Not Done Yet!

Story of Rob (Strike 3) (End with the Finish Bloomer)

Sometimes come up just short

Paraphrase Numbers 13:1-24

Numbers 13:25–33 (ESV)

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

27 And they told him, (Moses) “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

(Verse 23 says that they cut down a single cluster of grapes and carried it on a pole between 2 men) Prosperous Land

28 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. 29 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.”

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Caleb understood that God was giving them this land. (Caleb saw God work)

31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have 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. 33 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.”

It is important to understand that in verse 32 the Bad Report that it says they gave could also be translated as a false report. (Torah 405)

Gary Schnittjer writes,

“This report intentionally distorted the facts as a kind of propaganda in order to dissuade the people against Caleb’s recommended course of action.”

To give you an example one see’s in verse 33 they said that the Nephilim live in the land.

In stating that there are Nephilim in the land would have terrified the people because they would have heard stories about the Nephilim from the days before the great flood.

The Nephilim are found in Genesis 6 where it talks about this race of fallen angels that had children from the daughters of Eve and created a race of super giants.

The problem is that the Nephilim were wiped out in the flood. You can read about the Nephilim’s fate in 2 Peter 2:4-5 & Jude 1:6.

I believe though,

the 10 wicked spies where very intentional in stating the Nephilim where in the land in order to cause fear and panic among the people.

It is important to see what is happening with these ten spies.

The promise of God is right before them but when the pressure is on them they want to go back to what they know.

See they only know life as a slaves to the Egyptians.

And when the pressure is on them instead of dwelling on the promises of God and thinking about all that God has already done for them.

They resort back to their lives as slaves. (Modern Day)

In doing so they become believers that going into the land God had promised them would ultimately lead to their death and their wives and children being carried off as slaves.

When we begin to see things through a distorted lens instead of the lens of the Kingdom of God we are doomed to go down a dark road.

Because the 10 spies saw through there distorted lens they believe it is best for everyone involved to lie and manipulate the story.

In giving this bad or false report of the land they spied out they probably thought the ends justify the means.

In other words it was for the greater good that they would distort the facts in order to save themselves from death and despair.

As Caleb and Joshua Hear this false report given to the people I can only imagine the devastation they where feeling.

Both stepped foot into the promise land...

Paraphrase Numbers 14:1-38

So close but yet so far...

Now the years of waiting to see if they will trust in the promise of God or the situation that was before them.