And we departed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw, on the way to the mountain of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
Moses begins his review of Israel's history with the march from Horeb through a great and terrifying desert to Kadesh-barnea. Why recall that hardship, and what should the crossing have produced in the people at the border of the land?
Israel moved "as the LORD our God commanded us." One writer notes what that settled for them:
They had no need at all to worry about their movements, no need of planning or arranging. One who knew every step of the way from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea ordered all their journeys for them. They had only to live one day at a time, in happy dependence on Him.
There was also no other guide available in that terrain:
That "great and terrible wilderness" held no footprint and no landmark. So it was useless to look for guidance from those who had gone before. They leaned wholly on God for every step of the way.
Moses says almost nothing about what happened along the way. The name he gives the desert carries the weight instead (the writers quoted here use an older translation: "great and terrible"):
Moses passes over the incidents of the journey to Kadesh. He mentions "the great and terrible wilderness" only to make them realize the power of the hand that led them. They had been trained to meet difficulties, and were used to seeing the power of God overcome them. So how ready we would expect them to be, now, to face the only enemy they had to fear.
The hardship of the road was itself a reason to press on:
The experience in such a desert ought to have given them a strong reason to enter the promised land as soon as they could.
Verse 2 says the trip from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea takes eleven days. One writer holds that number up as a mirror:
Eleven days! And yet it took them forty years! How was this? We need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground again and again. We are slow travellers, because we are slow learners.
The lengthening of the road had a cause, and a lesson attached to it:
This tells believers today that our own wilderness history does not have to be long. But we are selfish by nature. So God has to put us through the trial of hard circumstances, to teach us that obedience is the only way of blessing.
Kadesh-barnea was the doorstep of the land. What they had just come through was itself the evidence they needed:
There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy out what God has given. It reasons that what He has given must be worth having. And He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has granted. The same hand had led them "through all that great and terrible wilderness." Israel might have concluded that it could also bring them in and plant them in the inheritance meant for them.
Asking for spies looked sensible, and God allowed it. Commentators trace it to a deeper root:
We also learn here that the sending of the spies, though God approved it, came out of unbelief among the people. That is an instructive lesson. In His ways — His government — God may allow, and so far approve, a course that is wise by human standards. Yet that course still bears the fruit of the unbelief at the root of it.
The desert is not the starting point and not the destination. It sits between the two:
He does not bring us into the desert until we are out of Egypt... Redemption came at the beginning, Canaan at the end; the wilderness comes between the two. All through the wilderness God is with us and for us, not holding anything against us, but testing our hearts.
- Commanded — Israel did not choose the route from Horeb. One who knew the whole way to Kadesh-barnea ordered every stage of it.
- Trackless — The desert held no footprints and no landmarks. With no one to follow, the people leaned on God for every step.
- Terrifying — Moses skips the events of the road. He names the desert to make them feel the strength of the hand that carried them through.
- Slow — Eleven days stretched into forty years. The delay came from slow hearts, not from long distance: slow travellers because slow learners.
- Enough — The hand that carried them across the desert could also plant them in the land. Asking for spies was unbelief at root, even though God allowed it.
And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God giveth us.
Moses is retelling Israel's story to the next generation, and here he recalls the moment when the wilderness was behind them and the land lay open. They heard him, and still did not enter — a delay that cost them decades.
Moses spoke at Kadesh-barnea, on the doorstep of the land.
Kadesh-Barnea, the starting point for the conquest, sat on the frontier of Canaan. Moses mentions it in Deuteronomy one. They had crossed the "great and terrible wilderness." Now the Israelites had only to move forward without fear and take possession of Palestine... In these words one can sense all the relief felt by Moses. He had brought the people through the stages of the wilderness up to the frontier of Canaan.
