And the whole assembly lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
A whole nation spent the night in tears, right on the edge of the land God had promised them. Commentators press one question on the scene: what were they looking at that made them cry?
The weeping was not random. It came from what the ten spies put before the people's eyes — and from what they left out.
Is it any wonder? What else could you expect from a people who had nothing before their eyes but mighty giants, lofty walls, and great cities? What but tears and sighs could come from a congregation who saw themselves as grasshoppers, faced with difficulties too great to overcome? They had no sense of the divine power that could carry them right through it all. … They were occupied with themselves and their difficulties instead of with God and His resources.
Crying can look like sorrow over sin. Here it was not. One writer separates the two, and shows how far their doubt reached.
But they were tears of unbelief, not of sorrow… They had no faith about the glory ahead of them, pictured by the land of Canaan. They had just as little faith about Egypt, which they had left, and about the wilderness they were walking through.
Fear did not stop with the ten men who started it. And it left the people unable to reason.
The discouraging words of the ten spies infected the whole congregation of Israel, as discouragement too often does among God's people. They wept that night, then began with bitter complaints — not just against Moses and Aaron, but directly against the Lord. Why had God not let them die in Egypt or in the wilderness, instead of exposing them to the danger of dying in battle against the Canaanites? How inconsistent their arguments are. If they really wanted to die, why be afraid of their enemies? They also never considered that they might survive and take the land, while their enemies died. But fear is a terrible disease that robs a believer of his proper senses.
Earlier in their journey these same people sang instead of weeping. Set that song beside this night and you see an exact reversal — with one cause behind it.
What a contrast between this and the opening of Exodus 15! There their eyes were only on Jehovah, and so they could sing the song of victory. That song said the nations would hear and be afraid, and that sorrow would take hold of the people of Philistia. Instead, it was Israel that was afraid, and sorrow took hold of them. The sorrow, the trembling and the fear fall on Israel rather than on their enemies. And why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus 15 is completely shut out in Numbers 14. This makes all the difference. In the one case faith is on top; in the other, unbelief.
The tears soon harden into an accusation. Earlier failures had blamed Moses; this one blames God — and that turn reaches into ordinary Christian life.
When they first set out and their sin showed itself, bad as it was, they did not blame God. They blamed Moses, the man who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. But the moment this unbelief takes hold of their hearts, the desert becomes painful beyond bearing… See what a wicked state of unbelief they had fallen into, blaming Jehovah Himself for their trials and difficulties. Even Christians can fall into this snare… If Canaan had been on the hearts of the children of Israel, they would have said, Thank God that we have come this far on our way to Canaan.
That night cost them forty years. The reason was not the size of the giants but where they were looking.
But what kept them back? Just that hateful thing which, day after day and hour after hour, robs us of the precious privilege of walking the highest stages of the divine life. And what is that? Unbelief! "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19). This caused Israel to wander in the desert for 40 tedious years. Instead of looking at Jehovah's power to bring them into the land, they looked at the enemy's power to keep them out of it.
- Look — the tears came from what filled their eyes: giants, walls and their own smallness, with God shut out.
- Weep — these were tears of unbelief, not of sorrow over sin; grief can be loud and still be faithless.
- Spread — the discouragement of ten men infected a nation, and fear robbed them of clear thinking.
- Blame — unbelief moved from tears to charging God with their troubles. Christians fall into the same snare when trials come.
- Lose — they watched the enemy's power to keep them out, not God's power to bring them in. So they could not enter.
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole assembly said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or in this wilderness would that we had died!
Israel stands at the edge of Canaan, and the report of the ten spies has done its work. The whole nation turns on its leaders and wishes itself dead — and the rest of the chapter shows God answering that wish.
Their weeping sounds like grief. But once Israel judged the enemy too strong, God had already dropped out of their thinking.
All their thoughts were — "God is not." His own people plainly gave in to what is so sadly true of the unbeliever. "They are stronger than we." And where then was God? ... "The congregation lifted up their voice again and cried, and the people wept that night." But they were tears of unbelief, not of sorrow... Their unbelief covered everything: the glory in front of them in the land of Canaan, the Egypt they had left, and the wilderness they were crossing.
The complaint names Moses and Aaron, but the blame reaches past them. Their earlier sins had never gone this far.
