Different ways to look at Life.  (Numbers 13: 1-33)

Full Transcript.

 Some people say you can divide the world into two types of people.

There are those who see the glass as being half full and those who see the glass as half empty.

Another way to say the same thing, is that some people are optimists and some people are pessimists.

Now that's important in the sense that the way you look at life determines what you do. Now I know that this sound like an incredibly simple thing but in pastoring or supporting people who are struggling I’ve noted repeatedly their perception of what's going on, often isn't what's really going on.

Sometimes people just need to look at reality and see what opportunities are really there before. Then they can make any progress on solving the problems that bother them. 

Now I think that's true in life and I think that's true in the spiritual life. That who you are and what you see determines what you do spiritually, and I think one of the great illustrations of that is in Numbers chapter 13.

Of all the material in the book of numbers we are now coming up on probably the most well-known story. If I were to mention Numbers and say tell me what you know about what happens in the Book of Numbers the average Christian probably would not be able to mention one, but if they could mention anything it would probably be the events described in this chapter.

And that is what we are going to look at today in TBPDP.

I think there an incredibly simple lesson to be found in this passage here today, but it is still a rather profound truth. The first part of the passage and in fact the 1st 16 verses are just a command that the Lord gives to Moses.

Moses then in turn gives a commission to some to go and spy out the land they are planning to go in to, and then we have their compliance with that commission.

So I'm going to start with the command that the Lord gave to Moses.

so look at verse one.

1 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.” 

(Numbers 13: 1-2)

Now, this section covers the initial commands given by the Lord, which involve sending out 12 spies, one from each of the 12 tribes.

While these opening couple of verses do not explicitly mention it, later in the book of Deuteronomy, we learn that the children of Israel requested to send spies into the land.

This raises the question, was their request to send spies a form of disobedience? Rather than simply agreeing to go forward, they opted first to send spies. 

I consider the command to send spies, knowing that Deuteronomy 1:22 states that the children of Israel made this request indicates that the Israelites were not really rebelling against God they were just hesitant, lacking strong confidence in God's guidance. 

The fact that God permitted their request, suggest he did not consider their action out and out disobedience. 

If we connect the opening verses of Numbers 13 with Deuteronomy chapter one, we see the Israelites' request, and gain God's permission, to do things this way.

The plot thickens as we move forward to the next verse.

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.)

Now, if you recall earlier in the book of Numbers, we had a list of names of the leaders of the tribes. This is a different list from the earlier one. The earlier list, given in Chapter 1 and again in Chapter 7, were the heads of the tribes. 

These, however, were the spies from each tribe. Apparently, these men were chosen not because they were the leaders as such, but perhaps because of some of their personal abilities.

Then the latter part of our 16 says, "And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua." 

It is at this point that Moses changed Joshua's name from  Hoshea to Joshua which is the Hebrew word for "God is salvation."

Now, why he did that is not entirely clear, but we do know this: that by renaming Joshua, he is pointing to the source of the salvation. His former name did not do that, but by naming him Joshua, it is God who is revealed as the one who will bring salvation, and that is significant.

So, these opening 16 verses are nothing more than God giving the command to Moses to send out the spies. The next few verses 17 through 20, is Moses giving the Commission to these spies

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.)

(Numbers 13: 17:-20)

That is a pretty comprehensive job description. Basically, it boils down to two things. Moses is telling Joshua, "I want all the 12 spies, not just you, to go into the land. And I want you to look, at the people and the land.

That's the Commission. Then he says to them in verse 20, "? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)." 

So he gives us the ime of the season which is when the first ripe grapes appear. We know that means it was late July or early August, so it's about this time of the year. 

Okay, that's the Commission. The next part of the passage is their compliance to that mission

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 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. 

(Numbers 13: 21-25)

So the go in and explore Verse 22 says they went up through the South and came to Hebron, and then some other cities around Hebron are mentioned. Then at the end of 22, it says, " Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." 

Why does he stop and emphasize that? He picks that out, even tells us that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. What's that all about? 

Well, Zoan is another name for the then capital of Egypt, which is where they started from, and we know that Zoan was built in 730 BC. So, it saying Hebron was built even before that.

Now, we also know that Hebron is a very important place. You know, most people don't know much about Hebron. They know about Galilee and Jerusalem and Jericho and those kinds of places, Samaria, but Hebron is a very important place, especially in the early part of Genesis. 

For example, it was at Hebron that God promised to give Abraham the land, as in Genesis 13. It was out of Hebron that Abraham set out to defeat the coalition of kings in Genesis 14. 

It's the only piece of real estate that God gave to Abraham that he actually possessed in his lifetime, and he's buried there.

So, this is a very significant place. Even later than that, it became David's capital before he conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital. It lies to the south of Jerusalem. 

Now, I'd like to suggest that when Joshua got his name changed, it ties all this together. His name was changed from Plain “Salvation, or deliver to ‘God's deliverance, God's salvation’. Ensuring that the salvation although utilized through an individual, it was not the man himself who wrought the salvation but God himself.

And then we're going to be reminded that this is where God originally gave us the land? They knew that. This is where Abraham was buried. So the spies are crossing these historical markers as they go through the land.

Now, verse 23 is interesting. Just imagine a cluster of grapes. The cluster was so big they had to get a pole, hang the cluster on the pole, and then two men got on either end of the pole and they carried the pole. 

The great cluster of grapes was so big it's just almost mind-boggling. This, by the way, is happening just north of Hebron and the region is still known for its grapes, and this has become the symbol of Israel as well as illustrating this great potential for agricultural productivity. 

