Day 68

Numbers 11:24–13:33; Mark 14:22-52; Psalm 52:1-9; Proverbs 11:1-3

THE TIME HAD come for the children of Israel to finally enter the Land of Promise. God’s promise, which had taken centuries to bring about —ranging all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob —was about to move from dream to reality.

Twelve spies were appointed —one from each of the tribes —to scout, explore, and return to report their findings.

“When they came to the valley of Eshcol,” we read today, “they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them!” (Numbers 13:23).

The spies’ visit to this valley probably wasn’t by chance. The valley of Eshcol is near the ancient city of Hebron. When we read Genesis, we learned of a field and a cave in this valley, purchased by Abraham to bury his wife, Sarah, in. Abraham was subsequently buried there, as was Isaac. It was also the place to which the children of Israel carried Jacob’s bones in great procession from Egypt. The spies had gone to where those who had first received the promise were laid to rest.

Unfortunately, when they returned to tell the story, the report was not full of promise:

We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are! . . . The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!

Ten out of the twelve spies agreed —all but Joshua and Caleb.

The poignancy of this event reverberates, because it is not only the story of the children of Israel but also, in many ways, the story of our lives. We often hold on to a promise or hope that we’ve been given, only to discover opposition in the way. We, too, may feel like grasshoppers waiting to be squashed under the foot of a giant. The question then becomes what we will believe: the promise or the circumstances.

The report of the spies demoralized the people and, as we will soon see, had profoundly lasting implications for them —and for us.

WORSHIP:

I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.