The road itself was short. The same writer sets its length against the years Israel took:
"It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea" (Deut. 1:2). A few days would be enough to reach the frontier of Canaan. Yet we meet the people at Kadesh-barnea again more than thirty-eight years after they left Sinai (Num. 20:1). So today, the spiritual progress of a soul can be rapid. But often people waste many years through lack of faith, watchfulness, and love for the Lord.
Moses rests everything on one phrase: the LORD is giving them the land.
Here was their warrant for entering upon immediate possession. The Lord their God had given them the land, and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift, the gift of His sovereign grace, in keeping with the covenant made with their fathers... That should have set their hearts at rest — both about what kind of land it was and about their entry into it. There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy out what God has given. It reasons that what He has given must be worth having, and that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has bestowed.
The land was not an unknown risk. God had already described it Himself, in detail.
If simple faith had governed them, they would have acted on those stirring words of Moses... There is not a single syllable about spies in this splendid passage. What does faith want with spies, when it has the word and the presence of the living God? If the LORD had given them a land, it must be worth having. And had He not? Yes, truly. And more than that, He had testified to the nature and character of that land in these glowing words: "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land... a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing" (Deut. 8:7-9).
Why did the spies go at all? The answer lies in Deuteronomy, not in Numbers.
True it is that, in the history given in Numbers, the Lord told Moses to send the spies. But why? Because of the moral condition of the people. Numbers gives us the public history, Deuteronomy the secret source of the mission of the spies... We could not fully understand the subject if we had only the history in Numbers.
Kelly names that secret source:
What we have here is not a repetition; it leads us into things secret — what was at work in the people and hindered their blessing. The chief point to observe is that there was no spirit of obedience in the people, and this they lacked because there was no faith in God.
Ridout carries the land forward to what Christians already own in Christ.
The inheritance of Israel in Canaan is a picture of our inheritance in Christ in the heavenly places. The letter to the Ephesians tells us that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in the heavenly places. In the same way, Joshua tells us that everything is ours. Everything belongs to the people. God has given it to them. It is now for them to take possession of their inheritance in the energy of faith.
- Given. The land was already theirs by God's free gift, in keeping with His covenant with their fathers. That gift was their warrant to enter at once.
- Described. God had told them Himself what the land was like: brooks, wheat, vines, honey, bread without scarcity. His testimony was meant to be enough.
- Doubted. Faith never wants to spy out what God has given. The mission of the spies exposed the moral condition of the people.
- Delayed. Eleven days' journey stretched into thirty-eight years. Progress can be swift, but unbelief wastes decades.
- Disclosed. Numbers records the public history. Deuteronomy uncovers the secret root — no obedience, because no faith. God sets the same inheritance before us now, and faith takes it.
Behold, Jehovah thy God hath set the land before thee go up, take possession, as Jehovah the God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.
On the edge of Canaan, Moses reminds a new generation of what their parents were told. The land was already theirs; the orders were to go up and not be afraid. Israel did not obey. So what did God ask of them here, and what was missing?
Moses does not tell them to earn a country. He tells them to step into one God has already handed over.
Here was their authority for taking the land at once. The Lord their God had given them the land, and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift, the gift of His sovereign grace, in keeping with the covenant made with their fathers. It was His eternal purpose to possess the land of Canaan through the descendants of Abraham, His friend. This should have been enough to set their hearts fully at rest — both about what kind of land it was and about their entry into it. There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy what God has given. It argues that what He has given must be worth having. It argues that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has given.
The verse ends with two commands against fear. What answers fear is the direction faith looks.
This is how faith would have reasoned. Faith always reasons from God down to circumstances, never from circumstances up to God. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" This is faith's argument, grand in its simplicity, and simple in its moral grandeur. When God fills the whole range of the soul's sight, difficulties count for little. Either the soul does not see them, or it sees them as occasions for the display of divine power.
That same "Do not fear" runs through Israel's whole story. God gives it again whenever His people face an enemy.
