Prepare
Opening Prayer
God, thank you for this day and for the blessing of serving you. Be our teacher, and help us understand this passage and apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
Numbers 13 - Spies Sent into Canaan
13 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. 4 Now these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. 17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, 18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; 19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; 20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. 21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. 22 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 13:1–33.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Moses sends one leader from each tribe to spy out Canaan. After forty days, all twelve report the land's fruitfulness, but ten focus on its fortified cities and powerful inhabitants and spread a fearful report. Caleb urges Israel to take possession because God is with them, and Joshua later joins him against the unbelieving majority.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
Numbers 13:28
The people who dwell in it are strong, and cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there
The co-host proposes verses 27-28, and Bryan clarifies that he has verses 28-29 underlined. Verse 28 captures the intimidating facts that the ten spies allowed to eclipse God's promise and power.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Do not let apparently impossible circumstances displace God's promises. Like Caleb and Joshua, trust the Lord, take courage, and follow where he leads even when the fearful majority chooses what appears safer or wiser.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Alright, well good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every weekday morning you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of... Coffee. You got milk. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of... Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Good job. Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews.
Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Alright, so I'll drink that and you can drink... God, thank you so much for giving us this day. Thank you for the blessing it is to get to serve you. Lord, we pray that we would have you as our teacher. We need you, Lord, to help us understand this passage and to apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.
Alright, so we are at Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. Go ahead and open up in your Bible there, Debra. It's kind of a big important chapter. Alright, so. Numbers chapter 13. Alright, so what we'll do is we'll kind of split it roughly in half, okay? I'll have you read 1 through 16 and then I'll read 17 through the end. Yeah, we'll go ahead and start there. Go ahead.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men in to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the commandment of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. Now these were the names from the tribe of Reuben, Oh, just do your best.
There's a lot of names. I forgot about that. Shemua. The son of Zekir from the tribe of Simeon. Shaphat. Shaphat. That's fine. The son of Phori from the tribe of Judah. Caleb, the son of... Jephunneh. Jephunneh from the tribe of Issachar. Egal. Egal. the son of Joseph from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Rappu from the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, the son of Sodhi, from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh. Gadi, the son of Sushi, from the tribe of Dan, the son of Gamali. from the tribe of Asher, Sathur, the son of Michael, from the tribe of Naphtali, Okay, so what is that? I was like I've heard the Son of Nun somewhere.
So Hosea is... Moses calls him Joshua, right? So it's often in the Bronzes that people would have two different names. So we actually saw that a few chapters ago when Jethro is also called Ruel. Anyways, so what's that whole section about? The people who are sent to spy out the land and it's one from each tribe. Good, right? So there are 12 men, one from each tribe. They're going to be sent to spy out the land. Right? What land? Canaan. Canaan, right?
So they've come out of Egypt. They've been at Sinai for a year. They have the tabernacle now. They're starting to march. Where are they going towards? Uh, Canaan. Going towards Canaan. And so they're going to spy it out. Okay. Well, I know this story well. You do? Okay, well, let's go ahead and finish reading it and then you can tell me about it. Verse 17.
Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up this way into the south and go up to the mountains and see what the land is like, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, whether there are forests there or not.
Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. And they went up through the south and came to Hebron, Ahimon, Shishai, and Talmai. The descendants of Anak were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
Then they came to the valley of Eshkol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes. They carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. The place was called the Valley of Eshkol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.
And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him and said, We went to the land where you sent us.
It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, you want to read verse 28 and 29? The people who dwell in it are strong, and cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there, the Amalekites, who dwell in the land of the south.
The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone on as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants. And we are like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.
So, Moses sends out the spies and how long are they gone? About a day. Nope, 40 days. Yep, so they're gone for 40 days. They go spy out the land from the south all the way up to the north and what do they find? Lots of grapes. Yummy, but then they come back and they're like, yeah, it's pretty good.
There's only one problem, though. The people. Yeah, right. There's only one problem. The people, right? And what are they saying the people are like? They're like... We're like grasshoppers in their sight. Like, they could just, like, take their thumb and squish us. That's right. They could just take their thumb and squish us.
Who's the main one who says that's not what's going on? Caleb. Yeah, what's Caleb say? Oh, the Lord's with us. We can conquer this place. That's right. But the other guys are like... But had God trusted them that they would chase and one man would go to war and a hundred would flee from them? Right? If they trust the Lord, that's what would happen. But is that what they're believing? No, right? The majority of the spies don't believe it.
Well, I thought Joshua was with Caleb. Yeah, we actually read later that Joshua joins Caleb in this, right? So there's 10 against 2, right? So it's a 1 to 6. That's not fair. Yeah, right? So this is a hard thing. Or 1 against 5, sorry. So common denominator, 12 divided by 2 would be 6. One group four and five groups against them. If you just make it smaller. So the point is, they're outnumbered. Who do you think the people are going to listen to? The ten other spies. They're going to listen to the ten other spies.
What do you think is the best verse to summarize this whole section? Um, probably 27 and 28. You know, I've got 27. I don't have 27 underlined, but I have 28 and 29 underlined. So yeah. What do you think this calls us to do, right? Um, not be afraid. Yeah, right.
Sometimes does God put us in what looks like impossible situations? But if we're following the Lord, is it impossible? I think what they thought was the wise decision would be just to stay away. But the Lord had promised them the land. So if we're following after God's promises, do we need to be afraid? No, right? We can trust the Lord and follow after Him. Do you think that's easy? I think it took a lot of courage for Caleb and Joshua. It took a lot of courage and a lot of faith. to follow the Lord. But did Moses? We're going to find out what the Lord does next.
Okay. So it's going to take a lot of faith. Does it take a lot of faith now? Yeah, right? What if somebody thinks that they're called to be a missionary? Does it take faith to trust the Lord and go? Oh yeah, it does. Oh yeah. What about if somebody's called to leave father and mother and go help in a church somewhere? That'd be hard. Yeah. Right, but can we trust the Lord? Yeah. You ready to pray? Do you want to pray first or do you want me to pray? I can pray. Okay.
Lord, we pray that we would trust you. Lord, we thank you that where you lead, we can follow. that where you have promised you will make it good so father we pray that we would follow after you that you would fill us with your spirit that we know that where our lord jesus christ leads us we will be safe and there will be rewards for you our covenant keeping god in jesus's name amen well may the lord bless you as you seek to follow him in your life and we'll see you next time bye Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week.
If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.