THE SPIES AND THEIR
REPORT
Numbers 13; Num 14:1-10
Two narratives at least appear to be united in the thirteenth and
fourteenth chapters. From Num 13:17; Num 13:22-23, we learn that the
spies were despatched by way of the south, and that they went to
Hebron and a little beyond, as far as the valley of Eshcol. But Num
13:21 states that they spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin,
south of the Dead Sea, to the entering in of Hamath. The latter
statement implies that they traversed what were afterwards called
Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, and penetrated as far as the valley of
the Leontes, between the southern ranges of Libanus and Antilibanus.
The one account taken by itself would make the journey of the spies
northward about a hundred miles; the other, three times as long.
A further difference is this: According to one of the narratives
Caleb alone encourages the people. {Num 13:30, Num 14:24} But
according to the Num 13:8; Num 14:6-7, Joshua, as well as Caleb, is
among the twelve, and reports favourably as to the possibility of
conquering and possessing Canaan.
Without deciding on the critical points involved, we may find a way
of harmonising the apparent differences. It is quite possible, for
instance, that while some of the twelve were instructed to keep in
the south of Canaan, others were sent to the middle district and a
third company to the north. Caleb might be among those who explored
the south; while Joshua, having gone to the far north, might return
somewhat later and join his testimony to that which Caleb had given.
There is no inconsistency between the portions ascribed to the one
narrative and those referred to the other; and the account, as we
have it, may give what was the gist of several co-ordinate
documents. As to any variance in the reports of the spies, we can
easily understand how those who looked for smiling valleys and
fruitful fields would find them, while others saw.only the
difficulties and dangers that would have to be faced.
The questions occur, why and at whose instance the survey was
undertaken. From Deuteronomy we learn that a demand for it arose
among the people. Moses says: {Deu 1:22} "Ye came near unto me every
one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may
search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which
we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come." In Numbers
the expedition is undertaken at the order of Jehovah conveyed
through Moses. The opposition here is only on the surface. The
people might desire, but decision did not lie with them. It was
quite natural when the tribes had at length approached the frontier
of Canaan that they should seek information as to the state of the
country. And the wish was one which could be sanctioned, which had
even been anticipated. The land of Canaan was already known to the
children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the praise of it as a
land flowing with milk and honey mingled with their traditions. In
one sense there was no need to send spies, either to report on the
fertility of the land or on the peoples dwelling in it. Yet Divine
Providence, on which men are to rely, does not supersede their
prudence and the duty that rests with them of considering the way
they go. The destiny of life or of a nation is to be wrought out in
faith; still we are to use all available means in order to ensure
success. So personality grows through providence, and God raises men
for Himself.
To the band of pioneers each tribe contributes a man, and all the
twelve are headmen, whose intelligence and good faith may presumably
be trusted. They know the strength of Israel; they should also be
able to count upon the great source of courage and power-the unseen
Friend of the nation. Remembering what Egypt is, they know also the
ways of the desert; and they have seen war. If they possess
enthusiasm and hope, they will not be dismayed by the sight of a few
walled towns or even of some Anakim. They will say, "The Lord of
hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." Yet there is
danger that old doubts and new fears may colour their report. God
appoints men to duty; but their personal character and tendencies
remain. And the very best men Israel can choose for a task like this
will need all their faithfulness and more than all their faith to do
it well.
The spies were to climb the heights visible in the north, and look
forth towards the Great Sea and away to Moriah and Carmel. They were
also to make their way cautiously into the land itself and examine
it. Moses anticipates that all he has said in praise of Canaan will
be made good by the report, and the people will be encouraged to
enter at once on the final struggle. When the desert was around
them, unfruitful, seemingly interminable, the Israelites might have
been disposed to fear that journeying from Egypt they were leaving
the fertility of the world farther and farther behind. Some may have
thought that the Divine promise had misled and deceived them, and
that Canaan was a dream. Even although they had now overpassed that
dreary region covered with coarse gravel, black flints, and drifting
sand, "the great and terrible wilderness," what hope was there that
northward they should reach a land of olives, vineyards, and flowing
streams? The report of the spies would answer this question.
