Numbers 13:28-14:428Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. 1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. (Numbers 13:28‑14:4)
WHEN THE spies returned from searching the land they told Moses and Aaron and all the people: “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.” The land was all that God said it was, they said, but they could never take possession of it because the obstacles were too great — insurmountable.
It was an evil report these spies brought back but even among them God had His faithful ones. Joshua and Caleb were men of faith, and Caleb stilled the people saying, “Let us go up at once,... we are able to overcome.”
The evil report of these men was not that they lied in saying the people were strong and their cities great, but it really was denying the power of God and His right to give the land to whoever He pleased. To them in their unbelief the land bonged to these giant-like men bore whom they themselves were but grasshoppers; what could they do? Instead had they been men of faith they would have remembered that these giants and walled cities were as grasshoppers before God. But they had not faith to trust in Him who had given them the land, and so they came under the fear of man. We read in Proverbs 29:2525The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. (Proverbs 29:25), “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” What bright opportunities and victories for faith we often lose through the fear of man! whereas faith is mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy (2 Cor. 10:44(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (2 Corinthians 10:4)).
Then we read, “the congregation lifted up their voice again and cried, and the people wept that night,” but they wept not for sorrow but in their unbelief. They forgot about all past victories and the wonderful miracles God had wrought since they had left Egypt. They thought not of the grapes of Eshcol and the fruitful land flowing with milk and honey, but of the walled cities and the giant sons of Anak; they thought not of the promise of God but of the enemy’s power.
They refused to trust in the Lord but said, “Would God we had died in the wilderness.” And this literally came to pass for with the exception of Joshua and Caleb they all died in the wilderness. Sometimes God takes men at their word when they persist in their own way.
Furthermore “They said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” Such is the natural heart: if we do not go on with God the heart will go back to the world to satisfy its desires.
May we read in Israel’s failures in the wilderness what our own hearts are apt to be. We too are in the place of trial, for we are in the wilderness of this world and liable to the same failures and sins. Surely these lessons are more for us than God’s people of old, for us who have a better salvation. The same grace that met all their needs for those forty years flows out to us today in a richer and more blessed way since Christ has died and now lives for us as our great High Priest and Advocate above. May we learn the lesson of our own hearts and cling to the Lord until the wilderness is past and we are at home in His presence forever.
ML-09/23/1973