And they came, and went to Moses and to Aaron, and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to the whole assembly; and shewed them the fruit of the land.
Forty days of searching end here. The twelve men walk back into the camp at Kadesh with fruit in their hands. They report to Moses and Aaron, and to the whole assembly with them. Everything God had said about the land now has twelve eyewitnesses and a sample anyone could taste. The question is no longer whether the land is good. It is what the people will do with the proof.
The book of Numbers tells the story as if the plan came from God alone. One writer shows why that is not the whole story.
The commission of the spies and its fulfillment come first. We would not know it from the account before us. But in Deuteronomy we find that this spying out of the land started with the people, and not with God. We need not wonder, then, that it ends in disaster. Yet God sanctions it. How much may He have to sanction in this way, 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. He had assured them that He was giving it to them, and that He would drive out the present inhabitants because of their sins. What more did they need to know?
The twelve gave their report in front of the whole camp. They had walked the country themselves, and the fruit they carried agreed with them.
Here, then, was the fullest confirmation of everything the Lord had said about the land. Twelve men testified that the land flowed with milk and honey. The people's own senses testified to the character of the fruit. Further, there was the telling fact that 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, according to the judgement of faith, would have been the plain conclusion to draw from such a fact? Simply that the same hand which had brought twelve men into the land could bring in the whole congregation.
They brought back two things: a word, and something to taste. One writer draws out how unusual the second was.
The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this. The spies also bring a report of it. They said that it was surely a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But they did more. Moses, who had redeemed them out of Egypt, had never done this. They presented a cluster of grapes and said, this is the fruit of it. They offered a sample, a first-fruits. This was a new thing... God gives an earnest as well as a report... He does so in this age of ours by the gospel and by His Spirit living in us. The Spirit gives the soul enjoyment of the things reported in the word, like a sample or foretaste.
So who brings that sample to us now?
The Spirit of God Himself lives in us as a present witness. He takes of the glory of the Lord Jesus, and of the things of the land of promise — that true Canaan, of which faith says, my land — and so shows us our portion.
Proof and confidence are not the same thing. Watch what the camp does with the evidence in front of it.
They looked at the difficulties, and then everything was bad, though they had the grapes on their shoulders. Further, the whole congregation lifted up their voice and cried. In the end they turned back toward Egypt. It was now a positive giving up of the whole thing.
This verse is not the last time Kadesh appears in the story.
In the third stage the Lord makes them wander for thirty-eight years in the wilderness. When you come to the twentieth chapter, you find they are back again at Kadesh. If you trace their journeys, you will find only aimless wandering up and down the peninsula of Arabia. They went from Kadesh to Kadesh, and made no real progress. What a picture of many a saint now, who has rebelled against God and never really got on in his soul.
- Origin. The people asked for the search; God did not command it. He allowed it, and it exposed their hearts.
- Report. Twelve eyewitnesses told the whole camp that God's word about the land was exact.
- Sample. They brought more than words: a taste of the fruit. God gives a foretaste along with His promise.
- Doubt. The grapes were on their shoulders, but their eyes were on the difficulties. Proof does not create faith.
- Result. Kadesh became a place to return to, not a door to go through. Thirty-eight years of movement, no progress.
And they told him, and said, We came to the land to which thou didst send us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Twelve men came back from searching Canaan, carrying its fruit. Their first words agreed with God: the land was everything He had said. The next verse shows that a confirmed promise, on its own, does not produce faith.
The order to search the land tells us something about Israel, not about the land.
It is clear that the Lord gave the commandment about the spies because of the moral condition of the people. Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on the stirring words of Moses. God had set the land before them, Moses said; they were to go up and take it, and not be afraid. 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.
God had already described the country in detail, and His own account was better than any human survey.
The spies had to admit that the land flowed with milk and honey. But there was sure to be a "nevertheless." Why? Because they were not trusting God. He had already told Moses what the land was like, and His testimony should have been more than enough... Was not the Lord's description far more trustworthy than man's? Yes, to faith, but not to unbelief. Unbelief can never be satisfied with God's testimony; it must have the testimony of the senses.
The two words describe what the land does for a person — one sustains, the other delights. Every man on the trip had to admit it.
All twelve, notice, had to admit that it was a land that flowed with milk and honey. Milk satisfies more than anything; nothing else sustains like milk. And there is nothing sweeter than honey. And all you have to do is take and taste what God sets before you and presses on you.
The spies did more than repeat what Moses had already told them. They set a sample of the country in front of the camp. One writer sees God's settled way of working here.