When, in the first freshness of their setting out, their sin had shown itself (bad as it was), they did not lay the blame on God... But the moment this unbelief takes hold of their hearts, the desert becomes unbearably painful to them... See what a wretched, wicked state of unbelief they had fallen into. They blamed the Lord Himself for their trials and difficulties. Even Christians can fall into this snare. We know it is the Lord who brought us up out of bondage. So when trials come, our hearts are apt to say, this comes of my being a Christian — the Lord has brought me into these difficulties.
Fear also makes their reasoning collapse on itself.
They wept that night. Then came bitter complaints — not just against Moses and Aaron, but directly against the Lord!... How inconsistent their arguments are. If they really wanted to die, why be afraid of their enemies? They also never considered that they might live and take the land, while their enemies died. But fear is a terrible disease that robs a believer of his proper senses.
The giants were not the real problem. The problem was what filled their eyes.
Are not we, too, like Israel? We are prone to look at the difficulties around us, rather than at that blessed One. He has undertaken to carry us right through them all, and to bring us safely into His own everlasting kingdom. Why are we sometimes cast down? Why do we go mourning? Why do we sound discontented and impatient, instead of singing praise and thanksgiving? Simply because we let circumstances shut God out. We should have God instead as a perfect covering for our eyes and a perfect object for our hearts.
To wish for death in Egypt is to want nothing to do with the land ahead. The same drift catches believers who never doubt the promise at all.
Suppose a friend had given me something as a great treasure, and I was sure it was mine. Yet I looked at it only seldom, and cared to think of it only seldom. This would prove one thing: not that I doubted it was mine, but that I despised it and put no real value on it. This is very often the way we treat the heavenly glory that belongs to us.
Once God is out of view, only two options are left.
In Israel's case God was lost sight of. It was either a calf or a captain; either death in the wilderness, or return into Egypt. Caleb stands in bright contrast to all this. For him there was no death in the wilderness and no return to Egypt. There was an abundant entrance into the promised land, behind the Lord's impenetrable shield.
God's sentence later in the chapter is the people's own wish handed back to them.
God's answer was this: you say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness... God says, you will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it.
- Unbelief weeps. The night of crying was not repentance. The tears came from unbelief, not from sorrow.
- Unbelief blames. They spoke to Moses and Aaron, but they charged the Lord who had brought them out.
- Unbelief magnifies. Difficulties only look overwhelming when we let them shut God out of sight.
- Unbelief despises. You can stop valuing the promised land without ever doubting that it is yours.
- Unbelief reaps. They asked to die in the wilderness, and God gave them their wish — spread over forty years.
And why is Jehovah bringing us to this land that we may fall by the sword, that our wives and our little ones may become a prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?
At Kadesh the people stand at the border of the promised land, and they answer the spies' report by charging God Himself with leading them out to die. Their remedy — go back to Egypt — raises the question this chapter turns on: what does unbelief do to the way we see God?
Earlier failures in the wilderness blamed Moses. This charge goes higher, and it changes how the desert itself feels to them.
When their sin first showed itself, at the fresh start of their journey, they did not lay the blame on God. They said, "This Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt." But the moment this unbelief takes hold of their hearts, the desert becomes unbearably painful to them... See what a miserable, wicked state of unbelief they had fallen into: they blamed Jehovah Himself for their trials and difficulties. Even Christians face this trap. We know it is the Lord who has brought us up out of slavery. So when trials come, our hearts are apt to say, This comes of my being a Christian — the Lord has brought me into these difficulties. If Canaan had been on the hearts of the children of Israel, they would have said, Thank God that we are this far on our way to Canaan.
Read as an argument, their complaint falls apart. One writer lays out the contradictions in it.
Why did God not let them die in Egypt or in the wilderness, instead of exposing them to the danger of dying in battle against the Canaanites? How inconsistent their arguments are. If they really wanted to die, why be afraid of their enemies? They also never considered that they might survive and take the land, while their enemies died. But fear is a terrible disease that robs a believer of his proper senses.
The verse ends with a wish to turn back, and that wish has a cause.
This is the sure result. The heart that refuses to go on with God goes back to Egypt in its desires.
Set beside the calf at Horeb, the two failures make a pair.
There are two sad forms of unbelief in Israel's history in the wilderness: one at Horeb, the other at Kadesh. At Horeb they made a calf... At Kadesh they proposed to make a captain to lead them back into Egypt. The first is the superstition of unbelief. The second is the wilful independence of unbelief. We need not wonder that those who thought a calf had brought them out of Egypt should look for a captain to lead them back... In Israel's case they lost sight of God. It was either a calf or a captain; either death in the wilderness, or return to Egypt.
