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Welcome! I'm Cliff Hedges. This is Pastor Cliff's Notes. This is a podcast where we're studying the Bible. We're working our way through the book of Numbers. Today's episode 1622, and we're looking at Numbers chapter 13, verses 26 through 33. So the first ten chapters of Numbers, God was getting the Israelites ready to move from Sinai to the promised land, the land of Canaan. The cloud lifted up from the tabernacle that was the signal to move, and the people did. They moved out very orderly. We saw the order being established in those first ten chapters. But three days into the journey, the grumbling started. At Tabarath, we had the grumbling about the hardships of the wilderness. Then at Kibrath Hatava, the grumbling about food, tired of manna. Then Miriam and Aaron grumbling that Moses was in charge, in charge alone. What about them? So they finally arrived at Kadesh Barnea, the edge of Canaan, and Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe, to scout the land. And his assignment to them was go look it over, see what's there, what is it like, what's the agriculture like, what's the landscape like, what are the cities like, what are the people like? And bring back a report. So they entered the land, they went from the south to the north and back, and they even brought back this giant cluster of grapes that took two men to carry it. Now we have the report. So we're in Numbers chapter 13, verse 26. The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the wilderness of Peron at Kedish. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. They reported to Moses, We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, and here is some of its fruit. So the first part of this report is good. It is a good land, very plentiful. This is all factual. This is the facts as they saw them. Verse 28. However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We also saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites are living in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan. This lines up with what they saw when last time we saw them going through the land. But it's starting to paint a negative picture of things. Yeah, the cities are large and fortified. Archaeological explorations in the area found these ancient cities with walls that are 30 to 50 feet high and 15 feet thick. So they are well fortified, and they're painting the picture. Basically, they're impenetrable. Not much we could do about that. Verse 30. Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, Let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it. Well, it says Caleb quieted the people. Obviously, they were starting to get upset with the report that they're giving. Why that's just the facts, it's starting to look pretty scary, and people are obviously getting wound up and upset. Caleb quiets them down and says, Let's go do it. I just mentioned Caleb here, but we'll see in chapter 14, Joshua is standing with Caleb. And while Joshua doesn't speak up at this narrative, he may be, we'll see him certainly speaking up in chapter 14. But Caleb says, Let's do it. Verse 31. But the men who had gone up with him responded, We can't attack the people because they're stronger than we are. So Caleb says, Yeah, all you said is true, but let's go do it. And the response is we can't do it. They're stronger than we are. Verse 32. So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted. Pause there. A lot of translations say negative report. And I think that's a little soft. So many places we see this word translated as evil, slanderous, defamatory. So it's yeah, it is negative. A lot of translations say this is an evil report. Continuing. Now, this phrase, this land devours its inhabitants. There are a lot of theories about what it means, but all we have is this. What does this even mean? Does mean that people live there are so wore out from trying to farm this wonderful land? Is there some kind of plague? We don't know what it means. I don't think it really means anything in particular. It's just some added scary description that it's a scary place. And I think what it means basically is if we go up there, we will be devoured. Because the people we saw are of great size. Verse 33. We even saw the Nephilim there. The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. To ourselves we seem like grasshoppers, and we must have seen the same to them. Well, the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. That's not a historical footnote in the middle of this, where Moses is adding, oh yes, and by the way, the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. This is part of the report of the ten naysayers. So it's not a historical footnote, but a hysterical error given by the ten naysayers. So who are the Nephilim? Well, we see the Nephilim in chapter six of Genesis. And if we just go back and look at that for a minute, in Genesis chapter six, verses one through four, this is just before the flood. This is part of why God brings the flood. When mankind began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born for them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, My spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be one hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth, both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. All right, the common interpretation of this is the sons of God are fallen angels, and they married humans, and their children were the Nephilim, the mighty men of old, the famous men, basically giants. That's not exactly what it says. You can draw that conclusion, but an equally biblically faithful interpretation is the sons of God are the descendants of Seth, the godly lineage. The daughters of men are not of the godly lineage, and the problem here is the disobedience by marrying outside of your lineage. The Nephilim coexisted in that time. They were mighty warriors. It doesn't say, nowhere does it say the Nephilim were the offspring. People just make that conclusion. It just says at the same time this was going on, the Nephilim were in the area. But that the bottom line, it doesn't matter which is correct. They all died in the flood. Everybody on earth is a descendant of Noah. There are no descendants of the Nephilim, whoever they were. And so this comment that the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim, no, they don't. The Nephilim all died in the flood. Everyone's a descendant of Noah. So this is just scary words being added. Yeah, we saw big people. They must be giants, they must be descendants of these mythical creatures that we read about in Genesis. So some liberties being taken here with the report. Now, last time we said, what's their assignment? Their assignment is to scout the land. Their assignment is not to determine if they should enter the land. That has already been decided by God. God has said, go and take the land. God said, okay, go scout it out. And then I come back and say, this is too big, this is too scary. It cannot be done. These are the very people who God parted the Red Sea for them to come through. These are the people that God has fed miraculously manna for a year. These are the people who have seen God do amazing things, but still they don't bring God into the equation here. So the facts were not in dispute. Everybody agreed. It's a bountiful land, it has large fortified cities, and it's got big people. But there's two very different conclusions. The ten say we can't do it. The two, Joshua and Caleb said, doesn't matter. God can and will. God has promised to do it. So what we have here is faith versus disbelief. Faithful Joshua and Caleb are saying, God already told us to do it. God's already promised He will do it. So we should do it. So what's to come from this? Well join me next time, we'll see. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time as we continue working through the numbers.