The Israelites learn Repentance even with the right Deeds and Words, means nothing without a change of Heart.

Numbers 14:36-45 The Immediate Consequences of the Israelites’ Disobedience

Day 61 and still no word from our Premier on further openings in our province. No problem, we’re getting used to this.  But, hey, that’s exactly what they want. More and more in the world are standing up for their rights. Politicians just need a little more time to “save face”.  No problem. Meanwhile we’re finding gems in our study of Numbers.

The Passage

³⁶ As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land,³⁷ even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹ When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.⁴⁰ In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ^[a]ridge of the hill country, saying, “Here we are; ^[b]we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.” ⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why then are you transgressing the ^[c]commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed? ⁴² Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. ⁴³ For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.”⁴⁴ But they went up heedlessly to the ^[d]ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.

Footnotes

1. Numbers 14:40 Or top of the mountain
2. Numbers 14:40 Or and we will go up...for we have sinned
3. Numbers 14:41 Lit mouth
4. Numbers 14:44 Or top of the mountain

Thoughts on the Passage

The people grumbled, Moses intercedes, God forgives (again) but issues His justice (none of the grumblers will enter into the Promised Land), and the Israelites will spend forty more years in the wilderness. But are there are immediate consequences? Absolutely. This passage tells us that all those that caused the grumbling or stirred up the grumblers, plus all the spies that gave a negative report died by a plague God allowed. And of course, that caused all to mourn. But as Matthew Henry suggests, by these deaths God was communicating a message to the people – He could have wiped them all out just like that; just like the spies. Sometimes we have close calls due to our sinning or disobedience and we still fail to recognize the lesson God is trying to teach us.

The spies that had faith in God’s ability to deliver, Caleb and Joshua, were spared. These days, living in the 21^stcentury, it is not always acceptable to answer the question of why did so and so live, while others die by saying “perhaps because God wanted to spare them due to their faith and obedience to Him”.  That wouldn’t fly well today, but yet that is exactly the situation we have in this passage. And I believe it is still sometimes (not always) the situation as we try to address that question of “why”?

But by the morning, the people had come to their senses, albeit too late. They realized they had sinned and now wanted to go the land God had promised them. There was no more talk of returning to Egypt. Yes, they were sorry, no doubt like many of us are often sorry about the sins we commit. But as David Guzik says perhaps they were not sorry enough to turn their hearts into a genuine trust and reliance on the Lord going forward. Uttering the right words and even doing the right things without a change of heart does not cut it in these circumstances. Sometimes, folks, we take too long to come to our senses. Sometimes we run to make things right without really seeking to change in the way God wants us to change. As a consequence, we get to watch the train we missed leave the station.

Moses tries to knock some real sense into their heads knowing that God had said that had they gone to get the land now, it would be a disaster. He warned them not to go up and try to take the Promised Land because the Lord was not “among them” at this time. Doing so now would be further sin against the Lord. And it would also be outright insanely dangerous. Thank God for some people that God sends to warn us of potential disaster. But did the Israelites listen even then?

No? Instead, they went right up to the land to take it. We are told that the ark of the covenant and Moses (and we assume Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua, among others) remained behind in the camp.

And like clockwork, as God had said, and as Moses had warned them of, the Amalekites and the Canaanites came down and “struck them and beat them down” as far as Hormah. We cannot change what God has determined will happen. For the Israelites, Hormah represents the beginning of the judgment that was to last forty years – allowing the carcases of the “old men” to die in the wilderness.

Hormah, means “devotion – a place laid waste” and according to Robert Jamieson was named afterwards as such in memory of the immense slaughter of the Israelites on this occasion. We need to be cautious of our potential “Hormah” and avoid it all costs.