This word meets the ears of the people of God every time they have to do with the enemy, whether in Egypt (Ex. 14:13) or in the wilderness (Num. 14:9; Deut. 3:22; Deut. 31:6), or in Canaan under Joshua... And when Israel lay in the "lowest pit" and cried to God in their distress, the Lord answered, "Do not fear" (Lam. 3:57).
Numbers 13 opens with God telling Moses to send men to search the land. Read alone, it looks as though the whole mission was His idea. This verse supplies what Numbers leaves out.
We may ask: if searching the land was not an act of faith, why did God say, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan"? ... Deuteronomy 1:21 gives the answer. There we find the word of the LORD God: "Go up, take possession" — not spy it out. The people say they will send men to spy out the land. That is disobedience. Their proposal pleases Moses. Was it faith that made him pleased?
The request for spies looked practical. Moses points to what lay under it.
We would not have discovered this from the book of Numbers. What we have here is not a repetition. It leads us into hidden things — what was at work in the people and held back their blessing. The main point to notice is that the people had no spirit of obedience. They lacked it because they had no faith in God.
Commentators differ on where the fault lies. Some point to the wish for spies itself. Others point to the unbelief behind it. Both trace the outcome back to the heart.
God commands many things, and we are bound to do them as soon as He commands them. His ways are displayed in how they turn out. Yet these things are only owing to our lack of faith. The result fully confirms the faith of the faithful, of the remnant; but unbelief reaps what it has sown.
The picture is not left in the past. The land set before Israel has its counterpart for believers now.
God has opened to us as well the land of our inheritance, and told us to enjoy our portion by faith. The Spirit of God has come to take the things of Christ and show them to us, and to make known to us the things God has freely given us. But how little we have laid hold of!
- Given — the land was theirs by God's free gift before they took a single step. The command to take it rests on a gift already made.
- Enough — a gift from God needs no checking; faith never wants to spy out what God has given.
- Fearless — faith reasons from God down to circumstances, never the other way. Difficulties then become occasions for His power.
- Exposed — the order was "Go up, take possession," not spy it out. Deuteronomy reveals what Numbers 13 leaves hidden: no obedience, because no faith.
- Ours — the Spirit sets our own inheritance before us in the things of Christ, and it waits for us to lay hold of it.
And ye came near to me all of you, and said, We will send men before us, who shall examine the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and of the cities to which we shall come.
Israel stands at the edge of the promised land, told to go up and take it. Instead the whole nation asks Moses to send men ahead first — the very mission Numbers 13 records as God's own command.
Numbers records what happened. Deuteronomy shows what was going on underneath.
Then comes the account of the inner motives for the sending of the spies. This is worth noting, since we would not have discovered it from the book of Numbers. What we have here is not a repetition. It leads us into the secret things — what was working in the people and hindering their blessing. The chief point to observe is this: there was no spirit of obedience in the people. They lacked it because there was no faith in God.
Numbers 13 opens with the Lord telling Moses to send men. Here Moses says the people came to him. Three wills appear in the one event, in order.
Moses reminded them that it was they themselves who pushed for sending the spies to search out the land. This appears to clash with Numbers 13:1-2, which says, "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan.'" The two passages show that the people proposed it. Moses consented — it pleased him well, he says here. And God commanded it. God's first message was, "Go up, take possession"; but the people hesitated and said they would send the spies. Their rebellion and their wanderings were the result.
That order matters when reading Numbers. A command from God is not proof that He approved.
We learn, most clearly, from Deuteronomy 1:22 that the idea of sending the spies had its origin in the heart of Israel. God saw their moral condition, and He issued a command that fully matched it.
The command Moses had just delivered contained no hint of a survey party. Everything the spies could report, God had already told them.
Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those stirring words of Moses: "See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed." There is not one syllable about spies in this splendid passage. What does faith want with spies, when it has the word and the presence of the living God? If the LORD had given them a land, it must be worth having. … Had He not spied out the land for them, and told them all about it? And was that not enough? What need was there to send men to spy out the land?
Notice how the people phrase it. They never say they doubt whether to enter — only that they want to know the route and the first cities.