Now in like manner the future state of existence may seem dim and
unreal, scarcely credible, to many. Our life is like a series of
marches hither and thither through the desert. Neither as
individuals nor as communities do we seem to approach any state of
blessedness and rest. Rather, as years go by, does the region become
more inhospitable. Hopes once cherished are one after another
disappointed. The stern mountains that overhung the track by which
our forefathers went still frown upon us. It seems impossible to get
beyond their shadow. And in a kind of despair some may be ready to
say: There is no promised land. This waste, with its sere grass, its
burning sand, its rugged hills, makes the whole of life. We shall
die here in the wilderness like those who have been before us; and
when our graves are dug and our bodies laid in them, our existence
will have an end. But it is a thoughtless habit to doubt that of
which we have no full experience. Here we have but begun to learn
the possibilities of life and find a clew to its Divine mysteries.
And even as to the Israelites in the wilderness there were not
wanting signs that pointed to the fruitful and pleasant country
beyond, so for us, even now, there are previsions of the higher
world. Some shrubs and straggling vines grew in sheltered hollows
among the hills. Here and there a scanty crop of maize was reared,
and in the rainy season streams flowed down the wastes. From what
was known the Israelites might reason hopefully to that which as yet
was beyond their sight. And are there not fore-signs for the soul,
springs opened to the seekers after God in the desert, some verdure
of righteousness, some strength and peace in believing?
Science and business and the cares of life absorb many and bewilder
them. Immersed in the work of their world, men are apt to forget
that deeper draughts of life may be drunk than they obtain in the
laboratory or the countinghouse. But he who knows what love and
worship are, who finds in all things the food of religious thought
and devotion, makes no such mistake. To him a future in the
spiritual world is far more within the range of hopeful anticipation
than Canaan was to one who remembered Egypt and had bathed in the
waters of the Nile. Is the heavenly future real? It is: as thought
and faith and love are real, as the fellowship of souls and the joy
of communion with God are realities. Those who are in doubt as to
immortality may find the cause of that doubt in their own
earthliness. Let them be less occupied with the material, care more
for the spiritual possessions, truth, righteousness, religion, and
they will begin to feel an end of doubt. Heaven is no fable. Even
now we have our foretaste of its refreshing waters and the fruits
that are for the healing of the nations.
The spies were to climb the hills which commanded a view of the
promised land. And there are heights which must be scaled if we are
to have previsions of the heavenly life. Men undertake to forecast
the future of the human race who have never sought those heights.
They may have gone out from camp a few miles or even some days’
journey, but they have kept in the plain. One is devoted to science,
and he sees as the land of promise a region in which science shall
achieve triumphs hitherto only dreamt of, when the ultimate atoms
shall disclose their secrets and the subtle principle of life shall
be no longer a mystery. The social reformer sees his own schemes in
operation, some new adjustment of human relations, some new economy
or system of government, the establishment of an order that shall
make the affairs of the world run smoothly, and banish want and care
and possibly disease from the earth. But these and similar
previsions are not from the heights. We have to climb quite above
the earthly and temporal, above economics and scientific theories.
Where the way of faith rises, where the love of men becomes perfect
in the love of God, not in theory but in the practical endeavour of
earnest life, there we ascend, we advance. We shall see the coming
kingdom of God only if we are heartily with God in the ardour of the
redeemed soul, if we follow in the footsteps of Christ to the
summits of Sacrifice.
The spies went forth from among tribes which had so far made a good
journey under the Divine guidance. So well had the expedition sped
that a few days’ march would have brought the travellers into
Canaan. But Israel was not a hopeful people nor a united people. The
thoughts of many turned back; all were not faithful to God nor loyal
to Moses. And as the people were, so were the spies. Some may have
professed to be enthusiastic who had their doubts regarding Canaan
and the possibility of conquering it. Others may have even wished to
find difficulties that would furnish an excuse for returning even to
Egypt. Most were ready to be disenchanted at least and to find cause
for alarm. In the south of Canaan a pastoral district, rocky and
uninviting towards the shore of the Dead Sea, was found to be
sparsely occupied by wandering companies of Amalekites, Bedawin of
the time, probably with a look of poverty and hardship that gave
little promise for any who should attempt to settle where they
roamed. Towards Hebron the aspect of the country improved; but the
ancient city, or at all events its stronghold, was in the hands of a
class of bandits whose names inspired terror throughout the
district-Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, sons of Anak. The great
stature of these men, exaggerated by common report, together with
stories of their ferocity, seem to have impressed the timid Hebrews
beyond measure. And round Hebron the Amorites, a hardy highland
race, were found in occupation. The report agreed on was that the
people were men of great stature; that the land was one which ate up
its inhabitants-that is to say, yielded but a precarious existence.
