the country as far as the plain of Cle-Syria, they returned by way of Hebron, and explored (as coming from the North, they might now do without suspicion) the route by the western edge of the mountain. In one of these extensive valleys (perhaps in Wady Hanein, where miles of grape-mounds even now meet the eye [not more than sixteen miles north of Kadesh.Tr.]), they cut the gigantic cluster of grapes, and gathered the pomegranates and figs.Desert of the Exod., chap. xxv.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1]Send for thee.
[2]spy.
[3]princes.
[4]in the South.
[5]camps.
[6]speed.
[7]in the South.
[8]and there were.
[9]Or, valley.
[10]That is, a cluster of grapes.
[11]spying.
[12]fenced.
[13]Amalek dwells.
[14]out.
[15]Heb. men of statures.
[16][Dr. Lange inserts in the Scripture text in loc. the meanings of the names, Num 13:4 sqq. For convenience they are added here. Shammua=announcement, message. Zaccur=a male. Shaphat=judge. Hori=elder and prince. Caleb=one who attacks. Jephunneh=a way paved. Igal=he will redeem. Oshea=help. Nun=posterity. Palti=deliverance. Raphu=healed. Gaddiel=happiness of God. Sodi=confidant. Gaddi=my happiness. Susi=horseman. Ammiel=of the people of God. Gemalli=camel-owner? avenger. Sethur=veiled, secret. Michael=who is as God. Nahbi=hidden. Vophsi=a rich one? prince. Guel=highness of God. Machi=a poor one. Joshua=whose help Jehovah.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
In this Chapter we have recorded the account of Israel’s plan, in prosecuting their journey. Being arrived, to the very borders of Canaan, Moses is commanded by GOD to send a man of every tribe of Israel, to spy out the land. The persons deputed to this office are here mentioned, and an account is given of their journey: after forty days search, they return, bringing with them some of the fruits of the land: but all, excepting two of them, report unfavorably of the ability of Israel to conquer the country.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If we compare those verses with Deu 1:19-23 , we shall discover that, though as in this place it is said, that the LORD spake unto Moses concerning those spies, going to search the land, yet the thought originated in some of the people. The LORD himself had spied out the land for them long before, and declared it to be a good land, and had promised it to their fathers; but notwithstanding this, they chose to see it for themselves, and did not wish altogether to trust to the LORD. See Eze 20:6 ; Gen 13:12-17 . Alas! what unbelief, distrust of GOD’S mercy, and self-confidence, is in the heart of man! Reader! do you not discover, upon many occasions, evidences of the same in your own?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey
Num 13:27
The idea suggested is, that the true disciples of the Lord Jesus are expected to show to the world some illustration of the heavenly country to which they are journeying. In a sense they have been there, and have come back. But in what sense?
I. The idea with many persons is, that the future condition of man is so completely different from this, that it is out of the question to attempt to form a conception of it. Heaven, they think, is absolutely unlike earth. Now, it is true, St. Paul tells us, ‘that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.’ But it is also true, as the Apostle goes on to say, that ‘God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit’. Some people then are in a position to understand what the heavenly kingdom is like. They have ideas, true ideas, about it foretastes, anticipations. In fact, ‘Heaven’ is really the expansion and development of a life begun here below. ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’
II. What then has the true disciple to show as specimens of the produce of this unseen and unknown country? Briefly, the character of Christ reproduced in him, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. It is faintly, imperfectly reproduced; still it is reproduced. The more Christlike we are, the more truly shall we bear in our hands the ‘fruit’ of the better land.
III. It is by the presentation of these fruits of the land that souls are won. No doubt there are some persons in the world to whom Christ and everything belonging to Christ are only repulsive; and these will scrutinize the disciple with an unfriendly eye, and rejoice if they can find, or fancy they find, any inconsistency in his conduct. But there are also many others of a different temper. They are halting between two opinions. They say, not of course in words, but by their feelings and manner, ‘show us the fruits of the heavenly land, of which you think so much and speak so much. You are amongst us as a citizen of the heavenly city. Enable us to gather from your conduct what are the characteristics of that noble land, of that bright and glorious companionship.’
What is the practical conclusion to be drawn from the whole subject thus discussed? Surely it is this that we, who profess to serve and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, should be careful to recognize the responsibility laid upon us to give a good report, like Caleb and Joshua, and not a bad report, like the ten other spies, of the unseen land. We shall give a bad report if our lives are not attractive, and are not consistent, or if we say, as the ten did, ‘Well, it is true enough that the land is glorious and magnificent, but the difficulties to be overcome are so many, the foes that stand in the way of occupation so powerful, that it is useless to attempt to fight our way into it’. Gordon Calthrop, Harvest and Thanksgiving Services, p. 157.
The Message of the Book of Numbers
Num 13:30
The Book of Numbers tells the story of arrested deliverance.
I. The book begins well. The object of the encampment at Sinai has been accomplished. And now Jehovah had taken up His abode among His people to lead them to the Promised Land. But this land was not to be occupied peaceably; the inhabitants of it had to be driven out. The land, which was in right theirs by the gift of God, had to become in fact theirs by actual conquest. Therefore the people, which up to this time had been the flock of Jehovah, were now to be organized as the army of Jehovah. This is the meaning of the census, the account of which occupies the opening chapters of the book, and has given the book its name in our English Bibles. By this census three lessons were taught Israel; lessons which were enforced subsequently by the legislative enactments and the historical incidents recorded in the book.
1. Israel was taught the aloneness, the majesty, and the sovereignty of Jehovah her God.
2. Israel was taught also the separateness of the Levites as the priests of the law.
3. There was also taught the separateness of the people of Jehovah: this was implied of course in the other two lessons.
II. When the census was completed the march from Sinai began. Of this march we have the account in chapters ten to fourteen. I think it is most important to distinguish between this march and the subsequent wanderings. Under the trials of their wilderness experiences the people often fell. Their wilderness life was a chequered one, but it was on the whole a life of progress. They were all the time in the line of the will of God. The cloud was guiding them, steadily moving forward, each day bringing them nearer the Promised Land, and so after a brief period they reached Kadesh-Barnea on its very borders.
III. But here a crisis occurred. God had willed that His people should have certain wilderness experiences. But by the time they reached Kadesh this had been learned, and God willed now that their wilderness experiences should cease. He said of Canaan, ‘This is the land which I give,’ not I will give, but I give to you. He set before them an open door, and said, ‘Go up and possess the land’. But Israel refused to go up. At Kadesh-Barnea Israel deliberately refused to fall in with the purpose of God.
But with this act of opposition the character of Israel’s experiences became entirely changed the wilderness ended, the temptation began; the march ended, the wandering began. Of this time of temptation we may notice lessons:
1. It was not in the purpose of God for Israel, it was not in the promise of God for Israel. It grieved Him sorely that they did not fall in with His purpose, and that He had so terribly to punish them, but their unbelief left Him no alternative.
2. The time of wandering was a time inconceivably blank and unutterably dreary.
3. Yet we must not go so far as to say that these years were utterly useless. God makes the very wrath of man to redound to His glory. This time of death and doom to the rebels of Kadesh was, in God’s mercy, made a time of discipline to their children.
4. The time came to an end. The people were restored to obedience, and were once more willing to do what God told them. The forty years passed and they were brought back to Kadesh. When the new start was made it was found that obedience was the secret of victory. The nation was not perfect, far from it; still it murmured, and still it had to be punished. But it had learned to believe in God and to obey God, and so it went forward to victory. G. H. C. Macgregor, Messages of the Old Testament, p. 45.
Num 13:30
A favourite missionary text of Hugh Price Hughes. In one sermon, preached for the extinction of a debt, he said: ‘Caleb and Joshua were confident that the tribes of Israel were well able to capture Palestine for three reasons God had promised Canaan to them again and again; He had already begun to accomplish their marvellous destiny by delivering them from Egypt and conducting them to the borders of the Promised Land, and although their enemies appeared to be strong, they were in reality hopelessly weak. God had with equal clearness promised the whole world to Christ.’
References. XIII. 30. J. K. Popham, Sermons, p. 93. XIII. 30, 31. H. Gorton Edge, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 183.
On the Edge of the Land Afraid to Go Up
Num 13:31
I. God has given us, His people, a great deliverance, and received each of us into it at our baptism. We have had our Red Sea. He has taught His covenant and law. We have had our Sinai; the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, telling us what to believe, how to worship, how to obey. He calls us to enter on our privileges, full members of His Kingdom and Church, in the good land which He blesses; fed with its milk and honey, in His Sacrament, and in all the grace and inward peace which He gives to His people. It will be a fighting life, as Israel’s would have been at first, if they had gone up into Canaan: the world, the flesh, and the devil, are most real enemies; but it may be a conquering life. Only for that there is but one secret faith in God’s help. But now comes the temptation. A voice speaks it may be in your heart, it may be from some companion and says: ‘It is too big a thing for such as me. It is too hard. There is something which I shall never conquer. There are the enemies, all the many temptations, all the things against me, in the ways of the world, in companions; and if I could beat the rest, there are the giants; some strong passion that burns in me; some lust, some pride or temper. Or there are the cities walled up, those habits that have fortified themselves in my life and my heart, and that hands cannot break down.’
II. What shall we say? That the enemies are not strong and not many? Surely not. The spies were right. The people of the land were strong; the giants were formidable; the cities were walled and very great. So it is now. The lusts of the flesh are very strong; the snares of the world are very deceiving and difficult. Only something is left out of account. There are things stronger than walls and bulwarks. Those things are the righteous laws and holy will of God. Those cities which seemed so strong were really doomed. The sentence had gone out against them; the iniquity of the Amorite was full. ‘Their defence,’ said faithful Caleb, ‘is departed from them.’ Evil is always really weak. It threatens us, it blusters against us, it makes itself out ever so much bigger than it is; but go right up to it straight and you will find how weak it is, how it gives way, how its tempting or formidable shows are turned to paint and sham. Go right up to it straight, trusting not in your own strength, but in the Name of God. ‘The Lord is with us, fear them not.’ The unseen power is on your side.
III. Remember that the Israelites were so far right, at least, in this: that if they did not attack they must go back to Egypt, and Egypt is the house of bondage. If you do not fight in God’s name against your temptations, and so enter on the free, conquering life of Christ’s good soldier, you will assuredly find yourself in that old iron slavery under the evil which you might have slain. If you want to have a free life, fight for it now.
Or is there, perhaps, something between the two? Yes, there may be. Because we would not wholly live for God; because we would not give our first young strength to cut down certain faults of indulgence, or of temper, when with God’s help we might have done it, He may condemn us to live and pine forty years in the wilderness outside the land not indeed destroyed and cast away, because God’s own mercy in Christ has pleaded for us, as Moses did that day for Israel, but still not admitted to the freedom, and the wealth, and the nearness to God, of those whom He has brought into their own land. Bishop Talbot, Sermons Preached in the Leeds Parish Church, 1889-95, p. 136.
References. XIII. 31. T. G. Selby, The God of the Patriarchs, p. 237. XIII. 32. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 197. XIV. 1-10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 340. XIV. 6, 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 197. XIV. 9. D. J. Hiley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. 1896, p. 388. XIV. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1498. ‘Plain Sermons’ by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. v. p. 217. XIV. 13-19. W. Binnie, Sermons, p. 106. XIV. 19. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 349.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Irreligious Fears
Num 13
God gives no speculative commands. When he said “Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel,” he meant that the land of Canaan was to be given to Israel whatever difficulties or delays might occur in the process of acquisition. There is no if in the commandments of Heaven that may mean either of two courses or either of two ways. God says, You shall have this, if you are faithful. But the if relates to the human mind and to the human disposition, and not to the solidity and certainty of the divine purpose or decree. This is true in morals. Along the line that is laid down in the Bible, which is called, happily and properly, the line of salvation, heaven is found not the mean heaven of selfish indulgence and selfish complacency and release from mere toil and pain, but the great heaven of harmony with God, identification with the Spirit divine, complete restfulness in the movement of the infinite purpose. There will be difficulties on the road; these difficulties will assume various proportions, according to the dispositions of the men who survey them; but the Lord does not propose to give the end without, by implication, proposing also to find the grace and comfort necessary for all the process. We are not at liberty to stop at processes as if they were final points; we have nothing to do with processes but to go through them; the very call to attempt them is a pledge that they may be overcome. But these processes test the quality of men. It is by such processes that we are revealed to ourselves. If everything came easily as a mere matter of course, flowing in sequence that is never disturbed, we should lose some of the highest advantages of this present time school. We are made strong by exercise; we are made wise by failure; we are chastened by disappointment; driven back again and again six days out of the seven, we are taught to value the seventh day the more, that it gives us rest, and breathing time, and opportunity to consider the situation, so that we may begin another week’s battle with a whole Sabbath day’s power. To some the processes of life are indeed hard; let us never underrate them. Men are not cheered when the difficulties of the way are simply undervalued. No man can sympathise with another until he has learned the exact weight of the other man’s trouble and the precise pain of his distress. There is a rough and pointless comfort which proceeds upon the principle that you have only to underrate a man’s trials to make them look as little and contemptible as possible in order to invigorate his motive and to increase his strength. That is a profound mistake. He can sympathise best who acknowledges that the burden is heavy and the back weak, and the road is long, and the sky dull, and the wind full of ominous moaning; granted that the sympathising voice can say all this in a tone of real appreciation, it has prepared the listener for words of cheer and inspiration healthy, sound, intelligent courage. This is just the way of the Bible; it recognises the human lot in all its length and breadth; it addresses itself to circumstances which it describes with adequate minuteness and with copious and pathetic eloquence.
