Table of Contents
|
|
Chapter 34
The Twelve Spies
[This chapter is based on Numbers 13 and 14.]
ELEVEN days after leaving Mount Horeb the Hebrew host encamped at Kadesh,
in the wilderness of Paran, which was not far from the borders of the
Promised Land. Here it was proposed by the people that spies be sent up
to survey the country. The matter was presented before the Lord by
Moses, and permission was granted, with the direction that one of the
rulers of each tribe should be selected for this purpose. The men were
chosen as had been directed, and Moses bade them go and see the country,
what it was, its situation and natural advantages; and the people that
dwelt therein, whether they were strong or weak, few or many; also to
observe the nature of the soil and its productiveness and to bring of
the fruit of the land.
They went, and surveyed the whole land, entering at the southern border
and proceeding to the northern extremity. They returned after an absence
of forty days. The people of Israel were cherishing high hopes and were
waiting in eager expectancy. The news of the spies' return was carried
from tribe to tribe and was hailed with rejoicing. The people rushed out
to meet the messengers, who had safely escaped the dangers of their
perilous undertaking. The spies brought specimens of the fruit, showing
the fertility of the soil. It was in the time of ripe grapes, and they
brought a cluster of grapes so large that it was carried between two
men. They also brought of the figs and pomegranates which grew there in
abundance.
The people rejoiced that they were to come into possession of so goodly
a land, and they listened intently as the report was brought to Moses,
that not a word should escape them. "We came unto the land whither thou
sentest us," the spies began, "and surely it floweth with milk and
honey; and this is the fruit of it." The people were enthusiastic; they
would eagerly obey the voice of the Lord, and go up at once to possess
the land. But after describing the beauty and fertility of the land, all
but two of the spies enlarged upon the difficulties and dangers that lay
before the Israelites should they undertake the conquest of Canaan. They
enumerated the powerful nations located in various parts of the country,
and said that the cities were walled and very great, and the people who
dwelt therein were strong, and it would be impossible to conquer them.
They also stated that they had seen giants, the sons of Anak, there, and
it was useless to think of possessing the land.
Now the scene changed. Hope and courage gave place to cowardly despair,
as the spies uttered the sentiments of their unbelieving hearts, which
were filled with discouragement prompted by Satan. Their unbelief cast a
gloomy shadow over the congregation, and the mighty power of God, so
often manifested in behalf of the chosen nation, was forgotten. The
people did not wait to reflect; they did not reason that He who had
brought them thus far would certainly give them the land; they did not
call to mind how wonderfully God had delivered them from their
oppressors, cutting a path through the sea and destroying the pursuing
hosts of Pharaoh. They left God out of the question, and acted as though
they must depend solely on the power of arms.
In their unbelief they limited the power of God and distrusted the hand
that had hitherto safely guided them. And they repeated their former
error of murmuring against Moses and Aaron. "This, then, is the end of
our high hopes," they said. "This is the land we have traveled all the
way from Egypt to possess." They accused their leaders of deceiving the
people and bringing trouble upon Israel.
The people were desperate in their disappointment and despair. A wail of
agony arose and mingled with the confused murmur of voices. Caleb
comprehended the situation, and, bold to stand in defense of the word of
God, he did all in his power to counteract the evil influence of his
unfaithful associates. For an instant the people were stilled to listen
to his words of hope and courage respecting the goodly land. He did not
contradict what had already been said; the walls were high and the
Canaanites strong. But God had promised the land to Israel. "Let us go
up at once and possess it," urged Caleb; "for we are well able to
overcome it."
But the ten, interrupting him, pictured the obstacles in darker colors
than at first. "We be not able to go up against the people," they
declared; "for they are stronger than we. . . . All the people that we
saw in it are men of a great stature. And 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."
These men, having entered upon a wrong course, stubbornly set themselves
against Caleb and Joshua, against Moses, and against God. Every advance
step rendered them the more determined. They were resolved to discourage
all effort to gain possession of Canaan. They distorted the truth in
order to sustain their baleful influence. It "is a land that eateth up
the inhabitants thereof," they said. This was not only an evil report,
but it was also a lying one. It was inconsistent with itself. The spies
had declared the country to be fruitful and prosperous, and the people
of giant stature, all of which would be impossible if the climate were
so unhealthful that the land could be said to "eat up the inhabitants."
But when men yield their hearts to unbelief they place themselves under
the control of Satan, and none can tell to what lengths he will lead
them.
