And I said unto you, Be not afraid, neither fear them;
Israel stood at the edge of the promised land. The spies' report came back, and the people lost their nerve. Moses now reminds them of the words he used to steady them. So why did a people who had seen God act in Egypt and in the desert still refuse to move?
The refusal did not begin with the giants. It began earlier, when the people asked to look before they trusted.
God had told them plainly that He had given them the land and that they were to go up and take it. Even so, they insisted on sending the spies to see and report. The divine word was: go up in faith and take it in faith. Their response was: we want to act, or not act, on the basis of sight. In the end, of course, they refused to act. The spies saw giants and fortified cities, whereas faith would see God, and obey His word.
Moses tells them not to dread the enemy. That is not pretending the walls are low. It is measuring them against God.
Now, faith would say: so what if the cities have walls up to heaven? Our God is above them, for He is in heaven. What are great cities or lofty walls to Him who formed the universe, and sustains it by the word of His power? What are the Anakim in the presence of the Almighty God? Suppose walled cities covered the land from Dan to Beersheba. Suppose the giants were as many as the leaves of the forest. They would still be like chaff on the threshing floor before the One who has promised to give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, His friend, as a possession forever.
The Anakim were the tall people the spies had seen in the land.
Moses points to no strength in Israel. He points to the Lord's promise, and to what the Lord had already done for them on the way.
The apparent power of the enemies did not intimidate Moses. He encouraged Israel not to be afraid, because the Lord had promised to go before them and fight for them. He had sustained and kept them through the wilderness. Would He be any less able to strengthen them to face their enemies?
Moses does not only list what God did. He describes how God did it — carrying them the way a father carries a child.
Who could give up the lovely picture set out in the words, "As a man carries his son"? Here we have the style of the action. The style of an action is what touches the heart, because the style is what expresses the heart. The power of the hand, or the wisdom of the mind, shows in the substance of an action. The love of the heart comes out in the style.
Israel refused the encouragement, and it cost them the land. The obstacles were never the problem.
But Israel had no faith. As the inspired apostle tells us in Hebrews chapter 3, "they were unable to enter because of unbelief." Here lay the great difficulty. The walled cities and the terrible Anakim would soon have been dealt with if Israel had only trusted God. He would have made very short work of all these. But that terrible unbelief! It always stands in the way of our blessing. It hinders the glory of God from shining out. It casts a dark shadow over our souls. It robs us of the privilege of proving that our God is fully able to meet our every need and remove our every difficulty.
The spies' report frightened them, and the fear did its damage before any battle.
Instead of taking courage to go forward, they complained against the Lord. They did so because the spies told them that the people living in 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 worry 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?
- What they saw. The spies looked at giants and fortified cities. God had already said the land was theirs. They chose sight over faith, and would not move.
- What faith sees. Faith does not shrink the walls. It sets them beside the God who made and upholds the universe. Next to Him they are like chaff.
- Who goes first. The command not to dread rests on God going ahead to fight. The God who carried them through the desert is no less able at the border.
- How He carried them. Moses points not only to what God did but how: as a father carries his son. The manner of an action is where love shows.
- What fear cost. They were beaten before they took a step. Unbelief kept them out of the land, hid God's glory, and robbed them of proving Him — and the same fear can do the same today.
Jehovah your God who goeth before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
Moses is looking back. Israel had stood on the edge of the promised land and refused to enter. Verse 30 holds the promise they would not believe: God Himself would walk ahead of them and do the fighting, just as they had watched Him do in Egypt.
God going ahead of His people was not new. It was how He had traveled with them all along.
He would be the companion of all their toils and dangers; yes, "He went before them." He was "a guide, a glory, a defence, to save from every fear." Sadly, they grieved that Blessed One by their hardness of heart. If only they had walked with Him humbly, contentedly and trustingly! Their march would have been a triumph from first to last. With the Lord in front of them, no power could have stopped their progress from Egypt to Canaan.
The startling word in the verse is that God Himself would fight.
"Then I said to you, Do not dread them or be afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight for you" — only think of God fighting for people! Think of the Lord as a Man of war!
Does that help depend on how well Israel performs?
Grace proposes no conditions, raises no barriers, makes no stipulations. Its language is, "The Lord your God is with you… He goes with you… to fight for you… to save you." When the Lord fights for His people they are sure of victory. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Grant me only this, that God is with me, and I argue full victory over every spiritual foe.
Moses argues forward from what Israel had already lived through.
The apparent power of the enemies did not intimidate Moses. He encouraged Israel not to be afraid, because the Lord had promised to go before them and fight for them. He had supported them and kept them through the wilderness. Would He be any less able to strengthen them to face their enemies?
Israel drew the opposite conclusion. They said God had brought them out of Egypt because He hated them. Turn that logic over and it collapses.
What a strange proof of hatred! How utterly absurd are the arguments of unbelief! If He had hated them, the easiest thing was to leave them in Egypt. He could have let them die among the brick kilns, under the cruel whip of Pharaoh's slave-drivers. Why take so much trouble over them? Why send those ten plagues on the land of their oppressors? Why, if He hated them, did He not let the waters of the Red Sea swallow them as those waters had swallowed their enemies?