The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses long before this. The spies report on it too: they said that it was surely a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But they did more. Moses, who had rescued them from Egypt, never did this: they presented a cluster of grapes and said, this is the fruit of it. They offered a sample, a first-fruits... He gives a down payment as well as a report. He did so in Israel's days by the spies He commanded to search the promised land, while His people were still in the wilderness. And He does so in this age among His chosen by the gospel and the indwelling of His Spirit, who gives the soul enjoyment of the things reported in the word, like a sample or foretaste.
Carrying the proof did not change them.
They could not deny that the Lord's promise was true. They carried the evidence of it on their shoulders while they carried unbelief in their hearts. They looked at the sons of Anak, the giants who lived in the land. They did not look at the Lord, who had rescued them from the Egyptians. If they had reckoned with the Lord and trusted Him, the giants — not they — would have looked like grasshoppers.
The obstacles were real. What ruined them was leaving God out of the sum.
The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when they reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high and the sons of Anak were still there. Not one difficulty that unbelief raised had gone. Only, when they go forward with God, a difficulty is no difficulty... In all this I find two things. It is a bad report of the land — there is nothing good in it. And God is left out completely. Had they thought of God, the question would have been this: Is God a grasshopper or not?
Twelve men had gone through the whole country and come back. That fact carried an argument the nation never made.
Here was the fullest confirmation of everything the Lord had said about the land. Twelve men testified that it flowed with milk and honey, and their own senses testified to its fruit... And what, in the judgement of faith, would have been the plain conclusion? Simply this: that the same hand which had brought twelve men into the land could bring the whole congregation.
- Word. God had already described the land. The search came from the state of the people's hearts, not from any gap in His promise.
- Sample. God gave more than a report. He gave fruit to carry, a taste of the promise before they owned it.
- Taste. Milk sustains and honey is sweet; they only had to take what God held out.
- Nevertheless. They held the proof on their shoulders and unbelief in their hearts. They left God out, so the giants looked huge and they looked like grasshoppers.
- Conclusion. The hand that walked twelve men through the land could have walked the whole nation in. Going forward with God, a difficulty is no difficulty.
Only, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, very great; moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
The twelve men sent into Canaan agreed with God about the land, and then added one word. That "however" added nothing God had not already said, yet it drained the promise of its power.
Everything the spies said up to this point matched what the Lord had promised. The break comes with a single word. One writer notes how the men built their case, saving the worst for the end: the descendants of Anak, the giants of the land.
So far it was well; but as soon as they had stated what they could not deny, the unbelief that was lurking in their hearts broke out. "However," they went on to say, "the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large." Then, saving the greatest difficulty for last: "And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there." Notice that they had added nothing to the information the Lord Himself had already given them. They had only looked at the obstacles with the natural eye instead of the eye of faith. The result was that they left the Lord out. They measured the enemies they would face by their estimate of their own strength instead of His. They could have said, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Instead the thought of their heart was, "How can we overcome such powerful enemies?"
Strong people, high walls, giants — every item on that list was real. What the spies saw was not the problem.
There is always sure to be a "however" where man is concerned and where unbelief is at work. The unbelieving spies saw the difficulties — great cities, high walls, tall giants. They saw all these things, but they did not see the Lord at all. They looked at the things that are seen rather than at the things that are unseen. Their eye was not fixed on Him who is invisible. No doubt the cities were great; but God was greater. The walls were high; but God was higher. The giants were strong; but God was stronger.
Scripture calls what these men brought back an evil report. Yet no one caught them in a lie.
The report was not evil because the spies lied when they said the people were strong and the cities were great. All that would only make God's power more obvious. It was evil because in effect it denied God's power and His right to give the land to whomever He pleased.
The Hebrew phrase behind that report appears elsewhere in the Bible too.
The Hebrew for "bringing up an evil report" is translated "uttering a slander" in Proverbs 10:18. Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
These men made one comparison: themselves against the giants. They never made the one that mattered.
They stated, truly enough, that they were no match for these giants. But they were men of no faith, and they left God completely out of their thoughts — all of them, that is, except Caleb and Joshua. As a result they measured themselves against the giants and their cities. Then they passed their unbelieving fears on to the mass of the people.
Waiting did not shrink the obstacles. When Israel did cross into the land, they found everything the spies had listed just as described.
The cities were fortified, and they saw the giants too. But when they finally reached Canaan, the walls were just as high and the descendants of Anak were still there. Not one of the difficulties of unbelief had been removed. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty.
