Contemplative Bible Reading

Numbers 13:17-20 (New International Version)

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰ How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

Only a couple years removed from slavery in Egypt, God’s people are about to enter the land He promised them. Before entering the land, Moses sends twelve men to explore it.

Note: none of them had ever seen this land. God’s people had been in Egypt 400 years. Those who went to Egypt from the land had died tens of generations ago. This was a strange place to them.

It is hard for us today to imagine what it was like for these people in this place at this time. I have never been to Australia, but if I were to go there, I could first read about Australia, look at photos in books, photos  on the Internet, videos on the Internet, documentaries on television, and on and on. I could learn so much that when I first set foot in Australia I would feel as if I had been there before.

Such was not the case for God’s people readying to enter the land He gave them. They knew slavery in Egypt and a couple of years of migration. That is all. Moses sending the twelve men into the land was truly an exploration of the unknown. Simply walking through the land required great faith and courage.

We know how the history ends. Ten of the twelve return and report that the land is too great and the people there are too strong to conquer. We chide these ten for their lack of faith and courage and the harm that their reporting does to a generation of God’s people. Perhaps we should  reconsider. Yes, they failed in their reporting, but still they were men of great courage and faith just to walk through an unknown place. That is why Moses chose them for the mission of exploration.