Hope for Weary People that May Have Seen too Much Change

“Spy Out the Land”

(Numbers 13, Preaching at Portsmouth, NH: Visiting Pastor Stephen Magee, October 9, 2011)

(Numbers 13 ESV)

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

The promise of the Lord was clear. He was giving a land to the descendants of Jacob. The time had come for them to see that land. God commanded Moses to send representatives from the tribes of Israel into the land so that they could report back to the rest of the people.

Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

The assignment He gave was specific. They were not sent out as military strategists who were supposed to assess the feasibility of Israel dispossessing the Canaanites from the land. They were simply to report what they saw. Were the people strong or weak? Were they few or many? Was the land good or bad? These were the sort of questions they were to answer. They were also told to be of good courage and to bring some of the fruit of the land for the people to see.

So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

After forty days these appointed representatives reported their findings to the people and showed them the fruit of the land. All the men had seen the same land, yet only two of them saw that land with the eyes of faith, Caleb and Joshua. They knew that the land was Israel's, given to them by God. The others urged fear and faithlessness and even spread a false report about the land to the people, saying that it was a land that devoured its inhabitants. They claimed that “all the people” were of great height. When they looked back to themselves all they could imagine was certain defeat.

“We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Generations later, long after Israel had first taken the land, a true giant of the Philistines, Goliath, would defy the people of the living God. Young David was able to see this brute with the eyes of faith. Others murmured the chilling assessment of sure defeat. David knew the power of the God of Israel working through His appointed servant.

Centuries after David, a descendant of this chosen king would stand up to powerful adversaries and proclaim a word of perfect faith. He was able to see more than the formidable opposition that gathered against Him. He insisted that in His father's house were many rooms, and that in His death, resurrection, and ascension, He was going to prepare a place for them. He knew that He came from the ultimate promised land, and that after men had rejected, dishonored, and killed Him, that they would not be able to prevent Him returning to the place from which He had come.

This Jesus, through His own blood and righteousness, has accomplished a stunning conquest over sin and death. He has led the way into heaven, a land of glory. His report to us is good. His instruction is to see the gift of God with the eyes of faith, and to take the land by the strength that God supplies. In His power we go forth to certain victory. We will not succumb to evil and fear. We will take the land that God has promised.

Some questions for us to consider as the New Testament church:

1. Have we sufficiently considered the big promise of God to us in Jesus Christ our Lord, and have we heard Jesus' immediate instructions to us for this day? Big picture and small picture...

2. Have we been strengthened in today's task by the facts about Jesus?

Was Caleb brash, or was he right? In Christ, we are well able to take the land.

Final thought: Apart from Jesus, you can do nothing (John 15:5), but you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13). A good word to share with Portsmouth...