Those same giants met Israel once more, later on the road. The second meeting went very differently.
Israel found in their path the very people who at the start had struck terror into their hearts and caused them to fall. These were the Anakim, who had stopped them from going boldly up to take the land… But what impression could the descendants of Anak make on the mind of someone led by the word of God? Victory is his.
- However. The verse turns on one word. The facts before it were God's own; the word after it belongs to unbelief.
- Nothing new. The spies named no obstacle the Lord had not already told them about. They only viewed it with the natural eye instead of the eye of faith.
- Nothing left out but God. Great cities, high walls, tall giants — they counted every item. They left the One who promised them the land out of the sum.
- Slander, not error. The report was evil, but not untrue. It denied God's power and His right to give the land to whomever He chose.
- The giants never moved. When Israel finally entered, the walls stood just as high and the Anakim were still there. They fell before people who went forward with God.
Amalek dwells in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the side of the Jordan.
The spies end their report with a map of Canaan's peoples and where each one lives. Every detail is true. So the chapter raises a sharp question: can a report be accurate and still be faithless?
The spies' geography is not the problem. The problem is what the list is for. One writer shows how they admit the good news, then set difficulties against it:
The goodness of the land was not denied — how could it be, with the proof of it in front of their eyes? But between where they stood and the possession of this good land there were difficulties. These are all mapped out with the accuracy of unbelief.
Verse 29 hangs on the "nevertheless" of the previous sentence. That one word decides which way the whole report leans. A commentator shows how it could have leaned the other way:
"Nevertheless," they add, "the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the children of Anak there" (v.28). If only they had left out the word "nevertheless" here. Suppose that, after telling of the strength of the enemy, they had said, "Nevertheless, God is greater and stronger than they." How much more encouraging and strengthening this would have been! But instead they speak only of how frightening their enemies looked. They speak as though these enemies were organised into a force that could never be destroyed (v.29).
The ESV translates that word as "however"; this writer quotes an older version.
God had told Israel centuries earlier who was living in Canaan. The spies present old news as a discovery:
Unbelief could not deny the goodness of the land, nor ignore the magnificent sample they carried between them. But they thought of the men who lived there, and not of God. And what had God brought them out of the land of Egypt for? Had He said that there were no children of Anak there? Had He described the land as a desert region where no one lived? Never. Jehovah had fully stated who were to be there hundreds of years before. It was plain forgetfulness of their own distinctive glory and blessedness.
Amalek stands first on the list. Amalek was also the one enemy Israel had already fought and seen beaten, with God committed against them ever after:
The first we read of them is that they attacked Israel soon after they had passed the Red Sea. They were conquered, and God declared, "I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." This did not mean they were wiped out at once. But the Lord swore He would have "war with Amalek from generation to generation." Ex. 17:8-16. They lived in the south of the land, Num. 13:29.
The other names tell their own story. The Amorites "lived in the mountains, as their name means," on both sides of the Jordan. The Jebusites lived in the hills and held Jerusalem until David's day (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
One writer reads these nations as a picture of the opposition believers meet today:
The Canaanites are types of the evil powers with whom we have to wage our warfare. The Canaanites opposed the possession and enjoyment of the land. In the same way, the aim of the wicked spirits is to keep us back, to hinder us from possessing and enjoying our spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
The same test comes whenever God shows what He has in mind for us. "As soon as He makes His purpose for us known... every difficulty standing in our way appears in full array" (W T Turpin).
When Israel did enter the land, the list in verse 29 had not shortened:
The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when they reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high, and the children of Anak were still there. Not one of the difficulties of unbelief had gone. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty... God is quite left out, for had they thought of God, the question would have been this: Is God a grasshopper or not?
- The fact — these five peoples truly were there. Every word of the survey is true, yet it is "mapped out with the accuracy of unbelief."
- The frame — one "nevertheless" decides everything. Put it before God's strength, not the enemy's, and the same facts strengthen instead of crippling.
- The forgetting — God had named these peoples hundreds of years earlier. The spies report as fresh alarm what He had already told them.
- The first name — Amalek stands at the head of the list, the very foe God had already beaten just after the Red Sea and sworn to blot out.
- The finish — the walls stayed high and the giants stayed tall. Yet "when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty."
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up boldly and possess it, for we are well able to do it.
Ten spies came back from the land and told Israel that the people there were too strong. Caleb quieted the crowd and gave the opposite verdict.
Both Caleb and the ten spies looked at the same obstacles. What separated them was the order in which they thought.