Just beyond Hebron vineyards and olive-groves were found; and from
the valley of Eschol one fine cluster of grapes was brought, hung
upon a rod to preserve the fruit from injury, an evidence of
capabilities that might be developed. Still the report was an evil
one on the whole.
Those who went farther north had to tell of strong peoples-the
Jebusites and Amorites of the central region, the Hittites of the
north, the Canaanites of the seaboard, where afterwards Sisera had
his headquarters. The cities, too, were great and walled. These
spies had nothing to say of the fruitful plains of Esdraelon and
Jezreel, nothing to tell of the flowery meadows the "murmuring of
innumerable bees," the terraced vineyards, the herds of cattle and
flocks of sheep and goats. They had seen the strong, resolute
holders of the soil, the fortresses, the difficulties; and of these
they brought back an account which caused abundant alarm. Joshua and
Caleb alone had the confidence of faith, and were assured that
Jehovah, if He delighted in His people, would give them Canaan as an
inheritance.
The report of the majority of the spies was one of exaggeration and
a certain untruthfulness. They must have spoken altogether without
knowledge, or else allowed themselves to magnify what they saw, when
they said of the children of Anak, "We were in our own sight as
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Possibly the Hebrews
were at this time somewhat ill-developed as a race, bearing the mark
of their slavery. But we can hardly suppose that the Amorites, much
less the Hittites, were of overpassing stature. Nor could many
cities have been so large and strongly fortified as was represented,
though Lachish, Hebron, Shalim, and a few others were formidable. On
the other hand, the picture had none of the attractiveness it should
have borne. These exaggerations and defects, however, are the common
faults of misbelieving and therefore ignorant representation. Are
any disposed to leave the wilderness of the world and possess the
better country? A hundred voices of the baser kind will be heard
giving warning and presage. Nothing is said about its spiritual
fruit, its joy, hope, and peace. But its hardships are detailed, the
renunciations, the obligations, the conflicts necessary before it
can be possessed. Who would enter on the hopeless task of trying to
cast out the strong man armed, who sits entrenched-of holding at bay
the thousand forces that oppose the Christian life? Each position
must be taken after a sore struggle and kept by constant
watchfulness. Little know they who think of becoming religious how
hard it is to be Christians. It is a life of gloom, of constant
penitence for failures that cannot be helped, a life of continual
trembling and terror. So the reports go that profess to be those of
experience and knowledge of men and women who understand life.
Observe also that the account given by those who reconnoitred the
land of promise sprang from an error which has its parallel now. The
spies went supposing that the Israelites were to conquer Canaan and
dwell there purely for their own sake, for their own happiness and
comfort. Had not the wilderness journey been undertaken for that
end? It did not enter into the consideration either of the people as
a whole or of their representatives that they were bound for Canaan
in order to fulfil the Divine purpose of making Israel a means of
blessing to the world. Here, indeed, a spirituality of view was
needful which the spies could not be expected to have. Breadth of
foresight, too, would have been required which in the circumstances
scarcely lay within human power. If any of them had taken account of
Israel’s spiritual destiny as a witness for Jehovah in the midst of
the heathen, could they have told whether this land of Syria or some
other would be a fit theatre for the fulfilment of that high
destiny?
And in ignorance like theirs lies the source of mistakes often made
in judging the circumstances of life, in deciding what will be
wisest and best to undertake. We, too, look at things from the point
of view of our own happiness and comfort, and, in a higher range, of
our religious enjoyment. If we see that these are to be had in a
certain sphere, by a certain movement or change, we decide on that
change, we choose that sphere. But if neither temporal well-being
nor enjoyment of religious privilege appears to be certain, our
common practice is to turn in another direction. Yet the truth is
that we are not here, and we shall never be anywhere, either in this
world or another, simply to enjoy, to have the milk and honey of a
smiling land, to fulfil our own desires and live to ourselves. The
question regarding the fit place or state for us depends for its
answer on what God means to do through us for our fellow-men, for
the truth, for His kingdom and glory. The future which we with
greater or less success attempt to conquer and secure will, as the
Divine hand leads us on, prove different from our dream in
proportion as our lives are capable of high endeavour and spiritual
service. We shall have our hope, but not as we painted it.
