And they came as far as the valley of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch with one bunch of grapes, and they bore it between two upon a pole; and [they brought] of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
Two men carried one cluster of grapes on a pole. The spies brought it back from a valley near Hebron, with pomegranates and figs. It was real fruit from a land Israel had never entered, and the whole story turns on what they did with it.
The valley got its name from the cluster cut there. One reference work places it and notes that the area still grows what it was famous for:
It is called both a brook and a valley, because the one ran in the other. Today it is called a Wady, and there are many of these in Palestine. It was near Hebron, the place explored by the spies, and from where they carried the huge bunch of grapes. Num. 13:23-24; Num. 32:9; Deut. 1:24. In the district around Beersheba there are still miles of grape vines.
Israel already had God's word about the land. The cluster added the evidence of their own eyes and hands:
Here, then, was the fullest confirmation of all that the Lord had said about the land. Twelve men testified that the land flowed with milk and honey. Their own senses testified to the quality of the fruit of the land. On top of that, there was the telling fact. Twelve men had been in the land. They had spent forty days travelling up and down in it. They had drunk from its springs and eaten its fruit. And what, in the judgement of faith, would have been the plain conclusion to draw from such a fact? Just this: the same hand that brought twelve men into the land could bring the whole congregation.
The spies did something Moses had never done. He had described the land. They set a sample of it in front of the people:
They did this extra service for the camp. The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this. The spies also bring a report of it. They said it was truly a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But they did more, something 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... It is part of the divine plan of the great purpose to give earnests as well as reports. This is essential and not accidental.
Commentators read the cluster as a picture of the Holy Spirit's work now. It is fruit of a country not yet entered, tasted by people still in the desert:
I speak of practical things. It is not only about having been saved. It is about having tasted the "grapes of Eshcol," fruit of the land of promise, of that true Canaan which faith calls my country. You remember, dear friends, that Moses sent spies to search the country into which God would bring Israel. They brought back magnificent grapes, fruits typical of that desirable country; Num. 13. This is the mark that sets faith apart: it makes real, it holds by the Spirit the "earnest of the inheritance."
An earnest is a part payment of the same kind as the full payment. One writer applies that to the sample:
So now the Spirit is the foretaste, here in this wilderness world, of the joys and delights of heaven. Every view of the love of God, every unfolding of His grace, every showing of the beauties of Christ, all the sweetness of "the fellowship of kindred minds" — these are foretastes of the coming feast. So is everything else in the precious witness of that Holy One. These Eshcol grapes are only a cluster of fruit from the tree of life in the middle of the Paradise of God.
Commentators differ on how far this picture goes. One warns that the grapes only go part of the way:
The grapes of Eshcol were only in part a picture of the earnest. They were the very fruit of Canaan itself and therefore a true foretaste. But they did not involve the certainty, for the individual concerned, of entering the land. In this respect they fall short of being a true picture of the earnest.
Nobody argued with the fruit. The argument started at once, over what stood between them and the land:
Nobody denied the goodness of the land. How could they, with the earnest in front of their eyes? But between where they were and having this good land there were difficulties. Unbelief mapped them all out with great accuracy.
- Report — Moses had told Israel what the land was like. The cluster from Eshcol turned that description into something they could see and taste.
- Sample — the spies gave the camp a first taste of Canaan in the middle of the desert. God's way is to give an earnest as well as a report.
- Proof — twelve men walked the land and ate its fruit. The hand that brought twelve in could bring the whole nation in.
- Foretaste — writers read the grapes as a picture of the Spirit's work now. One adds a caution: the fruit gave no individual a guarantee of entry.
- Test — nobody disputed the goodness of the land. Unbelief just listed the obstacles in the way, and that list cost them the land.
That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the grapes which the children of Israel had cut down there.
A valley in Canaan got its lasting name from a single bunch of grapes cut there by the men Moses sent ahead. The question the chapter leaves open is why fruit this good still did not carry Israel in.
The spot lay near Hebron, and the records describe it in two ways:
It is called both a brook and a valley, because the one ran through the other; it is now called a wadi, and these are very common in Palestine. It was near Hebron, the place explored by the spies, and it was from there that they carried the huge bunch of grapes.
One writer sees meaning in how close Eshcol lay to Hebron, where Abraham had lived so long:
Hebron stands out in the search of the land — the place where Abraham lived for so long. No wonder the glorious fruit of Eshcol was found in Hebron, whose name means "communion," or near it. Yet nowhere does the power of the enemy seem so great: there three sons of Anak (the "long-necked") oppose the taking of Hebron. They are children of pride, as we may well picture them, for what bars a person from communion with God more than pride!
The grapes proved what God had already promised. No one could argue with them:
There was no denying 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 us the earnest of our joy and glory, who would deny it? Who does not feel that it is worth anything along the way to get there — the earnest is so sweet?
There was a second proof alongside the fruit, and it lay in the men themselves:
Here, then, was the fullest confirmation of all the Lord had said about the land. Twelve men testified that the land flowed with milk and honey, and their own senses testified to the character of its fruit. There was also the telling fact that twelve men had been in the land. They had spent forty days travelling up and down in it, drinking from its springs and eating its fruit. And what, in the judgement of faith, was the plain conclusion to draw from that? Simply this: the same hand that had brought twelve men into the land could bring the whole congregation.
The men brought back something Moses never had — a sample:
The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this, and the spies also bring a report of it... But they did more, something that Moses their deliverer 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... This is God's way: He gives an earnest as well as a report. He did so in the days of the patriarchs, by His messenger from Abraham's house. He did so in Israel's day, by the spies He commanded to search the promised land while His people were still in the wilderness. And He does so in our own age among His chosen ones, by the gospel and the indwelling of His Spirit.
The Spirit gives that same kind of foretaste now:
So now, the Spirit is the foretaste, here in this wilderness world, of the joys and delights of heaven. Every view of the love of God, every unfolding of His grace, every showing of the beauties of Christ, all the sweetness of the fellowship of like-minded people — these are foretastes of the coming feast. So is everything else in the precious witness of that Holy One.
The evidence was complete. The report did not stop there:
The testimony was plain enough... There was nothing at all lacking on God's side of the question. The land was everything He had said, and the spies themselves were the witnesses. But listen to what follows: "However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there."
The fruit did not capture every heart in the group:
In Numbers 13 the twelve men sent by Moses reached Hebron, and from there went on to Eshcol to carry back the magnificent fruit that would prove the beauty of the country. But it was not Eshcol, as one might have expected, that held Caleb's gaze and won his heart; his faith reached on to something better. Hebron, where his feet had walked, is given to him.
- Named — The valley took its name from the cluster cut there, near Hebron, where a brook ran through a valley.
- Proved — The fruit and the twelve returning men together confirmed every word God had spoken about the land.
- Given — God gives an earnest as well as a report. The spies carried a sample; the Spirit carries a foretaste of heaven now.
- Refused — Nothing was lacking on God's side. The refusal came from the people, not from the land.
- Wanted — Caleb's faith went past even Eshcol's fruit to Hebron itself, and Hebron became his.