The Twelve Spies — TDW Kids

God's command. “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel” (13:2). God called the land a gift before anyone had seen it. This was the land He had promised to Abraham long ago. Leaders. Moses sent one man from each of the twelve tribes, “every one a leader among them” (13:2). People would listen to what these men said. Caleb. One of the spies was “from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh” (13:6). Keep your eye on Caleb, because he trusted God when almost no one else did. A new name. “Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua” (13:16). Hoshea means salvation. Joshua means the Lord saves. Jesus' name comes from this same Hebrew name. What to look for. Moses told them to see “whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many” (13:18). They were also to find out “whether the land is rich or poor” (13:20). Be brave. “Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land” (13:20). From the very start, God's people were told to be brave. What this means for you. God's promise came first. The spies were sent to see a gift, not to decide whether God could be trusted. God's promises to you are just as sure.

Kadesh in the Wilderness of Paran (13:3, 26). Israel had left Sinai in the second year after the Exodus (10:11) and now camped at the southern edge of Canaan. The promise behind the mission. God described Canaan as the land “which I am giving” (13:2). The promise reached back to the burning bush: “a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Two angles. Deuteronomy 1:22 adds that the people proposed sending men first and Moses agreed; Numbers records God's command. Both are true: God granted the request. Hoshea to Joshua (13:16). Hoshea (say: ho-SHAY-ah) means salvation. Moses renamed him Yehoshua (say: yeh-HO-shoo-ah), the Lord saves. The Greek form of this name is Iesous (say: yay-SOOS), the name Jesus. That is a fact of language, not a hidden code. The assignment (13:17-20). The questions covered people, cities, soil and trees: strong or weak, camps or strongholds, rich or poor. It was a careful survey of the land. Courage commanded (13:20). “Be of good courage.” Forty years later the same call came to Joshua himself: “Be strong and of good courage” (Joshua 1:9).

Israel was camped in the Desert of Paran. The land of Canaan was close by. God had promised this land to Abraham long ago. Now God told Moses to send men to explore it. God was giving the land to Israel. Moses chose one leader from each tribe. That made twelve men in all. Caleb came from the tribe of Judah. Hoshea came from the tribe of Ephraim. Moses gave Hoshea a new name, Joshua. Then Moses told them to look at the people and towns. They should also check the soil. He told them to be brave and bring back some fruit. It was the time of the first ripe grapes.

God told Moses to send twelve spies. Spies go and look at a place. God was giving them the land as a gift. God keeps His promises.

Forty days. The spies “spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob” (13:21). That was the whole land, from south to north. They “returned from spying out the land after forty days” (13:25). Hebron. At Hebron lived “Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak” (13:22). These were very tall people. Abraham had once lived near Hebron, and he was buried there. One cluster. In a valley full of vines they cut one bunch of grapes so big that “they carried it between two of them on a pole” (13:23). The valley was named Eshcol, which means cluster. Good fruit. “They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs” (13:23). The land was full of good food, just as God had said. The good news. “It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (13:27). The spies had to admit it: God's promise was true. One sad word. Then they said, “Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large” (13:28). Fortified means protected by thick walls. After that word, they talked only about the problems. Many nations. They listed “the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites” in the mountains (13:29). What this means for you. The spies saw that God's promise was true, but they let the problems speak louder. When you face something hard, remember what God has said before you list what you are afraid of.

The route (13:21-22). From the Wilderness of Zin in the south to Rehob near the entrance of Hamath in the far north, the spies covered the length of the land. Hebron's history (13:22). Hebron “was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt,” so it was an old and important city. The tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at Machpelah was there (Genesis 23:19; 50:13). The spies walked past the graves of the men God had first promised the land to. Eshcol (13:23-24). Eshcol (say: ESH-kohl) means cluster. One cluster needed a pole and two men, a clear sign of how rich the land was. The Anakim (13:22, 28). The Anakim (say: AN-uh-kim) were a clan known for great height. Moses later recalled the report: “The people are greater and taller than we” (Deuteronomy 1:28). The turn (13:27-28). The spies agreed with God's description, “milk and honey,” and then said, “Nevertheless.” Their facts were right, but they were about to reach the wrong conclusion. Facts and faith. The problem was not what they saw but what they believed about it. They measured the land by the enemy's strength instead of by God's promise (13:2). Faith does not ignore hard facts. It sets them next to who God is.

The spies walked through the whole land. They went all the way north and back. In the south they came to Hebron. Very tall people lived there, the sons of Anak. Then they came to a valley full of vines. They cut off one bunch of grapes. It was so big that two men carried it on a pole! They also took pomegranates and figs. After forty days they came back to camp. They showed everyone the fruit. They said, “It is a land where much food grows!” But then they said the people there were strong. Their cities had tall walls around them. Fear began to creep into their report.