Here you find a number of men, such as live in all ages, who are crushed by material considerations. They report that the people of the country which they were sent to search were “strong,” their cities were “walled and very great,” and the population was made up of the Anakim the “giants,” the towering and mighty sons of Anak; they reported that some dwelt in “the south,” and some “in the mountains,” and some “by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” This was a mean report, it was hardly a report at all, so nearly may a man come to speak the truth, and yet not to be truthful, so wide is the difference between fact and truth. Many a book is true that is written under the name of fiction; many a book is untrue that lays claim only to the dry arguments of statistics and schedules. Truth is subtle; it is a thing of atmosphere, perspective, unnameable environment, spiritual influence. Not a word of what the truth says may have occurred in what is known as within the boundaries of any individual experience. The fact relates to an individuality; the truth relates to a race. A fact is an incident which occurred; a truth is a gospel which is occurring throughout all the ages of time. The men, therefore, who reported about walled cities, and tall inhabitants, and mountain refuges, and fortresses by the sea, confined themselves to simply material considerations; they overlooked the fact that the fortress might be stronger than the soldier, that the people had nothing but figure, and weight, and bulk, and were destitute of the true spirit which alone is a guarantee of sovereignty of character and conquest of arms. But this is occurring every day. Again and again we come upon terms which might have been written this very year. We are all men of the same class, with an exceptional instance here and there; we look at walls, we receive despatches about the stature of the people and the number of their fortresses, and draw very frightsome and terrible conclusions concerning material resources, forgetting in our eloquent despatches the only thing worth telling, namely: that if we were sent by Providence and are inspired by the Living God and have a true cause and are intent to fight with nobler weapons than gun and sword, the mountains themselves shall melt whilst we look upon them, and they who inhabit the fortresses shall sleep to rise no more. This is what we must do in life in all life educational, commercial, religious. We have nothing to do with outsides and appearances, and with resources that can be totalled in so many arithmetical figures; we have to ascertain, first, Did God send us? and secondly, if he sent us, to feel that no man can drive us back. If God did not send us, we shall go down before the savage; if God is not in the battle, it cannot and ought not to succeed, and failure is to be God’s answer to our mean and unrighteous and untimely prayer. Who is distressed by appearances? Who is afraid because the labour is very heavy? What young heart quails because the books which lie upon the road which terminates in the temple of wisdom are many in number and severe in composition? We are called to enter the sanctuary of wisdom and of righteousness; therefore we must take up the books as a very little thing and master them, and lay them down, and smile at the difficulties which once made us afraid.
But one man at least spoke up and said, We must go; this thing is to be done: “Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” Was Caleb, then, a giant larger than any of the sons of Anak? Was he a Hercules and a Samson in one? Was his arm so terrific that every stroke of it was a conquest? We are not told so; the one thing we are told about Caleb is that he was a man of “another spirit.” That determines the quality of the man. Character is a question of spirit. It is an affair of inward and spiritual glow. Caleb had been upon the preliminary search; Caleb had seen the walls, and the Anakim, and the fortresses, and he came back saying, We can do this, not because we have so many arms only or so many resources of a material kind but because he was a man of “another spirit.” In the long run, spirit wins; in the outcome of all history, spirit will be uppermost. The great battles of life are not controversies of body against body, but, as far as God is in them, they are a question of spirit against body, thought against iron, prayer against storming and blustering of boastful men. While the cloud hangs over the field, and the dust of the strife is very thick, and the tumult roars until it deafens those who listen, we cannot see the exact proportions, colours, and bearings of things; but if we read history instead of studying the events of the day which have not yet settled themselves into order and final meaning, we shall discover that spirit is mightier than body, that “knowledge is power,” that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” and that they who bear the white banner of a pure cause ultimately triumph because God is with them.
How little the people had grown! They hear of the walled cities, and the great towns, and the tall men the Amalekites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and they lifted up their voices and wept and wept all night! You have only to make noise enough in the ears of some men to make them afraid; you have simply to keep on repeating a catalogue of names, and they think you are reciting the resources of almightiness; mention one opposition, and possibly they may overcome the suggestion of danger: but have your mouth well-filled with hostile names and be able to roll off the catalogue without halt or stammer, and you pour upon the fainting heart a cataract which cannot be resisted. The people had grown but little: they were still in the school of fear; they were still in the desert of despair; they were childish, cowardly, spiritless; they had no heart for prayer; they forgot the only thing worth remembering, the pledge and covenant of God. Let us not condemn them. It is easy to condemn ancient Israelites and forgotten unbelievers. How stands the case with us? Precisely as it stood with the people of whom we are now reading. We are not an inch ahead of them. Christians are to-day just as fearful as the children of Israel were thousands of years ago: they have only to hear of certain bulks, forces, sizes, numbers, in order to quail as if they had never heard of the Eternal God. Would to Heaven we could make an exchange as between such people and some so-called infidels we know! The infidels would make better Christians. There is more reality in them, more firmness, more standing right up to the line of conviction. He who prays, and then fears, brings discredit upon the altar at which he prayed; he who talks of the promises of God, and then lives in subjection to the devil, is worse than an infidel.
What wonder that God himself was filled with contempt towards the people whom he had thus far led? He would slay them; he would “smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them”; he would root up the root of Abraham and begin a new people in the spirit and life of Moses; he would start from a new centre; he would obliterate the past: he would begin afresh to-morrow.
“And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness” ( Num 14:13-16 ).
What book but the Bible has the courage to represent a man standing in this attitude before his God and addressing his Sovereign in such persuasive terms? This incident brings before us the vast subject of the collateral considerations which are always operating in human life. Things are not straight and simple, lying in rows of direct lines to be numbered off, checked off and done with. Lines bisect and intersect and thicken into great knots and tangle, and who can unravel or disentangle the great heap? Things bear relations which can only be detected by the imagination, which cannot be compassed by arithmetical numbers, but which force upon men a new science of calculation, and create a species of moral algebra, by which, through the medium and help of symbols, that is done which was impossible to common arithmetic. Moses was a great leader; he thought of Egypt: what will the enemy say? The enemy will put a false construction upon this. As if he had said, This will be turned against Heaven; the Egyptians do not care what becomes of the people, if they can laugh at the Providence which they superstitiously trusted; the verdict passed by the heathen will be: God was not able to do what he promised, so he had recourse to the vulgar artifice of murder. The Lord in this way developed Moses. In reality, Moses was not anticipating the divine purpose, but God was training the man by saying what he, the Lord, would do, and by the very exaggeration of his strength called up Moses to his noblest consciousness. We do this amongst ourselves. By using a species of language adapted to touch the innermost nerve and feeling of our hearers, we call those hearers to their best selves. If the Lord had spoken a hesitant language, or had fallen into what we may call a tone of despair, Moses himself might have been seduced into a kindred dejection; but the Lord said, I will smite, I will disinherit, I will make an end; and Moses became priest, intercessor, mighty pleader, the very purpose which God had in view to keep the head right, the leading man in tune with his purposes. So Moses said, “Pardon”; the Lord said, “Smite”; and Moses said, “Pardon ” that is the true smiting. The Lord meant it; the Lord taught Moses that prayer which Moses seemed to invent himself. The Lord trains us, sometimes, by shocking our sensibilities; and by the very denunciation of his judgments he drives us to tenderer prayer.
How stands our own case in relation to this? We deserve divine contempt: we are frail and spiritless and mean; we shun danger; we are afraid of the damp night; we want to be let alone; if it is possible to die without fighting, let us die in the wilderness; if we can escape danger, we prefer to turn over upon our couch and to slumber away into death and oblivion. Where is the aggressive spirit amongst Christians? Men have gone out to search the land, and they have brought back this report: that the land is a land of darkness: the land is a land of shame: there are thousands upon thousands of people dying of starvation, perishing for lack of knowledge, contemning the sanctuary, shut up in avenues and alleys and back places into which the daintiest civilisation dare not go: rough men given to drunkenness, bestiality and cruelty: women who are concealing their beauty under distress and poverty and manifold shame: children who have never heard the divine name or been invited to the divine table. Christians are few in number; the devil’s army is an infinite host, dwelling in great cities walled and very strong, and the devil’s men are of heroic proportion; their language is strong and definite; their habits have in them no touch of fear; they are valiant in their master’s cause: they care not whether they swear, whether they drink, whether they do the foul and forbidden deed of unrighteousness and untruthfulness. The Church says, Let us sing an evening hymn and go home by the quiet way, and sigh ourselves into any heaven that may be ready to take us; do not be sensational; do not attempt anything novel or unusual; let us be quit of all things; and if we can get home by sneaking along the eaves of the houses and in the shady part of the road so that nobody may see us, do let us sing the evening hymn and go to rest. Is there no Caleb? Is there no Joshua? Is there no man of “another spirit” to say, Let us go up at once, when we are well able to overcome it? In whose strength? In God’s. By whose armour? God’s. The battle is not yours, but God’s. The one thing we have dropped out of our calculations is Almightiness.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
V
EVENTS AT KADESH-BARNEA
Numbers 13-15
Kadesh-barnea is the most noted place, except Sinai and in some respects not even excepting that, during the whole of the forty years from Egypt to the Holy Land. In Gen 14 in the account of the march of Chedorlaorner, it is stated that he passed on the east side of the Jordan and came down nearly to Sinai and then turned north until he reached Enmishpat, that was Kadesh, and means the foundation of judgment. Moses, writing much later, gives it the name that it had acquired from the transactions of this passage. The real name of the place is Rithmah, as you will find in the enumeration given of the stopping places later in this book. Generally speaking, it was in the wilderness of Paran. Specially speaking, it was in the wilderness of Zin. You have the wilderness of Paran mentioned in this passage, a little later, Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, and still later, Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. All these names refer to the same place. In the last chapter I told you how they got from Mount Sinai to the wilderness of Paran, or the wilderness of Zin. See the magnificent argument on the location of this place, as set forth in Trumbull’s ”Kadesh-Barnea.” The time of this chapter is the summer of the second year of the Exodus. The text states that it was the time of the first ripe grapes, about the first of July. The great transaction that took place here was the sending out of the spies to view the Promised Land.
The first point in connection with the sending out of these spies is found in Deu 1:22 , which tells that the original suggestion to send out the spies came from the people. Numbers tells us that God commanded it to be done. But the original suggestion came from the people, who did not trust God, and did not want to move until they knew something about where they were going. So God permitted them to have their way, and he commands Moses to send out the spies. That delayed matters for forty days, the time while the spies were gone.
There were twelve spies, one from each tribe. They were prominent men, famous in the history of the people. They were to go through the south country where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived. They were to start right up the mountains surrounding Kadesh-barnea, which was in a valley, and were to make a straight march to the north to the old town of Hebron.
What commission was given to these twelve men? “See the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes” (Num 13:18-20 ). How much of the country were they to examine? (Num 13:21 ). They were to go to Hamath, which is the most northern part of the Holy Land. My son, Harvey, once visited that place and wrote me a very fine description of Hamath. They were to examine the highlands and the lowlands, and an expedition of that extent would take forty days. As they came back they stopped at Eshcol. By that time it was in August and the grapes were full ripe. They brought back one bunch so large that two men had to carry it on a pole between them. Brother Penn, in his preaching, tells us that the cluster of grapes from Eshcol brought back from the Promised Land before they had reached it, has a spiritual signification; that here on earth, before the Christian gets to the Promised Land, God gives him an earnest of the inheritance that he ia to receive. Sometimes in a mighty revival we get a taste of the grapes from Eshcol.
They have fully complied with their duty, and when they come to report, there is a majority and a minority report. The two reports do not differ on the first point. All agree that it is a glorious land, flowing with milk and honey, in every respect what God had promised them. “Howbeit the people that dwell therein are strong and the cities are fortified and very great.” The people were very much agitated at that part of the report, and that there were great giants there. “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are able to overcome it.” That is a great text. I heard a missionary take that for a text when I was a boy and it is a good mission text now. Now we come to the divergence. Ten of these men squarely dissented: (1) “We are not able to go up against them, for they are stronger than we are”; (2) An evil report of the land: “It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof”; (3) “The men are of great stature, the Nephilim. We were in our own sight and in their sight as grasshoppers.” Now) whenever any man in the world conceives himself to be a grasshopper, he is whipped inside and out. If you want to take two great texts and put one against the other, take those divergent opinions about their ability to possess the land. Now we have come to what is called the second great breach of the covenant. The first breach was when they worshiped the golden calf. This is a great rebellion. The people lifted up their voice and wept that night. Think of two or three million people sitting up all night and crying! All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness. Wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land to fall by the sword?” There they murmur against God: “Our women and our little ones will be & prey.” They put it off on the women and children. “We would be plucky enough if we were by ourselves.” Many a time have I heard that expedient fall from men’s lips. I once heard a man say that he did not want to see a show but that he went to take the women and children.
Now we come to the crowning act: “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain and return into Egypt.” That meant to turn their backs upon the pillar of fire and the cloud and the tabernacle and all their glorious history and from the divinely appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, to renounce the government of God, and go back into the bondage from which they had been delivered. When they said that, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, for they knew that an awful sin had been committed. While Moses and Aaron are lying on their faces, see the heroic deed of Joshua and Caleb: “And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes; and they spake unto the children of Israel saying, The land which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us unto this land) and give it unto us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land.” There are Moses and Aaron on their faces, and here are Joshua and Caleb with their clothes rent, in the presence of the blasphemers, making a final plea before the bolt of divine judgment falls on them. “But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.” “Kill the men that tell us the truth.” Now the cloud comes down. It was up in the air. The cloud descended upon the ark of the tabernacle as an indication that the Lord God Almighty was about to speak: “How long will this people despise me?” You remember the first oration of Cicero against Catiline: “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?” “How long will they not believe in me for all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with pestilence and disinherit them.” That shows the breach of the covenant. “I will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. I am going to take a nation into the promised land, but I will blot the whole of them out.”
Now comes grace. You will see what Moses says to God. He is the mediator and type of the Saviour: “And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; for thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, and thou goest before them. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness. And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Jehovah is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” I do know that he was a great man. God instantly answers that he will do just what Moses asks:
“Now, I will pardon, but I will pardon in accordance with my nature, which says, I will not acquit the guilty. This sin shall rest on them, but I won’t blot the whole nation out.” The women and the little children had nothing to do with it, but every grown man that participated in it is cut off from the Promised Land. A year for a day. As it took forty days to view the land, their pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan shall be forty years. The whole of it could be made in a rapid journey of a few days. “Every one of them shall die and their carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and their bones shall whiten. But I will take care of the children and bring them into the Promised Land. As I live, saith Jehovah, Surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you.” He is giving oath. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones allowed to live. Now the Lord expostulates directly with Moses and Aaron, telling them how they shall carry out this sentence. Moses announced the sentence, that God considered the covenant broken, and that they were disinherited, but that pardon was extended for all under twenty years, but that the rest of them should perish. They say, “But here we are now and we will go up.” Moses says, “But the cloud won’t lead and the ark won’t go before you. If you go, you will go as an uncovenanted people and without God among you.” But they did go and they got an awful drubbing from their enemies.