What is the-big picture lesson for us? For me, at least, it is this: God is not to be ignored for He has the right to do with us as He said He would, both with respect to our obedience and more critically for us, in respect to our disobedience. I often ask myself, even at my age, “Have I really learned that lesson yet?” And I often wonder how many more times God will say about me as He said about the Israelites to Moses, “How long shall I bear with this evil man who is sinning against Me?”  May He, remembering the years of prayers my mother (and after her, my wife) uttered on my behalf, and also say, “I have pardoned him [again] according to their word.” May it be like that for you as well.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

How Much More Proof Do You Need? What about this 12-pound cluster of grapes? Will that do?

Numbers Chapter 13: Investigation of the Promised Land

Numbers 13:1-33

This is Day 55 of our self-isolation. Please do not confuse this 55 with either an early retirement age or the famous “freedom 55” promised by some insurance companies. It is neither. It is instead a period during which we have to sit by idling and let others, for their own purposes, dictate how then we should live, now and going forward. I, for one (although among many others) have decided to take my guidance from the Good Book as I continue to study the book of Numbers. Thank you for joining me. Today we get a glimpse of what the Promised Land looked like to the Israelites. Read on.

The Passage

13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ² “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, everyone a leader among them.” ³ So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the ^[a]command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. [Verses 4 to 15 give the names of who was sent from each tribe.] ¹⁶ These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up ^[b]there into the ^[c]Negev; then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many.¹⁹ How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they ^[d]like open camps or with fortifications? ²⁰ How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? ^[e]Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, ^[f]at Lebo-hamath. ²² When they had gone up into the Negev, ^[g]they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the ^[h]descendants of Anak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³ Then they came to the ^[i]valley of ^[j]Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs. ²⁴ That place was called the valley of ^[k]Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.

²⁵ When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, ²⁶ they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel ^[l]in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ Thus they told him, and said, “We went into the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the ^[m]descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people ^[n]before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” ³² So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its ^[o]inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. ³³ There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Footnotes

1. Numbers 13:3 Lit mouth
2. Numbers 13:17 Lit here
3. Numbers 13:17 I.e. South country, and so throughout the ch
4. Numbers 13:19 Lit in
5. Numbers 13:20 Lit Use your strength
6. Numbers 13:21 Or to the entrance of Hamath
7. Numbers 13:22 Lit Most mss read one came
8. Numbers 13:22 Lit children
9. Numbers 13:23 Or wadi
10. Numbers 13:23 I.e. cluster
11. Numbers 13:24 I.e. cluster
12. Numbers 13:26 Lit to
13. Numbers 13:28 Lit born ones
14. Numbers 13:30 Lit toward
15. Numbers 13:32 Or settlers

Thoughts on the Passage

We begin our study by noting once again that it was God that told Moses to send the spies out to the land that He had promised them. However, there is controversy over whether this idea originated with Moses or with the people themselves. For this we need to go forward (at least in the order of the books of our Bible) to Deuteronomy 1:20-25 where we read it was the people that were bugging Moses to send spies into the land, and Moses agreed. Does this contradict Numbers 13? I don’t think so. It is very probable that the people asked, Moses agreed it would be a good idea, and he enquired of God if and when and how. And Numbers 13 begins at that point.

Three things to note off the bat. First, God said this was “for yourself”. Clearly, God knew what the land was like, but He wanted Moses and Israel to recognize it. Second, this wasn’t to be a ‘decision-point’ for the Israelites. They weren’t being given the opportunity to say “no thanks” if they didn’t like it. This wasn’t a “kicking the tires” situation for God said, “which I am going to give to the sons of Israel”. And if God says He’s going to give you something; He’s going to do it. Third, the spies that were sent were “everyone a leader”. That’s important because, as we find out, not all leaders are equal. But you knew that. There were twelve spies and that included Hoshea, the son of Nun. Verse 16 tells us that Moses called Hoshea, Joshua.

In verses 17 to 20, we can read the instructions that Moses gave to the spies. What they were to determine was whether or not the land was as God had promised it, but also whether in the opinion of the spies, they would be able to conquer the land.