Who are the Calebs and Joshuas of our time? Not those who,
forecasting the movements of society, see what they think shall be
for their people a region of comfort and earthly prosperity, to be
maintained by shutting out as far as possible the agitation of other
lands; but those who realise that a nation, especially a Christian
nation, has a duty under God to the whole human race. Those are our
true guides and come with inspiration who bid us not be afraid in
undertaking the world-wide task of commendering truth, establishing
righteousness, seeking the enfranchisement and Christianisation of
all lands.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Caleb and afterwards of Joshua to
controvert the disheartening reports spread by their companions, the
people were filled with dismay; and night fell upon a weeping camp.
The pictures of those Anakim and of the tall Amorites, rendered more
terrible by imagination, appear to have had most to do with the
panic. But it was the general impression also that Canaan offered no
attractions as a home. There was murmuring against Moses and Aaron.
Disaffection spread rapidly, and issued in the proposal to take
another leader and return to Egypt. Why had Jehovah brought them
across the desert to put them under the sword at last? The tumult
increased, and the danger of a revolt became so great that Moses and
Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly.
Always and everywhere faithless means foolish, faithless means
cowardly. By this is explained the dejection and panic into which
the Israelites fell, into which men often fall. Our life and history
are not confided to the Divine care; our hope is not in God. Nothing
can save a man or a nation from vacillation, despondency, and defeat
but the conviction that Providence opens the may and never fails
those who press on. No doubt there are considerations which might
have made Israel doubtful whether the conquest of Canaan lay in the
way of duty. Some modern moralists would call it a great crime-would
say that the tribes could look for no success in endeavouring to
dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan, or even to find a place among
them. But this thought did not enter into the question. Panic fell
on the host, because doubt of Jehovah and His purpose overcame the
partial faith which had as yet been maintained with no small
difficulty.
Now it was by the mouth of Moses Israel had been assured of the
promise of God. Broadly speaking, faith in Jehovah was faith in
Moses, who was their moralist, their prophet, their guide. Men here
and there, the seventy who prophesied for instance, had their
personal consciousness of the Divine power; but the great mass of
the people had the covenant, and trusted it through the mediation of
Moses. Had Moses then, as the Israelites could judge, a right to
command unquestionable authority as a revealer of the will of the
unseen God? Take away from the history every incident, every
feature, that may appear doubtful, and there remains a personality,
a man of distinguished unselfishness, of admirable patience, of
great sagacity, who certainly was a patriot, and as certainly had
greater conceptions, higher enthusiasms, than any other man of
Israel. It was perhaps difficult for those who were gross in nature
and very ignorant to realise that Moses was indeed in communication
with an unseen, omnipotent Friend of the people. Some might even
have been disposed to say: What if he is? What can God do for us? If
we are to get anything, we must seek and obtain it for ourselves.
Yet the Israelites as a whole held the almost universal belief of
those times, the conviction that a Power above the visible world
does rule the affairs of earth. And there was evidence enough that
Moses was guided and sustained by the Divine hand. The sagacious
mind, the brave, noble personality of Moses, made for Israel, at
least for every one in Israel capable of appreciating character and
wisdom, a bridge between the seen and the unseen, between man and
God.
We must not indeed deny that this conviction was liable to challenge
and revision. It must always be so when a man speaks for God,
represents God. Doubt of the wisdom of any command meant doubt
whether God had really given it by Moses. And when it seemed that
the tribes had been unwisely brought to Canaan, the reflection might
be that Moses had failed as an interpreter. Yet this was not the
common conclusion. Rather, from all we learn, was it the conclusion
that Jehovah Himself had failed the people or deceived them. And
there lay the error of unbelief which is constantly being committed
still.
For us, whatever may be said as to the composition of the Bible, it
is supremely, and as no other sacred book can be, the Word of God.
As Moses was the one man in Israel who had a right to speak in
Jehovah’s name, so the Bible is the one book which can claim to
instruct us in faith, duty, and hope. Speaking to us in human
language, it may of course be challenged. At one point and another,
some even of those who believe in Divine communication to men may
question whether the Bible writers have always caught aright the
sound of the heavenly Word. And some go so far as to say: There is
no Divine Voice; men have given as the Word of God, in good faith,
what arose in their own mind, their own exalted imagination.