It's the popular symbol of Israel till this day. If you go to Israel, you will see this symbol: two men carrying a pole and between them is this huge cluster of grapes. As a matter of fact, it's the logo for Israel's department of tourism. 

Then it tells us in verse 25, they return from spying out the land after 40 days. So the trip took 40 days. 

So far I've mentioned three things: 

Firstly God gives a command to Moses.

Secondly, Moses gives a commission to the spies.

Thirdly, the spies comply, and they go do what Moses commissioned them to do. Got it? Got it. 

Now they've got to get back, and they've got to give a report. So, beginning in verse 26, we have the report that the spies gave to the people. It says.

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.”

(Numbers 13: 26-29)

So, here is the report. I mentioned that the commission consisted of two things: go tell us about the land and tell us about the people. The report follows that outline. In verse 26, they showed him the fruit. In verse 27, they describe the land as they say that it flows with milk and honey." 

So, they did what Moses told them to do. They gave a report concerning the land. But verse 28 says the second part of the report and they said, “The people are strong, very large, and they have fortified cities. And furthermore, they are descendants of people who are known to be giants." 

So, the complete report included all these various nationalities, people that dwelt in the land. But the basic idea here is the land is beautiful and bountiful, but the inhabitants are dangerous. Now, let me make just a comment. 

Verse 29 lists all these people that you hear about in the Bible. The Canaanites were the original indigenous inhabitants of the land. They were there longer than anybody else. The Amorites entered Canaan from Syria sometime before 2000 BC, and they drove the Canaanites out of the hill country and took their place. The Hittites originated in what we today would call central Turkey. They did that about 1800 BC, and they slowly spread south and southeast. Jebusites are mentioned, and frankly, we do not know anything about their origin, except that they remained in control of Jerusalem until David drove them out and captured the city and made it its capital in 1004 BC.

Now, the point is all these other people came to this land. Why? Because it's so beautiful, because it's so productive. And the purpose of saying all these people being there is they came in and conquered it.  So they are not going to give it up real easy. They fought to get it, and they're going to keep it. That seems to be the idea.

But then here is an addendum to the report as given by Caleb.

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.”

(Numbers 13: 30-33)

So, 10 of the 12 spies said, "It's beautiful, but we don't want to go there. We can't conquer that place, the children of giants live there. Then Caleb says, "We can not only do it, let's do it immediately. Let's go up at once." 

But the men who had gone up with him say, "We're not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. The people whom we saw there are men of giant stature and we were like grasshoppers in their sight.

So, their response, the majority report: these people are huge, and they have fortified cities, we can't do this. We are a wondering pastoral people with no ability or resources to go up against people like these.

All these various groups came in and conquered the people who lived their previously. They were stronger than the original inhabitants of the land.

Now, the same word that's used here of giants is used in Genesis chapter 6. Remember at the beginning of the flood, they said there were giants in the land? It's the same word.

Now, the point is that the Commission had been to view the land and report back what they saw. That was the Commission. Remember? What did they do? They not only told what they saw, but they told what they thought they could not do because of what they saw. 

That was not their job description, but that's what they did.

So, let me sum this up very simply. When, at the command of the Lord, Moses commissioned 12 spies to survey the land, one man felt they could conquer the land immediately, but 10 believed that it was impossible for them to conquer the land. 

That's the sum of the story. So, a strait forward little story but I want to make a couple of observations from the standpoint of the 10 spies. 

Number one, they were right. They were right. In fact, one famous Old Testament historian called H E Friend said the Assyrians invented siege warfare and used massive machinery and engineering corps to subdue walled cities, it took them years to conquer that land. 

So, from the human point of view, Israel was faced with a formidable foe. They pessimistically maintained that the task of conquering that land was impossible because of unfavourable odds. 

Now, there's a sense in which they were right. That was a huge challenge, and it was beyond their human capacity to do it.

Second observation, in another sense, the 10 spies were very, very wrong. So, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they told what they saw, but they didn't tell the whole picture. 

What did they leave out of the picture? 

Several things. They should have also picked up along the way. 

God's promise to give them the land. They should have been reminded of that by going to Hebron. They should have been reminded of that by the fact that Moses changed Joshua's name to the fact that God was going to do this. 

They left all of that out of the report, and in so doing, they didn't see the total picture.

Now, if you put this story back in the context of the Book of Numbers, we've already seen how they spurned God's provision in the very recent past. Remember, they didn't like the manna and wanted the quail? Remember that story? 

They've already sneered at God's provision, and now the 10 spies are disbelieving God's promise that he would give them the land. They reckoned only on their natural ability and failed to consider God's supernatural ability.

The 10 spies who did not want Israel to enter the land because they felt inadequate. In this, they were being realistic. However, they should have compensated for their feelings of personal inadequacy by reminding themselves of God's complete adequacy.

God was teaching the Israelites a basic lesson of life, namely, that the real power in the lives of God's people is God himslef. As we trust and obey him, he releases his power through us. We may be inadequate in ourselves, but God empowers the obedient and trusting.

Jesus taught his disciples this same lesson when he multiplied the loaves and the fish. As in the quote, Jesus said, 'Without me, you can do nothing.' 

Paul wrote, 'I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.' 

So, when you look at the situation, land and the people, are you looking only at your ability to conquer your obstacles, or are you looking at the Lord's ability to make you adequate for the challenge?

So the report of the spies was factual the land was fruitful the cities were fortified and the population was mixed they all had the same facts.

But Joshua and Caleb not only had the facts they had faith they had the faith that God had promised them the land and that because God had promised the m the land they could take it.

As Christian’s who walk by faith in we are still continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems.

May I repeat that we are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems. But they are solvable and only solvable when we trust in what the Lord can do, because he has promised to do it.