Caleb

Preparing for the Promised Land

So today we’re talking about the spies of Israel who went out into the land of Canaan ahead of their arrival after leaving Egypt.

God tells Moses, ahead of their arrival, to send a man from each of the tribes of Israel to scout the land and bring a report to the people of the state of the land and of the people. Basically, there are two primary things the people of Israel will want to know before they enter the promised land, is the soil fertile, basically, is this land worth taking, and how well defended are the peoples there, do they live in camps or in cities?

Scouts Report

So the scouts return with some of the fine fruits they they found in Canaan and give their report. Out of the 12 scouts who return, 2 conflicting reports are given in Numbers 13, starting in verse 30.

Numbers 13:30–33 ESV

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.” 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.” 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. 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.”

What makes Caleb’s report so different from that of the other men? Well, the other scouts viewed the report through a practical, human lens. The land was well fortified, the people appeared strong and able to fight, it would be objectively unwise for a nomadic nation to attack these well fortified cities.

But Caleb viewed the situation through a lens of faith, remembering how God had humbled and defeated the Egyptians and how He had promised to bring them into Canaan, and how the land seemed fertile just as God had promised.

Consequences

As a result of the scouts who made the fearful report, Israel rebelled against Moses and God, and as a result God commanded that they would wander in the desert for 40 years, until the whole unbelieving people died. God said that only Caleb and Joshua, who had also encouraged the people to trust God, would enter the promised land.

How do you view obstacles in your life? How do you view struggles with sin, with self confidence, with school and college and everything else that sometimes makes you feel like you just can’t?

I encourage you this week to have Caleb’s mindset, that the God we serve is SO MUCH bigger than any of the problems we face, and that He will see us through.

Camp

Camp is coming up fast!