That is the great rebellion and it commands the careful study of every Bible student.
Now comes Num 15 with some hopeful legislation: “When ye come into the land of your habitation.” That precedes every act. “I have just announced that the men over twenty years old will die. Lest the awful sentence cause the hearts of the rest of you to despair, I will instantly give you some legislation that will cheer you and cause you to hope.” There is something in this legislation that I want to call your attention to: “If a person sin unwittingly, the priest shall make atonement for that soul. But the soul that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemeth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” There is the unpardonable sin. Every man from twenty years old and upward with the exception of Caleb and Joshua had committed that sin. That is what is meant by sinning with a high hand.
A man was gathering sticks on the sabbath day. He violated one of the Ten Commandments and was stoned to death.
Finally they were commanded to make fringes on the border of their garments, so that when they looked at the blue fringe, they would remember their sin and God’s penalty.
QUESTIONS
1. Kadesh-barnea what back-reference, its meaning, how came it to be called Kadesh, real name, definite location and what work commended?
2. The date of this lesson?
3. The spies Who suggested sending them, how a lack of faith, how long gone, how many, their commission, how much country to examine, what evidence did they bring as to the fruit of the land, and its spiritual signification?
4. Their report How agreed, how disagreed, the majority report, the minority, a missionary text, fate of the ten cowards and the good destiny of the two faithful ones?
5. The second great breach of the covenant What the first, this one how against God, how against the women and children, the crowning act and its meaning, action of Moses and Aaron, of Joshua and Caleb, of the congregation, of the cloud?
6. What Jehovah’s communication to Moses and what does it show? Moses’ reply and prayer?
7. What was Jehovah’s oath and answer to Moses?
8. Upon the announcement of their fate by Moses what did the people do and the result?
9. What hope does Jehovah hold out to those now under twenty years of age?
10. Give the reference to the unpardonable sin here, and who had committed it?
11. What instance of the violation of one of the Ten Commandments in this connection?
12. What was the law of fringes?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Num 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake. ] Yielding to the people’s importunity, and winking at their infidelity; for he had before spied out the land for them, Eze 20:6 and searched it out, Deu 1:33 but that satisfied them not; seeing was, with them, believing. See Deu 1:22 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
spake. See note on Num 1:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 13
Now in chapter thirteen we get the story. Now, they come to Kadesh Barnea and they are now on the border ready to enter into the Promised Land. They had been about two years, a little over two years now in the wilderness. And now they’ve come to the place of entering in and possessing the land that God had promised to them. In coming to the borders of the land, Moses thought it would be wise to send spies into the land in order that they might travel through the land, look at the cities, look at the crops; just sort of size up the land, the fortifications of the people and all and to come back and bring the report and bring back some fruit from the land.
And so they chose from each tribe one man to go in, and thus, there were twelve spies that entered into the land. And in the first part of the thirteenth chapter it lists those that went in; two of them are important to us. Of the tribe of Judah, in verse six, Caleb, and then of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea, in verse eight. Now at the end of the listing we are told in verse sixteen that
Moses called Oshea the son of Nun [Jehoshea or] Jehoshua ( Num 13:16 ).
Which was later contracted to Joshua. Oshea means deliverer or salvation and Yeh is the contraction for Jehovah, the name of God. So the name Joshua is one of the compound names of Jehovah, which means, “God is salvation” or the “Lord is salvation” or the “Lord our salvation”. The Greek word for Joshua is Jesus. So that when Joseph was debating what to do with Mary when she was pregnant and the angel of the Lord came to him and said, “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bare a son thou shalt call his name Jesus” or the Hebrew Yeshua Why? “For he shall save his people from their sins” ( Mat 1:20-21 ). The name implies the mission. Jehovah is our salvation; so Jehoshua, later Joshua.
So they went in to spy out the land. And they were in the land for forty days and they spied out the land. And Joshua and Caleb on the way backstopped by the Valley of-or the Brooke of Eshcol and there they cut a bunch of grapes that they carried in a staff between them. In other words, it’s so large that they just had a stick on their shoulders and tied the grapes in the middle to show the people the huge bunches of grapes, how big were the bunches of grapes in the land. And so they came back to the camp of Israel and Joshua and Caleb gave their report and they said there in verse twenty-six:
They brought to the congregation, and shewed them through the land. And told him, We came into the land whither you sent us, and surely if flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and we saw there some of the giants, the sons of Anak. And the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: the Hittites, and Jebusites, and the Amorites, are in the mountains: and Canaanites are by the sea, in the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it ( Num 13:26-30 ).
Oh, this guy Caleb he says, “Let’s go for it. We can do it. Let’s go up and possess it at once. It’s a great land. Problems there? Sure, but wow, let’s go for it”.
But the men that went with him said, Hey, we’re not able to go up against those people; for they’re stronger than we are. And they brought an evil report unto the people. Telling them awe, the cities are huge and the walls are high. And there were giants: we were like grasshoppers in their sight ( Num 13:31-33 ).
Man, they’ll eat us up.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Here we have another story of failure. It is closely associated with the movement of the people toward the promised land. The hour had come in which they should go forward. In this account in Numbers it is stated sending the spies was in obedience to the divine command. However, a comparison of this with the reference to the matter in the first chapter of Deuteronomy will show that the command followed the people’s determination to do this very thing. This was in itself an act of suspicion and of practical unbelief. However, as they had decided, so they were commanded to do.
After forty days the men returned. Here perhaps we have the first occasion in history of two reports resulting from one commission, a majority report, and a minority report. Here, as has so often been the case, it was the minority report, rather than the majority report, that was right.
All were agreed on the desirability of the land on which they had looked. The emphasis of the majority, however, is gathered from the word, “Howbeit” They had seen the excellencies of the country, but they had seen the difficulties and beyond these they had seen nothing. The minority had seen, fist Jehovah, and then the excellencies, and finally the difficulties. The essential difference is the vision of God. In the one case it was lacking and men were shut out from of the desirable by the foes of whom they were afraid. In the other it was present and obstacles were accounted as nothing.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Spies Sent to Canaan
Num 12:16; Num 13:1-20
By comparing the opening verses with Deu 1:19-22, it appears that the suggestion about the spies emanated from the people, and that their proposal was graciously acquiesced in by God. But let us remember that it is a profound mistake to spy out or criticize the land or lot into which we are being led. We are almost certain to see the difficulties apart from the grace, and they sometimes appear to be insurmountable.
It is better to await with calm trust the unfoldings of divine providence. The book of the future is in the hands of the Lamb that was slain, Rev 5:7-8. Take no thought for tomorrow! Go steadily on! God will go before you, and cleave your way! Unbelief sees giants and spells them with G; faith sees God, and spells giants with g. Looking unto the promise of God, Abraham wavered not, Rom 4:20.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Num 13:25
Consider what duty or privilege may be shadowed out to us by the mission of “the spies” to the Holy Land, which God Himself ordered. It shows us the heart desiring, the imagination picturing, the intellect grasping, the faith appropriating, that which is not yet seen. We are to study and survey the land, to have the will to enter, and the faith to pluck, and prayer to bring home its fruits.
I. Those who have not yet really entered the Canaan of the present time, the invisible kingdom of Christ, should “send on” their thoughts more definitely and practically into those things which give a man peace, and on the borders of which we are already standing.
II. When we come to deal with any special difficulty in life, we should do well first to compass it in our own mind, and acquainting ourselves with it as accurately as we can beforehand, calculate the undertaking. We should go round and round the trial, the temptation, or the enterprise in our own thoughts before we encounter it. Almost all the great battles of life are fought first, and all the great victories of life are won first, in anticipation in a man’s own breast.
III. Previously to prayer it is an excellent habit to “send on” the thoughts among the promises. Let faith pioneer the way. Send your mind to find and gather the promises which cluster round the petition you are going to make.
IV. There is a still higher use of the faculty of prescient thought, for about nothing should our minds be so busy as about the land of our eternal inheritance. These are the thoughts which do a man good. They are heaven-born images, which meet us by “the way of the wilderness.”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 15th series, p. 68.
References: Num 13:30.-Parker, vol. iv., p. 53. Num 13:32.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 197. Num 13-14. 1-25.-Parker, vol. iii., p. 206. Num 13, Num 14-W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 323. Num 14:2.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 121. Num 14:6, Num 14:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 197. Num 14:7, Num 14:8.-R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 120. Num 14:10.-H. T. Robjohns, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 88.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
4. At Kadesh-Barnea and Israels Unbelief
CHAPTER 13
1. The command to search out the land (Num 13:1-3)
2. The names of the spies (Num 13:4-16)
3. Directions given (Num 13:17-20)
4. Their explorations (Num 13:21-25)
5. The report they brought (Num 13:26-33)
The crisis is reached with this chapter. The events of the preceding chapters are the prelude to the complete failure and disaster. To understand the situation we must consult Deu 1:21-24. Moses spoke in faith when he said, Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And the peoples answer was that men be sent to search out the land. It was unbelief once more. They wanted to see first before they acted upon the Word of God. The saying also pleased Moses. No doubt he asked the Lord and received an answer from Him, which is recorded in the opening verses of this chapter.
Leading men are selected to act as spies. Reuben here stands first, Simeon follows, Levi is left out, for the Levites were not to have an inheritance in the land, Judah (praise) is the third. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who represents the tribe of Judah is here mentioned for the first time. Caleb means brave, whole hearted. Joshuas name is given also as Oshea. Oshea means saviour and Joshua is Jehovah is Saviour. The name of Joshua is found some 250 times in the Bible. He is the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent. Caleb and Joshua were the only two in the whole company who trusted In Jehovah. And Jehovah rewarded them for their faith. Another interesting name is Sethur (verse 13). His name means mysterious. The four letters of the name of Sethur give the number 666. He may have been the leader of the opposition, as Antichrist has this number (Rev. 13).
They found the land exactly as it had been described. We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. They brought a great cluster of grapes, pomegranates and figs. These tell us of spiritual food and service, which is for those who possess the land, our heavenly portion in Christ. They could not deny that Jehovahs promise was true. They carried the evidences of it upon their shoulders while they carried unbelief in their hearts. They looked at the children of Anak, the giants, which dwelled in the land and not to Jehovah, who had delivered them from the Egyptians. If they had reckoned with the Lord and trusted Him, not they, but the giants would have appeared to them as grasshoppers. Caleb said in faith, Let us go up at once and possess it. Their unbelieving hearts refused and declared, We are not able to go up. They brought an evil report of the land. The Hebrew for bringing up an evil report is in Pro 10:18 translated uttering a slander. Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
And all this has many lessons for us. The church is called to possess a heavenly portion. This is typified by Canaan. Christendom has made a worse failure than Israel by not entering into the inheritance and by turning back to the world. And besides this, there are the lessons connected with our individual experience.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Reciprocal: Num 10:31 – forasmuch Num 20:1 – Then Deu 1:22 – We will send Deu 9:23 – Likewise
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
At the opening of chapter 13 we find the people had moved northward and were camped on the confines of the Promised Land. From that spot, by the commandment of the Lord, a leading man from each tribe, except the tribe of Levi, was sent to search out the land they were to enter. This command evidently had a twofold bearing. In the first place, it was to act as an encouragement and incentive to the people by allowing their representatives to see for themselves the excellence of the land, and report on it. But in the second place, it was to make them realize that there were mighty opponents; so that they must still rely on the power of God. Their faith was to be tested. If they truly believed that nothing but His power had broken Egypt, and brought them out, they would have no difficulty in believing that His power would break all the adversaries in the land, and bring them in.
Now Canaan does not typify heaven, where Christ is. When we enter that blissful place, all conflict and fightings will be over for ever. It does typify the realm of heavenly blessing that is ours in Christ, and which we enter upon at the present time through spiritual conflict. Hence the Epistle to the Ephesians which opens with an unfolding of those “spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” ends with the warfare indicated in Num 6:1-27. It is worthy of note that the recounting of the armour of God in that chapter is followed by the word, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” We too must realize that to overcome we must be dependent on the power of God.
The word, “southward,” in verse Num 13:17 may present some difficulty. The solution seems to be that encamped, as they were, close to where the hill country in the south of Judah begins, the spies had to start by going south and then climbing into the mountain region to the south-east of the Dead Sea. Thus, travelling on the east side of Jordan to the far north near to Hamath, and then turning south to return through to Hebron on the west side, they raised no suspicions as to who they were, but appeared to be ordinary travellers.
At this time Hebron was heavily fortified and held by a race of giants, the children of Anak. It was evidently of peculiar strength and antiquity, as the closing words of verse Num 13:22 show. Zoan was a chief city of Egypt, and evidently Pharaoh’s seat, for twice in Psa 78:1-72 we have reference to the “marvellous things” and the “wonders,” that God wrought “in the field of Zoan” (verses Num 13:12). Hebron became the first seat of the Davidic kingdom that God established. So the closing words of verse Num 13:22 may remind us that what God purposes antedates anything man establishes however great and glorious in his eyes.
For forty days the land was searched and the men returned with ample evidence of the fertility of the land; that it did indeed flow with milk and honey, and bore fruit of exceptional size. The land was fully what God had declared it to be.
To all this the spies bore witness, yet they laid the chief stress upon the walled-up cities and the imposing greatness of the children of Anak. They stated, truly enough, that they were no match for these giants, but being men of no faith they left God completely out of their thoughts: all of them, that is to say, except Caleb and Joshua. In result they measured themselves against the giants and their cities, and communicated their unbelieving fears to the mass of the people.
