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Numbers 12 shows us the consequences of Miriam and Aaron’s jealously of God’s special relationship with Moses. Since they could not openly complained about God’s special treatment of Moses, they struck out against Moses’s by attacking his Cushite wife. Numbers 13 shows us the story of the first spies who went out into the land of Israel to scout out the land. God told Moses to call out one leader from each tribe to be the spies of the land.
Passages: Numbers 12-13; Jer. 13:23
Numbers 12
The Lord did not chastise Moses for marrying this woman, so it appears that God did not find fault with Moses for marrying this particular woman, even though she was a non-Israelite.
However, the Lord found great fault with Aaron and Miriam for talking about him behind his back. God told explained to Aaron and Miriam the difference between the way He spoke with Moses vs. the way He spoke with them and other prophets.
At the end of this chapter, we see that God singled out Miriam for public punishment by bringing leprosy on her for seven days.
This was the only time God ever got mad at Aaron and Miriam, which shows us that God esteemed them too, although not to the degree He esteemed Moses.
Aaron repented for both of them and admits, “… do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly ….” The Hebrew word translated as “foolishly” in English is יאל ya’al (Strong’s lexicon No. H2973).
One lesson for those of us alive today is to “do what is in front of you and not complain about what other people do.”
Numbers 13
One of the spies was הושׁע Hoshea the son of Nun. Moses changed his name to יהושׁע Yehoshua (Joshua), a longer form of ישׁועה Yeshua (Jesus). Moses knew something about Joshua and the name change is a clue to Joshua’s destiny.
God gave the spies the parameters of the search and told what to seek out and report back to the people. He gave them 40 days to complete this task.
The first part of the search was to check on the type of people living in the land. Were they strong or weak, few or many?
The second part of the search was more extensive and God asked them to report on four different qualities of the land:
- Was the land good or bad (רע ra, Strong’s H7451)?
- Were the cities walled vs. not?
- Was the land fat or lean?
- Were there forests and farms?
He also asked the spies to bring some of the fruit of the land back them. God specifically chose beginning of the time grape harvest for them to start this expedition. This is probably during the fall.
What kind of people did they find? There were descendants of their archenemy Amalek. There were also giants in the land, called Nephilim or the sons of Anak. There were also Jebusites, and Canaanites in the land.
What was the “evil report” (דבה dibbah, Strong’s H1681) the 10 spies spread around the congregation of Israel? The Hebrew word literally means slander, defamation or speaking slowly. Most of the spies purposefully and deliberately distorted the evidence to convince the people not to attack the land.
Reader: Dave De Fever. Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.
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