They made their wives and children the strongest argument for turning back. Pharaoh had once warned them that evil lay ahead for these little ones; older translations read his words as "evil is before you."
This was terrible. As far as they were able, they were confirming Pharaoh's crafty prediction about these very little ones: "Look, you have some evil purpose in mind." Unbelief always justifies Satan and makes God a liar. Faith always justifies God and proves Satan a liar.
God's reply turned their fear around. The children they feared would be taken were the ones He brought in.
Unbelief had fastened on the little ones, as if it were pointless to expect that children like these could cross the desert safely and enter the land against the enemy. The very people who gave way to such unbelieving doubt of the Lord's care reaped the consequences themselves. The children, who they thought could never survive the horrors of the wilderness, were the only ones brought in, together with the two men who vindicated God and held fast to His word, Caleb and Joshua.
Their choice at the border did not end with that day.
We now come to the decisive point in the history of the wilderness: the people refused to enter the land after coming to its very borders. By this they incur the penalty of forty years of wandering, and the death of the whole generation (except two people) in the wilderness. For them, the whole character of life changes. They are no longer pilgrims but wanderers. They are not aimless, but their only aim is to stay alive for these forty years.
- Unbelief accuses. Earlier complaints blamed Moses. Here the charge lands on God, as if the One who rescued them had led them into danger.
- Unbelief contradicts. Wishing to be dead while dreading death is not reasoning. It is fear, and fear strips a believer of his senses.
- Unbelief retreats. A heart that will not go forward with God already wants Egypt back — a calf to follow out, or a captain to lead it back in.
- Unbelief reaps. God took them at their word. The generation that feared for their children died in the desert, and the children went in.
- Unbelief costs. One refusal at the border turned pilgrims into wanderers. For forty years their only aim was to stay alive.
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt.
Israel stands at the edge of the land God promised them. After the spies' fearful report, the people plan to appoint a new leader — older translations say "captain" — and march back to Egypt.
Israel had already invented a substitute god at Horeb. Now they want a substitute leader. One man among them wants neither.
There are two sad phases of unbelief shown in Israel's history in the wilderness; one at Horeb, the other at Kadesh. At Horeb they made a calf, and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." At Kadesh they proposed to make a captain to lead them back into Egypt. The first of these is the superstition of unbelief; the second, the wilful independence of unbelief. No wonder that people who thought a calf had brought them out of Egypt would look for a captain to lead them back. The poor human mind is tossed like a ball from one to the other of these terrible evils. There is no resource except what faith finds in the living God. Israel had lost sight of God. It was either a calf or a captain; either death in the wilderness or a return to Egypt. Caleb stands in bright contrast with all this. For him it was neither death in the wilderness nor a return to Egypt, but a full entrance into the promised land, behind the unbreakable shield of the LORD.
Replacing Moses was not just a change of leadership. It struck at the One who had appointed him.
In Exodus 32:4, we read of the making of the calf, which they imagined had brought them up out of Egypt. Now they wish to make a captain to take them back. Both these evils are brought together very strikingly in Nehemiah 9:17-18, but there the order of them is reversed. It looks as if the provocation in this later case was as great as in the former. To reject a servant whom God has appointed as captain is the same as rejecting God Himself, though rejecting Him by making a golden calf was a cruder act.
Why a captain at all? Both the calf and the captain answer the same appetite — for a support you can see and lean on instead of God.
When you think about it, what a terrible revelation of the heart of man is in that scene at Mount Sinai. Then they said, "Make us gods;" and later they say, "Let us make a captain" (Num. 14:4). In all our hearts is the tendency to look for someone we can lean on, someone who can lead and guide us. That is, a person who will take us off the ground of simple faith in God.
Their plan was not only wrong, it was unworkable. Nobody had asked whether Egypt still wanted them.
Israel's discouragement from unbelief went so deep that they even urged the people to appoint another leader instead of Moses and go back to Egypt. Having left an ungodly world, can believers return to it and be welcome? By this time Egypt would have grown used to Israel being gone, and would not be likely to take them back. But unbelief cannot reason straight.
There is no neutral standing still at Kadesh. Refusing to advance is itself a decision about where you are heading.
The result was judgment; and no wonder. For they say, "Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt." This is the sure outcome. The heart that refuses to go on with God goes back to Egypt in its desires.
