The Story

The spies frightened the people by their report. What spies? What people? What report? Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, tried to encourage the people. They told them that with the Lord's help they were well able and that the Lord would give them the good land. But the people were still afraid, and they were told that they must live in the wilderness till forty years were passed from the time of leaving Egypt, and until the faithless people had died, before they could go into the promised land. (Num. 14:26-34) So they lived a long time in the wilderness about Kadesh. You will often hear of the forty years in the wilderness. (Exod. 16:35; Deut. 8:2)

Caleb and Joshua (who were they?) tried to encourage the people to trust in the Lord's help. But the people would have stoned them. Then the Lord spoke with Moses and told him that the people must wander forty years in the wilderness till all who were now grown men and women had died, and their children should enter the land. All should die except Caleb and Joshua who had trusted the Lord and had not been afraid. And so it was. The spies who had brought the evil report died at once by the plague, and when by and by the people entered the land only Caleb and Joshua were left of all who were twenty years old and upward when the spies brought their report to Kadesh.

When the people ought to have gone bravely up into the land they were not willing. Now that they were told not to go they went, trusting in their own strength, though Moses warned them that the Lord would not be with them, and Moses and the ark remained in the camp. They went up from the plains of the south into the "mountain" - the highland, but as Moses had said, the people of the land came out against them and chased them, smiting them down as they fled.

Our lesson speaks of the Amalekites among those who pursued them. We have already learned something about the Amalekites who lived in the South Country and even as far south as Sinai. Why was it that the Israelites overcame them when they fought with them before, but now they fled before them? We shall learn more about the Amalekites by and by. There were Canaanites too among those who pursued the people. Their usual home was in the lowlands by the sea and river. In the first chapter of Deuteronomy, in which Moses is reminding the people of this experience, the Amorites are named the highlanders. They chased the people "as bees do," and destroyed them in Seir, the mountains of Edom. Then the people wept and the Lord seemed not to hear them, for they had been disobedient. Read the story in Num. 14:1-25, 40-45, and in Deut. 1:19-46.

It was two years and more since the children of Israel left Egypt, and it would be forty years in all before they might enter the promised land. How shall we think of them as living all this time? We are told that they "abode in Kadesh many days" (Deut. 1:46), and when after the forty years they took up their journey again, it was at Kadesh. (Num. 20:22) We may think of the people as spending all these years in the pastures of the wilderness in the region about Kadesh. (Ps. 29:8) There were few towns and there was little land good for farms and orchards, but still there were green places in some valleys where flocks could feed. The people lived in tents as the Bedouins do today, and moved about with their flocks from place to place wherever there was pasture. We must remember also that they had the manna all these years. (Exod. 16:35)

1. Where were the children of Israel when the spies went up through the land of Canaan? Which of the spies tried to encourage the people to trust in the Lord and not fear the nations of the land? To which tribes did they belong?

2. What happened to the people because they did not obey or trust the Lord?

3. When some of the people disobeyed the Lord and Moses and went up to fight with the people of the land, what happened? Why was this?

Spiritual Study

On what did success always depend in the battles of the children of Israel? On the size of their army? (Exod. 17:11; Judges 7:2; 1 Sam. 14:6) No, they succeeded when they obeyed the Lord and trusted Him. It is so in our spiritual battles. A little child can gain a victory over a wrong thought or feeling as easily as a strong adult if the child asks the Lord's help; but the strongest adults will fail if they trust themselves.

Caleb and Joshua tried to encourage the people to trust in the Lord, and they alone of those of adult age lived to enter the land. They were from the tribes of Judah and Ephraim. Each tribe represents some element of heavenly character. Judah represents especially the innocent affections of childhood, and Ephraim spiritual intelligence applied to life. Heavenly love and intelligence are not yet strong in us and we sometimes refuse to listen to them when they tell us to be of good courage and to trust in the Lord. But what there is of these qualities will be preserved by the Lord through the seasons of temptation and become strong elements of the heavenly character. The fears and the self-trust must die; they have no place in heaven.

The wilderness. What sort of state is like a wilderness? A happy state full of enjoyment? No, it is a barren state when there seems to be little to make life worth living. It is especially a state of temptation when we are leaving behind pleasures which we know are wrong, and have not yet come fully into the enjoyment of good things. How is the wilderness associated with temptation in the Gospels? (A. 8098)

The people wandered forty years. How long was the Lord in the wilderness of temptation? (Matt. 4:1-2) How long did the storm rage at the time of the flood? (Gen. 7:12) How long did Moses fast in the mountain? (Exod. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 11, 18, 25) Four, we know, expresses the idea of a full, evenly developed character. Forty does the same. But this fullness of character is reached only through temptation. So the number forty comes to be associated with temptation. It also always seems to say that the trial is for a purpose and will help to make the character more full and perfect. See how the idea of temptation is often intensified by the mention of forty nights. (A. 730; E. 633) The years of wandering were the same in number as the days spent in spying out the land. The forty days seem to suggest the fullness of the heavenly ideal, the forty years the temptations by which it is made ours.

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