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Matthew Henry |
N U M B E R S
CHAP. XIII.
It is a memorable and very melancholy story which is related in this
and the following chapter, of the turning back of Israel from the
borders of Canaan, when they were just ready to set foot in it, and the
sentencing of them to wander and perish in the wilderness for their
unbelief and murmuring. It is referred to
&c., and improved for warning to Christians,
&c. In this chapter we have,
I. The sending of twelve spies before them into Canaan,
II. The instructions given to these spies,
III. Their executing their commission according to their instructions,
and their return from the search,
IV. The report they brought back to the camp of Israel,
&c.
| Missions of the Twelve Spies. | B. C. 1490. |
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1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which
I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their
fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the
wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children
of Israel.
4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua
the son of Zaccur.
5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh,
Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out
the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.
17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said
unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the
mountain:
18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth
therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be
good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in,
whether in tents, or in strong holds;
20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether
there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and
bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of
the firstripe grapes.
Here we have,
I. Orders given to send spies to search out the land of Canaan. It is
here said, God directed Moses to send them
(v. 1, 2),
but it appears by the repetition of the story afterwards
that the motion came originally from the people; they came to Moses,
and said, We will send men before us; and it was the fruit of
their unbelief. They would not take God’s word that it was a good land,
and that he would, without fail, put them in possession of it. They
could not trust the pillar of cloud and fire to show them the way to
it, but had a better opinion of their own politics than of God’s
wisdom. How absurd was it for them to send to spy out a land which God
himself had spied out for them, to enquire the way into it when God
himself had undertaken to show them the way! But thus we ruin ourselves
by giving more credit to the reports and representations of sense than
to divine revelation; we walk by sight, not by faith; whereas, if
we will receive the witness of men, without doubt the
witness of God is greater. The people making this motion to Moses,
he (perhaps not aware of the unbelief at the bottom of it) consulted
God in the case, who bade him gratify the people in this matter, and
send spies before them: “Let them walk in their own counsels.” Yet God
was no way accessory to the sin that followed, for the sending of these
spies was so far from being the cause of the sin that if the spies had
done their duty, and the people theirs, it might have been the
confirmation of their faith, and of good service to them.
II. The persons nominated that were to be employed in this service
(v. 4,
&c.), one of each tribe, that it might appear to be the act of the
people in general; and rulers, person of figure in their respective
tribes, some of the rulers of thousands or hundreds, to put the greater
credit upon their embassy. This was designed for the best, but it
proved to have this ill effect that the quality of the persons
occasioned the evil report they brought up to be the more credited and
the people to be the more influenced by it. Some think that they are
all named for the sake of two good ones that were among them, Caleb and
Joshua. Notice is taken of the change of Joshua’s name upon this
occasion,
He was Moses’s minister, but had been employed, though of the tribe of
Ephraim, as general of the forces that were sent out against Amalek.
The name by which he was generally called and known in his own tribe
was Oshea, but Moses called him Joshua, in token of his
affection to him and power over him; and now, it should seem, he
ordered others to call him so, and fixed that to be his name
henceforward. Oshea signifies a prayer for salvation, Save
thou; Joshua signifies a promise of salvation, He will save,
in answer to that prayer: so near is the relation between prayers and
promises. Prayers prevail for promises, and promises direct and
encourage prayers. Some think that Moses designed, by taking the first
syllable of the name Jehovah and prefixing it to his name, which turned
Hoshea into Jehoshua, to put an honour upon him, and to
encourage him in this and all his future services with the assurances
of God’s presence. Yet after this he is called Hoshea,
Deut. xxxii. 44.
Jesus is the same name with Joshua, and it is the name of
our Lord Christ, of whom Joshua was a type as successor to Moses,
Israel’s captain, and conqueror of Canaan. There was another of the
same name, who was also a type of Christ,
Joshua was the saviour of God’s people from the powers of Canaan, but
Christ is their Saviour from the powers of hell.
III. The instructions given to those spies. They were sent into the
land of Canaan the nearest way, to traverse the country, and to take
account of its present state,
Two heads of enquiry were given them in charge,
1. Concerning the land itself: See what that is
(v. 18,
and again,
v. 19),
see whether it be good or bad, and
(v. 20)
whether it be fat or lean. All parts of the earth do not share
alike in the blessing of fruitfulness; some countries are blessed with
a richer soil than others. Moses himself was well satisfied that Canaan
was a very good land, but he sent these spies to bring an account of it
for the satisfaction of the people; as John Baptist sent to Jesus, to
ask whether he was the Christ, not to inform himself, but to inform
those he sent. They must take notice whether the air was healthful or
no, what the soil was, and what the productions; and, for the better
satisfaction of the people, they must bring with them some of the
fruits.