In verse Num 13:30, Caleb alone is mentioned, though we know from the next chapter that his faith was shared by Joshua. Faith looks not only at the difficulties but also at God, in whose presence difficulties are nothing. Hence his word was, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” When, on the banks of the Red Sea they sang, “All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away… Thou shalt bring them in…” (Exo 15:15-17), tile people adopted the language of faith in the enthusiasm of the moment, without possessing the faith. How often have we been like them to this extent, that we have sung hymns expressing Christian experience without really having the experience? Such a thing it is very easy to do.
The effect on the people is recorded in the first four verses of Num 14:1-45. Their weeping and their words were the plainest declaration of their unbelief. They murmured against the leaders that God had set over them, and insinuated that the Lord had let them down by bringing them out of Egypt to place them in an impossible position. The leadership of Moses had recently been questioned by Miriam, as we saw in Num 12:1-16; it is now challenged in a far more serious way. They would reject him and elect a captain of their own, to lead them back to Egypt.
In Exo 32:4, we read of the making of the calf, that they imagined had brought them up out of Egypt. Now they wish to make a captain to take them back. Both these evils are brought together very strikingly in Neh 9:17, Neh 9:18, but there the order of them is reversed. It looks as if the provocation in this later case was as great as in the former. To reject a servant, whom God has appointed captain, is tantamount to the rejection of God Himself; though rejecting Him by making a golden calf was a cruder proceeding.
Since the days of the calf no crisis had equalled this in gravity. It threw up into relief four men of faith. Aaron’s faith had not the strength of the faith of Moses, but nevertheless with Moses he fell on his face before the congregation. He shared here in the meekness of Moses, since for a man to fall on his face before his opponents is virtually to obliterate himself. As a matter of fact they could not have done a more serious thing. Had they risen to their full height before the people, they would have asserted their authority and accepted the challenge themselves. But the rather, they put themselves out of the matter and left God to take up the challenge. Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes the sign of distress and repudiation – and boldly testified to the faithfulness and power of God. God was before their hearts and not the children of Anak. All however to no purpose. The bankruptcy of the people as regards faith was complete.
To this moment Psa 95:1-11 refers, quoted in Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-16, and there the point is very clearly stressed that unbelief lay at the root of all. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” It is necessary to note this, for it shows their case was not one of forfeiting the blessing by backsliding, but of entering professedly into a calling for which they never had faith at all. This is the point of the solemn warnings that have so large a place in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The effacement of Moses cleared the way for God to act, as we see in verses Num 13:11-12, which plainly indicate the greatness of the sin and what the people deserved. They had provoked the Lord by breaking His law, by rejecting His captain, by disbelieving Him in spite of all the signs He had shown among them. The wages of sin is death, which would have reached them by a pestilence. If God had cut them all off, and maintained a posterity to Abraham according to His promise, by starting afresh through Moses He would have been doing in principle what He did in destroying mankind by the flood, and yet preserving a posterity to Adam through Noah. But would such a seed through Moses have proved any better than the seed through Noah, or better than the seed through Abraham up to date? The answer, which the New Testament gives, is NO. We read, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:8).
This offer, which the Lord thus made, must have been a real test to Moses. To become the father of a greater and mightier nation must have been a very attractive proposition. It would have been so to the flesh of any man. This makes his reaction to it very remarkable, and we see his meekness manifesting itself in striking fashion. His main thought was not of himself at all but of God and His glory. The rebellion of the people was primarily against God, but secondarily against himself, yet he thought only of how such a drastic judgment would be interpreted by the Egyptians and other surrounding nations; and in view of this and of the declared longsuffering and mercy of God, he boldly besought pardon. His plea prevailed and pardon was granted, as regards the death penalty.
Yet this grievous sin entailed penalties in the government of God. Verse Num 13:21 begins, “But as truly as I live…” which is the formula of an oath. The Epistle to the Hebrews, which records the immutable oath made to Abraham, also records how He sware in His wrath, “They shall not enter into My rest.” The men who brought an evil report of the land should never enter it. Moreover the very next day the people were to begin a fresh journey, not into the land but away from it, thus starting a weary pilgrimage of no less than forty years, and verse Num 13:29 says, “Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness.” The whole sad story might be graphically summed up by saying – They rejected their unseen God by making a calf: they rejected their visible leader in proposing to elect a captain; and in result their carcases fell outside the land of promise.
This solemn sentence applied, as verse Num 13:29 indicates, to all of twenty years old and upwards, and the little ones, on whose behalf they specially murmured, were the ones who would enter the land. Psa 90:1-17, which is a prayer of Moses, alludes to this when he says, “All our days are passed away in Thy wrath… the days of our years are three score years and ten…” This would apply in very literal fashion to the people we are considering. The judgment on the ten spies fell at once as verse 37 shows.
The verses that conclude our chapter also have a very instructive word of warning for us. The action of God’s government produced a revulsion of feeling among the people. They now acknowledged that they had sinned, but they wished to evade the penalty in God’s government of them, and they started to go forward instead of going back. This simply meant disaster. Moses and the ark did not leave the camp, and those of the host who acted thus found that God was not acting on their behalf. They were left to their own resources and were heavily smitten.
If God be for us no one can be effectively against us. The converse of this was put most plainly to the disciples by the Lord Jesus when He said, “Without Me ye can do nothing” (Joh 15:5). A striking example of it is found in Samson. Immediately he disobeyed, and broke his Nazarite vow, his strength was gone. But illustrations of the fact are everywhere.
The opening words of Num 15:1-41 are certainly remarkable. The people had just been told that their wilderness sojourn was to be prolonged to forty years, and their self-willed effort to evade this, and push their way in immediately, completely repulsed; and the next thing is the issue of regulations to be effective, “when ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you.” In thus speaking, God made it plain that His purpose concerning them stood firm in spite of all that they had done, and that He would ultimately bring them in. The Lord then spoke particularly of certain subsidiary offerings that were to accompany the major offerings, and also of what was to be offered by way of atonement when anyone sinned through ignorance.
Verse Num 13:30 deals with presumptuous sins, in despising the word of the Lord, and no offering is prescribed for such. Then an example of such a presumptuous sin is given in the case of the man who broke the sabbath by gathering sticks. He was put to death. This was undoubtedly judgment of a drastic kind.
What is our mental reaction to it? Many unbelievers would denounce it as unwarrantably severe, just as they would the disastrous results that followed the sin of Adam, in eating the forbidden fruit. But sin is lawlessness – the creature asserting its own will and defying the Creator – and the element of defiance is never more pronounced than when the matter involved is only trivial. If Adam had been forbidden every tree save one, instead of being granted every tree save one; or if Israel had been in a cold climate, and had not been given bread from heaven, it might have been possible to offer some excuse for both actions. As it was, in both cases the law of God was needlessly defied. To such a case as that before us Heb 10:28 refers. The law was indeed “the ministration of death.”
This episode gave rise to the instruction about the fringes and the riband of blue to be worn on the borders of their garments, with which the chapter closes. It was to be a reminder of the sacredness of the commands of God, and a preservative against the doing of their own wills. As the centuries passed even this was perverted, as Mat 23:5 strikingly shows. The Pharisees, who displayed a false piety by enlarging the borders of their garments, were the men who were setting aside the commands of God in favour of their own tradition.
One of the most serious features of the wilderness journey comes before us in Num 16:1-50. The fire of revolt that broke out in Num 14:1-45 was still smouldering and broke out afresh in a new way. It was not now the making of a captain and returning to Egypt, but prominent men in the congregation rising up to challenge the mediatorship of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron; thus challenging the Lord, who had appointed both. Korah, being a Kohathite, belonged to the most distinguished group of the Levites, short of being a priest. Dathan and Abiram sprang from Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, who lost the leadership natural to the firstborn because of his sin. They therefore doubtless felt they had a grievance.
Moreover, if we refer to the order in which the tribes were to encamp round the tabernacle, as given in Num 2:1-34, and then turn to Num 3:1-51, which gives us similar details as to the Levites, we find that both the tribe of Reuben and the Kohathites were placed on the south side, and as a result of this were close together to discuss and foment their imagined grievances. In claiming that both Moses and Aaron were upstarts, who had presumed to elevate themselves above the congregation, they denied that they were what they were by Divine appointment, using a specious argument.
It was quite true that all the people were “holy;” that is, they were a people that God had set apart for Himself – a fact nevertheless that they were constantly denying in their practices. It was true that the Lord was among them, as the people were very quickly to see in the judgment that followed. They did not realize that in challenging the leaders whom God had chosen, they were challenging God, who had chosen them.
For the second time, as verse Num 13:4 tells us, Moses met the situation by falling on his face – standing aside for God to act. Yet he knew what God would do, as we see in verses Num 13:5-7. Korah and his company would get their answer from God Himself on the morrow. They were to take censers with fire and incense, and present themselves at the door of the tabernacle, as though they were priests. Dathan and Abiram refused to come up and contented themselves in hurling insults and false accusations against Moses. Verse Num 13:19 shows that practically all the people supported Korah in particular. The situation was one of extreme danger.
How God acted is revealed in the middle of the chapter. In the case of Korah the judgment was direct from the hand of God in His dwelling-place. In the case of the others by the providential ordering of the forces of nature. Verse Num 13:32 tells us that the men belonging to Korah perished with Dathan and Abiram. We have to pass on to Num 26:11 to find that the children of Korah were not involved in the overthrow. Hence when we get to the Psalms we find a number that are “for the sons of Korah.”
The direct allusion to this incident in Jude is very instructive. He traces the progress of the apostasy that he foretells, under three heads. First, “the way of Cain,” which as a way of self-will in approaching God: He ignored God’s way and came in his own way Second, “the error of Balaam for reward.” This was self-seeking under cover of religion. Third, “the gainsaying of Core” which was self-assertion in the things of God. Jude indicates that when the third stage is reached the opposers will perish. We can see these three stages in the sad history of Christendom. In our day the third has become all too manifest. Prominent religious leaders of our day not only refuse any authority to the writings of Moses and the prophets and the New Testament apostles, but boldly challenge the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The “perishing” that Jude predicts cannot be far off.
Further, it would appear that the Apostle Paul makes reference to this incident in 2Ti 2:19. In our chapter we have, “The Lord will shew who are His, and who is holy,” said by Moses in reply to Korah and his company. In regard to Dathan and Abiram, he had to say, “Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs.” These two utterances foreshadow pretty plainly the apostolic instruction for our: selves, when we are brought face to face with error that challenges the foundations of our faith, and has the effect of overthrowing faith in those who fall under the influence of the error. We are neither sovereign nor omniscient. God is both, and in due season He will manifest who are His. We are however responsible to act in conformity with His word, and avoid all complicity in the error and evil.
Here is an illustration of how the Old Testament Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The fact is, of course, that human nature is the same in all ages. The out-breakings of the flesh, in men three or four thousand years ago under the law, are in their principle the things that the flesh in man will do today, though we are not under the law but under grace.
Being under law, the judgment fell with drastic rapidity in the case we are considering. For Christendom today, being under grace, it is otherwise, and God waits with much longsuffering. Nevertheless of such men, and the state of things they produce, the Apostle Peter has grave things to say, when he writes, “Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2Pe 2:3).
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
CRISIS AT KADESH-BARNEA
The unbelief exhibited at Kadesh-barnea, and the divine comment on it invest the transaction with great significance. The people had faith to sprinkle the blood of atonement (Exo 12:28), and to come out of Egypt (type of the world), but had not faith to enter their Canaan rest. Therefore, though redeemed, they grieved Jehovah for forty years. (Compare the chapters of this lesson with Deu 1:19-40; Deuteronomy 1Co 10:1-5; Heb 3:12-19; Heb 4:3-11.)
OUTLINE OF THE CHAPTERS
In the lesson we have:
Gods command to Moses and his execution of it (Num 13:1-20) the work of the spies (Num 13:21-25) their report to Moses, Aaron and the congregation (Num 13:26-33) the effect on the congregation (Num 14:1-10) Jehovahs threat (Num 14:11-12) Moses intercession (Num 14:13-19) Jehovahs answer and decree of chastisement (Num 14:20-38) the presumption and punishment of the people (Num 14:39-45).
Matters to be Noted
By comparing Deu 1:23, it will be seen that the proposition about the spies came from the people themselves, God granting their request both as a trial and punishment of their unbelief. Led by the pillar of fire and cloud they might have entered and conquered the land without any reconnaissance of it.
Kadesh (Num 13:26) is usually identified with Kadesh-barnea mentioned in Num 32:8, and since the researches of Henry Clay Trumbull (1884) there has been little doubt about it.
According to Neh 9:17, the unbelief of the people actually went the length of nominating a captain to lead them back to Egypt, demonstrating the wisdom of the decree that debarred that generation from entering the promised land.
Remember the two witnesses for God (Num 14:6), often referred to afterwards, and reflect on the arguments they present (Num 14:7-9). If Jehovahs word be true as to the land, may we not believe it as to His ability to bring us in? By what divine interposition only were the lives of these witnesses preserved (Num 14:10)?
Moses intercession is another of the great prayers of the Bible. See the boldness of his faith in the arguments he employs. For whose honor is he most concerned (Num 14:13-16)? What promise does he quote (Num 14:17-18)? Where in previous lessons was this commented on? What precedent does Moses rely upon (Num 14:19)?
Do not pass by the prophecy of Num 14:21. How much of human hopes are wrapped up in these words! Primarily they mean that the report of Gods doings at that time would spread over all the land magnifying His name, but their ultimate application is to the millennium and beyond, as we shall see.
How perverse the conduct of the Israelites, who, shortly before, were afraid that, though God was with them, they could not get possession of the land; yet now they act still more foolishly in supposing that, though God were not with them, they could expel the inhabitants by their unaided efforts. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated.
