Believing God

The vivid style of the narrative that began in Numbers 11 is especially true of chapters 13 and 14. This tells the story of the twelve spies and their different reports of what they found in the land and their judgment about whether they can go into it or not. The characters emerge here as real, life-like people, passionately concerned about the things they believe in. The story is told with great drama. It’s also filled with lessons, which is one reason why these chapters are mentioned so many other times in the Bible (see Num. 32:8-13; Deut. 1:19-46; Ps. 95:10-11; 1 Cor. 10:5).

In one respect, the report of all twelve spies was alike: the land really was a good land. It was a prosperous, fruitful land—they had brought back grapes as proof of that. It was extensive. It had wonderful walled cities, so that they wouldn’t even have to build their own cities for their defense. And it was filled with people, which is where their problems began, of course. It had within it Amalekites. Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites. However, this shouldn’t have surprised them at all, since God had told Abraham that He would send them into a land possessed by all these people.

Caleb was forty years old at this time when he went into the land, and it would be another thirty-eight years before he saw Canaan again. Furthermore, the battle to take the land took seven more years, meaning that at the end of the campaign, Caleb was eighty-five years old. All this while, for forty-five years, this man had remembered Hebron. And so when the fighting was nearly at an end and Caleb had the opportunity to go and take a portion of the land for himself, he asked Joshua, his friend and commander-in-chief, if he could conquer Hebron. Forty-five years earlier, Caleb had said that they could take it, and he was determined to show that it could be done, even though now he is eighty-five years old. In Joshua 14, he gave a great speech to Joshua.

In verse 10 we read, “But the whole assembly talked about stoning [Moses and Aaron].” In my Bible I put two lines between this sentence and the next, because something abrupt happened at this point. There is buzzing going on around the people; they don’t know what to do. But when they decided to believe the ten spies, Moses and Aaron fall down on their faces in prayer before God. They had done this before when God was on the verge of destroying the people.

How many people want to approach God on the basis of His justice? They say they just want God to treat them fairly, to give them a fair shake. But if you ask for justice from God, the justice of God will send you to hell. That’s no way to approach God. Instead, the Bible teaches us that you can only approach Him on the basis of His mercy, which is found in Jesus Christ. If, like the tax collector, you can say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” God will hear you and save you through the work of Christ.