Numbers 13:1-33 (NLT)
1 The LORD now said to Moses,
2 “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.”
3 So Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran.
4 These were the tribes and the names of their leaders: Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
5 Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
9 Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 Manasseh son of Joseph, Gaddi son of Susi;
12 Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 Gad, Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent out to explore the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name Joshua.)
17 Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country.
18 See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.
19 See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps?
20 Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)
21 So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
22 Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.)
23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, 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! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs.
24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.
25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned
26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.
27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.
28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”
30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”
32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.
33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
Consideration of men and how we’re perceived by them can become a barrier greater than the walls behind which they reside. No matter the magnitude of the blessing and the extent of its surety, thoughts of human opposition dismantled the very thoughts of the One who had assured them the abundance was theirs. Only for Joshua and Caleb was there an ability to believe in the blessing over its physical barriers. It would seem to speak of their consideration of God’s words of promise over the thoughts of those who would stand in His way. This must have been a developed pattern long before the directive to spy out the land. Throughout the assigned 40 days, for these two, there must have been a continual fellowship with the words of promise from their God, causing every otherwise ominous opposition to appear as just another potential fulfillment of what He declared.
It’s interesting that God didn’t just expect Israel to enter the promise without full understanding about the obstacles before them. He even specifically directed their scoping, making sure they were fully aware. In this process would be revealed what voices/voice was most prominent in their minds. Long before they returned with the devastating report, the words had been rehearsed. With each observance there was an opportunity to either return to the Promise of God or form their own assessment of possibilities. For Caleb, there was remembering and declaring that God said the abundance would be theirs no matter the size or dominance of the opposition. With every giant and every wall was a reminder of God’s promise and declaration that the blessing would be theirs according to His Word. Their words aligned with His. For the naysayers, their own thoughts and fears were already resident in their vision, thoughts, and mouths.
The ability to occupy and possess the fulness of God’s promised blessing is contingent upon the thoughts and expressions of the ones to whom He’s made them. This isn’t just an event, either, but formed in the faithfulness of a daily and moment by moment proclamation far before big decision or direction is taken. So many decisions to remain in the wilderness are made as a result of daily choices to either dwell on the Promise Keeper’s promises or the size and supposed thoughts of the ones standing in His way.