QUESTIONS
1. Give the outline of this lesson by chapters.
2. With what other location is Kadesh identified, and on whose authority chiefly?
3. Have you read Neh 9:17?
4. Name the two faithful witnesses for God, Num 14:6.
5. Name two great prayers of the Bible.
6. How would you interpret the prophecy of Num 14:21?
7. What illustrates the foolishness of Israel at this crisis?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Num 13:1-2. The Israelites being now come to the borders of Canaan, Moses commanded them, in the name of God, to go up and possess it, reminding them of his promise to give them the possession of it, and exhorting them not to fear nor be discouraged, Deu 1:21. But the unbelieving and distrustful multitude, forgetting the power and faithfulness of God, were afraid to venture on this hazardous undertaking, as they thought it, till some persons were sent to examine and bring them information what sort of country it was, and what kind of people they should have to contend with. We will send men before us, said they, and they shall search out the land, and bring us word again, Deu 1:22. Moses, therefore, in compliance with their request, is directed by God to send proper persons, chosen from all the tribes, for this purpose. Every one a ruler among them Not those called princes of the tribes, in the first chapter of this book, but men of wisdom and authority, and rulers or officers of an inferior kind.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 13:11. The tribe of Joseph. This verse seems deficient. Septri Manasseh; where the sense is, that the sceptre of Joseph was in the tribe of Manasseh. The Hebrew matta, signifies mace, rod, staff, &c., which the ancients were proud to preserve as the badge of princely descent and power.
Num 13:16. Joshua; literally, Jehoshua, or Jesus, as the LXX; that is, Saviour, who will save, or Saviour of the Lord. It is a compound of Jehovah; the of the Greeks.
Num 13:22. Hebronseven years before Zoan. The LXX read Tanis. See Psa 78:12.
Num 13:28. The children of Anak; the giants, as in Num 13:32-33. Deu 2:10; Deu 9:2. Bochart names these, king Inachus and his descendants, the Inachides; the , Phenicians; anciently, Phee- anac; the Greek , anciently ; the Latin filices are all derived from this primitive word. Revelation, the pagan poets, and the Hindoo mythology, are equally agreed that there existed a race of men, many of whom exceeded nine feet in stature. Nearly a century ago the bones of such a man were found in a cave of the Derbyshire limestone, in the midst of a hundred other skeletons. The fact is reported in the Transactions of the Royal Society. See also on Gen 6:4.
Num 13:30. Let us go up at once; literally, ascending, let us ascend.
Num 13:32. A land that eateth up the inhabitants. The 36th of Ezekiel illustrates the Hebrew word by the sword, which devoured the inhabitants. The earthquake named by Pliny, which destroyed twelve cities of Asia, had not then occurred.
REFLECTIONS.CHAP. 13. AND 14.
The God of Abraham having brought the Israelites out of Egypt, having given them the law, erected their mystical pavilion, and established their theocracy, nothing seemed to obstruct an immediate entrance into the promised land but the state of their hearts which proved an insuperable barrier. Afflictions were therefore better calculated to promote their salvation than prosperity. The sudden transition from indigence to affluence, from the most wretched servitude to the enjoyment of a land flowing with milk and honey, might have prompted them to greater excesses than the Amorites, and frustrated the hallowing designs of God in their emancipation. Besides, their affections were still attached to the land of their oppression; they knew it was the richest country in the world, while on the other hand they discredited the reports concerning the flourishing culture in the land of promise. Heaven permitted the country to be explored, which led to the disclosure and punishment of their unbelief. A man of each tribe was selected for the enterprise, and all the twelve were men of distinction and courage. Moses instructed them to penetrate the country by the south, and to return by the west. He required them to make the most exact observations on the population, whether the people were strong or weak; on their habits of life, whether they dwelt in tents or in fortified towns; whether the soil was productive or barren; whether the country was woody or open; he enjoined them to be of good courage, and to bring specimens of its choicest fruits.
This arduous task the spies executed with expedition and success, notwithstanding their having experienced all the variety of fortune which might have been expected on so extraordinary a mission. Hebron they examined with curiosity and care; it claimed antiquity prior to Zoan in Egypt, and Abrahams sepulchre was adjacent. But the giants, the tall sons of Anak, were here the chiefs and commanders of the people. From Eshcol they brought bunches of grapes, immensely large, and other fruits then in season. The whole of the twelve arrived safe at the camp, after an absence of forty days.
The elders and the congregation were immediately convened. They were all eye, all ear; the most eager expectation was painted on every countenance, because the happiness of posterity was supposed to be involved in what they were about to hear. The spies presented the princes and the people with the fruits of the land, and said in effect to Moses, We have penetrated the country thou didst send us to explore: most assuredly it floweth with milk and honey, as is obvious from its fruits. The rugged parts of the mountains are adorned with trees and vineyards, the verdant hills are covered with flocks, and springs and rivulets everywhere abound. The vallies are full of cattle, and full of corn. The landscapes are romantic and transporting. The whole country is one connected chain of beauty, abundance and delight. It forms a picturesque and an advantageous contrast with the uniform plains of Egypt, and with the weary sands of its surrounding deserts.
Nevertheless, said they: and what are they going to add? Are there any exceptions with JEHOVAH, any difficulties with our God? Nevertheless, said they, we are not able to conquer it, for the people exceed us in number, and they are all trained to the arts of war. The Canaanites form two great nations, the one on the banks of the Jordan; the other in Phnicia, on the sea coast. They are an ingenious people, having chariots of iron, and are commanded by experienced chiefs of enormous stature. The population is so great as to consume the whole of this fertile land. But admitting, however improbable, that we could defeat them in the field, our enterprise would prove abortive. They would retire to their cities and strongholds, everywhere interspersed on the mountains, and in the vales; cities walled to the clouds, and defended with projecting towers. Our tribes would be divided and exhausted with hopeless and innumerable sieges. Defeat and ruin would be the consequence; our wives and our little ones would become a prey, and every thing would be sacrificed to this ill-advised emigration from Egypt.
These words were as thunderbolts of despair, hurled on a mean and unsanctified multitude. All the evil passions were excited in quick succession; anger, sorrow, vengeance, and despair. All was clamour and lamentation, riot and noise. A sullen murmur ran through the whole assembly, of revolt against Moses and against God.
In this moment of confusion Caleb stepped forward, and demanded the right of audience, being one of those who had explored the country. Full of faith, and inspired with eloquence more than human, he overpowered the tumult, and enforced attention. Men of Israel, we seem to hear him say, you have erred in discrediting the report which God hath given of the land. We are now agreed that it flows with milk and honey. My ten colleagues have also erred, and greatly erred, in losing sight of God. Having hitherto experienced his faithfulness to us and to our fathers, we ought not to distrust him for the future. Has any promise made to Abraham and his seed ever yet failed? Were we not delivered from Egypt at the expiration of the four hundred years, according to the promise made to our fathers? Gen 15:13. We were delivered. Did our emancipation require a cloud of miracles? Your eyes have seen the wonders of the Lord. Pharaoh who despised them, and hardened his heart, has been overthrown: and will you despise them in like manner? Has the Lord given us bread from heaven, and water from the rock? Is he still with us in the pillary cloud of his presence; and shall we murmur, doubt, and rebel? And why talk of the number and strength of the nations, whose iniquities are full? These nations have neither courage nor energy to oppose us. My colleagues tell you but half the truth. The soul of the people fainteth with fear at our name; for they have heard that God is with us, and that he speaketh to us face to face. What, captains and leaders of Israel, shall you fear? What, elders and rulers, shall you forget the works of the Lord? If he delight in us, he will give us the land. Rebel not therefore against the Lord. Let us go up at once, and take possession, for we are every way adequate to the conquest.
This speech failed of effect solely because the people to whom it was addressed, were not worthy to hear an eloquence so divine. Its object was faith in God, the people were carnal, and attached to this world. The discontent and revolt were that night communicated to the whole camp. The people murmured and wept aloud. Their passions were inflamed to the highest pitch of anger, depravity, and despair. They reassembled in the morning, when Caleb, ably supported by Joshua, made another effort to compose and enlighten their minds; but all in vain. They were overpowered with clamour, and narrowly escaped being stoned. Amid the confusion, the glory of the Lord appeared, imposing terror and silence by its lustre.
How long, said the Lord to Moses, will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me, after all the signs I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them; and will make of thee a greater nation than they. Moses, alarmed for the salvation of his country, most fervently interseded with God. He filled his mouth with arguments, and discovered a pastoral piety, which did honour to his heart, even when heaven tempted him not to pray. Yet he could not prevail. Moses himself could not prevail for more than a mitigation of the punishment. I have pardoned them, it was replied. But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Say unto them, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and all that were numbered, from twenty years old and upwards; doubtless ye shall not come into the land which I sware to give you for a possession, save Caleb and Joshua. But your little ones, who you said should become a prey, them will I bring into the land which ye have despised. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities; and ye shall know my breach, or protraction of promise. So they could not enter in because of unbelief.
How awful, how instructive is this eventful crisis! A whole generation of the Israelites forfeited their inheritance by the want of faith. They were condemned to wander in the wilderness forty years. The fathers died for their iniquities, that the children might be instructed in righteousness. The ten spies, who had led the people to revolt, became the first victims of divine vengeance. They instantly died of the plague. But Caleb and Joshua lived to declare the wonders of the Lord to a new generation. This history is instructive in a figurative view. We, as well as the ancient Israelites, have been redeemed. We too, are in the wilderness: and we are seeking a better country, a heavenly habitation which the Lord has promised to give. We have not yet entered into it; but there remaineth a rest for the people of God.
Secondly observe, the Israelites could not enter the land until they were tried and made ready; and the case is exactly parallel with regard to our entrance into heaven. We must be washed and made white in the blood of Christ, and completely subjugated to his easy yoke. A superficial change is by no means an adequate qualification for his presence. We have to dwell with God, and we must be holy, for he is holy. We have to dwell with patriarchs and prophets, with apostles and martyrs, with confessors and the best of saints, and we must have a conformity to them in virtue. We must be sanctified wholly, and pray that our whole body, soul, and spirit, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, believers should expect a present salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. Let us go up at once and possess it. To heaven we cannot go, till a watchful providence calls us hence. The Lord will come in due time; but he may come to-day; and hence we should always be ready. A great work is to be wrought, and we have no assurance of life; but this is our consolation, that the Lord is now ready and willing to accomplish it. His great oblation for sin has already been presented on Calvary; the fountain is opened to wash the defiled; and all grace is ready to sanctify the soul. His house, his arms, his heart, are open and ready to receive the prodigal: he stands in every form of grace, and cries with the most inviting countenance, Come unto me. Brethren, we want nothing but a heart to receive the grace of God. We have no wish to slight a progressive work in the mortification of sin. The purification of the soul is often like bleaching, a slow and difficult process; and the daily efforts of good men to repress anger, to abase pride, and guard against vain thoughts, are highly pleasing to God. But experience has taught us, and experience here is a great test, that a man may proceed in this way many years, and be only where he began; his corruptions only cropped, spring up again on the appearance of temptation. It seems a far more excellent way to look simply at the great promises of sanctification in the New Covenant, promises exemplified in the New Testament, and to ask of God a present salvation from all indwelling corruption. Without having recourse to this method, and claiming the accomplishment of the promise, we may go on to the latest period of life in a sort of bondage, as many go on from year to year, without the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin.
Fourthly observe, that wicked men are discouraged from becoming religious, by the mere appearance of the difficulties which it presents. Heaven, say they, is a happy place; it is a land flowing with milk and honey. A religious life is certainly amiable, provided people practise what they profess; but at the same time, to be strictly religious is impossible for men in our situation. We have to live in the world; its habits and opinions bear us away like a torrent. We cannot be altogether singular; and it would be extremely uncharitable to think every one lost who is not perfect in virtue.We would always wish to hear the wicked speak; it opens the hidden things of the heart, and enables the preacher to reply, What, is this, the language of modern sinners? What, but the identical language of the unbelieving spies? The people of the land were still deemed too numerous; public opinion and favourite vices are still the giants which cannot be conquered; they must therefore revolt against God, and continue in Egyptian bondage. How much soever these mens characters may be distinguished by knowledge, benevolence, or partial virtues, they have an evil heart of unbelief departing from the Lord; a heart which is earthly, sensual and devilish. They hate the light, because it discovers their shame; and they bring an evil report on the good way, because their own way is crooked and perverse. They would have a religion accommodated to their passions. They wish for a gospel which soothes their conscience, which reserves purification for the grave, and promises heaven to men who have no qualifications for its enjoyment. Such a gospel, sinners, you shall never hear, for God can never change. Religion has no difficulties but what have been more than surmounted, and it requires no sacrifices so great as those which most of you have already made for the world. Your negligence has therefore no excuse, your fears have no apology, your crimes have no cover. When the glory of the Lord shall again appear, you shall be overwhelmed with the shame and confusion of this unbelieving crowd.
Fifthly, a few faithful men we see are adequate to refute and confound a whole multitude of unbelievers. Caleb stilled the people. He overpowered them by sound argument and divine confidence, though unable to change their hearts. What is it that our libertines and infidels would say? What are their quaint caveats against the doctrines and the duties of religion? Is adoration to be withheld from the High and Holy One, who inhabiteth eternity? Are hymns and thanksgiving to the Author of all our mercies a superfluous service? Are prayers and contrition unbecoming a sinful worm, when prostrate before his God? Is there any thing too humiliating, any thing improper in the duties of self-denial and mortification? Are they too gloomy and rigorous for social life? But we ask, what difficulties does religion present which are formidable to any class of men, excepting those who are irresolute and sordidly attached to sin? Divine aid is more than adequate to all temptations. With this Moses resumed a youthful heart from all the pleasures of the Egyptian court, and esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of the Lybian shore. With these aids Daniel and his three colleagues served the Lord in the highest splendour of the Babylonian court. Unable to fly, they bravely fought. They quenched the violence of fire, and stopped the mouths of lions. Their persecutors were so vanquished by their faith, as to become their patrons. The little flock of Christ was likewise surrounded with the Jews and Heathens, as with wolves and tigers; yet they flourished and subdued the Roman world to the banner of the cross. What do we say, sinners, many of your own age, and some of your particular friends have subdued all the sins which you think insurmountable. Yea, and we will repeat it, that you have often done more for the world than you are now required to do for God. Hide your mouth then in the dust, and no longer reproach the Lord, nor bring an evil report on religion by affirming that its precepts are impracticable. Go up at once and possess it, for God will afford you strength equal to the duty.
