1The LORD now said to Moses, 2"Send men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to Israel. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes." 3So Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran.
17Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: "Go northward through the Negev into the hill country. 18See what the land is like and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. 19What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls or are they unprotected? 20How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Enter the land boldly, and bring back samples of the crops you see." (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)
21So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22Going northward, they passed first through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai--all descendants of Anak--lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.) 23When they came to what is now known as the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also took samples of the pomegranates and figs. 24At that time the Israelites renamed the valley Eshcol--"cluster"--because of the cluster of grapes they had cut there.
25After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26to Moses, Aaron, and the people of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27This was their report to Moses: "We arrived in the land you sent us to see, and it is indeed a magnificent country--a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit as proof. 28But the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large. We also saw the descendants of Anak who are living there! 29The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley."
30But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!"
31But the other men who had explored the land with him answered, "We can't go up against them! They are stronger than we are!" 32So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites: "The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that's what we looked like to them!"
Points of Interest:
· ‘Send men to explore the land of Canaan’—they’re actually getting close to their destination. They have made their covenant with God. They’ve built the tabernacle for him to travel with them. And now they are on the doorstep of the land God wants to give them. So, God wants them to get a little sneak preview of where they will be going.
· ‘all descendants of Anak’—Anak was apparently a famous giant. So, either these people are actually part of the tribe descended from Anak, they are very big (and therefore figuratively descendents of Anak), or they just look really big to the Israelites.
· ‘After exploring the land for forty days’—Forty seems to be a number associated with preparation. Moses’ two times on the mountain, preparing for the making of the covenant, were both 40 days; and here they explore the land for 40 days before deciding to move in.
· ‘it is indeed a magnificent country’ and ‘the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites’—the land turns out to be exactly as God had described: it is an abundant land, and it is the land of the all of these different nations. Even though it’s exactly as described, the spies seem a bit surprised by what they’ve found: ‘Sure, it’s a land flowing with milk and honey, but did you know that the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living there?’ Of course Moses knew that. It’s what he’s been telling the people all along. But now that the spies have actually seen these people, they’re a little freaked out. Taking this land will be harder than they might have been imagining.
· ‘They are stronger than we are!’—it’s probably true that the nations inhabiting the land are stronger than they are, but according to the covenant that shouldn’t matter: it’s God’s job to drive out the people, not theirs. That’s probably why Caleb is so confident that they should go nonetheless: he sees that the land is as good as God said, and he can’t wait to have God give it to him.
Taking it home:
- For you: Pray that God will give you the faith in him to believe he has the power to give you the blessings he has promised.
- For your six: The Israelites get here a glimpse of the blessings God has in store for them, and they respond with wonder and with fear. Pray that God would also give your six a glimpse of the blessings he could give them; ask the Holy Spirit to give them the ability to maximize their wonder and minimize their fear as they respond.
- For our church: Pray for the remainder of this Lenten season. Pray that it would be a fruitful time of preparation for whatever God has in store for us next
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