“Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
~ Numbers 13:30
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to explore? Do you like to go to new places and see new things? Your grandpaa likes to explore. Your grandpaa likes to go to new places and see new things. How do you feel when you go to a new place for the very first time? Do you feel nervous? Do you feel excited? Lake Goldsmith is a 300 acre lake that is located a little over a quarter of a mile from the farmhouse where your grandpaa grew up as a kid. Your grandpaa liked to walk to Lake Goldsmith to see what he could find along Lake Goldsmith’s shores. Something that your grandpaa enjoyed doing in Bolivia – and now in Guatemala, is to walk through open air markets. Something that your grandpaa does not like to do is to go to homes where your grandpaa has not been to before. Your grandpaa finds it much easier to go to see new things and explore new places than it is for him to get to know new people. God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, when they were at the point of going into the land that God had promised them that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . ., sent twelve spies into the promised land that had become known as Canaan. It was the thing to do at this time over 3400 years ago to send spies to spy out a country before going into it. Numbers 13 tells how the spies were selected, what they were tasked to do and what their consensus was about the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids going into Canaan to live. Consensus means that if the majority of the guys and/or gals agree who are making a decision on whatever, that will be the decision for every guy and gal. When the twelve spies returned from spying out the land that God was giving to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . ., the consensus of the spies was that the Israelite people group’s guys would not be able to defeat the people groups who were living in the promised land. Ten spies returned as cowards from their spy mission after seeing the giants that were living in the land that God had promised to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob and now the Israelite guys and gals.
The twelve spies represented the Israelite people group’s twelve tribal clans. Each Israelite tribal clan selected a guy to be their representative spy. The patriarchs for ten of the Israelite people group’s tribal clans were the sons of Jacob or Israel. The patriarchs of the other two Israelite people group’s tribal clans were the two sons of Joseph. Joseph was the son of Jacob who was sold by some of his bros to some Ishmaelite guys who were traveling by on a camel caravan. Joseph was taken to Egypt where he was sold as slave. Joseph would ultimately end up becoming a very important, powerful guy in Egypt. Your grandpaa thinks that most of the guys who were chosen by the other guys in his tribal clan to be spies were young, known and respected by the other guys in his tribal clan. Moses told the twelve guys what he wanted them do and look for when they were in the country or land that God had promised to His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . what do you think that Moses wanted to know about the land that he tasked the twelve spies to check out? Moses wanted to know even over 3400 years ago the same kinds of things that many young guys and gals want to know today. This is one of the reasons why short term ministry teams and summer teams have become popular. Young guys and gals today are first wanting to eyeball personally a country along with discovering what the guys, gals and kids are like who are living in the country before these guys and gals decide to spend more time in a country. The twelve spies were expected to return as couriers of information as to what Canaan was like. Moses wanted to know if the guys who were living in Canaan were weak or strong, whether there were a lot of guys, gals and kids or just a few guys, gals and kids living in Canaan, whether Canaan had good land for planting and raising crops, whether Canaan’s towns had walls around them and what kinds of trees that there were in Canaan. Your grandpaa thinks it is good for a guy or gal to get to know as much as he or she can about a place before visiting or moving to the place. Not long after your grandmaa and grandpaa settled into living life with their hosts in Bolivia, your grandpaa did an in-depth study around the house where your grandpaa, your grandmaa, your Aunt Lynn and your dad lived in Santa Cruz. Your grandpaa went house to house in the square blocks that were around your grandpaa’s house. Your grandpaa wanted to find out as much as he could about the guys and gals who lived in each of the houses. Your grandpaa made rough sketches on pages of paper of each house on each block. Your grandpaa then colored the sketch of each house with one of five different colors to identify the least nice houses from the nicest houses. Your grandpaa learned in which houses lived evangelicals and in which houses lived Catholics.
The twelve spies stayed forty days in Canaan. Instead of seeing a very beautiful, fruitful land, the spies saw figurative and literal giants in the land. The ten spies’ consensus was enough for the Israelite people group’s guys and gals to really wish that they had never left Egypt and that they were not about to go into the land that God had promised them they that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . two spies – Joshua and Caleb, though said let’s do it. Caleb says in verse 30 “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”’ Caleb is one of your grandpaa’s favorite guys in the Bible. Because Joshua and Caleb said let’s do it, Joshua and Caleb forty years later were able to live in the promised land. Learning from Joshua and Caleb will help you to not let giants scare you from doing God’s will.
Numbers 13 (144)