Farther observe, this history gives a very alarming caution to the whole christian world, and it is frequently improved in the sacred writings. St. Paul excites the Hebrews to fear, lest there should be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and lest they should come short of the rest which he hath promised. St. Jude, in like manner reminds the faithful, that God having saved the people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. Some of them were consumed with fire, some were destroyed by an earthquake, some were bitten with serpents, and others were cut off with the plague. Hence it is inferred, that we should neither tempt nor provoke the Lord. And if the holy apostles used those cautions, and in an age comparatively pure, what would they have said of the present age?
But did the Israelites perish through impiety? Was a whole nation cut off, and deprived of inheritance for the want of faith? Were even good men confounded for their defects in the temporal punishment of the wicked? Were but two faithful men, Caleb and Joshua, exempt? And is God less rigorous now than in the early periods of society? Can we presume that he would punish a whole offending nation in a dark age, and spare the more atrocious sinners of enlightened times? Is there any variation in his rules of rectitude, or is he become so familiar with the sight of crimes as to be indifferent about the punishment? No, no: we infer the future from the past. Our God will come with vengeance, with a recompense he will come and save: he will not keep silence, a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about. His sign shall appear in the heavens. He shall come with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God; and particularly on those rebels who have seen his works, who have been acquainted with the evidences of religion, and have disbelieved his word. He will make bare his arm for the battle, his holy arm of strength; and declare that those men shall not see the land which he has promised to the saints.
Sinners, take the alarm. Christians, whose hearts are still attached to Egypt, tremble. The magnitude of the danger is equal to the magnitude of your sin. Be wise to-day, while wisdom may avail. A few more revolts, a few more slighted sermons, and you are undone. A few more foul offences, and the scale will turn; a few more days of procrastination, and the period of repentance will be past. Therefore we cry in the voice of David, who wished to warn posterity by the wickedness of their fathers; To-day, as when God spoke from Sinai, If ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of temptation, as in the day of provocation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works: unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.
Fathers, wicked fathers, heads of houses, this voice is to you. God was obliged to cut off the parents to save the children. Impunity might have emboldened them in vice. But the new generation, knowing their crimes and attesting their punishment, learned to fear the Lord. Drunkards, swearers, carnal and irreligious men, can you yet ask for instruction? Can you after this, require proof? Those unhappy Israelites are to you, both instruction and proof. How often have you been conducted home, the most pitiable objects of intoxication. How often have your children heard you blaspheme the name of God. How often have they heard you despise his word, and curse his people. You have already corrupted your tender offspring: you have initiated them into all your crimes, and laid the foundation, by impiety and vice, for their eternal ruin. Perhaps mercy cannot now save you; perhaps your children also cannot be saved, unless you are made a fearful example of divine vengeance; unless you are cast into a bed of severe affliction, and unless your conscience is alarmed with the terrors of the Lord. Unless like criminals to whom we hope repentance is granted before punishment, you confess, in presence of your family, all your profaneness and vice; and warn them, in the most impressive language, to avoid your crimes, and to seek the Lord.
Ah, sinners, our sermons have been quite too mild. We have erred by excess of candour. You are become learned in the arts of evasion. Your understanding is but partially vanquished by truth, and your heart is powerfully swayed by vice. Hence our word is without effect; hence so many barren sermons; hence so many whole congregations apparently convinced, and no conversions follow. But oh if there be yet a spark of grace unquenched, if there be yet in those hearts a susceptibility of repentance; yield, yield to the force of truth, and soften before the Lord. Rebel no longer against him, and pray that the evil may never come. Yes, and pray now, for the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you. Join those Moseses in supplication; they have long been praying for you; pray now for yourselves that he may not only mitigate, but entirely revoke your sentence, and permit you to enter the rest which remaineth for the people of God. May the Lord grant it, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Numbers 13
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran.” Verses 1-3.
In order fully to understand the foregoing commandment, we must look at it in connection with a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses, in going over the facts of Israel’s marvellous history in the wilderness, reminds them of the following important and interesting circumstance: “And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-Barnea. and I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, we will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.” Deut. 1: 19-22.
Now here we have the moral root of the fact stated in Numbers 13: 2. It is evident that the Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people. Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses, “Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.” There is not a single syllable about spies, in this splendid passage. What does faith want of spies, when it has the word and the presence of the living God? If Jehovah had given them a land, it must be worth having. And had He not? Yes, truly; and not only so, but He had borne testimony to the nature and character of that land in the following glowing words,” For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” Deut 8: 7-9.
Should not all this have sufficed for Israel? Ought they not to have been satisfied with the testimony of God? had not He spied out the land for them, and told them all about it? And was not this enough? What need of sending men to spy the land? Did not God know all about it! Was there a spot “from Dan to Beersheba” with which he was not perfectly acquainted? Had He not selected this land and allotted it, in His own eternal counsels, for the seed of Abraham His friend? Did He not know all about the difficulties? and was He not able to surmount them? Why, then, did they “come near every one of them, and say, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again!”
Ah! reader, these questions come right home to our hearts. they find us out, and make thoroughly manifest where we are. It is not for us to sit down and coolly animadvert upon the ways of Israel in the wilderness; to point out error here, and failure there? We must take all these things as types set before us for our admonition. They are beacons, erected by a friendly and faithful hand, to warn us off from the dangerous shoals, quicksands, and rocks which lie along our course, and threaten our safety. This, we may be sure, is the true way to read every page of Israel’s history, if we would reap the profit which our God has designed for us in penning such a record.
But, it may be the reader is disposed to ask a question here. “Did not the Lord expressly command Moses to send spies. And if so, how was it wrong for Israel to send them? True, the Lord did command Moses to send the spies, in Numbers 13; but this was in consequence of the moral condition of the people, as set forth in Deuteronomy 1. We shall not understand the former unless we read it in the light of the latter. we learn, most distinctly, From Deuteronomy 1: 22, that the idea of sending the spies had its origin in the heart of Israel. God saw their moral condition, and He issued a command in full keeping therewith.
If the reader will turn to the opening pages of the first book of Samuel, he will find something similar in the matter of the appointment of a king. The Lord commanded Samuel to hearken to the voice of the people, and make them a king. (1 Sam. 8: 22) Was it that He approved of the plan? Most surely not; on the contrary, He declares plainly that it was a positive rejection of Himself. Why then command Samuel to appoint a king! The command was given in consequence of Israel’s condition. They were growing weary of the position of entire dependence upon an unseen arm; and they longed for an arm of flesh. They desired to be like the nations around them, and to have a king who should go out before them, and fight their battles for them. Well, God gave them their request, and they were very speedily called to prove the worthlessness of their plan. Their king proved a most complete failure, and they had to learn that it was an evil and a bitter thing to forsake the living God and lean on a broken reed of their own selection.
Now, we see the same thing in the matter of the spies. There can be no question, in the mind of any spiritual person who studies the entire subject, as to the fact that the scheme of sending the spies was the fruit of unbelief. A simple heart that trusted God would never have thought of such a thing. What! are we to send poor mortals to spy out a land which God has graciously given to us, and which He has so fully and faithfully described? Far be the thought; nay, rather let us say, “It is enough; the land is the gift of God, and as such it must be good. His word is enough for our hearts; we want no spies; we seek for no mortal testimony to confirm the word of the living God. He has given; He has spoken; this is enough.”
But alas! Israel was not in a condition to adopt such language. They would send spies. They wanted them, their hearts craved them: the desire for them lay in the very depths of the soul; Jehovah knew this, and hence He issued a commandment in direct reference to the moral state of the people.
The reader would do well to ponder this subject, in the light of scripture. He will need to compare Deuteronomy 1 with Numbers 13. It is possible he may find difficulty in judging of the true nature and moral roots of the act of sending the spies, from the fact that the thing was ultimately done in pursuance of “the commandment of the Lord.” But we must ever remember that the fact of the Lord’s commanding the thing to be done does not, by any means, prove that the people were right in seeking it. The giving of the law at Mount Sinai; the sending of the spies; and the appointment of a king, are all proofs of this. No doubt God overruled all these things for His own glory and for man’s ultimate blessing; but still the law could not be viewed as the expression of the heart of God; the setting up of a king was a positive rejection of Himself; and we may say that the sending of men to spy out the land of promise proved, very distinctly, that the heart of Israel was not fully satisfied with Jehovah. The whole affair was the fruit of their weakness and unbelief, though acquiesced in by God because of their condition, and overruled by Him, in His infinite goodness and unerring wisdom, for the unfolding of His ways and the display of His glory. All this comes fully out as we pursue the history.
“And Moses sent them (the spies) to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: and see the land what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath….. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. the place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the Land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.” Numbers 13: 17-27.
Here, then, was the fullest confirmation of all that the Lord had said concerning the land – the testimony of twelve men as to the fact that the land flowed with milk and honey – the testimony of their own senses as to the character of the fruit of the land. Furthermore, there was the telling fact that twelve men had actually been in the land, had spent forty days in travelling up and down therein, had drunk of its springs and eaten of its fruits. And what, according to the judgement of faith, would have been the plain inference to be drawn from such a fact? Why, simply, that the same hand which had conducted twelve men into the land could conduct the whole congregation.
But alas! the people were not governed by faith, but by dark and depressing unbelief; and even the spies themselves – the very men who had been sent for the purpose of assuring and confirming the congregation-even they, with two brilliant exceptions, were under the power of the same God-dishonouring spirit. In short, the whole scheme proved a failure. The issue only made manifest the true condition of the hearts of the people. Unbelief was dominant. The testimony was plain enough: “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.” There was nothing whatever lacking on God’s side of the question. The land was all that He had said, the spies themselves being witnesses; but let us hearken to what follows. “Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.” Verse 28.
There is always sure to be a “nevertheless” where man is concerned, and when unbelief is at work. The unbelieving spies saw the difficulties – great cities, high walls, tall giants. All these things they saw; but they did not see Jehovah at all. They looked at the things that were seen, rather than at the things that were unseen. Their eye was not fixed upon Him who is invisible. Doubtless, the cities were great; but God was greater. The walls were high; but God was higher. The giants were strong but God was stronger.
Thus it Is that faith ever reasons. Faith reasons from God to the difficulties: it begins with Him. Unbelief, on the contrary, reasons from the difficulties to God: it begins with them. This makes all the difference. It is not that we are to be insensible to the difficulties; neither are we to be reckless. Neither insensibility nor yet recklessness is faith. There are some easy-going people who seem to get along through life! on the principle of taking things by the smooth handle. This is not faith. Faith looks the difficulties straight in the face; it is fully alive to the roughness of the handle. It is not ignorant, not indifferent – not reckless; but what? IT BRINGS IN THE LIVING GOD. It looks to Him; it leans on Him; it draws from Him. Here lies the grand secret of its power. It cherishes the calm and deep conviction that there never was a wall too high for the Almighty God – never a city too great – never a giant too strong. In short, faith is the only thing that gives God His proper place; and, as a consequence, is the only thing that lifts the soul completely above the influences of surrounding circumstances, be they what they may. Of this precious faith, Caleb was the exponent, when he said, “Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” These are the pure accents of that lively faith that glorifies God and makes nothing of circumstances.
But alas! the great majority of the spies were no more governed by this lively faith than the man who sent them; and hence, the one believer was talked down by the ten infidels. “The men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people.” The language of infidelity was flatly opposed to the language of faith. The latter, looking at God, said,” We are well able.” The former, looking at the difficulties, said, “We are not able.” Thus it was and thus it is. The eyes of faith are ever covered by the living God, and therefore difficulties are not seen. The eyes of unbelief are covered with the circumstances, and therefore God is not seen. Faith brings in God, and therefore all is bright and easy. Unbelief always shuts God out, and therefore all is dark and difficult.
“And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Not a word about God. He is entirely shut out. Had they thought of Him – had they brought the giants into comparison with Him, then it would have made not one whit of difference as to whether they themselves were grasshoppers, or whether they were men. But, in point of fact they, by their shameful unbelief, reduced the God of Israel to the level of a grasshopper.
It is very remarkable, that whenever infidelity is at work, it will always be found characterised by this one fact, namely, it shuts out God. This will be found true in all ages, in all places, and under all circumstances. There is no exception. Infidelity can take account of human affairs,, it can reason upon them, and draw conclusions from them; but all its reasonings and all its conclusions are based upon the exclusion of God. The force of its arguments depends upon shutting Him out, and keeping Him out. Only introduce God, and all the reasonings of infidelity crumble into dust beneath your feet. Thus, in the scene before us, What is faith’s reply to all the objections advanced by those ten unbelievers? Its one simple, all-satisfying reply, to which there can be no rejoinder, is – GOD!
Reader, do you know anything of the force and value of this most blessed answer! Do you know God? Does He fill the entire range of your soul’s vision? Is He the answer to your every question? the solution of your every difficulty? Do you know the reality of walking, day by day, with the living God? Do you know the tranquillising power of leaning upon Him,” through all the changes and chances of this mortal life?” If not, let me entreat of you not to go on for one hour in your present state. The way is open. God has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ, as the relief, the resource, and the refuge of every needy soul. Look to Him now – even now,” while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;” and “He that believeth shall never be confounded.”
But if, on the other hand, you do, through grace, know God as your Saviour – your Father, then seek to glorify Him in all your ways, by a childlike unquestioning confidence in all things. Let Him be a perfect covering for your eyes, under all circumstances, and thus, in spite of all difficulties, your soul shall be kept in perfect peace.
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Num 13:1-33. The Espial of Canaan.This narrative is marked by numerous discrepancies, due to its being a fusion of two accounts drawn from JE and P. In the one (JE) the spies start probably from Kadesh (Num 13:26; Num 32:8, cf. Deu 1:19 f., Jos 14:7), the survey is limited to the S. of Palestine (Num 13:22 f.), and the report of the land is favourable, but of the inhabitants alarming (Num 13:27-29), Caleb alone dissenting from the latter representation. In the other (P) the spies start from Paran (Num 13:3), the survey extends to the N. border of the Holy Land (Num 13:21; cf. Num 34:8), and the report of the country is unfavourable (Num 13:32), both Joshua and Caleb dissenting.
Num 13:1-17 a (from P). The Names of the 12 Spies.These are styled princes, but are not identical with those named in ch. 1 Caleb, the representative of Judah, is called a Kenizzite in Num 32:12, Jos 14:6; Jos 14:14. The statement that Joshuas birth-name was Hoshea, and was changed by Moses (Num 13:8; Num 13:16), is connected with the fact that the name Joshua involves the Divine name Yahweh, which, according to P, was not known until after Moses, and presumably Joshuas, birth.