2. Concerning the inhabitants–their number, few or many–their size
and stature, whether strong able-bodied men or weak,–their
habitations, whether they lived in tents or houses, whether in open
villages or in walled towns,–whether the woods were standing as in
those countries that are uncultivated, through the unskillfulness and
slothfulness of the inhabitants, or whether the woods were cut down,
and the country made champaign, for the convenience of tillage. These
were the things they were to enquire about. Perhaps there had not been
of late years such commerce between Egypt and Canaan as there was in
Jacob’s time, else they might have informed themselves of these things
without sending men on purpose to search. See the advantage we may
derive from books and learning, which acquaint those that are curious
and inquisitive with the state of foreign countries, at a much greater
distance than Canaan was now from Israel, without this trouble and
expense.
IV. Moses dismisses the spies with this charge, Be of good
courage, intimating, not only that they should be themselves
encouraged against the difficulties of this expedition, but that they
should bring an encouraging account to the people and make the best of
every thing. It was not only a great undertaking they were put upon,
which required good management and resolution, but it was a great trust
that was reposed in them, which required that they should be
faithful.
21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness
of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where
Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now
Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from
thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it
between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates,
and of the figs.
24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the
cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from
thence.
25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty
days.
We have here a short account of the survey which the spies made of the
promised land.
1. They went quite through it, from Zin in the south, to Rehob, near
Hamath, in the north,
See
It is probable that they did not go altogether in a body, lest they
should be suspected and taken up, which there would be the more danger
of if the Canaanites knew (and one would think they could not but know)
how near the Israelites were to them; but they divided themselves into
several companies, and so passed unsuspected, as way-faring men.
2. They took particular notice of Hebron
(v. 22),
probably because near there was the field of Machpelah, where the
patriarchs were buried
whose dead bodies did, as it were, keep possession of that land for
their posterity. To this sepulchre they made a particular visit, and
found the adjoining city in the possession of the sons of Anak, who are
here named. In that place where they expected the greatest
encouragements they met with the greatest discouragements. Where the
bodies of their ancestors kept possession for them the giants kept
possession against them. They ascended by the south, and came to
Hebron, that is, “Caleb,” say the Jews, “in particular,” for to his
being there we find express reference,
But that others of the spies were there too appears by their
description of the Anakim,
3. They brought a bunch of grapes with them, and some other of the
fruits of the land, as a proof of the extraordinary goodness of the
country. Probably they furnished themselves with these fruits when they
were leaving the country and returning. The cluster of grapes was so
large and so heavy that they hung it upon a bar, and carried it between
two of them,
The place whence they took it was, from this circumstance, called the
valley of the cluster, that famous cluster which was to Israel
both the earnest and the specimen of all the fruits of Canaan. Such are
the present comforts which we have in communion with God, foretastes of
the fulness of joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. We may see by
them what heaven is.
26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all
the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness
of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto
all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither
thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and
this is the fruit of it.
28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land,
and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we
saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the
Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the
mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast
of Jordan.
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us
go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome
it.
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go
up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they
had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land,
through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth
up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it
are men of a great stature.
33 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.
It is a wonder how the people of Israel had patience to stay forty days
for the return of their spies, when they were just ready to enter
Canaan, under all the assurances of success they could have from the
divine power, and a constant series of miracles that had hitherto
attended them; but they distrusted God’s power and promise, and were
willing to be held in suspense by their own counsels, rather than be
brought to a certainty by God’s covenant. How much do we stand in our
own light by our unbelief! Well, at length the messengers return, but
they agree not in their report.
I. The major part discourage the people from going forward to Canaan;
and justly are the Israelites left to this temptation, for putting so
much confidence in the judgment of men, when they had the word of God
to trust to. It is a righteous thing with God to give those up to
strong delusions who will not receive his truth in the love of it.
1. Observe their report.
(1.) They could not deny but that the land of Canaan was a very
fruitful land; the bunch of grapes they brought with them was an ocular
demonstration of it,
God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, and the evil
spies themselves own that it is such a land. Thus even out of the mouth
of adversaries will God be glorified and the truth of his promise
attested. And yet afterwards they contradict themselves, when they say
(v. 32),
It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; as if,
though it had milk, and honey, and grapes, yet it wanted other
necessary provision; some think that there was a great plague in the
country at the time they surveyed it, which they ought to have imputed
to the wisdom of the divine Providence, which thus lessened the numbers
of their enemies, to facilitate their conquests; but they invidiously
imputed it to the unwholesomeness of the air, and thence took occasion
to disparage the country. For this unreasonable fear of a plague in
Canaan, they were justly cut off immediately by a plague in the
wilderness,
ch. xiv. 37.
But,
(2.) They represented the conquest of it as altogether impracticable,
and that it was to no purpose to attempt it. The people are strong
(v. 28),
men of a great stature
(v. 32),
stronger than we,
v. 31.
The cities are represented as impregnable fortresses: they are
walled and very great,
v. 28.
But nothing served their ill purpose more than a description of the
giants, on whom they lay a great stress: We saw the children of Anak
there
(v. 28),
and again, we saw the giants, those men of a prodigious size,
the sons of Anak, who come of the giants,
v. 33.