They had wished aloud that they had died in the wilderness. God's reply granted the wish they never meant.
Let us go back, they say. Oh, could you imagine it after all the grace shown to them? But, friends, we know what our own hearts are. Have we never wished to turn back?... God's answer was this: You say you wish you had died in the wilderness — you shall die in the wilderness... Says God, You will have to die, only it will take you forty years to do it.
Generations later, Israel confessed this episode in prayer. Their confession named what lay under the words.
In this long prayer of confession they reviewed the history of their nation. Twice they admitted one of the great root causes of their sin: their forefathers had "dealt proudly" (verses 16 and 29). Out of this spirit of pride... came the self-assertion and disobedience that marked their whole history. In their early days it came to a head when they "appointed a captain to return to their bondage" (verse 17).
- Root — Pride came first. Centuries later Israel confessed it: pride produced the self-assertion behind the plan for a captain.
- Craving — Under the pride sits the appetite for something visible to lean on. It had already produced a calf; now it demands a captain.
- Rejection — Setting aside the leader God appointed is setting aside God Himself. It is subtler than the golden calf, not smaller.
- Direction — There is no standing still. A heart that refuses to go on with God goes back to Egypt in its desires — and never asks whether Egypt would take it back.
- Result — God gave them the wish they had shouted in self-pity. They died in the wilderness, and it took forty years — while faith, in Caleb, entered the land.
Then Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the whole congregation of the assembly of the children of Israel.
Israel stands at the border of the land God promised them. Instead of going in, the people plan to pick a new leader and march back to Egypt — and the two men God set over them drop face-down in front of the whole crowd.
The people's plan was more than a change of leadership. One writer ties it back to the golden calf, the other great act of rejection in Israel's story.
In Exodus 32:4 we read that they made the calf, which they imagined had brought them up out of Egypt. Now they wish to make a captain to take them back. Nehemiah 9:17-18 brings both these evils together very strikingly, but there they come in reverse order. It looks as if this later provocation was as great as the earlier one. To reject a servant whom God has appointed as captain is to reject God Himself, though rejecting Him by making a golden calf was a cruder act.
The posture matters. Moses and Aaron could have stood tall and defended their position. Instead they went face-down in front of the men accusing them.
No crisis since the days of the calf had been as serious as this one. It brought four men of faith into clear view. Aaron's faith was not as strong as the faith of Moses, but he still fell on his face with Moses before the congregation. He shared here in the meekness of Moses. When a man falls on his face before his opponents, he all but wipes himself out. In fact they could not have done a more serious thing. If they had stood up to their full height before the people, they would have claimed their authority and taken the challenge on themselves. But instead they put themselves out of the matter and left God to take up the challenge.
Their fall was not despair. It was prayer. Four faithful men faced hundreds of thousands, and one writer sees Moses pleading for them as a picture of Christ.
Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb stand alone among hundreds of thousands of grumbling, rebellious Israelites and the mixed crowd with them. They fell on their faces, no doubt in the attitude of prayer and worship, to tell the Lord... Beautiful is the scene of Moses' intercession. He stands out as a striking type of our great Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. God offered Moses a fresh start: He would destroy the rebels and make Moses into a nation even greater than Israel. Moses turned the offer down. He does not want glory for himself, but he is jealous for the Lord's name and glory.
Two men went down; two others spoke out. One writer sets all four side by side.
A wonderful sight indeed! Four men confronted this host of rebels. Two of them were old and heartbroken, on their faces before the God whom the people had offended. Two of them were young, brave and faithful — men for the crisis. They risked their lives for the sake of the truth, and pleaded with their fellow Israelites with an energy that only love could produce... in Moses and Aaron we see complete dependence on God; in Joshua and Caleb we may see the self-forgetting devotion of love.
That same passage draws the practical line for anyone outnumbered:
Better to side with God and four men, or even alone, than to have the company of 600,000 in a path of sin. If alone with God, you have His grace, even though you may face many kinds of trial. If crowds of unfaithful men surround you, you lack the one source of power — you do not have God.
Because the servants stepped aside, God stepped in. His glory appeared, and His answer reached far past that day's crisis.
Three times over in the Book of Numbers the glory of the Lord appeared in times of crisis... On the first occasion, the rebellion made Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before all the assembly. The people had said to one another, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." God spoke of disinheriting Israel. Moses interceded and God spared them, but the Lord answered, "As I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."
