Schoolmaster to Christ
NUMBERS CHAPTER 13
Schoolmaster to Christ
NUMBERS CHAPTER 13
Scripture Reading: Numbers 13 (KJV)
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran" (vv. 1-3).
In order to fully understand this commandment, we must look at it in connection with a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, where in going over the facts of Israel's marvelous history in the wilderness, Moses reminds them of the following important and interesting circumstance: "And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-Barnea. and I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, we will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come" (Deut. 1:19-22).
Here we have the moral root of the fact stated in Numbers 13:2. It is evident that the Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people. Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses, "Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged." There is not a single syllable about spies in this splendid passage. What does faith want of spies, when it has the Word and presence of the living God? If Jehovah had given them a land, it must be worth having. And had He not done so? Yes, and more; He had borne testimony to the nature and character of that land in the following glowing words, "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass" (Deut. 8:7-9).
This should have sufficed for Israel – they should have been satisfied with the testimony of God. After all, God had spied out the land for them, and told them all about it. That should have been enough. Why send men to spy the land? Was there a spot "from Dan to Beersheba" with which God was not perfectly acquainted? Had He not selected this land in His own eternal counsels, allotting it for the seed of Abraham His friend? Did He not know all about the difficulties? Was He not able to surmount them? Then why did they "come near every one of them, and say, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again"?
These questions should strike home to our hearts – they find us out and manifest where we are. It is not for us to sit down and coolly animadvert on the ways of Israel in the wilderness; to point out error here, and failure there. We must take all these things as types set before us for our admonition. They are beacons, erected by a friendly and faithful hand, to warn us off from the dangerous shoals, quicksand, and rocks that lie along our course, threatening our safety. We may be sure; this is the true way to read every page of Israel's history, if we would reap the profit that our God has designed for us in penning such a record.
But, one may be disposed to ask: "Did not the Lord expressly command Moses to send spies. And if so, how was it wrong for Israel to send them?" True, in Numbers 13 the Lord did command Moses to send the spies; but this was in consequence of the moral condition of the people, as set forth in Deuteronomy 1. We will not understand the former unless we read it in the light of the latter. We distinctly learn from Deuteronomy 1:22, that the idea of sending the spies had its origin in the heart of Israel. God saw their moral condition, and He issued a command in full keeping therewith.
If we turn to the opening pages of the first book of Samuel, we find something similar in the matter of the appointment of a king. The Lord commanded Samuel to hearken to the voice of the people, and make them a king (1 Sam. 8:22). Was it that He approved of the plan? No; on the contrary, He plainly declares that it was a positive rejection of Him. Why then command Samuel to appoint a king? The command was given in consequence of Israel's condition. They were growing weary of the position of entire dependence on an unseen arm; and they longed for an arm of flesh. They desired to be like the nations around them, and to have a king who would go out before them, and fight their battles for them. Well, God gave them their request, and they were quickly called to prove the worthlessness of their plan. Their king proved a complete failure, and they had to learn that it was an evil and a bitter thing to forsake the living God and lean on a broken reed of their own selection.
We see the same thing in the matter of the spies. There can be no question in the mind of a spiritual person who seriously studies the entire subject, as to the fact that the scheme of sending the spies was the fruit of unbelief. A simple heart that trusted God would never have thought of doing such a thing. Are we to send poor mortals to spy out a land that God has graciously given us, and which He has fully and faithfully described? No, far be the thought; rather let us say, "It is enough; the land is God's gift, so it must be good. His Word is enough; we want no spies; we seek no mortal testimony to confirm the Word of the living God. He has given; He has spoken; that is enough."
But Israel was not in a condition to adopt such language – they would send spies. They wanted them, their hearts craved them. The desire for them lay in the very depths of the soul; Jehovah knew this, and hence He issued a commandment in direct reference to the moral state of the people.
The serious student would do well to ponder this subject in the light of Scripture, by comparing Deuteronomy 1 with Numbers 13. It is understandable that one may find difficulty in judging the true nature and moral roots of the act of sending the spies, from the fact that it was ultimately done in pursuance of "the commandment of the Lord." But we must always remember that the fact of the Lord's commanding something to be done does not by any means prove that the people were right in seeking it. The giving of the law on Mount Sinai; the sending of the spies; and the appointment of a king, are all proofs of this. No doubt God overruled all these things for His own glory and for man's ultimate blessing; but still the law could not be viewed as the expression of God's heart; the setting up of a king was a positive rejection of Him; and we may say that the sending of men to spy out the land of promise distinctly proved that the heart of Israel was not fully satisfied with Jehovah. The whole affair was the fruit of weakness and unbelief, though acquiesced to by God because of their condition, and, in His infinite goodness and unerring wisdom, overruled by Him for the unfolding of His ways and the display of His glory. This fully comes out as we pursue the history.