Nevertheless, our faith, if faith we are to have at all, must rest
on this Book. We cannot get away from human words. We must rely on
spoken or written language if we are to know anything higher than
our own thought. And what is written in the Bible has the highest
marks of inspiration-wisdom, purity, truth, power to convince and
convert and to build up a life in holiness and in hope.
It remains true accordingly that doubt of the Bible means for us,
must mean, not simply doubt of the men who have been instrumental in
giving us the Book, but doubt of God Himself. If the Bible did not
speak in harmony with nature and reason and the widest human
experience when it lays down moral law, prescribes the true rules
and unfolds the great principles of life, the affirmation just made
would be absurd. But it is a book of breadth, full of wisdom which
every age is verifying. It stands an absolute, the manifest
embodiment of knowledge drawn from the highest sources available to
men-from sources not earthly nor temporary, but sublime and eternal.
Faith, therefore, must have its foundation on the teaching of this
Book as to "what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God
requires of man." And on the other hand infidelity is and must be
the result of rejecting the revelation of the Bible, denying that
here God speaks with supreme wisdom and authority to our souls.
The Israelites doubting Jehovah who had spoken through Moses, that
is to say, doubting the highest, most inspiring word it was possible
for them to hear, turning away from the Divine reason that spoke,
the heavenly purpose revealed to them, had nothing to rely upon.
Confused inadequate counsels, chaotic fears, waited immediately upon
their revolt. They sank at once to despondency and the most fatuous
and impossible projects. The men who stood against their despair
were made offenders, almost sacrificed to their fear. Joshua and
Caleb, facing the tumult, called for confidence. "Fear not ye the
people of the land," they said, "for they are bread for us: their
defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them
not." But all the congregation bade stone them with stones; and it
was only the bright glow of the pillar of fire shining out at the
moment that prevented a dreadful catastrophe.
So the faithless generations fell back still into panic, fatuity,
and crime. Trusting in their resources, men say, "No change need
trouble us; we have courage, wisdom, power, sufficient for our
needs." But have they unity, have they any scheme of life for which
it is worth while to be courageous? The hope of bare continuance, of
ignoble safety and comfort will not animate, will not inspire. Only
some great vision of Duty seen along the track of the eternally
right will kindle the heart of a people; the faith that goes with
that vision will alone sustain courage. Without it, armies and
battleships are but a temporary and flimsy defence, the pretext of a
self-confidence, while the heart is clouded with despair. Whether
men say, We will return to Egypt, refusing the call of Providence
which bids us fulfil a high destiny, or still refusing to fulfil it,
We will maintain ourselves in the wilderness-they have in secret the
conviction that they are failures, that their national organisation
is a hollow pretence. And the end, though it may linger for a time,
will be dismemberment and disaster.
Modern nations, nominally Christian, are finding it difficult to
suppress disorder, and occasionally we are almost thrown into a
state of panic by the activity of revolutionists. Does the cause not
lie in this, that the en avant of Providence and Christianity is not
obeyed either in the politics or social economy of the people? Like
Israel, a nation has been led so far through the wilderness, but
advance can only be into a new order which faith perceives, to which
the voice of God calls. If it is becoming a general conclusion that
there is no such country, or that the conquest of it is impossible,
if many are saying, Let us settle in the wilderness, and others, Let
us return to Egypt, what can the issue be but confusion? This is to
encourage the anarchist, the dynamiter. The enterprise of humanity,
according to such counsels, is so far a failure, and for the future
there is no inspiring hope. And to make economic self-seeking the
governing idea of a nation’s movement is simply to abandon the true
leader and to choose another of some ignominious order. Would it
have been possible to persuade Moses to hold the command of the
tribes, and yet remain in the desert or return to Egypt? Neither is
it possible to retain Christ as our captain and also to make this
world our home, or return to a practical heathenism, relieved by
abundance of food, the Hellenic worship of beauty, the organisation
of pleasure. For the great enterprise of spiritual redemption alone
will Christ be our leader. We lose Him if we turn to the hopes of
this world and cease to press the journey towards the city of God.
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