Day 55 · Part 4: The Wilderness
The Spies
In the Story
In context
From the wilderness of Paran, Moses sent twelve men, a leader from each tribe, to spy out Canaan. They went as far north as “the entrance of Hamath” and came back after forty days to Kadesh, with a cluster of grapes carried on a pole between two men, and pomegranates and figs (Numbers 13:21–26).
The spies reported that the land “flows with milk and honey,” but ten said its people were too strong: “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:27–33). Only Caleb and Joshua, whom Moses had renamed from Hoshea, said, “Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them” (Numbers 13:16; 14:6–9). The people wept that night, talked of going back to Egypt, and threatened to stone the two (Numbers 14:1–10).
Moses pleaded for them with the words the Lord had spoken at Sinai, “slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness” (Numbers 14:18; Exodus 34:6), and the Lord pardoned them. But those twenty and older who had complained would not enter the land. Israel would wander forty years, a year for each day of the spying (Numbers 14:20–34). The ten who spread the bad report died in a plague; the people went up to fight anyway and were beaten back as far as Hormah (Numbers 14:36–45). Psalm 95 looks back on those “forty long years” (Psalm 95:10).
Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10 · Joshua and Caleb told the frightened people, “Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them”; in Isaiah the Lord says, “Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.”
For families
The people were afraid for their children, crying that their wives and little ones would be “captured or killed” (Numbers 14:3). The Lord answered that those same little ones would be the ones to go into the land, after forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:31–33).
Those children grew up in the wilderness and went into the land as grown-ups. What do you think they remembered most about growing up there?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Numbers 13
Loading…
Numbers 14
Loading…
A hymn for today
How Firm a Foundation · words by “K” in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns
- How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!What more can He say than to you He hath said,You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
- In every condition, in sickness, in health,In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.
- Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
- When through the deep waters I call thee to go,The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
- When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
- E'en down to old age all My people shall proveMy sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
- The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I'll never, no never, no never forsake.