The people had just reported cities walled up to heaven and giants in the land. Faith does not deny the walls; it measures them against Someone.
Now, faith would say: Well, what if the cities are walled up to heaven — our God is above them, for He is in heaven. What are great cities or high walls to Him who formed the universe and holds it up by the word of His power? What are giants in the presence of Almighty God? Suppose walled cities covered the land from one end to the other. Suppose the giants were as many as the leaves of the forest. They would still be like chaff on the threshing-floor before the One who promised the land of Canaan to Abraham's offspring as a possession forever.
After all this, Israel still would not trust God. That refusal, not the giants, is what kept them out.
Men will tell you that seeing is believing; but in the kingdom of God, believing is seeing. Why was it that not one man of that evil generation was allowed to see the good land? Simply because they did not believe in the Lord their God. On the other hand, why was Caleb allowed to see it and take possession? Simply because he believed. Unbelief is always the great obstacle in the way of our seeing the glory of God. If Israel had only believed, only trusted the Lord their God, only leaned on the love of His heart and the power of His arm — He would have brought them in. He would have planted them on the mountain of His inheritance.
- Goes before. God did not send Israel ahead and follow at a distance. He took the front, acting as guide, glory and defence for the whole journey.
- Fights for. God Himself does the fighting, and grace attaches no conditions to it. Where He fights, victory is certain.
- As in Egypt. The proof offered is history they watched happen. What He did once against Pharaoh is the measure of what He will do against the giants.
- Faith answers. Faith never denies the walls or the giants; it sets them beside the God who made the universe, and they become chaff.
- Believing is seeing. They did not miss the land because the enemy was too strong. They missed it because they would not believe — and unbelief is still what hides the glory of God from us.
and in the wilderness where thou hast seen that Jehovah thy God bore thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came to this place.
Moses stands at the edge of the promised land and retells the journey. He points back to one picture above all: God carried His people through the desert the way a father carries his son. So why did a people with that memory still refuse to trust Him?
Deuteronomy goes back over events already recorded earlier. One writer asks what the retelling adds, and points to the phrase about a man carrying his son.
We can see clearly here, as on every page of the book, that Deuteronomy is not a dry repetition of facts. It is a most powerful commentary on those facts. In Exodus and Numbers, the inspired lawgiver records the actual facts of Israel's wilderness life. In Deuteronomy he comments on those facts with a feeling that melts the heart... Who could consent to give up the lovely figure set forth in the words, "as a man carries his son"? Here we have the style of the action. Could we do without this? Certainly not. The style of an action touches the heart, because the style is what so specially expresses the heart. The substance of an action may show the power of the hand or the wisdom of the mind, but the love of the heart comes out in the style.
How does God carry a whole nation? One writer answers from the way a mother handles a small child.
A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His people on earth in the same way. He carried them as one carries an infant. He held them up by His everlasting arms while He taught them to walk in His ways, in complete dependence on Him and in unwavering confidence in Him. But their steps were unsteady and uncertain. They stumbled all the way — at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim. Still those mighty arms held them up with a patience that never ran out.
The people He carried were not grateful. One writer finds our comfort exactly there.
These people had accused Him, insulted Him, and refused to believe His word. Yet He carried them through the great wilderness so that they lacked nothing. May we take courage. Our failures, our shortcomings, our unbelief do not stop the gracious tenderness of His loving heart.
Moses brings up this memory to answer their fear of the Amorites, the people then living in the land. Israel had sent spies ahead. The report of high walls and tall men settled the matter for them.
There are walled cities and tall men: granted. And the power of God — how much will you count that for? Alas, with amazing boldness they dare to say that all His goodness and care until now has been only hatred. They say He has taken the trouble to bring them across sea and wilderness to destroy them at last by the hands of the Amorites!
The verse ends at "this place" — and that is where the generation stopped. One writer names the single cause and turns a common saying around.
Men will tell you that seeing is believing; but, in the kingdom of God, believing is seeing. Why was it that not a man of that evil generation was allowed to see the good land? Simply because they did not believe in the Lord their God. And why was Caleb allowed to see the land and take it? Simply because he believed. Unbelief is always the great hindrance to our seeing the glory of God.
One writer carries the same picture over to believers now.
A Father's eye rests upon us continually, His everlasting arms are around and underneath us, day and night... He counts the hairs of our heads. With infinite goodness He enters into everything that concerns us. He has charged Himself with all our wants and all our cares.
- Carried, not just led. The word Moses chooses is a father lifting a son. It describes not just what God did but the way He did it — and the way reveals the heart.
- Carried while stumbling. The arms that held Israel up were teaching them to walk, and steadied them at every place their own steps failed.
- Carried while ungrateful. He brought the very people who accused Him through the desert lacking nothing. Our failures do not stop His tenderness.
- Carried — and still afraid. They saw walled cities and tall men. Unbelief counted God's power as nothing and called His goodness hatred.
- Carried to a place they never left. Unbelief, not the tall men, kept that generation out. In God's kingdom believing comes first, and seeing follows.