Here in Deuteronomy we learn that the people had appealed to Moses to send spies into the land first. They did not say they wanted this to find out whether it was safe for them to go in or not. They said instead that this way they could find out which route to take and which cities they would reach first. This suggestion pleased Moses well, he says.
They already had a guide who never failed.
The folly of unbelief was never more obvious. The Lord had guided His people by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Now they will trust the information the spies may bring about the way they should take. After such a long experience of the Lord's faithfulness, they think more of the wisdom of men than of His perfect knowledge. How often have we fallen into the same trap.
Moses reports his own reaction without excusing it. A leader agreeing with a faithless suggestion is part of the failure.
Deuteronomy 1:21 gives the answer. There we find the word of the LORD God, "Go up, take possession" — not search it. The people say they will send men to spy out the land. This is disobedience. Moses is pleased with their proposal. Was it faith to be pleased? Why listen to the people when God had said, "Go up, take possession"? It is at least weak to encourage others down a faithless path.
The reason runs deeper. God could not be the source of a plan that doubted His own word.
God had rested Israel on the faithfulness of His word and promise. How then could He have started something that was really a slur on His truthfulness and the certainty of His word? No; the LORD permitted it, but He never originated it.
- Motive — Deuteronomy shows the heart behind the act: no obedience, because there was no faith.
- Origin — the people proposed, Moses agreed, then God commanded. That order explains the account in Numbers 13.
- Permission — God's command was not God's approval. He allowed what He never originated.
- Disguise — the request sounded practical. It asked only about the route, yet it preferred the word of men to the pillar of cloud.
- Result — a sensible-sounding survey ended in rebellion and forty years of wandering.
And the matter was good in mine eyes; and I took twelve men of you, one man for a tribe.
Israel stood at the edge of the promised land, and the people asked Moses to send spies in first. The verse sounds like a small administrative note, but it tells us what a leader felt about a plan God had never made.
True, in the history given in Numbers, the Lord told Moses to send the spies. But why? Because of the moral condition of the people. Here we see the characteristic difference and yet the lovely harmony of the two books. Numbers gives us the public history. Deuteronomy gives us the secret source behind sending the spies... We could not fully understand the subject if we had only the history given in Numbers. It is the touching commentary given in Deuteronomy which completes the picture.
What the second account exposes is not a new fact but a motive.
Then comes the account of the inner motives for the sending of the spies. This is well to note, as we would not have discovered it from the book of Numbers. This is not a repeat of the story. It leads us into things that were secret — what was working in the people and holding back their blessing. The main point to notice is that the people had no spirit of obedience. They lacked it because they had no faith in God.
If God told Moses to send them, how could sending them be wrong? Commentators answer by separating the act from the wish behind it.
The wrong was not in the act of sending them when they were told, but in the wish to send them at all. The wish was the fruit of unbelief; and the command to send them was because of that unbelief.
A command given on those terms still has to be obeyed. What comes out of it then tells its own story.
God commands many things, and we are bound to do them as soon as He commands them. His ways are displayed in how they turn out. Yet the only reason for them is our lack of faith. So the outcome gives full confirmation to the faith of the faithful, the faith of the remnant. But unbelief reaps what it has sown.
Moses had just passed on God's word to go up and take the land. Then he found himself pleased with a plan to inspect it first.
Deuteronomy 1:21 gives the answer. There we find the word of the Lord God: "Go up, take possession" — not search it. The people say they will send men to spy out the land. This is disobedience. Moses is pleased with their proposal. Was it faith to be pleased? Why listen to the people when God had said, "Go up and take possession"? It is at least weak to encourage others in a faithless path. Still, God heard their words and tested the people. Now He gives the command, "Send men."
The same writer notes how ordinary this failure is: saints "overlook the path of faith and give way to circumstances, even to being pleased with what is not according to the word of God."
The search took forty days. It settled nothing that God's word had not already settled.
