Numbers 13:17-33 NKJV 17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, 18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; 19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; 20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. 22 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to 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 stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
The spies bring back good fruit and bad fruit. The good fruit consisted of literal fruit, a cluster of grapes so large it had to be carried by two men on a pole, pomegranates, and figs. These fruits were a visible sign to Israel that the land into which God was leading them was good. The spies could not deny what God had told Israel on multiple occasions, “It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (27).
There are dangers, to be sure. The land of Canaan is full of Canaanites! They are strong, their cities are fortified. The sons of Anak are there, who are not physical giants but are like the Nephilim of old, tyrants who fall cruelly and violently upon others. God often allows challenges such as these to exercise faith. Caleb brings back the fruit of the land and the fruit of faith: his confession that, because of God’s promise, “we are well able to overcome it” (30).
Ten of the spies, however, bring back the fruit of the land and the fruit of unbelief. They speak against God’s promise. They do apply God’s word to the challenges that come with obtaining the Promised Land. They allow what they see with their eyes and experience within themselves to be truer than God’s promise to give them the land. They did not believe that God could defeat the Canaanites even though they had seen the Lord’s victory over the Egyptians with their own eyes. They only saw the strength of their opponents and their own insignificance.
God’s gifts often bring challenges with them. God allows these challenges so that our faith might be exercised. He wants us to view His word and promises as true and walk by faith in them so that we view all things in life through His word, as through a lens. When we are confronted with challenges, temptations, trials, or afflictions, we walk by faith, not by sight, trusting that, with God’s promised help and salvation, whatever the challenged, “we are well able to overcome it.”
Let us pray: Grant us Your Holy Spirit, O Lord, that we walk by faith in Your promises, and not by what we see in the world and experience within ourselves. Amen.