This is how faith always reasons. Faith reasons from God to the difficulties: it begins with Him. Unbelief, on the contrary, reasons from the difficulties to God: it begins with them. This makes all the difference. We are not to be blind to the difficulties. We are not to be reckless either... Faith looks the difficulties straight in the face; it feels the full roughness of them. It is not ignorant — not indifferent — not reckless; but what? IT BRINGS IN THE LIVING GOD... it holds a calm and deep conviction. There never was a wall too high for Almighty God — never a city too great — never a giant too strong.
The claim "we are well able" was not a boast about Israel's army. Their ability rested on someone else.
The way was open. The judgement of faith, as spoken by faithful Caleb, was clear and without hesitation: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able at that moment as they could ever be. The One who had given them the land was the source of their power to enter it and take it.
Caleb never argued that the giants were smaller than reported. He refused to let the report be the last word.
The effect was disastrous. Their words stirred up a dangerous unrest among the people. At this point Caleb stepped forward, separated himself from his fellow spies, and quieted the people before Moses. He did not, and could not, contradict what the other spies had reported. But he said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." As the later history shows, this was the language of faith produced by confidence in the LORD and His word. He knew that God had brought them out from under Pharaoh's power with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That same God could bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance.
The ten spies compared themselves with the sons of Anak and felt like grasshoppers. One writer names the question they never asked.
The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when they reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high, and the children of Anak were still there. Unbelief had removed none of the difficulties. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty. But the report cowed the people: in their own eyes they were grasshoppers, and so they were in the giants' eyes. Now in all this I find two things: it is an evil report of the land — there is nothing good in it — and then, God is completely left out, for had they thought of God, the question would have been this: Is God a grasshopper or not? Only Caleb says, "We are well able to overcome it."
The ten outnumbered Caleb, and that ratio has not changed much. One writer turns the scene into a picture of how people respond to the good news about Christ.
He is like an evangelist who commends the gospel by the joy that fills his own heart. But the next thing is that ten men assert, "We are not able to go up." For one man who will commend Christ, I find ten men who will give you a reason for doubting... if a man comes and tells you that you cannot lay hold of Christ, he is like one of the ten evil spies. They slander the land.
Caleb's faith did not stop with that one speech. It later became a claim on a promise Moses had made to him.
Because Caleb was faithful, Moses had sworn that the land his feet walked on would be his inheritance. So his faith, depending on the Word of God, claimed what rightly belonged to him. This is deeply instructive for believers today. God has declared certain things to be ours in Scripture, as we see in the book of Ephesians. We should surely claim them with true boldness of faith.
- Order. Faith starts with God and reasons down to the difficulties. Unbelief starts with the difficulties. Same giants, opposite conclusion.
- Ability. "Well able" was never a measure of Israel's strength; the God who gave the land was the source of their power to take it.
- Honesty. Caleb quieted the people without denying a single fact of the report — he added the One the report had left out.
- Cost. The walls were just as high when Israel did go in at last. Unbelief removed no difficulty; it only delayed the entry.
- Now. Claim what God has already declared to be yours in His Word, with the same boldness Caleb showed.
But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
Twelve men walked the same land, saw the same walls and the same giants, and came back with two opposite verdicts. Ten of them summed up the trip in one sentence: the enemy is too strong for us. The whole nation's history turned on that sentence.
One of them said Israel was well able. The argument was not about what the spies saw, but about what they left out.
Most of the spies had no more of this living faith than the man who sent them. So the ten unbelievers talked down the one believer. "Then the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people." The language of unbelief was the exact opposite of the language of faith. Faith, looking at God, said, "We are well able." Unbelief, looking at the difficulties, said, "We are not able." So it was and so it is. The eyes of faith are filled with the living God, and so the difficulties are not seen. The eyes of unbelief are filled with the circumstances, and so God is not seen. Faith brings God in, and everything is bright and easy. Unbelief always shuts God out, and everything is dark and hard.
Their comparison — "they are stronger than we are" — was true as far as it went. The problem was what they measured themselves against.
Not a word about God. He is completely shut out. Suppose they had thought of Him and set the giants beside Him. Then it would have made no difference at all whether they were grasshoppers or full-grown men. But in fact, by their shameful unbelief, they brought the God of Israel down to the level of a grasshopper.
The same walls and the same giants were still standing when Israel came back. What changed was who went with them.
"They are stronger than we are," say the spies, but in reality their strength had gone. The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when Israel reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high, and the descendants of Anak were still there. Not one of the difficulties that unbelief pointed to had been removed. Only, when they go forward with God, a difficulty is no difficulty.