But look — they search the land for forty days, only to prove that God's word about it is true. It was really unbelief that sent out these spies. Do I need to search and see whether God is true? Certainly not. Have I any reason to doubt Him? Not at all.
Commentators point out what unbelief then did with the difficulties it found.
At first the report brought to Moses is in a right spirit. But the difficulties show up at once, and unbelief measures them by man instead of by God.
The lasting warning is about a habit: investigating instead of obeying.
The Lord sanctioned it, but it was still the working of unbelief. Instead of going on in simple faith, how often we raise a cloud of questions to get a human estimate of a thing. In the end we only find that the walls are up to heaven. Instead of doing the thing that has to be done, we look at every question and difficulty anyone can raise. And so it ended in their not going into the land at all.
- Motive. Numbers tells us the spies were sent. Deuteronomy tells us why — the plan came from the people's own hearts, not from God's word.
- Root. What they lacked was not information but obedience. They lacked obedience because they had no faith.
- Permission. God's command to send them came because of the unbelief; a granted wish is no proof the wish was right.
- Pleasure. Moses was pleased with a plan that set aside God's word, "Go up, take possession." To encourage others down a faithless path is itself weakness.
- Result. Forty days of searching only confirmed what God had already said. Raising questions instead of taking steps ended with Israel never entering the land.
And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.
Moses is retelling Israel's story at the edge of Canaan. Here he reaches the search of the land. The trip went well: the land was good, the fruit was real, the report was true. So why was the search needed at all — and why did it end in disaster?
The Book of Numbers records the mission. Deuteronomy opens up what was going on inside the people.
Then comes the relation of the inner motives for the sending of the spies. This it is well to note, as we should not have discovered it from the Book of Numbers. What we have here is not a repetition; it leads us into things secret — what worked in the people and hindered their blessing. The chief point to observe is that there was not a spirit of obedience in the people, and this they lacked because there was no faith in God.
Israel wanted men sent ahead before they walked into the land. Moses liked the plan, and God allowed it.
"You came near to me, every one of you, and said, We will send men before us." And Moses adds, "The saying pleased me well." The LORD sanctioned it, but still it was the working of unbelief. Instead of going on in simple faith, how often do we raise a cloud of questions to get a human estimate of a thing! Then at last we find out that the walls are up to heaven. Instead of doing the thing that needs doing, we look at all the questions and difficulties anyone can raise. And so it ended in their not going into the land at all.
Eshcol was a real place, and the record fixes where it lay.
It is called both a brook and a valley, because the one ran in the other. It is now called a Wady, and these are very common in Palestine. It was near Hebron, the place explored by the spies, and from where they carried the huge bunch of grapes.
The men came back praising the land. That raises a question about the whole errand.
"... and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the LORD our God gives us." How could it be otherwise, when God was giving it? Did they want spies to tell them that the gift of God was good? Certainly they ought not. A simple faith would have argued like this: "Whatever God gives must be worthy of Himself; we want no spies to assure us of this."
Still, the mission gave Israel something new. They tasted Canaan while they were still outside it.
The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this. The spies also bring back a report of it: surely it was a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But they did more, something which Moses their redeemer from Egypt had never done: they presented a cluster of grapes and said, this is the fruit of it. They offered a sample, a first-fruits... He gives an earnest as well as a report. He did so in Israel's days by the spies... and He does so in this age of ours among His elect by the gospel and the indwelling of His Spirit. The Spirit gives the soul enjoyment of the things reported in the word, like a sample or foretaste.
Notice what Moses leaves out of his account. The ten discouraging voices are not mentioned at all.
He confines himself to that portion of their testimony which was according to truth. He says nothing about the ten unbelieving spies. This is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. Everything is brought to bear, in a moral way, on the conscience of the people. He reminds them that they themselves had proposed to send the spies. The spies had placed the fruit of the land before them and testified to its goodness. And yet they would not go up... There was no excuse whatever.