The spies found huge grapes. Two men carried one bunch! The land was good. But the people were strong.

Caleb speaks. As the people started to panic, “Caleb quieted the people before Moses” (13:30). Faith's words. He said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” (13:30). This is the memory verse. Caleb was not bragging about his own strength. He was trusting God's promise. The ten. The other spies answered, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we” (13:31). A bad report. Then they “gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land” (13:32). They spread their fear through the whole camp. Exaggeration. Now they called it “a land that devours its inhabitants” full of “men of great stature” (13:32). Stature means height. The story was getting bigger each time. Grasshoppers. “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (13:33). They felt tiny, and they guessed the enemy saw them that way too. Two ways to see. The ten compared themselves to the giants. Caleb compared the giants to God. What this means for you. Fear grows when we forget how big God is. When you feel small, look up to God, who is bigger than anything you face.

Caleb speaks up (13:30). Caleb “quieted the people,” so the crowd was already stirring. His words stand on God's promise. Joshua 14:7 records his own memory: “I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.” Majority and minority (13:31). Ten spies stood against two. Truth was not decided by a vote. The ten used the same facts to reach the opposite conclusion. A changing report (13:32). Earlier the land “truly flows with milk and honey” (13:27); now it “devours its inhabitants.” Fear exaggerates. The Hebrew word for bad report, dibbah (say: dib-BAH), means a slanderous report. The Nephilim (13:33). The NKJV reads “giants”; the Hebrew is Nephilim (say: NEF-ih-lim), the same word used in Genesis 6:4. Here it describes people of great height, and the ten spies used it to spread fear through the camp. Grasshopper thinking (13:33). “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight.” They saw themselves as tiny before anyone else said a word. Unbelief makes us look small and makes our problems look huge. A better comparison. Isaiah 40:22 uses the same picture: before God, all the earth's people are like grasshoppers. Beside the Lord, the giants were grasshoppers too.

The people began to grumble and worry. Caleb hushed them in front of Moses. He said they should go up at once. They were well able to take the land. But the other ten spies disagreed. They said, “We can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are.” Then they spread a bad report. They claimed the land would eat people up. They said everyone there was huge. They felt like grasshoppers next to them. The ten spies looked at the giants. Caleb looked at God. That made all the difference.

Caleb trusted God. He said, “We can do it.” Ten men were scared. They felt like grasshoppers.

A night of tears. The people believed the bad report. “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night” (14:1). Wishing for Egypt. They said, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt!” (14:2). Fear made slavery look better than God's promise. A terrible plan. “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (14:4). They wanted to undo the rescue God had given them. Joshua and Caleb. They “tore their clothes” and said, “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land” (14:6-7). Exceedingly means very, very. Trusting God. “If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us” (14:8). Their hope rested on God, not on Israel's strength. Do not fear. “Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land… the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (14:9). God steps in. When the people wanted to stone them, “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting” (14:10). God protected His faithful servants. What this means for you. The Lord being with us matters more than how big our problems look. Joshua and Caleb stood with God even when the whole crowd was against them.

Rejecting the promise (14:1-4). The people preferred death in Egypt or the wilderness to trusting God for Canaan. Choosing “a leader” to “return to Egypt” meant undoing the Exodus. Fear for the children (14:3). They claimed their “wives and children should become victims.” God would answer this directly: the children would enter (14:31). Facedown (14:5). Moses and Aaron “fell on their faces,” a sign of distress and of prayer before God. Torn clothes (14:6). Tearing clothes expressed grief. Joshua and Caleb mourned the people's unbelief. The heart of faith (14:8-9). Their argument rests on God's pleasure, not Israel's strength: “If the Lord delights in us.” “They are our bread” meant the enemy could be overcome as easily as eating; “their protection has departed from them.” Genesis 15:16 had said the Amorites' iniquity was “not yet complete”; God's judgment on Canaan answered long years of evil. The glory appears (14:10). As the crowd prepared to stone the two faithful spies, the Lord's glory appeared. God defended those who trusted Him. What followed is the next lesson: judgment, and forty years in the wilderness (14:11-35).

That night everyone cried loudly. They grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They said, “We should have died in Egypt.” They wanted to choose a new leader and go back. Moses and Aaron bowed facedown before the people. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in sorrow. They told the people the land was very, very good. If the Lord was pleased with them, He would lead them in. They begged, “Don't turn against the Lord! Don't be afraid of the people in that land!” The Lord was with them. But the crowd wanted to throw stones at them. Then God's glory appeared at the Meeting Tent. God protected His faithful servants.

The people cried all night. Joshua and Caleb said God was with them. No one needed to be afraid. God's glory appeared.