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\u2019s problems. He clearly stated there should be one from each tribe.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The 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\u2019 <\/em>(v1,2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were in the Desert of Paran and the leaders were \u2013 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\u2019t one from the tribe of Levi, but two from Joseph\u2019s family \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we were young, we used to sing \u2018Twelve men went to spy in Canaan, ten were bad, two were good\u2019. If the twelve were the same men as the leaders appointed in Deuteronomy to deal with the people\u2019s problems, ten of them were found wanting here as spies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They brought their report and showed the whole assembly the fruit of the land. (v26) That must have filled them with great anticipation, \u201cWe 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 \u2018but\u2019 \u2013 \u2018the people are powerful, cities fortified and large, even giants there!\u2019 Had they forgotten that The Lord was giving them the land?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was dissenting voice \u2013 Caleb \u2013 \u2018We should go, we certainly can do it.\u2019 (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 \u2013 \u2018We can\u2019t\u2026. they are stronger\u2026. they are giants and we are nothing (grasshoppers) in comparison.\u2019 (v31-33) They spread a bad report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s problems. He clearly stated there should be one from each tribe.) \u2018The Lord […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-numbers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n