Num 13:17 b Num 13:20 (from JE). The Commission given to the Spies.The South (Heb. Negeb, p. 32) was the parched high ground which afterwards formed the S. portion of Judah (Jos 15:21), though lying N. of the locality where the Israelites now were (Kadesh). The time of the first-ripe grapes was about the end of July.
Num 13:21 (from P). An Account of the Territory Explored.This represents it as extending from the wilderness of Zin, afterwards the southern border of Israel (Num 34:3), to Rehob or Beth-rehob (2Sa 10:6; 2Sa 10:8), near to Laish or Dan (Jdg 18:28), a city not very far from the valley between Lebanon and Hermon (the entering in of Hamath), which ideally defined the N. frontier of Israel (see 1Ki 8:65, 2Ki 14:25). The distance to Rehob is about 200 miles.
Num 13:22-24. (from JE). A Second Account of the Region Explored.This implies an outward journey of about 60 miles, making it extend only to Hebron (19 miles S. of Jerusalem, p. 31) and the valley of Eshcol (some unidentified wdy near Hebron, cf. Jos 14:9; Jos 14:14). The country round Hebron is still covered with vineyards. Zoan (the later Tanis, Isa 19:11*)is said to have been built about 1670 B.C. The separate mention of Hebron (Num 13:22) and of Eshcol (Num 13:23) points to a slight divergence between J and E.
Num 13:25-26 a (P). The Return of the Spies to Paran.The addition to Kadesh (the modern Ain Kadis, p. 32) probably comes from JE, for by P Kadesh is placed in the wilderness of Zin (Num 33:36), not Paran.
Num 13:26 b Num 13:31 (from JE). The Report of the Spies.This, in respect of the land, was favourable and was confirmed by samples of its products (cf. Deu 1:25); but in respect of the formidable character of its population and their cities was unnerving (though contradicted by Caleb).
Num 13:28. the children of Anak: i.e. (long)-necked men, Anak being a proper noun signifying neck (cf. Deu 1:28*, Deu 2:10; Deu 9:2).
Num 13:29. Amalek: the Amalekites were nomads who roamed over the desert S. of Judah (cf. 1Sa 15:7; 1Sa 30:1).the Hittite (pp. 53, 55f.): these were a non-Semitic, perhaps Mongolian, race, who as a nation dwelt outside the N. limits of the Holy Land (Car-chemish being one of their chief cities), but of whom individual settlers may have made their homes in central or southern Palestine (Gen 23:3 f.*).the Jebusite: the inhabitants of Jebus (or Jerusalem, Jos 15:63*).the Amorite: here regarded as the population of the country W. of Jordan occupying the hills (as in Deu 1:19).the Canaanite: here (contrast Num 14:45) represented as the dwellers in the low-lying maritime plain (as in Deuteronomy 17, Zeph. 25f.) and in the valley of the Jordan (Deu 11:30).
Num 13:30. stilled: this presumes the weeping and murmuring mentioned in Num 14:1 f.
Num 13:32 a (from P). Another Report of the Spies.This is unfavourable to the land, representing it as barren and producing insufficient to support its inhabitants (for the phraseology see Eze 36:13, cf. Lev 26:38). The estimate probably reflects the conditions prevailing during, and after, the Babylonian exile (Hag 1:6).
Num 13:32 b Num 13:33 (from JE). A Continuation of the Report in Num 13:26 b Num 13:31.The Nephilim are described in Gen 6:2-4* as the offspring of intercourse between angels and women (like many of the heroes of classical mythology): the LXX renders the word by giants. In Num 13:33 read, And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are of the Nephilim): and we, etc. The words within the parenthesis form a note, which is absent from the LXX.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
SPIES SENT TO CANAAN
(vs.1-25)
As Israel drew nearer to Canaan, God instructed Moses to send a man from each of the 12 tribes to spy out the land Canaan (vs.1-2). If we compare this to Deu 1:22-23 we shall see that the children of Israel had first come to Moses, desiring that they should send men to search out the land and bring back advice as to what way Israel should take to enter the land and what cities should be their first object of attack. Notice in this scripture that there is no suggestion of deciding whether they should go in the land, but only which way. This pleased Moses well, and he appointed 12 men as spies. No doubt he made these appointments when God told him to, which would indicate God’s approval of Israel’s request.
The men sent were all heads in their particular tribes, and therefore should have been men of faith and courage. The names of these are given in verses 4 to 15. No doubt the meanings of the their names may have something do to with their character, but it is difficult to speak with certainty of their meanings.
They were told to go up from the south into the mountains. Supposing the mountains are more rugged and challenging than the plain, yet “His (God’s) foundation is in the holy mountains” (Psa 87:1), indicating that the Lord does not pamper our desire for easy circumstances, but expects us to face adversity with full confidence in His upholding grace and faithfulness.
The spies were to take full account of all that they saw, what the land was like, whether the people were strong or weak, few or many, whether the land was good or bad, whether the cities were like camps or strongholds, whether the land was rich or poor, and whether there were forests (vs.18-20). Certainly Moses did not intend that any of these things should influence the question of Israel’s going into the land. Rather, just as today we should be aware of what we are called upon to face, so Israel would be aware and prepared to meet whatever circumstances that faced them. Moses told the men to be of good courage and to bring back some of the fruit of the land. The time was the season of first-ripe grapes.
The spies took plenty of time to pass through the land. Hebron is the first name mentioned, a city of great antiquity. Its name means “communion,” a fact that should have attracted Israel to take possession of it, just as we should allow no enemy to hinder our possession of vital, real communion with our Lord. They saw that the opposition was formidable, with Sheshai and Talmai, descendants of the giant Anak there (v.22).
Coming to the Valley of Eshcol, they found such fruitfulness that one cluster of grapes required two men to carry it on a pole. Pomegranates and figs were also include in the fruits they carried back to the camp of Israel after having taken 40 days to spy out the land. Number 40 is the number of testing and they had taken plenty of time to prove everything about the land and its produce. What God had said about the land was proven perfectly true. This was the land that God had promised them. It was of course true that the inhabitants of the land were strong, but this was no barrier to the ability of Israel to overcome them.
THE REPORT GOOD, BUT NOT MIXED WITH FAITH
(vs.26-33)
Returning to the camp, the spies showed the people the fruits of the land, confirming fully what God had told Israel, that the land flowed with milk and honey (v.27). Thus they fully vindicated the Word of God. He had told them the truth as to the land to which He was leading them.
“Nevertheless,” they add, “the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the children of Anak there” (v.28). If they had simply left out the word “nevertheless” here, then after telling of the strength of the enemy, had said, “Nevertheless, God is greater and stronger than they,” how much more encouraging and strengthening this would have been. But instead they speak only of the formidable appearance of their enemies as though they were organized into a force totally indestructible (v.29).
Caleb (the “wholehearted” one) spoke out positively with words that for the moment quiet the people, urging that they should immediately go into the land, or he says, “We are well able to overcome it.” If he had only had the concurrence of the other spies, how different the results would have been. But all of these except Joshua declare that Israel is not able to overcome the enemy. Why? Because the enemy was stronger than they (v.31). They have simply forgotten the living God, and give way to their own unbelieving fears.
Thus they gave what God calls “a bad report of the land,” saying the land would “devour its inhabitants,” for the men were of great stature, some giants who dwarfed the spies as though they had been grasshoppers. God had before emphasized the productivity of the land: the spies saw this to be true, but emphasized the strength of the enemy, as though God had not taken this into account!
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
The failure of the first generation chs. 13-14
The events recorded in chapters 13 and 14 took place while Israel was at Kadesh.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The sending of the 12 spies into Canaan 13:1-25
When the people arrived at Kadesh the Lord told them to go up and take possession of the land He had promised them (Deu 1:19-21). Kadesh stood in the Desert of Zin, which was a section of the great Paran wilderness. The people asked Moses if they could send spies ahead of them. They did so, "that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up, and the cities which we shall enter" (Deu 1:22). Moses allowed this (Deu 1:23) with God’s permission (Num 13:2). Clearly the Israelites were not rebelling against God by sending the spies, but neither were they stepping forward in bold obedience with strong confidence in God, as they should have done. Why did God not lead Moses to record here (Num 13:1-3) the fact that the sending of the spies was the people’s idea (Deu 1:22)? The reason may be that this was not the sin that resulted in God’s postponement of their entrance into Canaan. Their reaction to the spies’ report caused that result. The mission of the spies had some genuine value to the Israelites (Num 13:18-20), but it also opened the possibility of fear and failure to obey God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT
Num 13:1-33; Num 14:1-10
Two narratives at least appear to be united in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters. From Num 13:17; Num 13:22-23, we learn that the spies were despatched by way of the south, and that they went to Hebron and a little beyond, as far as the valley of Eshcol. But Num 13:21 states that they spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, south of the Dead Sea, to the entering in of Hamath. The latter statement implies that they traversed what were afterwards called Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, and penetrated as far as the valley of the Leontes, between the southern ranges of Libanus and Antilibanus. The one account taken by itself would make the journey of the spies northward about a hundred miles; the other, three times as long.
A further difference is this: According to one of the narratives Caleb alone encourages the people. {Num 13:30, Num 14:24} But according to the Num 13:8; Num 14:6-7, Joshua, as well as Caleb, is among the twelve, and reports favourably as to the possibility of conquering and possessing Canaan.
Without deciding on the critical points involved, we may find a way of harmonising the apparent differences. It is quite possible, for instance, that while some of the twelve were instructed to keep in the south of Canaan, others were sent to the middle district and a third company to the north. Caleb might be among those who explored the south; while Joshua, having gone to the far north, might return somewhat later and join his testimony to that which Caleb had given. There is no inconsistency between the portions ascribed to the one narrative and those referred to the other; and the account, as we have it, may give what was the gist of several co-ordinate documents. As to any variance in the reports of the spies, we can easily understand how those who looked for smiling valleys and fruitful fields would find them, while others saw.only the difficulties and dangers that would have to be faced.
The questions occur, why and at whose instance the survey was undertaken. From Deuteronomy we learn that a demand for it arose among the people. Moses says: {Deu 1:22} “Ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come.” In Numbers the expedition is undertaken at the order of Jehovah conveyed through Moses. The opposition here is only on the surface. The people might desire, but decision did not lie with them. It was quite natural when the tribes had at length approached the frontier of Canaan that they should seek information as to the state of the country. And the wish was one which could be sanctioned, which had even been anticipated. The land of Canaan was already known to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the praise of it as a land flowing with milk and honey mingled with their traditions. In one sense there was no need to send spies, either to report on the fertility of the land or on the peoples dwelling in it. Yet Divine Providence, on which men are to rely, does not supersede their prudence and the duty that rests with them of considering the way they go. The destiny of life or of a nation is to be wrought out in faith; still we are to use all available means in order to ensure success. So personality grows through providence, and God raises men for Himself.
To the band of pioneers each tribe contributes a man, and all the twelve are headmen, whose intelligence and good faith may presumably be trusted. They know the strength of Israel; they should also be able to count upon the great source of courage and power-the unseen Friend of the nation. Remembering what Egypt is, they know also the ways of the desert; and they have seen war. If they possess enthusiasm and hope, they will not be dismayed by the sight of a few walled towns or even of some Anakim. They will say, “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Yet there is danger that old doubts and new fears may colour their report. God appoints men to duty; but their personal character and tendencies remain. And the very best men Israel can choose for a task like this will need all their faithfulness and more than all their faith to do it well.
The spies were to climb the heights visible in the north, and look forth towards the Great Sea and away to Moriah and Carmel. They were also to make their way cautiously into the land itself and examine it. Moses anticipates that all he has said in praise of Canaan will be made good by the report, and the people will be encouraged to enter at once on the final struggle. When the desert was around them, unfruitful, seemingly interminable, the Israelites might have been disposed to fear that journeying from Egypt they were leaving the fertility of the world farther and farther behind. Some may have thought that the Divine promise had misled and deceived them, and that Canaan was a dream. Even although they had now overpassed that dreary region covered with coarse gravel, black flints, and drifting sand, “the great and terrible wilderness,” what hope was there that northward they should reach a land of olives, vineyards, and flowing streams? The report of the spies would answer this question.
Now in like manner the future state of existence may seem dim and unreal, scarcely credible, to many. Our life is like a series of marches hither and thither through the desert. Neither as individuals nor as communities do we seem to approach any state of blessedness and rest. Rather, as years go by, does the region become more inhospitable. Hopes once cherished are one after another disappointed. The stern mountains that overhung the track by which our forefathers went still frown upon us. It seems impossible to get beyond their shadow. And in a kind of despair some may be ready to say: There is no promised land. This waste, with its sere grass, its burning sand, its rugged hills, makes the whole of life. We shall die here in the wilderness like those who have been before us; and when our graves are dug and our bodies laid in them, our existence will have an end. But it is a thoughtless habit to doubt that of which we have no full experience. Here we have but begun to learn the possibilities of life and find a clew to its Divine mysteries. And even as to the Israelites in the wilderness there were not wanting signs that pointed to the fruitful and pleasant country beyond, so for us, even now, there are previsions of the higher world. Some shrubs and straggling vines grew in sheltered hollows among the hills. Here and there a scanty crop of maize was reared, and in the rainy season streams flowed down the wastes. From what was known the Israelites might reason hopefully to that which as yet was beyond their sight. And are there not fore-signs for the soul, springs opened to the seekers after God in the desert, some verdure of righteousness, some strength and peace in believing?
Science and business and the cares of life absorb many and bewilder them. Immersed in the work of their world, men are apt to forget that deeper draughts of life may be drunk than they obtain in the laboratory or the countinghouse. But he who knows what love and worship are, who finds in all things the food of religious thought and devotion, makes no such mistake. To him a future in the spiritual world is far more within the range of hopeful anticipation than Canaan was to one who remembered Egypt and had bathed in the waters of the Nile. Is the heavenly future real? It is: as thought and faith and love are real, as the fellowship of souls and the joy of communion with God are realities. Those who are in doubt as to immortality may find the cause of that doubt in their own earthliness. Let them be less occupied with the material, care more for the spiritual possessions, truth, righteousness, religion, and they will begin to feel an end of doubt. Heaven is no fable. Even now we have our foretaste of its refreshing waters and the fruits that are for the healing of the nations.