- Cause. The people wanted a new leader to take them back to Egypt. To reject the leader God appointed is to reject God Himself.
- Posture. Falling on your face before your opponents wipes you out of the picture. If Moses and Aaron had stood up, they would have taken the challenge on themselves.
- Prayer. They went to the ground to pray, not to despair. Moses then pleaded for the people, a picture of Christ the Mediator.
- Company. Two lay down in dependence; two stood up in love. Better to be with God and four men than with 600,000 in a path of sin.
- Result. God's glory appeared. Moses' pleading spared the people, and the promise stood: the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of them that searched out the land, rent their garments.
Israel had just decided to appoint a new leader and march back to Egypt. The whole camp wept and complained. Then two of the twelve men who had walked the land tore their clothes in front of everyone. Their torn clothes raise a question. What do you do when the crowd has turned against God, and what does it cost?
Commentators weigh how serious this moment was, and how faith answered it.
Since the days of the calf no crisis had been this serious. It brought four men of faith into clear view. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the congregation, putting themselves out of the matter and leaving God to take up the challenge. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes — the sign of distress and rejection — and boldly testified to the faithfulness and power of God. God was before their hearts and not the children of Anak. All the same, it came to nothing. The people were completely bankrupt when it came to faith.
The verse calls these two men part of the group who "had spied out the land." They saw everything the other ten saw. The difference was not information.
Caleb says, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." 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. 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 bad spies.
Their torn clothes put clear distance between them and the ten men they had travelled with. The break was moral, not just physical.
Joshua and Caleb were God's chosen instruments to stem this flood of unbelief and to testify against it. They were horrified at the sin of the people, so they tore their clothes. Raising their voices above the noise and confusion in the congregation, they courageously repeated their declaration that the land they had searched out was "an exceedingly good land." They boldly contradicted the bad report of their fellow spies. In doing so they separated themselves morally from their company and took their stand on the Lord's side.
It matters that there were two of them, and not one.
TWO stands for distinctness, and so for adequate testimony, and for fellowship when the two agree. Two witnesses are needed. Deuteronomy 19:15; 2 Corinthians 13:1. Caleb and Joshua witnessed for the land. Numbers 14:6-9.
The people's answer was a call to stone them.
And for what were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? Was it for blasphemy or evil-doing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth. They had been sent to spy out the land and to bring back a true report about it. This they did; and for this "all the congregation said to stone them with stones." The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular. There is no place for it in this world, or in the human heart. People will accept lies, and error in every shape; but never truth. Joshua and Caleb met in their day what all true witnesses in every age have met, and what all must expect: the opposition and hatred of most of their fellows. Six hundred thousand voices rose against two men who simply told the truth and trusted God.
Commentators turn the scene on the reader: a debt we owe, and a rebuke to our fear.
The people say, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt." The heart that refuses to go on with God goes back to Egypt in its desires. Let us not forget what Joshua and Caleb said. We owe it to our God to give a good report of the land which lies before us.
May we not learn a lesson in these days from the loyalty of these devoted men of God? Does not their simple yet mighty appeal rebuke the fears and faint-heartedness of many at the present time? "The land is an exceedingly good land" was faith's simple reply then to all Satan's hindrances — and is it any different today? The spirit of Numbers 14 is sadly at work at this moment.
- Same land. All twelve men saw the same land. Only two brought back a report shaped by faith in God. The difference was never the evidence.
- Torn clothes. The tearing was a public sign of distress and refusal. It set these two apart from the men they had travelled with, on the Lord's side.
- Two witnesses. God did not leave His land without testimony. Two men who agreed were enough to stand against six hundred thousand voices.
- Truth's price. Their honest report almost got them stoned. Truth has never been popular, and every true witness should expect the same.
- Our debt. We owe God a good report of what lies before us. The fears that silenced Israel still silence people today.
And they spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it out, is a very, very good land.
Twelve men explored Canaan, and ten came back afraid. Now two of them say the opposite, and the question is whose report Israel will believe — and what it costs to be one of the two.
Ten men walked the same ground and came back afraid. Joshua and Caleb call the land good, and one writer turns that into a duty for us:
Let us not forget this. We owe it to our God to give a good report of the land which lies before us.