They spoke as if they were ready to tremble at the mention of them, as
they had done at the sight of them. “O these tremendous giants! when we
were near them, we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, not
only little and weak, but trembling and daunted.” Compare
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? “Nay, and so we
were in their sight; they looked upon us with as much scorn and
disdain as we did upon them with fear and trembling.” So that upon the
whole matter they gave it in as their judgment, We are not able to
go up against them
(v. 31),
and therefore must think of taking some other course.
2. Now, even if they had been to judge only by human probabilities,
they could not have been excused from the imputation of cowardice. Were
not the hosts of Israel very numerous? 600,000 effective men, well
marshalled and modelled, closely embodied, and entirely united in
interest and affection, constituted as formidable an army as perhaps
was ever brought into the field; many a less has done more than perhaps
the conquering of Canaan was, witness Alexander’s army. Moses, their
commander-in-chief, was wise and brave; and if the people had put on
resolution, and behaved themselves valiantly, what could have stood
before them? It is true the Canaanites were strong, but they were
dispersed
(v. 29):
Some dwell in the south and others in the mountains; so that by
reason of their distance they could not soon get together, and by
reason of their divided interests they could not long keep together, to
oppose Israel. The country being plentiful would subsist an army, and,
though the cities were walled, if they could beat them in the field the
strong-holds would fall of course into their hands. And, lastly, as for
the giants, their overgrown stature would but make them the better
mark, and the bulkiest men have not always the best mettle.
3. But, though they deserved to be posted for cowards, this was not the
worst, the scripture brands them for unbelievers. It was not any human
probabilities they were required to depend upon, but,
(1.) They had the manifest and sensible tokens of God’s presence with
them, and the engagement of his power for them. The Canaanites were
stronger than Israel; suppose they were, but were they stronger than
the God of Israel? We are not able to deal with them, but is not God
Almighty able? Have we not him in the midst of us? Does not he go
before us? And is any thing too hard for him? Were we as grasshoppers
before the giants, and are not they less than grasshoppers before God?
Their cities are walled against us, but can they be walled against
heaven? Besides this,
(2.) They had had very great experience of the length and strength of
God’s arm, lifted up and made bare on their behalf. Were not the
Egyptians as much stronger than they as the Canaanites were? And yet,
without a sword drawn by Israel or a stroke struck, the chariots and
horsemen of Egypt were quite routed and ruined; the Amalekites took
them at great disadvantages, and yet they were discomfited. Miracles
were at this time their daily bread; were there nothing else, an army
so well victualled as theirs was, so constantly, so plentifully, and
all on free cost, would have a might advantage against any other force.
Nay,
(3.) They had particular promises made them of victory and success in
their wars against the Canaanites. God had given Abraham all possible
assurances that he would put his seed into possession of that land,
He had expressly promised them by Moses that he would drive out the
Canaanites from before them
and that he would do it by little and little,
Exod. xxiii. 30.
And, after all this, for them to say, We are not able to go up
against them, was in effect to say, “God himself is not able to
make his words good.” It was in effect to give him the lie, and to tell
him he had undertaken more than he could perform. We have a short
account of their sin, with which they infected the whole congregation,
They despised the land, they believed not his word. Though, upon
search, they had found it as good as he had said, a land flowing
with milk and honey, yet they would not believe it as sure as he
had said, but despaired of having it, though eternal truth itself had
engaged it to them. And now this is the representation of the evil
spies.
II. Caleb encouraged them to go forward, though he was seconded by
Joshua only
(v. 30):
Caleb stilled the people, whom he saw already put into a ferment
even before Moses himself, whose shining face could not daunt
them, when they began to grow unruly. Caleb signifies all
heart, and he answered his name, was hearty himself, and would have
made the people so if they would have hearkened to him. If Joshua had
begun to stem the tide, he would have been suspected of partiality to
Moses, whose minister he was; and therefore he prudently left it to
Caleb’s management at first, who was of the tribe of Judah, the leading
tribe, and therefore the fittest to be heard. Caleb had seen and
observed the strength of the inhabitants as much as his fellows, and
upon the whole matter,
1. He speaks very confidently of success: We are well able to
overcome them, as strong as they are.
2. He animates the people to go on, and, his lot lying in the van, he
speaks as one resolved to lead them on with bravery: “Let us go up
at once, one bold step, one bold stroke more, will do our business;
it is all our own if we have but courage to make it so: Let us go up
and possess it.” He does not say, “Let us go up and conquer it;” he
looks upon that to be as good as done already; but, “Let us go up and
possess it; there is nothing to be done but to enter, and take the
possession which God our great Lord is ready to give us.” Note, The
righteous are bold as a lion. Difficulties that lie in the way of
salvation dwindle and vanish before a lively active faith in the power
and promise of God. All things are possible, if they be but
promised, to him that believes.
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