The spies were to climb the hills which commanded a view of the promised land. And there are heights which must be scaled if we are to have previsions of the heavenly life. Men undertake to forecast the future of the human race who have never sought those heights. They may have gone out from camp a few miles or even some days journey, but they have kept in the plain. One is devoted to science, and he sees as the land of promise a region in which science shall achieve triumphs hitherto only dreamt of, when the ultimate atoms shall disclose their secrets and the subtle principle of life shall be no longer a mystery. The social reformer sees his own schemes in operation, some new adjustment of human relations, some new economy or system of government, the establishment of an order that shall make the affairs of the world run smoothly, and banish want and care and possibly disease from the earth. But these and similar previsions are not from the heights. We have to climb quite above the earthly and temporal, above economics and scientific theories. Where the way of faith rises, where the love of men becomes perfect in the love of God, not in theory but in the practical endeavour of earnest life, there we ascend, we advance. We shall see the coming kingdom of God only if we are heartily with God in the ardour of the redeemed soul, if we follow in the footsteps of Christ to the summits of Sacrifice.
The spies went forth from among tribes which had so far made a good journey under the Divine guidance. So well had the expedition sped that a few days march would have brought the travellers into Canaan. But Israel was not a hopeful people nor a united people. The thoughts of many turned back; all were not faithful to God nor loyal to Moses. And as the people were, so were the spies. Some may have professed to be enthusiastic who had their doubts regarding Canaan and the possibility of conquering it. Others may have even wished to find difficulties that would furnish an excuse for returning even to Egypt. Most were ready to be disenchanted at least and to find cause for alarm. In the south of Canaan a pastoral district, rocky and uninviting towards the shore of the Dead Sea, was found to be sparsely occupied by wandering companies of Amalekites, Bedawin of the time, probably with a look of poverty and hardship that gave little promise for any who should attempt to settle where they roamed. Towards Hebron the aspect of the country improved; but the ancient city, or at all events its stronghold, was in the hands of a class of bandits whose names inspired terror throughout the district-Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, sons of Anak. The great stature of these men, exaggerated by common report, together with stories of their ferocity, seem to have impressed the timid Hebrews beyond measure. And round Hebron the Amorites, a hardy highland race, were found in occupation. The report agreed on was that the people were men of great stature; that the land was one which ate up its inhabitants-that is to say, yielded but a precarious existence. Just beyond Hebron vineyards and olive-groves were found; and from the valley of Eschol one fine cluster of grapes was brought, hung upon a rod to preserve the fruit from injury, an evidence of capabilities that might be developed. Still the report was an evil one on the whole.
Those who went farther north had to tell of strong peoples-the Jebusites and Amorites of the central region, the Hittites of the north, the Canaanites of the seaboard, where afterwards Sisera had his headquarters. The cities, too, were great and walled. These spies had nothing to say of the fruitful plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, nothing to tell of the flowery meadows the “murmuring of innumerable bees,” the terraced vineyards, the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. They had seen the strong, resolute holders of the soil, the fortresses, the difficulties; and of these they brought back an account which caused abundant alarm. Joshua and Caleb alone had the confidence of faith, and were assured that Jehovah, if He delighted in His people, would give them Canaan as an inheritance.
The report of the majority of the spies was one of exaggeration and a certain untruthfulness. They must have spoken altogether without knowledge, or else allowed themselves to magnify what they saw, when they said of the children of Anak, “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Possibly the Hebrews were at this time somewhat ill-developed as a race, bearing the mark of their slavery. But we can hardly suppose that the Amorites, much less the Hittites, were of overpassing stature. Nor could many cities have been so large and strongly fortified as was represented, though Lachish, Hebron, Shalim, and a few others were formidable. On the other hand, the picture had none of the attractiveness it should have borne. These exaggerations and defects, however, are the common faults of misbelieving and therefore ignorant representation. Are any disposed to leave the wilderness of the world and possess the better country? A hundred voices of the baser kind will be heard giving warning and presage. Nothing is said about its spiritual fruit, its joy, hope, and peace. But its hardships are detailed, the renunciations, the obligations, the conflicts necessary before it can be possessed. Who would enter on the hopeless task of trying to cast out the strong man armed, who sits entrenched-of holding at bay the thousand forces that oppose the Christian life? Each position must be taken after a sore struggle and kept by constant watchfulness. Little know they who think of becoming religious how hard it is to be Christians. It is a life of gloom, of constant penitence for failures that cannot be helped, a life of continual trembling and terror. So the reports go that profess to be those of experience and knowledge of men and women who understand life.
Observe also that the account given by those who reconnoitred the land of promise sprang from an error which has its parallel now. The spies went supposing that the Israelites were to conquer Canaan and dwell there purely for their own sake, for their own happiness and comfort. Had not the wilderness journey been undertaken for that end? It did not enter into the consideration either of the people as a whole or of their representatives that they were bound for Canaan in order to fulfil the Divine purpose of making Israel a means of blessing to the world. Here, indeed, a spirituality of view was needful which the spies could not be expected to have. Breadth of foresight, too, would have been required which in the circumstances scarcely lay within human power. If any of them had taken account of Israels spiritual destiny as a witness for Jehovah in the midst of the heathen, could they have told whether this land of Syria or some other would be a fit theatre for the fulfilment of that high destiny?
And in ignorance like theirs lies the source of mistakes often made in judging the circumstances of life, in deciding what will be wisest and best to undertake. We, too, look at things from the point of view of our own happiness and comfort, and, in a higher range, of our religious enjoyment. If we see that these are to be had in a certain sphere, by a certain movement or change, we decide on that change, we choose that sphere. But if neither temporal well-being nor enjoyment of religious privilege appears to be certain, our common practice is to turn in another direction. Yet the truth is that we are not here, and we shall never be anywhere, either in this world or another, simply to enjoy, to have the milk and honey of a smiling land, to fulfil our own desires and live to ourselves. The question regarding the fit place or state for us depends for its answer on what God means to do through us for our fellow-men, for the truth, for His kingdom and glory. The future which we with greater or less success attempt to conquer and secure will, as the Divine hand leads us on, prove different from our dream in proportion as our lives are capable of high endeavour and spiritual service. We shall have our hope, but not as we painted it.
Who are the Calebs and Joshuas of our time? Not those who, forecasting the movements of society, see what they think shall be for their people a region of comfort and earthly prosperity, to be maintained by shutting out as far as possible the agitation of other lands; but those who realise that a nation, especially a Christian nation, has a duty under God to the whole human race. Those are our true guides and come with inspiration who bid us not be afraid in undertaking the world-wide task of commendering truth, establishing righteousness, seeking the enfranchisement and Christianisation of all lands.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Caleb and afterwards of Joshua to controvert the disheartening reports spread by their companions, the people were filled with dismay; and night fell upon a weeping camp. The pictures of those Anakim and of the tall Amorites, rendered more terrible by imagination, appear to have had most to do with the panic. But it was the general impression also that Canaan offered no attractions as a home. There was murmuring against Moses and Aaron. Disaffection spread rapidly, and issued in the proposal to take another leader and return to Egypt. Why had Jehovah brought them across the desert to put them under the sword at last? The tumult increased, and the danger of a revolt became so great that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly.
Always and everywhere faithless means foolish, faithless means cowardly. By this is explained the dejection and panic into which the Israelites fell, into which men often fall. Our life and history are not confided to the Divine care; our hope is not in God. Nothing can save a man or a nation from vacillation, despondency, and defeat but the conviction that Providence opens the may and never fails those who press on. No doubt there are considerations which might have made Israel doubtful whether the conquest of Canaan lay in the way of duty. Some modern moralists would call it a great crime-would say that the tribes could look for no success in endeavouring to dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan, or even to find a place among them. But this thought did not enter into the question. Panic fell on the host, because doubt of Jehovah and His purpose overcame the partial faith which had as yet been maintained with no small difficulty.
Now it was by the mouth of Moses Israel had been assured of the promise of God. Broadly speaking, faith in Jehovah was faith in Moses, who was their moralist, their prophet, their guide. Men here and there, the seventy who prophesied for instance, had their personal consciousness of the Divine power; but the great mass of the people had the covenant, and trusted it through the mediation of Moses. Had Moses then, as the Israelites could judge, a right to command unquestionable authority as a revealer of the will of the unseen God? Take away from the history every incident, every feature, that may appear doubtful, and there remains a personality, a man of distinguished unselfishness, of admirable patience, of great sagacity, who certainly was a patriot, and as certainly had greater conceptions, higher enthusiasms, than any other man of Israel. It was perhaps difficult for those who were gross in nature and very ignorant to realise that Moses was indeed in communication with an unseen, omnipotent Friend of the people. Some might even have been disposed to say: What if he is? What can God do for us? If we are to get anything, we must seek and obtain it for ourselves. Yet the Israelites as a whole held the almost universal belief of those times, the conviction that a Power above the visible world does rule the affairs of earth. And there was evidence enough that Moses was guided and sustained by the Divine hand. The sagacious mind, the brave, noble personality of Moses, made for Israel, at least for every one in Israel capable of appreciating character and wisdom, a bridge between the seen and the unseen, between man and God.
We must not indeed deny that this conviction was liable to challenge and revision. It must always be so when a man speaks for God, represents God. Doubt of the wisdom of any command meant doubt whether God had really given it by Moses. And when it seemed that the tribes had been unwisely brought to Canaan, the reflection might be that Moses had failed as an interpreter. Yet this was not the common conclusion. Rather, from all we learn, was it the conclusion that Jehovah Himself had failed the people or deceived them. And there lay the error of unbelief which is constantly being committed still.
For us, whatever may be said as to the composition of the Bible, it is supremely, and as no other sacred book can be, the Word of God. As Moses was the one man in Israel who had a right to speak in Jehovahs name, so the Bible is the one book which can claim to instruct us in faith, duty, and hope. Speaking to us in human language, it may of course be challenged. At one point and another, some even of those who believe in Divine communication to men may question whether the Bible writers have always caught aright the sound of the heavenly Word. And some go so far as to say: There is no Divine Voice; men have given as the Word of God, in good faith, what arose in their own mind, their own exalted imagination.
Nevertheless, our faith, if faith we are to have at all, must rest on this Book. We cannot get away from human words. We must rely on spoken or written language if we are to know anything higher than our own thought. And what is written in the Bible has the highest marks of inspiration-wisdom, purity, truth, power to convince and convert and to build up a life in holiness and in hope.
It remains true accordingly that doubt of the Bible means for us, must mean, not simply doubt of the men who have been instrumental in giving us the Book, but doubt of God Himself. If the Bible did not speak in harmony with nature and reason and the widest human experience when it lays down moral law, prescribes the true rules and unfolds the great principles of life, the affirmation just made would be absurd. But it is a book of breadth, full of wisdom which every age is verifying. It stands an absolute, the manifest embodiment of knowledge drawn from the highest sources available to men-from sources not earthly nor temporary, but sublime and eternal. Faith, therefore, must have its foundation on the teaching of this Book as to “what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.” And on the other hand infidelity is and must be the result of rejecting the revelation of the Bible, denying that here God speaks with supreme wisdom and authority to our souls.
The Israelites doubting Jehovah who had spoken through Moses, that is to say, doubting the highest, most inspiring word it was possible for them to hear, turning away from the Divine reason that spoke, the heavenly purpose revealed to them, had nothing to rely upon. Confused inadequate counsels, chaotic fears, waited immediately upon their revolt. They sank at once to despondency and the most fatuous and impossible projects. The men who stood against their despair were made offenders, almost sacrificed to their fear. Joshua and Caleb, facing the tumult, called for confidence. “Fear not ye the people of the land,” they said, “for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.” But all the congregation bade stone them with stones; and it was only the bright glow of the pillar of fire shining out at the moment that prevented a dreadful catastrophe.
So the faithless generations fell back still into panic, fatuity, and crime. Trusting in their resources, men say, “No change need trouble us; we have courage, wisdom, power, sufficient for our needs.” But have they unity, have they any scheme of life for which it is worth while to be courageous? The hope of bare continuance, of ignoble safety and comfort will not animate, will not inspire. Only some great vision of Duty seen along the track of the eternally right will kindle the heart of a people; the faith that goes with that vision will alone sustain courage. Without it, armies and battleships are but a temporary and flimsy defence, the pretext of a self-confidence, while the heart is clouded with despair. Whether men say, We will return to Egypt, refusing the call of Providence which bids us fulfil a high destiny, or still refusing to fulfil it, We will maintain ourselves in the wilderness-they have in secret the conviction that they are failures, that their national organisation is a hollow pretence. And the end, though it may linger for a time, will be dismemberment and disaster.
Modern nations, nominally Christian, are finding it difficult to suppress disorder, and occasionally we are almost thrown into a state of panic by the activity of revolutionists. Does the cause not lie in this, that the en avant of Providence and Christianity is not obeyed either in the politics or social economy of the people? Like Israel, a nation has been led so far through the wilderness, but advance can only be into a new order which faith perceives, to which the voice of God calls. If it is becoming a general conclusion that there is no such country, or that the conquest of it is impossible, if many are saying, Let us settle in the wilderness, and others, Let us return to Egypt, what can the issue be but confusion? This is to encourage the anarchist, the dynamiter. The enterprise of humanity, according to such counsels, is so far a failure, and for the future there is no inspiring hope. And to make economic self-seeking the governing idea of a nations movement is simply to abandon the true leader and to choose another of some ignominious order. Would it have been possible to persuade Moses to hold the command of the tribes, and yet remain in the desert or return to Egypt? Neither is it possible to retain Christ as our captain and also to make this world our home, or return to a practical heathenism, relieved by abundance of food, the Hellenic worship of beauty, the organisation of pleasure. For the great enterprise of spiritual redemption alone will Christ be our leader. We lose Him if we turn to the hopes of this world and cease to press the journey towards the city of God.