Slices
Prepare
The Israelite spies saw themselves as grasshoppers: small, weak, insignificant. How do you see yourself? How do you think God sees you? Close your eyes and ask God to help you see yourself as he does.
Bible passage
Exploring Canaan
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.
Numbers 13:17-33
New International Version - UK
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, towards 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, 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.
Report on the exploration
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.’
Explore
The spies’ journey through Canaan ended in Hebron (v 22), where Abraham had purchased a cave as the family tomb: he was buried there, alongside Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. The purchase of a tomb in a foreign land was a sign of Abraham’s faith in God’s promise, repeated here to his descendants (v 1). The spies’ visit, after all these centuries, was a sign of God’s faithfulness to that promise.
It looked good: the tomb, the cluster of grapes so big they named the area ‘Cluster Valley’ (v 24), the flowing milk and honey (v 27). Yet the spies began their report with an accusation (‘the land to which you sent us’) not an expression of faith (the land God is giving us, v 2). And it went from bad to worse: the spies showed no faith, even as God was proving himself faithful.
Despite the best efforts of Caleb (v 30) and Joshua (14:6–9), the bad report spread (v 32). The people focused on themselves – ‘we seemed like grasshoppers’ (v 33) – instead of God, who was faithfully fulfilling his promises.
Respond
Faith means trusting that God is bigger than our problems. The spies held their faith-binoculars the wrong way round: magnifying their problem and minimising their God. Ask God to help you hold your faith-binoculars the right way round.
Deeper Bible study
Give thanks to God for all his promises.
All the spies saw the same things, but their conclusions differed. They agreed that Canaan was as good as God had promised. The promises were not exaggerated but borne out by reality.
They all noticed the strength of the opposition. For Caleb it was a challenge to conquest, but for the majority it was too difficult a task. God did not lead the Israelites initially through territory where they would have to fight,1 because he knew that recently freed slaves would not have the courage for battle. More time away from Egypt had not changed the attitudes of these people. They had settled into desert life but had not become the warriors and pioneers ready for conquest.
Caleb was a man who lived by the promises and power of God. For him, conquest was assured because God had promised it. For the other spies, the reality of fortified cities and fierce people is compounded by fantasies of giants and demigods. They place themselves as grasshoppers in the minds of the inhabitants. Fear leads to exaggeration of dangers. Faith puts them in perspective. Faith does have an element of risk, but fear paralyses us into inaction. Fear judges by appearances, but faith looks to God.
Caleb (later to be joined by Joshua) is not afraid to take a minority position. He does not believe that the majority vote indicates the right response, or God’s will. He does not doubt his convictions because others do not share them. He has the courage to hold fast to his view despite opposition. We live in a world of populist politics, in which unpopular ideas are cancelled. Courage like that of Caleb is a necessary part of being a faithful witness to the gospel. Democratic decisions may be good, but should never replace faith in the Word of God.
Pray for wisdom to know when to dissent from the majority and for the courage to stand faithfully.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Exodus 17,18; Matthew 24
Pray for Scripture Union
Local Mission Partner who work in north Yorkshire, have been through a period of reevaluation with the bus needing major work and changes on the team. Please pray for wisdom for the trustees as they seek God’s way forward.