"And Moses sent them [the spies] to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: and see the land what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath . . . And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. the place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the Land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it" (Num. 13:17-27; emphasis added).
Here, then, was the fullest confirmation of all that the Lord had said concerning the land – the testimony of twelve men that the land flowed with milk and honey; the testimony of their own senses regarding the fruit of the land. Furthermore, there was the fact that twelve men had actually been in the land, had spent forty days traveling there, had drunk from its springs and eaten of its fruits. And what, according to the judgment of faith, would have been the plain inference to be drawn from such a fact? Simply this: the same hand that had conducted twelve men into the land could conduct the whole congregation.
But the people were not governed by faith, but by dark and depressing unbelief; and even the spies themselves – the very men who had been sent for the purpose of assuring and confirming the congregation – even they, with two brilliant exceptions, were under the power of the same God-dishonoring spirit. In short, the whole scheme proved a failure. The issue only revealed the true condition of the hearts of the people. Unbelief was dominant. The testimony was plain enough: "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." There was nothing whatsoever lacking on God's side of the question. The land was all that God had said it would be, the spies themselves being witnesses; but let us hearken to what follows. "Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there" (v 28).
There is always sure to be a "nevertheless" where man is concerned and when unbelief is at work. The unbelieving spies saw the difficulties – great cities, high walls, tall giants. All these things they saw; but they did not see Jehovah at all. They looked at the things that were seen, rather than at the things that were unseen. Their eye was not fixed on Him Who is invisible. Doubtless, the cities were great; but God was greater. The walls were high; but God was higher. The giants were strong; but God was stronger.
This is the way faith always reasons. Faith reasons from God to the difficulties – it begins with Him. On the contrary, unbelief reasons from the difficulties to God – it begins with them. This makes all the difference. It is not that we are to be insensible to difficulties; neither are we to be reckless. Faith is neither insensibility nor recklessness. There are some easy-going people who seem to get along through life on the principle of taking things by the smooth handle. This is not faith. Faith looks the difficulties straight in the face; it is fully alive to the roughness of the handle. It is not ignorant, not indifferent – not reckless. But faith does bring in the living God. It looks to Him; it leans on Him; it draws from Him. Here lies the grand secret of its power. It cherishes the calm and deep conviction that there never was a wall too high for the Almighty God – never a city too great; never a giant too strong. In short, faith is the only thing that gives God His proper place; and as a consequence, faith is the only thing that lifts the soul completely above the influences of surrounding circumstances, whatever they may be., Caleb was the exponent of this precious faith when he said, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." These are the pure accents of a lively faith that glorifies God and makes nothing of circumstances.
But not all the spies had such faith. In fact, the majority was no more governed by a lively faith than the man who sent them; and hence, the one believer was talked down by ten infidels. "The men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people." The language of infidelity was flatly opposed to the language of faith. Looking at God, faith said," We are well able." Looking at the difficulties, unbelief said, "We are not able." Thus it was and thus it is. The eyes of faith are always covered by the living God, and therefore difficulties are not seen. The eyes of unbelief are covered with the circumstances, and therefore God is not seen. Faith brings in God, and therefore all is bright and easy. Unbelief always shuts God out, and therefore all is dark and difficult.
"And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
Not a word about God. He is entirely shut out. Had they thought of Him – had they brought the giants into comparison with Him, then it would have made not one whit of difference whether they themselves were grasshoppers, or whether they were men. In point of fact, by their shameful unbelief, they reduced the God of Israel to the level of a grasshopper.
It is remarkable, that whenever infidelity is at work, it will always be found characterized by one fact – it shuts out God. This will be found true in all ages, in all places, and under all circumstances. There is no exception. Infidelity can take account of human affairs; it can reason on them and draw conclusions from them; but all its reasoning and all its conclusions are based on the exclusion of God. The force of its argument depends on shutting Him out, and keeping Him out. When God is introduced, all the reasoning of infidelity crumbles into dust. Thus, in the scene before us, what is faith's reply to all the objections advanced by the ten unbelievers? It is one all-satisfying simple reply, to which there can be no rejoinder – God!
The questions for us are these: "Do we know anything of the force and value of this most blessed answer? Do we know God? Does He fill the entire range of our soul's vision? Is He the answer to our every question? Is He the solution of our every difficulty? Do we know the reality of walking, day by day, with the living God? Do we know the tranquillizing power of leaning on Him through all the changes and chances of this mortal life?" If not, may we not go on for one more hour in our present state. The way is open. In the face of Jesus Christ, God has revealed Himself as the relief, the resource, and the refuge of every needy soul. Look to Him now while He may be found; call on him while he is near. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;" and "He that believeth shall never be confounded."
But if, on the other hand, we do know God as our Savior – our Father, then may we seek to glorify Him in all our ways, by a childlike unquestioning confidence in all things. May He always be a perfect covering for our eyes under all circumstances, and thus, in spite of all difficulties, our souls may be kept in perfect peace.