One voice had commended the land. Then the ten spoke, and the count decided the day. One writer sees the same ratio whenever Christ is offered to people.
Then ten men assert, "We are not able to go up" (Num. 13:31). For every one man who will commend Christ, I find ten who will give you a reason for doubting. These men bring a bad report. If a man comes and tells you that you cannot take Christ for yourself, he is like one of the ten evil spies. They slander the land, while Joshua and Caleb say, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land."
The damage did not stop with the enemy. It spread to the land itself, and then to their strength to keep going.
They lose all sense of the Lord's goodness in giving them the land. So they break down in despair as they look at the difficulties on the way. It is not just distrust about beating these enemies. They lose the sense of how good the land is. Then they have no encouragement in their difficulties, and their faith becomes weakness. It is just the same with the Christian. If I lose the joy of the glory, the difficulties I meet on the way become impossible. My heart does not know what it is fighting for.
What the ten said about themselves became the sentence God passed on them.
The ten unbelieving spies had called themselves grasshoppers in front of the giants. Moses takes them at their word and tells them, in effect, that grasshoppers are no match for giants. On one hand it is true that "according to your faith be it done to you." On the other hand it is just as true that according to your unbelief, so be it to you.
Talk of weakness is never neutral reporting.
Whenever we speak of a lack of power, it is to our shame. Since the Holy Spirit is always with us, there is never any lack of power. But too often there is a lack of faith to use it.
- Able: Caleb and the ten measured the same giants. Faith measures them against God. Unbelief measures them against self.
- Unable: leaving God out did not shrink the giants — it shrank God, bringing Him down to the level of a grasshopper.
- Contagious: one voice commended the land, ten gave reasons for doubting, and the crowd followed the ten.
- Corrosive: doubt about the strength became contempt for the land itself. Lose the joy of what is promised, and every difficulty on the road becomes impossible.
- Confirmed: God took them at their own estimate. According to your faith, and just as truly according to your unbelief, so be it to you.
And they brought to the children of Israel an evil report of the land which they had searched out, saying, The land, which we have passed through to search it out, is a land that eateth up its inhabitants; and all the people that we have seen in it are men of great stature;
The spies came back carrying the fruit of the land. Then ten of them told Israel that the country God had promised eats up the people who live in it. Their facts were true. So why does God call this a bad report?
The ten agreed the land was good and full of people. Then they said it destroys those who live in it.
Yes, the land is good; here is the fruit of it: God has told the truth about it; it is a land flowing with milk and honey. Only the people are strong, and their cities strong; and the land is filled with them. Faith in the true-hearted says, "Let us go up at once: we are well able to take possession." But most of the people have no faith... And then they contradict themselves twice over, as unbelief always does. Despite the strength of its swarming population, they declare that it eats up the people living in it.
The problem was not in what they measured. The men were tall and the cities did have walls.
The spies did not lie when they said the people were strong and the cities were great. All this would only make the power of God more obvious. The evil in their report was that it denied God's power, and His right to give the land to whomever He pleased. For unbelief the land belonged to giants, and they themselves were only grasshoppers: what could they do?
The Hebrew phrase behind "bad report" is sharper than the English sounds.
They could not deny that the LORD's promise was true. They carried the evidence of it on their shoulders while they carried unbelief in their hearts... The Hebrew for "bringing up an evil report" is translated "uttering a slander" in Proverbs 10:18. Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
Notice who is missing from their speech. They set Israel against the giants, and no one else.
Not a word about God. He is entirely shut out. Suppose they had thought of Him. Suppose they had set the giants side by side with Him. Then it would have made no difference at all whether they were grasshoppers or men. But in fact, by their shameful unbelief, they reduced the God of Israel to the level of a grasshopper.
The ten told Moses one thing and the nation another. Their verdict shifted with their audience.
The first thing they told Moses was the simple truth — that it was a very good land. But then they see this unbelief at work in the minds of the people. Now their judgment is quite different, and they say it is a very bad land. The whole sense of the Lord's goodness in giving them the land is gone. So they break down in despair when they look at the difficulties on the way... Just so with the Christian. If I lose the joy of the glory, the difficulties I meet on the way are insurmountable.
The words spread fast, and the damage did not stop at discouragement.
As a result of this message of unbelief "the whole assembly raised their voices and wept" (ch. 14:1). Further, they murmured against Moses (v. 2), wished they had died in Egypt (v. 2) and accused God (v. 3). Their proposal is shocking: "Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt." When Joshua and Caleb brought a good report (vv. 6-9), the whole assembly said to stone them (v. 10).
