The Wilderness Journey Home At Last Numbers 13:1-14:45 A cry went up: They re coming! All Israel rushed out of their tents. They ran to the north side of the encampment, breathless with anticipation and glee, squinting to see where the spies were. There they were! Yes, there they were but they, too, were running. They were not in a group. They were stretched across the Negev, every man for himself, the young ones racing top speed, the old ones nearly dead with exhaustion. Their clothing was torn! They were disheveled and frightened. Shaphat s mother began to scream. Of all the spies, Shaphat was the youngest. The wives of the others covered their mouths with fear. Shaphat, the first to arrive, fell down gasping. He couldn t speak. He could only shake his head. Others came in with bloody feet. Water was brought. The people surrounded them. And they began to speak. We can t, they said. No, we cannot do this thing! Their faces reflected such horror that the rest of the people felt it too. Here on the edge of a strange land, Israel trembled and waited to hear the name of the horror in Canaan. The cities there are large and fortified. And the people! The spies rolled their eyes remembering. We saw there the descendants of Anak! No, this is a land that devours its inhabitants. The people are of enormous stature. Giants! Yes, we saw the Hephilim! And we seemed no bigger than grasshoppers next to them! Moses had come through the multitude in time to hear the last part of the spies recitation: Nephilim. Grasshoppers. What? he said, astonished. Is there no good news? 1 To Be Continued Moses was having a really bad time. First the people where being a major pain. They had been complaining about God s ways of dealing with them. As a result God had brought two judgments down on them. Well actually three, if you take into consideration a rash of quail. As a result Moses was stressed and depressed. But then, to make matters worse his siblings, Miriam and Aaron started ragging on him and God had to punish Miriam. I m not sure that these guys behavior did much to enhance Moses stature amongst the peoples. But, what a relief, they ve made it to the border and any minute now they d be able to enter Canaan and put all the struggles of the last 400 years behind them. Right? Yeah sure! This morning we will survey the events leading up to what should have been a joyous time. I Let s Get the Show on the Road Numbers 13: 1-2 II Who s Who? Numbers 13: 3-16 III Should You Chose to Accept this Mission Numbers 13:17-20 1 Wangerin, Jr., Walter, The Book of God, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996, p. 150-151.
IV Reporting In Numbers 13:21-14:4 V Truth and Numbers 14: 5-10 VI Consequences Numbers 14:11-38 VII Is Anyone Listening? Numbers 14:39-45 I Let s Get the Show on the Road: Here it appears God instructed Moses to send spies into the land, but from Moses words years later this apparently was God s second set of directions and came as a result of the people s response to His first. See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Then all of you came to me and said, Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to. The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe (Deuteronomy 1:21-23). Apparently the people were reticent about entering the land and facing the enemy. Well this is understandable even with God s victory over Egypt. Here they were asked to participate in the battle. And so, the idea of the spies comes up. Moses thinks it s a good idea and God instructs the people to act accordingly. II Who s Who?: There are twelve individuals, one from each tribe who are chosen to go into the land and check it out. There are two individuals who should be given specific attention. The first is Caleb. We find him listed in verse 6. What tribe is he from? Judah!. This is the tribe of David, the tribe of Jesus. Is this significant? I don t know, but it is interesting. The second, of whom we will hear much more, is Joshua. Now we ve already run across him in back in chapter eleven where he came, mistakenly, to the support of Moses. Here Allen notes the importance of the name change. Here we learn that Joshua s name was first known as Hoshea, but it was Moses who changed it to Joshua. This parenthetical statement anticipates the later prominence of Joshua. The reader is alerted to the significance of this name among the list of the spies; here is a man of great destiny. The Hebrew word Hoshea means salvation ; the new form of the name Joshua means Yahweh saves ; the latter form is the Hebrew spelling for Jesus (Y shua ). 2 This is a foreshadowing of Joshua s future role as Moses successor and the one who would finally lead the people into the land. But, more of Joshua in a moment. III Should You Chose to Accept this Mission : Moses gave very specific instructions to the spies. They were required to check out the details of the land, people, towns, even the quality of the soil. This was to be a comprehensive report on all aspects of the land. This way the people would know what to expect. Unfortunately, it seems that sometimes we are better off trusting God sight unseen. Too much information can be a detriment to faith. The prob- 2 Allen, Ronald B., The Expositor s Bible Commentary, Numbers, Zondervan I nteractive Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1990, Electronic text hypertexted and prepared by OakTree Software, Inc. 56
lem is that we have a tendency to look at the waves instead of the Lord. And here the people would be better off looking at God instead of giants. IV Reporting In: Well the spies did report back after forty days of investigating the land. They started off with the good news followed by the bad news. As far as the land itself, it was a great place. It took two men to carry one grape cluster. They also brought some other fruit. They described the land as one of Milk and Honey. Everything was wonderful as far as it went. But As is frequently the case, there was a wrinkle. The land was occupied by monsters who lived in fortified cities. The land was full of armed giants. In fact the inhabitants were so huge the spies felt like grasshoppers. Obviously, it was too dangerous to go into the land. Maybe they should call the whole thing off. GIANTS (1.) Hebrews nephilim, meaning violent or causing to fall (Genesis 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying wonder, and hence monsters or prodigies. In Numbers 13:33 this name is given to a Canaanitish tribe, a race of large stature, the sons of Anak. The Revised Version, in these passages, simply transliterates the original, and reads Nephilim. 