And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
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.
Who the giants were
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:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
The name that never appears in the report
One name never appears in the report. Commentators call that silence the real failure:
C. H. MackintoshNot 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.
Two ways to do the arithmetic
The same facts can go two ways. It depends on what you set beside the difficulty:
The Christian's FriendWhat 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:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey 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.
A claim they could not check
The last words report what the giants thought of them. The spies had no way of knowing that, and their fear spread:
The Christian's FriendIn 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.
Retreat changed nothing
Refusing to go up did not shrink the obstacle. Forty years later the same enemy was waiting:
J. N. DarbyThe 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:
H. L. RossierIsrael 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."
Summary
- 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.