"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the
people wept that night." Revolt and open mutiny quickly followed; for
Satan had full sway, and the people seemed bereft of reason. They cursed
Moses and Aaron, forgetting that God hearkened to their wicked speeches,
and that, enshrouded in the cloudy pillar, the Angel of His presence was
witnessing their terrible outburst of wrath. In bitterness they cried
out, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we
had died in this wilderness!" Then their feelings rose against God:
"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? And they said one to another, Let us
make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Thus they accused not
only Moses, but God Himself, of deception, in promising them a land
which they were not able to possess. And they went so far as to appoint
a captain to lead them back to the land of their suffering and bondage,
from which they had been delivered by the strong arm of Omnipotence.
In humiliation and distress "Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel," not
knowing what to do to turn them from their rash and passionate purpose.
Caleb and Joshua attempted to quiet the tumult. With their garments rent
in token of grief and indignation, they rushed in among the people, and
their ringing voices were heard above the tempest of lamentation and
rebellious grief: "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an
exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us
into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and
honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of
the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from
them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not."
The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord
would no longer bear with them. His protection being removed, they would
be an easy prey. By the covenant of God the land was ensured to Israel.
But the false report of the unfaithful spies was accepted, and through
it the whole congregation were deluded. The traitors had done their
work. If only the two men had brought the evil report, and all the ten
had encouraged them to possess the land in the name of the Lord, they
would still have taken the advice of the two in preference to the ten,
because of their wicked unbelief. But there were only two advocating the
right, while ten were on the side of rebellion.
The unfaithful spies were loud in denunciation of Caleb and Joshua, and
the cry was raised to stone them. The insane mob seized missiles with
which to slay those faithful men. They rushed forward with yells of
madness, when suddenly the stones dropped from their hands, a hush fell
upon them, and they shook with fear. God had interposed to check their
murderous design. The glory of His presence, like a flaming light,
illuminated the tabernacle. All the people beheld the signal of the
Lord. A mightier one than they had revealed Himself, and none dared
continue their resistance. The spies who brought the evil report
crouched terror-stricken, and with bated breath sought their tents.
Moses now arose and entered the tabernacle. The Lord declared to him, "I
will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make
of thee a greater nation." But again Moses pleaded for his people. He
could not consent to have them destroyed, and he himself made a mightier
nation. Appealing to the mercy of God, he said: "I beseech Thee, let the
power of my Lord be great according as Thou hast spoken, saying, The
Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy. . . . Pardon, I beseech
Thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Thy
mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until
now."
The Lord promised to spare Israel from immediate destruction; but
because of their unbelief and cowardice He could not manifest His power
to subdue their enemies. Therefore in His mercy He bade them, as the
only safe course, to turn back toward the Red Sea.
In their rebellion the people had exclaimed, "Would God we had died in
this wilderness!" Now this prayer was to be granted. The Lord declared:
"As ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses
shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you,
according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward. . . .
But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring
in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." And of Caleb
He said, "My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and
hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he
went; and his seed shall possess it." As the spies had spent forty days
in their journey, so the hosts of Israel were to wander in the
wilderness forty years.
When Moses made known to the people the divine decision, their rage was
changed to mourning. They knew that their punishment was just. The ten
unfaithful spies, divinely smitten by the plague, perished before the
eyes of all Israel; and in their fate the people read their own doom.
Now they seemed sincerely to repent of their sinful conduct; but they
sorrowed because of the result of their evil course rather than from a
sense of their ingratitude and disobedience. When they found that the
Lord did not relent in His decree, their self-will again arose, and they
declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In commanding
them to retire from the land of their enemies, God tested their apparent
submission and proved that it was not real. They knew that they had
deeply sinned in allowing their rash feelings to control them and in
seeking to slay the spies who had urged them to obey God; but they were
only terrified to find that they had made a fearful mistake, the
consequences of which would prove disastrous to themselves. Their hearts
were unchanged, and they only needed an excuse to occasion a similar
outbreak. This presented itself when Moses, by the authority of God,
commanded them to go back into the wilderness.
The decree that Israel was not to enter Canaan for forty years was a
bitter disappointment to Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua; yet without
a murmur they accepted the divine decision. But those who had been
complaining of God's dealings with them, and declaring that they would
return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the blessings which they
had despised were taken from them. They had complained at nothing, and
now God gave them cause to weep. Had they mourned for their sin when it
was faithfully laid before them, this sentence would not have been
pronounced; but they mourned for the judgment; their sorrow was not
repentance, and could not secure a reversing of their sentence.
