Moses sends 12 men into the country called Canaan. (Deuteronomy 1:22,23, indicates that this was not a direct command of the Lord. The leaders came to Moses and suggested it. Moses had set up leaders to help him to deal with the people’s problems. He clearly stated there should be one from each tribe.)
‘The Lord said to Moses send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each tribe send one of its leaders’ (v1,2).
They were in the Desert of Paran and the leaders were – Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Hoshea (who Moses named Joshua (v16)), Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel. One from each tribe. You will note that there wasn’t one from the tribe of Levi, but two from Joseph’s family – Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh is stated as a tribe of Joseph (v11). He told them to go through the Negev and into the hill country; See what the land is like and also the people. Is the land good or bad, are their towns walled and fortified. What sort of soil is there, are there trees and bring some fruit for it is the season of the first ripe grapes. They explored the land and saw the giants (descendants of Anak) and reached the Valley of Eshkol. There they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs (v23). Must have been a large cluster! After forty days they returned.
When we were young, we used to sing ‘Twelve men went to spy in Canaan, ten were bad, two were good’. If the twelve were the same men as the leaders appointed in Deuteronomy to deal with the people’s problems, ten of them were found wanting here as spies.
They brought their report and showed the whole assembly the fruit of the land. (v26) That must have filled them with great anticipation, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. (v28). Then there was a ‘but’ – ‘the people are powerful, cities fortified and large, even giants there!’ Had they forgotten that The Lord was giving them the land?
There was dissenting voice – Caleb – ‘We should go, we certainly can do it.’ (v30) I guess that Caleb was the spokesman for we read later that Joshua agreed with him. However, the other ten sought to put a damper on it – ‘We can’t…. they are stronger…. they are giants and we are nothing (grasshoppers) in comparison.’ (v31-33) They spread a bad report.