- Asked. The idea came from the people. Deuteronomy tells us that; Numbers does not.
- Allowed. God sanctioned the plan, but He did not approve the heart behind it. The asking was permitted; the motive was unbelief.
- Confirmed. Eshcol proved God right. The land was good, as He had said, and no report from men could make His word truer.
- Tasted. The fruit they carried back was a sample of the land, enjoyed before they arrived. The Spirit gives believers that kind of foretaste now.
- Refused. They held the fruit in their hands and still would not go up. That left them without excuse, and out of the land.
And they took of the fruit of the land in their hand, and brought it down unto us, and brought us answer, and said, The land is good that Jehovah our God hath given us.
Moses is retelling the story of the spies, and he repeats only the true part of their report. The weight of the verse falls on what came next: the people heard that the land was good and still refused to go up.
This account adds what the earlier one leaves out.
What we have here is not a repetition; it leads us into things secret — what worked in the people and hindered their blessing. The chief point to observe is that there was not a spirit of obedience in the people, and this they lacked because there was no faith in God.
Where did the idea of sending spies come from in the first place?
This spying out the land started with the people, not with God. We need not wonder, then, that it ends badly. Yet God sanctions it: how much may He have to sanction in this way — things that must be, because of what we are! And how much trial does our unbelief make necessary for us! He had told them all they needed to know of the goodness of the land, and assured them of His gift of it to them.
The spies call it a land "that the LORD our God is giving us." Older translations read "has given us." Either way, the land is theirs before they set foot in it.
Here was their authority to take possession at once. The Lord their God had given them the land, and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift, the gift of His sovereign grace… There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy what God has given. It argues that what He has given must be worth having. It argues too that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has given.
The men did not only describe the land; they carried something out of it down into the desert. That is more than a report.
The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this, and the spies bring a report of it too… But they did more. They did something that Moses, their redeemer from Egypt, had never done. They presented a cluster of grapes, and said, this is the fruit of it. They offered a sample, first-fruits… It is part of the divine plan to give earnests as well as reports. This is essential and not accidental.
The fruit itself was proof no one could argue with.
There was no disputing the report of the spies; these grapes told of the goodness of the land. It was a land that produced such fruit. So when the Holy Spirit brings the earnest to us of our joy and glory, who would dispute it? Who does not feel that it is worth anything along the way to get there? The earnest is so sweet!
Ten of the spies also brought back a discouraging account. Moses does not repeat a word of it.
He confines himself to that portion of their testimony which was according to truth. He says nothing about the ten unbelieving spies. This is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. Everything presses, in a moral way, on the conscience of the people… The spies had placed the fruit of the land before them and testified to its goodness. Still they would not go up.
Strip away the bad report, and the refusal stands exposed with no excuse left.
Israel's problem was never a lack of information. It was fear.
Instead of taking courage to go forward, they complained against the Lord. They did so because the spies told them the people of the land were greater and taller than the Israelites. Why then did they refuse to believe His word about His promise to put down their enemies? Their fear and apprehension defeated them before they took one step forward. Do we not also defeat ourselves by our fears of what might happen, even when we have the Lord's word for acting?
The answer is not stronger nerves, but a heart set on what God has given.
Suppose we can say, "This is the fruit of the land which the Lord has given us." Suppose our hearts' affections are dwelling on the land. Then all the strength of the Anakim is as nothing… But the moment we lose the awareness of what is ours, the moment we forget that the Lord has given us the land, difficulties and trials fill our mind. They become too great for us.
- Gift. The land was theirs by God's free gift before they entered it. Faith does not inspect what God has already given.
- Report. Moses described the land long before the spies went. God's word about it was already enough.
- Sample. God gave more than a report: fruit came down into the desert, a first taste of the land ahead.
- Refusal. They had gift, report and sample in hand. They still would not go up. Unbelief has no excuse left.
- Application. Fear beats us before we move. A heart settled on what God has given makes even the strongest enemy look like nothing.