A bad report is not just pessimism. One writer points to the Hebrew behind the phrase used of the ten spies:
They could not deny that the Lord's promise was true. They carried the evidences of it upon their shoulders while they carried unbelief in their hearts... The Hebrew for "bringing up an evil report" is translated in Proverbs 10:18 as "uttering a slander." Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
Tearing your clothes showed grief and horror. Here it was also a public break with the crowd:
Joshua and Caleb were God's chosen instruments to hold back this flood of unbelief and to testify against it. They tore their clothes to show their horror at the sin of the people. Raising their voices above the noise and confusion in the congregation, they bravely repeated their declaration that the land they had searched out was "an exceedingly good land." So they boldly contradicted the "evil report" of their fellows. In doing so, they separated themselves morally from their company and took their stand on the Lord's side.
Confidence like this is not natural optimism. The two men could speak so plainly because of where they had done their looking:
Caleb and Joshua had not only been in the land, but they had been with God about the land. They had looked at it all from faith's point of view. They knew the land was theirs, in the purpose of God. They knew it was worth having, as the gift of God. And they knew they would yet have it by the power of God. They were men full of faith, full of courage, full of power.
Their case does not rest on Israel's strength. It rests on God's delight in His people:
They also stated plainly the conditions of possessing the land. First, "If the Lord delights in us," they said, "He will bring us into this land." In this they showed that they agreed with the Lord's mind. He did delight in His people, and they knew it. So everything depended on what He was, and on His power — not on what the people were, or could do.
Does the good land stand for heaven? One writer says no, and explains what it does picture:
One reason why Canaan cannot mean heaven is that Israel could be driven out of the land. This is not possible with heaven. Canaan is the type of the heavenly position and possession which the believer has in Christ Jesus. It matches what Ephesians calls "in heavenly places," or better translated, "in the heavenly." It is the heavenly sphere, the heavenly, spiritual blessings given to us in Christ Jesus.
Read that way, the two reports become two ways of speaking about Christ:
Caleb is like an evangelist who commends the gospel by the joy that fills his own heart... For one man who will commend Christ, I find ten men who will give you a reason for doubting. These men bring an evil report. Ah, if a man comes and tells you that you cannot claim 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 congregation answered by reaching for stones. One writer asks what the two men had done to deserve it:
And for what were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? Was it for blasphemy or doing evil? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth... The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular... There were six hundred thousand voices raised against two men who simply told the truth, and trusted in God.
- Report. Two men saw what ten men saw and called the land exceedingly good. We owe God a good report of what lies before us.
- Slander. A bad report is not caution but slander. The spies carried the proof of God's promise on their shoulders and still insulted Him.
- Source. Joshua and Caleb had been in the land, and they had been with God about the land. They spoke from faith's point of view.
- Security. Their confidence rested on "if the Lord delights in us" — on what He is and can do, not on what the people were or could do.
- Stones. Truth is never popular. Six hundred thousand voices rose against two men who told the truth and trusted God.
If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land that flows with milk and honey;
Ten of the twelve scouts had just told Israel they could not take the land. The people were already talking of going back to Egypt. Into that panic Joshua and Caleb speak one condition. It is not whether Israel is strong enough. It is whether the Lord delights in them.
It is easy to be taken up with what we get from God. The verse points to God's own pleasure in His people.
One of Satan's most plausible traps is to keep us occupied with the good we receive from the work of Christ. It keeps our eyes off Christ Himself, and off His delight and interest in us. We enter too little into the divine side of redemption. That is why joy and strength are so often missing. Of Israel, His earthly people, it was said, "If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land." Faith could see that all their blessing rested, not on what they were, but on the Lord delighting in them... We have the same thought in Proverbs 8:31: "delighting in the children of man." He rests in His love and so should we.
Joshua and Caleb laid out conditions. Their confidence rested on what they knew about God, not on what they knew about Israel.
They stated plainly the conditions of possessing the land. First, "If the LORD delights in us," they said, "He will bring us into this land." In this they showed that they were in communion with the Lord's mind. He did delight in His people, and they knew it. So they knew that everything depended on what He was and on His power. It did not depend on what the people were, or could do. Secondly, they said, "Only do not rebel against the LORD ... and do not fear the people of the land." And, lastly, they declared that the Lord was with them, so fear of the enemy was needless.
The ten scouts had measured the giants against themselves. Joshua and Caleb changed the terms of the comparison.
This is full of instruction. By their unbelief they had shut God out. So it obviously became a question between Israel and the Canaanites. Faith would have made it a question between God and the Canaanites. This was exactly how Joshua and Caleb saw the matter.
