After 40 years, the Hebrew nation has finally come to the banks of the Jordan river and are preparing to take the inheritance God had promised to their fathers. It had been a hard journey filled with perils, mostly because of their constant grumbling against God. An entire generation has passed, and the memory of Egypt had passed out of living memory save a few select people. Moses had the people assign from each tribe a spy to scout the land of Canaan. The spies returned with delicious grapes, pomegranates, and figs, and a report about this new land which they described as flowing with milk and honey. This was not all their report, though (Numbers 13:17-27).
This new generation of Hebrew had never known Egypt. They only knew the blessings and wrath of God as they traveled through the wilderness because of the sins of the previous generation; a generation which constantly spoke about how Egypt was better despite being in bondage. Despite the lessons God had tried to teach them, the spies reported: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan. The land, through which we had gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 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” (Numbers 13:27b-29, 32b-33).
This report was a disaster. They had grown up in a world seeing the blessings and curses of God, who He is and what He can do if He is on your side and you listened to Him. Despite this, they still moaned the same way as their parents saying how much better it was in Egypt. They were terrified of these people in their impossibly strong cities, their impossibly great stature, and their overwhelming numbers. Based on this report, this land would devour them. The mass hysteria this begins about the land of Canaan is laid out in detail in the following verses.
Thankfully, Caleb and Joshua have clarity of thought. Caleb, in the middle of the report, knowing God has commanded this action and knowing that He is on their side cries out, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it!” His faith is so deeply rooted in God that he doesn’t care what the other spies say. He sees their exaggeration, and knows the dangers that lie in the land, having been a spy himself, and knows that when God is on our side, who can stand against us? Joshua reminds the people of this in Numbers 14:7.
Joshua and Caleb stand alone speaking the truth despite the majority and the mob in front of them. Pushing against these two men is now an entire second generation of people who are stubborn and stiff necked. They will not see truth, and they are willing to silence it if they can so they can believe their lies: “Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones” (Numbers 14:10).
The time of Christ was no different. Stephen told the truth to the Jews about what they had done to Christ: “But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at [Stephen]. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him” (Acts 7:57-58a).
And today, people are still the same. Paul wrote, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Caleb and Joshua were standing alone among a murderous crowd. It took the Glory of the Lord coming down to save them. Even in the presence of God, and knowing the truth, the Hebrews still followed their own passions and desires rather than what God had for them. Jesus said, in Matthew 7:13-14 to, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
We must not give in to the crowd, or the popular majority when God’s Word speaks against it or advises us otherwise. The will of God has never and will never be popular. Instead, it is the road that leads to eternal life. Be one of the few who are willing to stand up against the crowd, find it, and tell others to follow, because with God no giant, monster, barrier, or mob can stand in our way.
Lance Byers