3 It seems the spies found bogeymen in the land. But what is the real problem here? Yes, it is lack of trust in the Lord. They looked at giants instead of God. Some commentators see the spies as lying in their report, frightening the people. But, there isn t any reason to think they life. They reported their emotions, their fears, instead of the facts, including the fact that even if there were giants God was the one Who was in control. Just then the last two of the spies arrived, Caleb and Joshua. They were not bleeding. They were not disheveled. They had not been running, but walking and they were the last to come because they were carrying a single cluster of grapes so huge that it hung from a pole between them. Yes, they said, grinning, there s wonderful good news. This is a land flowing with milk and honey. See the sort of fruit it produces? And there are figs and pomegranates just like this! The Lord has made it an exceedingly good land for us. Caleb raised his right arm and said, Let s go now, at once, and occupy it. But the other spies yelled at him. What s the matter with you? Didn t you see what we saw? Our wives and our children will be food for those giants! At that the whole congregation began to whine and wail. Caleb and Joshua were stunned. They had expected everyone to share their triumph. The Lord delights in us, they said. Don t fear the people of this land. God will make them bread for us. The Lord is with us. He has taken their protection away But all the children of Israel wept aloud: Oh, why didn t we die in the wilderness! Why did the Lord bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Let s choose our own captain! Let s command the captain to take us back to Egypt. Then Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun tore their clothes in shame. Israel! they cried, Do not rebel against the Lord our God! 4 To Be Continued 3 Easton M.A., D.D., M.G., Easton s Bible Dictionary, From Illustrated Bible Dictionary Third Edition published by Thomas Nelson, 1897, The Master Christian Library, AGES Software, Albany, OR, Version 7.0 1998. 4 Wangerin, p. 151-152. 57
V Truth and : Hold it, said Caleb. He brought things back to the real issue. We can do it. And of course implicit in this is the truth, God is in control, God loved them and God didn t make mistakes. But, the spies continued spreading their doubts and fears throughout the nation. And guess what, the people started grumbling again. You d think they would have learned by now. But the people haven t. In fact they go so far as complaining about Moses, talk about getting a new leader and returning to Egypt. This is nuts. They would rather go back into slavery than trust God to take the land he had promised to their forefathers and them. He also said to him, I am the Lord, who brought you (Abraham) out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it (Genesis 15:7). Things begin to escalate. Moses, Aaron, Caleb and Joshua are prostrated with grief. And, Joshua reminds the people of the good things the land has to offer and the Lord would meet their needs. But the Lord was also the one who would judge the people if they acted out of disobedience to him. But it is amazing what panic and a mob can lead to. The people are so frightened they want to stone Moses. VI Consequences: So now God steps in to intervene once again for Moses. It doesn t seem like His concern is for Moses, but anger at the people. And yes He is angry at Israel, but He wants to make sure Moses really understands what is at stake, God s honor. When God threatens destruction of Israel Moses realizes God s reputation is the principle issue. Moses understands the surrounding nations won t be saying, Israel sinned. Instead, they would say, God couldn t carry out His purposes, their gods obviously were greater. Moses acts as intercessor for the nation pleading for God s love and mercy for the people. This is what leadership is about, acting for the greater good. This is what is so sad about most of the world s leadership, only self-concerned instead of those who they are supposed to be leading. So God does as Moses requests. He forgives the nation. But at the same time He judges them. What was the supposed concern of the people? They were concerned for their children. Moses had lead them into a situation where the children would die. Now they didn t need to be concerned for their children, but for themselves. God was going to let them wander in the wilderness, kept from the land until the day when all the people who rebelled died. It would be their children who would now enter the land, not them. Only Joshua and Caleb would be spared to enter the land for only they were faithful to God. This too then was judgment. But for the unfaithful spies, once again a plague fell from God, ending the lives of these men. 58
VII Is Anyone Listening?: And the people still don t listen. They claim repentance. But it is clear they don t know what to repent of. They don t want to die in the land, but they don t want to be obedient to God either. God says they will die in the wilderness. They say Sorry God, we re ready to go into the land. So the decided to go up against the Amalekites and Canaanites. Moses said don t go. He didn t. The Ark of the Tabernacle didn t go. And the Israelites go whooped. It isn t enough to do what God desires of us, but we must also be willing to do it as He directed. Israel learned the ongoing cost to disobedience. Disobedience leads to discipline. Obedience leads to success on God s terms. I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippines 4:13). There was no laughing in the camps of Israel that day. No, nor was there much laughter for years to come; but the children longed to hear it again. They remembered the day when the whole congregation had laughed aloud. The little children longed to laugh like that again. 5 5 Wangerin, p. 152. 59
The Wilderness Journey Home At Last Numbers 13:1-14:45 I Let s Get the Show on the Road (Deuteronomy 1:21-23) II Who s Who? III Should You Chose to Accept this Mission IV Reporting In
V Truth and (Genesis 15:7) VI Consequences VII Is Anyone Listening? (Philippines 4:13) Personal Application: Where have I reaped the consequences of lack of trust in the Lord? What have been the wilderness experiences in my life? How have I been blessed through them? Prayer for the Week: Thank You Lord for Your patience with me and Your willingness to give me the opportunity to grow though that which You bring into my life. In Christ s name amen.