Both men had walked the same ground as the other scouts. Their good report was not optimism. It was a debt they owed.
Joshua and Caleb were "the two who had brought the good report." They said that the land they had passed through to search it was "an exceedingly good land." Let us not forget this. We owe it to our God to give a good report of the land that lies before us.
The description is not decoration. The two words carry the character of what God was offering.
Salvation is not complete until the land of promise is their own... The land is a good land and a large one, flowing with milk and honey. It is not a land of narrowness, as Egypt is — and heaven is not limited by the needs and struggles of earth... There is all "fatness," which the word for milk literally means, and all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must result in satisfaction, or it is not salvation.
The verse sounds like Israel hoping that God is pleased with them. The deeper delight runs the other way.
Suppose a poor sinner now thinks what happiness it would be to have the heavenly Canaan. There is a deeper joy than his — the Lord's delight to have him there. (See Luke 15.) But we may say that the Lord was then robbed of His delight, except in the two men of faith. So the people are turned back into the desert to bear their sins.
That generation never entered. Yet the refusal did not cancel what God had settled to do.
God delights in His saints and He delights to bless them in Christ. But Israel despised the land. They were set aside, unable to get in. He tells them He would treat them as they had said He would. They would wander forty years in the desert, a year for each day they had spent searching the land, until they all died. But in spite of all this, the very next chapter begins, "When you come into the land." Despite all their sin, Scripture speaks of them as though they were already there.
- Delight is the cause. Israel's entry hung on God's pleasure in them, not on their strength. All their blessing rested on what He was, not on what they were.
- Delight is known. Joshua and Caleb were in communion with the Lord's mind. They knew He delighted in His people, so they could say it.
- Delight reframes the enemy. Unbelief shut God out and left Israel facing the Canaanites alone. Faith made it God against the Canaanites.
- Delight has a destination. Milk means fatness and honey means sweetness. Salvation ends in satisfaction, not in narrowness.
- Delight outlasts refusal. That generation fell in the desert. Yet the next chapter still says, "When you come into the land." His purpose stood.
only rebel not against Jehovah; and fear not the people of the land; for they shall be our food. Their defence is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us fear them not.
Israel stood at the border of the promised land. Ten of the twelve men sent to explore it came back saying the enemy was too strong. Two men answered them. Every phrase of their reply turns on the one thing the other ten had left out: God.
The ten spies were not lying about the giants. They measured themselves against the giants, and the answer came out the only way it could.
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; Numbers 13, 14. They said, "All the people of the land are men of great height; and we saw the giants there, the sons of Anak... and in our own eyes we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." If the Israelites were going to measure their own height against the sons of Anak, they had no business being there. What did Caleb and Joshua say? They quieted the people, saying, "They are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them." That is, they compared these sons of Anak with God; what does it matter then whether they were giants or grasshoppers?
The ten had already settled who the fight was between.
They, by their unbelief, had shut out God; and therefore it was obviously a question between Israel and the Canaanites. Faith would have made it a question between God and the Canaanites.
Joshua and Caleb said the enemy's protection was already gone. Nothing they could see backed that up, then or later.
"They are stronger than we are," say the spies, but in truth their strength had gone from them. The cities were walled, and they saw the giants too. When they at last reached Canaan, the walls were just as high, and the children of Anak were still there. Not one of unbelief's difficulties had gone. Only, when they go forward with God, difficulty is no difficulty.
Calling the enemy food is a strange way to speak. Joshua and Caleb said it to men who had just magnified the enemy's strength.
When the men of Israel magnified the strength of the nations of Canaan, Joshua and Caleb, true men of faith, said, "They are bread for us... the LORD is with us; do not fear them" (Num. 14:9). Bread indeed! For every difficulty that faith in God overcomes gives strength and nourishment to the soul.
Another writer applies the same words to the difficulties Christians meet now:
Difficulties only help us realise more of what He is for us. Israel had to fight giants to take the promised land, and Joshua and Caleb said of them, "They are bread for us" (Num. 14:9). Faith grows stronger through the very demands that expose the weakness of unbelief.
The speech has a structure: what God is like, what Israel must not do, and why fear is pointless.
First, "If the LORD delights in us," they said, "He will bring us into this land." In this they showed that they shared the LORD's mind. He did delight in His people, and they knew it. So everything depended on what He was and on His power, not on what the people were or could do. Second, they said, "Only do not rebel against the LORD... and do not fear the people of the land." The people of Israel had only to follow their divine Leader. Last, they declared — and this was the source of all their strength — that the LORD was with them, so fear of the enemy was needless.