Moses did not argue with how they saw themselves. He let their words stand.
The ten unbelieving spies had declared themselves grasshoppers in front of the giants. Moses takes them at their word, and tells them in effect that grasshoppers are no match for giants. It is true that "according to your faith, so be it to you." It is just as true that according to your unbelief, so be it to you.
Forty years later the next generation faced exactly what this generation had described — and walked straight through it.
The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when they reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high, and the children of Anak were still there. Not one of the difficulties of unbelief had gone. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty.
- Contradiction. They called the land good, then said it eats up those who live in it. Unbelief contradicts itself.
- Slander. Their facts were true. Their sin was to report them with God left out, and the Hebrew word for it means slander.
- Shrinkage. They measured themselves against giants alone. So they became grasshoppers, and made God one too.
- Spread. The report spread fast: weeping, murmuring, a plan to go back to Egypt, and threats to stone the two who spoke faith.
- Sentence. God took them at their own word. The walls and the giants stayed just as they were. Those who went forward with God found the difficulty was no difficulty.
and there have we seen giants -- the sons of Anak are of the giants -- and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were also in their sight.
Twelve men went to explore Canaan. They came back agreed about the fruit and split about the future. This last line of their report shows where the split lay: ten of them measured themselves against the people of the land and shrank. The question the commentators press is not whether the giants were real. It is why the ten left God out of the count.
The verse names the Nephilim but says little about them. One reference work weighs what the name may mean, and rules out a common idea about where they came from:
The meaning of this word is uncertain. Some trace it to a root meaning "to fall." But it is not clear whether it means "fallen ones" or "those who fall upon." They were men of great stature, which made the Israelites think of themselves as grasshoppers by comparison. Scripture does not say (as some have supposed) that they were the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men... The Nephilim are only said to be "in the earth in those days." The spies also saw them about a thousand years afterwards. That is all the Bible tells us about them.
One name never appears in the report. Commentators call that silence the real failure:
Not a word about God. He is entirely shut out. If they had thought of Him, and set the giants beside Him, it would have made no difference at all whether they were grasshoppers or men. But in fact they, by their shameful unbelief, reduced the God of Israel to the level of a grasshopper.
The same facts can go two ways. It depends on what you set beside the difficulty:
What unbelief does is to compare ourselves and our own strength with circumstances. What faith does is to compare God with circumstances. Take the case of the spies... If the Israelites compared their stature with that of the Anakim, they had no business there. What did Caleb and Joshua say? They quieted the people: "They are bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them." They compared these sons of Anak with God. What did it matter, then, whether they were giants or grasshoppers?
Reverse the comparison and the proportions reverse with it:
They looked at the children of Anak, the giants who lived in the land. They did not look to the Lord, who had rescued them from the Egyptians. If they had reckoned with the Lord and trusted Him, the giants, not they, would have looked like grasshoppers... In Proverbs 10:18 the Hebrew for "bringing up an evil report" is translated "uttering a slander." Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
The last words report what the giants thought of them. The spies had no way of knowing that, and their fear spread:
In the presence of the sons of Anak they were, they said, as grasshoppers in their own sight. "And so," they added — and this could only be guesswork — "we were in their sight." Unbelief is always contagious, and it infected the whole congregation. They raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.
Refusing to go up did not shrink the obstacle. Forty years later the same enemy was waiting:
The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. But when they reached Canaan at last, the walls were just as high, and the children of Anak were still there. Not one of the difficulties of unbelief had disappeared. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty.
The generation that did go forward met the same enemy and won:
Israel find in their path the very people who had struck terror into their hearts at the beginning and caused them to fall. These were the Anakim, who had kept them from going boldly up to take the land... But what impression can the children of Anak make on the mind of someone who is led by the word of God? Victory is his. "Joshua came and cut off the Anakim," and their towns, "cities great and fortified up to heaven."
- Omission. The report is accurate about the giants and silent about God. That silence, not the giants, sank Israel.
- Comparison. Unbelief measures itself against the problem. Faith measures God against it, and size stops mattering.
- Slander. The phrase for an "evil report" is the word for uttering a slander. Unbelief does not just doubt God — it insults Him.
- Guesswork. "So we seemed to them" is something the spies could not know. Fear invents what the enemy thinks of us, and it spreads to everyone listening.
- Delay. Refusing the fight left the walls just as high and the Anakim still there. The generation that went forward with God cut them off.