The night was spent in lamentation, but with the morning came a hope.
They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden them go up
and take the land, they had refused; and now when He directed them to
retreat they were equally rebellious. They determined to seize upon the
land and possess it; it might be that God would accept their work and
change His purpose toward them.
God had made it their privilege and their duty to enter the land at the
time of His appointment, but through their willful neglect that
permission had been withdrawn. Satan had gained his object in preventing
them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very
thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to
do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory by
leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted the power
of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of Canaan; yet
now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish the work
independent of divine aid. "We have sinned against the Lord," they
cried; "we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God
commanded us." Deuteronomy 1:41. So terribly blinded had they become by
transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to "go up and fight."
It was not His purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by
strict obedience to His commands.
Though their hearts were unchanged, the people had been brought to
confess the sinfulness and folly of their rebellion at the report of the
spies. They now saw the value of the blessing which they had so rashly
cast away. They confessed that it was their own unbelief which had shut
them out from Canaan. "We have sinned," they said, acknowledging that
the fault was in themselves, and not in God, whom they had so wickedly
charged with failing to fulfill His promises to them. Though their
confession did not spring from true repentance, it served to vindicate
the justice of God in His dealings with them.
The Lord still works in a similar manner to glorify His name by bringing
men to acknowledge His justice. When those who profess to love Him
complain of His providence, despise His promises, and, yielding to
temptation, unite with evil angels to defeat the purposes of God, the
Lord often so overrules circumstances as to bring these persons where,
though they may have no real repentance, they will be convinced of their
sin and will be constrained to acknowledge the wickedness of their
course and the justice and goodness of God in His dealings with them. It
is thus that God sets counter agencies at work to make manifest the
works of darkness. And though the spirit which prompted to the evil
course is not radically changed, confessions are made that vindicate the
honor of God and justify His faithful reprovers, who have been opposed
and misrepresented. Thus it will be when the wrath of God shall be
finally poured out. When "the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His
saints, to execute judgment upon all," He will also "convince all that
are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds." Jude 14, 15. Every
sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of his
condemnation.
Regardless of the divine sentence, the Israelites prepared to undertake
the conquest of Canaan. Equipped with armor and weapons of war, they
were, in their own estimation, fully prepared for conflict; but they
were sadly deficient in the sight of God and His sorrowful servants.
When, nearly forty years later, the Lord directed Israel to go up and
take Jericho, He promised to go with them. The ark containing His law
was borne before their armies. His appointed leaders were to direct
their movements, under the divine supervision. With such guidance, no
harm could come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God and the
solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark, and without Moses,
they went out to meet the armies of the enemy.
The trumpet sounded an alarm, and Moses hastened after them with the
warning, "Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?
but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that
ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the
Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword."
The Canaanites had heard of the mysterious power that seemed to be
guarding this people and of the wonders wrought in their behalf, and
they now summoned a strong force to repel the invaders. The attacking
army had no leader. No prayer was offered that God would give them the
victory. They set forth with the desperate purpose to reverse their fate
or to die in battle. Though untrained in war, they were a vast multitude
of armed men, and they hoped by a sudden and fierce assault to bear down
all opposition. They presumptuously challenged the foe that had not
dared to attack them.
The Canaanites had stationed themselves upon a rocky tableland reached
only by difficult passes and a steep and dangerous ascent. The immense
numbers of the Hebrews could only render their defeat more terrible.
They slowly threaded the mountain paths, exposed to the deadly missiles
of their enemies above. Massive rocks came thundering down, marking
their path with the blood of the slain. Those who reached the summit,
exhausted with their ascent, were fiercely repulsed, and driven back
with great loss. The field of carnage was strewn with the bodies of the
dead. The army of Israel was utterly defeated. Destruction and death was
the result of that rebellious experiment.
Forced to submission at last, the survivors "returned, and wept before
the Lord;" but "the Lord would not hearken" to their voice. Deuteronomy
1:45. By their signal victory the enemies of Israel, who had before
awaited with trembling the approach of that mighty host, were inspired
with confidence to resist them. All the reports they had heard
concerning the marvelous things that God had wrought for His people,
they now regarded as false, and they felt that there was no cause for
fear. That first defeat of Israel, by inspiring the Canaanites with
courage and resolution, had greatly increased the difficulties of the
conquest. Nothing remained for Israel but to fall back from the face of
their victorious foes, into the wilderness, knowing that here must be
the grave of a whole generation.
Previous Chapter l Table
Contents l Next Chapter
|
|
