Come, Holy Spirit. Teach us to ignore the giants in our lives, because we serve a God to whom the biggest giants are smaller than an atom. Teach us to laugh at darkness, for you are ahead of us in the darkness and have us encircled and protected. NIV Numbers 13 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” 3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur; 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 Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), 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 Maki. 16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.) 17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) 21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol,[a] they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. 26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” First of all, remember that God created space and time, and therefore dwells outside space and time. He experiences all space and time as the eternal present. Therefore, there are no surprises to God. He is not surprised that these men went up into the promised land, and came back frightened and refused to advance. These are not cowardly men either. They entered this territory. They raided the fields and vineyards in the land and brought back fruit. I suspect this was something along the lines of what counting coup was to the Indians. This would have to have involved moving into cultivated areas where they were exposed and could have been killed. They could skulk along the fringes of settlements to spy out whether the cities were walled or not, but to bring back fruit involved entering cultivated orchards, vineyards and fields. For forty days, these men were behind enemy lines. In those forty days, they saw much wealth. They probably coveted that wealth. But that wealth was not enough to tempt them to take the land that was promised to them by God. Their temptation to fear was greater than their temptation to covet. There are several things that I notice here. First of all, the two men who stand up and say that they should obey God and move forward are Hoshea (Joshua) and Caleb. Hoshea has been renamed Joshua by Moses, and Joshua is basically the same name as Jesus, meaning Savior or Yahweh is salvation. I dont think wed be amiss to be looking for an archetype of Christ here. Joshua is of the tribe of Ephraim. Remember this scene from Genesis 48? 12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.” 17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” 19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” 20 He blessed them that day and said, “In your[c] name will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. Caleb is of the tribe of Judah, from whom Christ will come. Remember this from Genesis 49? “Judah,[b] your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[c] until he to whom it belongs[d] shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. 11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.[e] This is a good place to go back and read those two chapters of Genesis. I imagine youve noticed by now that the number 40 is symbolic in the Bible. This is not numerology. There is nothing magical in the number 40. Its simply a period of time that God causes to happen to signal something he is doing. He uses the period of forty days or forty years to signal temptation and trial. Youve probably noticed that Moses was forty years in the desert tending sheep between his murder of the Egyptian and his call to lead the Israelites out of bondage. In that time, he became a totally different man, from the rich, well educated and arrogant prince to the humble shepherd who walked before God. Since we did a Gospel earlier, you probably remember Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for forty days. These men have been in the promised land for forty days, and it has tempted them to fear and to lack of trust in God. Im not going to lie to you, this is a besetting sin for me too. If youd pray for me in this, Id be most grateful. These men come back from their forty day trial in terror. These are leaders in their tribes, or they would not have been chosen for this mission. So their fear is going to infect their tribes as well. They dont trust God to lead them. This is a big deal. In truth, its an idolatry. The god theyve created in their own minds isnt big enough to deal with this, or is faithless and doesnt fulfill his promises. Stop and let that sink in for a moment. Our God doesnt promise eternal life in this world. He doesnt promise the individual that they wont die in combat, whether spiritual or physical. But he does promise that we will have eternal life in another realm. He does promise that hes going to bring his plans to fulfillment. And to fulfill his plan of salvation for the world, it is necessary that the Israelites occupy this land, so Jesus has a place to be born. Yes, individual men may die in this attack, but they will die in the desert as well. While individuals may die, the people will be victorious and will survive. This is not just fear, this is outright rebellion against God. This is rebellion against becoming the people from whom Jesus would come, and only two tribes are faithful. How do you think this will work out in future? Can you see why Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah? They were one of two tribes who were willing that he should come. Now, God isnt going to abandon all of humanity because of these ten tribes. He isnt surprised by this. He knew it would happen. He is going to do to these tribes what he did to Moses: drive them into the desert for forty years of humbling hardship and a closer walk with him. This may seem harsh, but look what it did to the arrogant young Egyptian prince. Now, why would these men have been so tempted to fear? Remember who these peoples are. The Canaanites practice infant sacrifice. How cruel is a people who would burn their own sons to death in an idol? If they are that cruel to their children, how cruel might they be to spies or enemies? The Amalekites are similarly blood thirsty. jewishencyclopedia/articles/1351-amalek-amalekites If you look up the other tribes mentioned, these are all peoples more or less known for their blood thirst. However, the spies are failing to take into account that their very blood thirst is the reason that God has set his hand against them. Will God turn back from punishing a people who murder their infants? Will he fail to fulfill his promises? If the spies feel like grasshoppers next to these giants, what do the giants look like next to God? Take a moment to take note of the names, because some of them youll see again. Much of the depth of understanding that you want from the Bible will come from noting names and geography. Valley of Eshkol visualbiblealive/stock_image.php?id=75192
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:50:54 +0000
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