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In the Torah reading שְׁלַח Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15), Moses tells the 12 spies to find out the following details about the land:
“See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? How is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
Numbers 13:18–20 NASB
The answers that the treasonous spies and the faithful spies gave to Moses were true — from a certain point of view. The people of the land indeed were strong, lived in fortified cities. The land was very fertile, and they brought back some of the produce to prove the veracity of their report about the land’s abundance.
However, there’s a difference between making an observation and a perception. What we observe is factual. What we perceive is an interpretation of what we have observed. Moses asked the spies to provide facts about the land. Moses did not ask them to draw any conclusions, but they took it upon themselves to pass along their interpretation among the people and startled them.
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers 13:31–33 NASB
The treasonous spies did not see themselves through God’s eyes but in their limited strength. In later generation, when David confronted Goliath, David knew that Goliath was a giant, a well trained warrior wielding a great sword, but he knew that God was on his side. Goliath, when he saw David, he saw a young child with a sling shot and a handful of rocks and dismissed his power. David looked at Goliath through God’s eyes while Goliath looked at David through his own eyes. This is why David won the battle.
Caleb had the same facts as the spies, but unlike the spies, he had a completely different perception. He spoke with a quiet spirit and did not speak in fear. He did not demean or ridicule those who thought differently from him.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.”
Numbers 13:30 NASB
The people received the information from the spies, the same facts. There were two spies on one side (Caleb and Joshua) and the 10 spies on the other side. The two spies said the land would be easy to conquer because God was on their side, while the 10 spies said it would be too hard to conquer on their own so they should turn tail and go back to Egypt.
These people had seen what God did in Egypt, they had witnessed the plagues, saw God split the Red Sea and saw Him appear in power on Mt. Sinai, yet the vast majority of the men, particularly those of fighting age, decided to side with the narrative of the 10 spies. There’s no indication that the women, children of elderly men agreed with the mob, but their voices were drowned out by the mob the 10 spies created.
Men, as the head of the household, are supposed to see the world from God’s point of view and lead their families in that direction. If men refuse to stand up, and protect their children and families from the onslaught of a wicked culture, God will call up women to stand up. If God has to raise up a Deborah, He will.
We are called to learn the facts and to perceive those facts through God’s eyes, not men’s eyes. If we aren’t willing to speak the truth, God will call someone else to speak the truth. We aren’t supposed to speak the truth in a brutal offensive way. We are to speak the truth in a clear, polite and articulate way.
Just as there’s a difference between observation and perception, there’s also a difference between repentance and regret. We see this played out with the spies and how the people responded to tier reports.
Regret is merely sorrow over facing the consequences of one’s sin, while repentance is a true sorrow over one’s sin that expresses itself by turning around and not doing what is wrong. Repentance also includes accepting the consequences for one’s actions in humility. When one is operating in regret, one tries to avoid the consequences of one’s actions, blaming others for their actions and refuses to be humble and accept whatever the consequences are for one’s sin.
In this story, once God made His judgement, acting in repentance means going back to the wilderness. Those who were only operating in regret, they went to war and died in battle.
Crossover success
Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where you are to live, which I am giving you….’”
Numbers 15:1–2 NASB
God told the children of Israel that once they enter the land, their entire way of life will change. In the wilderness, one doesn’t have all the benefits and comforts of civilization. The wilderness is the place where this generation would die.
Once God judges the older generation to dying in the wilderness, He immediately speaks to the younger generation about what will happen when they enter the land after their parents, who rebelled against God are gone. The older generation are listening to this teaching, knowing they will never experience it.
Once they are in the land, the nature of some of their offerings will change and be expanded with the addition of wine and grain to the offerings. Abraham, Abel and Noach did not offer grain and wine to God, but God says the children of Israel will offer grain and wine to Him once they enter the Promised Land. The produce of the land are blessings from God and God tells them that they will offer some of that blessing back to Him when they bring their sacrifices to Him.
To receive God’s blessing, the children of Israel have to acknowledge that He gave it to them. When they offered the fruit of the land to God, they acknowledged God was the source of their produce. When they offered an animal, they were acknowledging that God it was the one who gave life to that animal.
Summary: Tammy