So, the spies get there after going through Hebron, which for some reason, we are specifically told was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.  Now, Zoan is believed to be where the plagues took place in Egypt before the Exodus occurred. It was where Pharaoh lived. You can read more about it here, all about Zoan.

They arrived in a valley that later became known as Eshcol which means “cluster” and named after the cluster of grapes the spies took and carried back to Moses. This was in August, when the first clusters are gathered. The second are gathered in September, and the third in October. My dad always wanted to go back home to Greece (closer to Israel than where I live) around the end of August and the beginning of September because he knew that was the best season to take advantage of many of the countries natural products. Robert Jamieson writes:

“One cluster sometimes weighs ten or twelve pounds. The mode of carrying the cluster cut down by the spies, though not necessary from its weight, was evidently adopted to preserve it entire as a specimen of the productions of the promised land; and the impression made by the sight of it would be all the greater because the Israelites were familiar only with the scanty vines and small grapes of Egypt.”

It wasn’t a quick trip. They returned to Moses after forty days and presented themselves to Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation. Of course, everyone was impressed with the fresh grapes and they got even more excited about the milk and honey that the spies had seen. But, and there’s always a but when humans view a challenge from their own perspective, the spies warned them that the inhabitants of the land were strong, and their cities were well protected and very large. Well, most of the spies said that, not all. Most said, “we can’t conquer that land”.  Except Caleb, who had something else to say.

Caleb (and it’s important that we note he was from the tribe of Judah) said, “We can do this,” and note, his next phrase, “for we surely overcome it”.  It seems he wanted to go and do it right away. He knew God had promised it. He knew it was going to happen. And he knew the Israelites had to trust God and do their part. The others objected greatly. And then they added that the men of that land were the Nephilim – they were gigantic, making he spies feel like grasshoppers before them.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Nephilim:

The Nephilim /ˈnɛfɪˌlɪm/ (Hebrew: נְפִילִים, nefilim) were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" before the Deluge, according to Genesis 6:1–4.

A similar or identical biblical Hebrew term, read as "Nephilim" by some scholars, or as the word "fallen" by others, appears in Ezekiel 32:27.^[1][2]

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

— Genesis 6:1–4, New Revised Standard Version

The word is loosely translated as giants in some Bibles and left untranslated in others. The "sons of God" have been interpreted as fallen angels in some traditional Jewish explanations.

According to Numbers 13:33, they later inhabited Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan.

So, Moses, who are you going to go with? Caleb? Or the rest of the spies? (Stay tuned.) And here’s a question for us – were the majority of the spies simply cowards? Or were they also unbelievers? Or were they both?  And if we were there, what position would we really have taken?  What position have we taken in our lives when we had challenges before us? 

David Guzik wonders how much different the report may have been if the spies felt they were going on a mission on behalf of God, rather than a mission driven by Moses, or those that had talked him into it. That’s a fair question. He goes on:

“It is hard to imagine a report more unbelieving and unfaithful to God than this; a report that recognizes the faithfulness of God's promise, the truth of His word, and yet says, ‘Despite all that …’”

Clearly, these spies, as a group, failed big time. Guzik says, “Caleb had the spirit of Romans 3:4: Let God be true but every man a liar.” Are you prepared to say that, especially these days when the world is proposing some many philosophies and ideologies that are so anti the things that God has said or ordained?

I love the way Guzik ends his comments on this chapter, especially how all the spies violently disagreed with Caleb’s account:

“Significantly, two men could see the exact same sights – the same grapes, the same men, the same land, the same cities – one can come away singing in faith, and the other is filled with a sense of certain doom. Ultimately, faith or unbelief does not spring from circumstances or environment, but from our hearts, which God must change.”

That explains a lot of our current situation – with politics, with faith, with the virus, and the list goes on. Let’s make sure our message is coming from hearts impacted by God.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.