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.