The congregation's answer to this speech was to call for stones. The offence was the report itself.
And why were they to be stoned? For telling lies? For blasphemy or wrongdoing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth... The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular... There were six hundred thousand voices raised against two men who simply told the truth, and trusted in God.
- Compare — unbelief measures itself against the difficulty; faith measures the difficulty against God. That single change of measurement is the whole difference between the ten and the two.
- Shift — leave God out and it is Israel against Canaan; bring Him in and it is God against Canaan.
- Stripped — the enemy's covering is gone before a single blow falls. Nothing outward changed. Going forward with God is what makes a difficulty stop being one.
- Fed — what terrifies unbelief nourishes faith. Every obstacle carried through by trusting God returns as strength.
- Costly — two men stood against six hundred thousand. The reward for telling the truth was a call to stone them.
And the whole assembly said that they should be stoned with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.
Two spies have just told Israel that the land is good and that the LORD is with them. The whole assembly answers by calling for their death. At that exact moment God's glory breaks out at the tent of meeting. The verse holds two things side by side: a people at their worst, and a God who will not let His witnesses stand alone.
Ask what crime Joshua and Caleb had committed.
And why were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? Was it for blasphemy or evil-doing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth. Their orders were to spy out the land and bring back a true report about it. This they did; and for this "all the congregation bade stone them with stones." The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular. There is no place for it in this world, or in the human heart. People will receive lies, and error in every shape; but never truth. In their day Joshua and Caleb faced what all true witnesses in every age have faced. All must expect it — the opposition and hatred of most of their fellows. Six hundred thousand voices rose against two men who simply told the truth and trusted God.
The turn was immediate:
Those words should have cheered the people. Instead, the moment they came out, they brought open hostility.
Argument had run out. The crowd that called for stones would see what came next.
In vain Joshua and Caleb step in: unbelief is unreason itself. The crowd only answers, "Stone them with stones." Then God must answer for Himself, and the glory of the LORD breaks out in the tent of meeting before the eyes of the rebellious people.
The same appearing carries two opposite messages, depending on who is looking at it.
The congregation was so enraged with Joshua and Caleb that they said, "Stone them with stones." The men who listened to Stephen were cut to the heart and filled with hatred. This crowd was the same: they would gladly have murdered the faithful witnesses. But the glory of the LORD appeared, to vindicate His servants and to punish His stiff-necked and rebellious people. What a contrast, as always, between the LORD's estimate and man's! His favour rested on the very men the children of Israel would have stoned.
Notice the timing. The glory did not wait for the danger to pass.
Chapter 14 shows an outbreak of murmuring and revolt against the LORD. They wanted a leader to take them back to Egypt! Many today want to leave the path of faith for the ground of nature and the activity of deceiving spirits. Joshua and Caleb pleaded with the people, and Moses pleaded with the merciful and patient LORD for pardon… reason
This is not an isolated flash of light; the book records it repeatedly, always at a breaking point.
Three times in the book of Numbers the glory of the LORD appeared at a moment of crisis. First, when the people refused the good news about the land of promise and were about to stone Moses, Joshua and Caleb (Num. 14:10). Then at the rebellion of Korah (Num. 16:19). Then when the people quarrelled with Moses because there was no water (Num. 20:6). On the first occasion the rebellion made Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before the whole assembly… God spoke of disinheriting Israel, but Moses interceded and they were spared. Yet the LORD answered, "As I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD" (verse 21). This will certainly be fulfilled under the reign of Christ.
Their courage was not natural nerve. It came from where they had been.
Caleb and Joshua had not only been in the land, they had been with God about the land. They had looked at it all from faith's point of view. They knew the land was theirs in the purpose of God. They knew it was worth having as the gift of God. And they knew they would yet have it by the power of God. They were men full of faith, full of courage, full of power.
- Cause: the crowd reached for stones because the report was true. Truth draws hostility, and faithful witnesses should expect it.
- Odds: six hundred thousand voices against two men who simply told the truth and trusted God.
- Answer: when argument failed, God answered for Himself. The glory vindicated His servants and dealt with the rebellion.
- Timing: the glory came just as the stones were about to fly. His thoughts toward His people had not changed.
- Reach: the same chapter that judged unbelief also promised that the glory of the LORD will fill all the earth.