Stories from Bible 14

The Israelites remained in their camp in front of Mount Sinai for close to a year while they constructed the Tabernacle and learned the commandments that God had given to Moses to pass on to them. When the cloud that had been covering the Tabernacle began to shift, the people realised that this was the signal for them to start moving. They dismantled the Tabernacle as well as their personal tents before embarking on a long journey to the land of Canaan.

At last, they arrived at their destination, which was a town known as Kadesh or Kadesh-barnea, which was located right on the edge of the desert on the way to Canaan. They decided to stop and take a break here since there were a number of water sources and some grass for their cattle. While they were waiting at Kadesh-barnea and were expecting to soon march into the land that was to be their home, God told Moses to send onward some men who would walk through the land and look at it. and then come back and tell what they had found—what kind of land it was, what fruits grew there, and what people were living there. If these men, after travelling around the country, were capable of working as their guides and pointing out the richest areas in it and the best strategies for waging war against it, then the Israelites would have a much better chance winning the land.

Therefore, Moses selected several men of high rank among the people, one ruler from each tribe, making the total number of men twelve. One of them was Joshua, who assisted Moses in taking care of the people, and another was Caleb, who was a member of the tribe of Judah. Both of these men were leaders in their respective tribes. These twelve men set out and travelled through the mountains of Canaan, where they surveyed the land and delighted in the sights of the towns and farms. They went to one location, and just before they went back to the camp, they chopped down a giant cluster of ripe grapes. The cluster was so large that two men carried it between them, hanging it on a staff. They gave the area where they found this cluster of grapes the name Eshcol, which is Hebrew for “a bunch” or “a cluster.” These twelve men were described as “spies” because they were sent “to spy out the area,” and after forty days, when they returned to the camp, they reported the following information:

“We explored the whole of the area and discovered it to be a fertile country.” There is pasture for all of our flocks, fields where we may cultivate grain, trees that yield fruit, and streams that trickle down the slopes of the hills. On the other hand, we discovered that the people who live there are incredibly robust and are used to fighting. “They have towns with walls that go nearly all the way up to the sky, and some of the men are giants who are so tall that we felt like we were mere grasshoppers when we were in their presence.”

Caleb, who was one of the spies, revealed his statement as follows: “Although all of that is true, we do not have any reason to be afraid of going up there and taking the land. It is a wonderful country that is well worth fighting for, and God is on our side. He will assist us in winning over those people.

But the other spies, with the exception of Joshua, reported that “No, there is no use in starting a war against such powerful people since it won’t achieve anything.” “We have no chance of conquering those walled cities, and we have no strength to confront those tall giants.”

And the people, who had travelled all the way through the wilderness to find this very land, were so frightened by the words of the ten spies that now, on the very border of Canaan, they dared not enter it. This was due to the fact that the ten spies had told them that the land was full of deadly creatures. They failed to remember that God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, that he had preserved their lives notwithstanding the dangers of the desert, that he had provided them with water from the rock, food from the heavens, and his law from a mountain.

After the spies returned with their report, the people were so terrified that they were unable to sleep the whole night through because of their anxiety. They raised their voices against Moses and placed the responsibility for their departure from the land of Egypt entirely on his shoulders. They decided to return to the country they had originally come from, despite all of the hardships they had endured in Egypt, including their labour and their enslavement. They said that:

“Let us select a king in place of Moses, who has led us into all of these sufferings, and let us turn back to the land of Egypt!”

However, two of the spies, by the names of Caleb and Joshua, said: “Why should we be afraid of this?” Canaan is a good place; it is abundant with milk, honey, and other natural resources. If God is on our side and a friend of ours, we should have no trouble defeating the natives who reside there. Above all else, let us take care not to challenge the Lord, disobey him, or otherwise turn him into an enemy of ours.

The people were so angered by Caleb and Joshua’s behaviour that they were prepared to murder them by stoning them to death. Then, all of a sudden, the folks saw a peculiar sight. The splendour of the Lord, which had been contained inside the innermost chamber of the Tabernacle known as the Holy of Holies, suddenly burst out and streamed out from the entrance of the Tabernacle.

And the Lord spoke to Moses from the middle of this brightness, and he said, “How long will this people disobey and despise me?”

And God said to Moses that for every day that the spies had spent in Canaan looking at the land, the people should spend a year in the wilderness. And so, God told Moses that the people should live in the desert for a total of forty years rather than immediately entering the land that had been promised to them.

When Moses told all of God’s words to the people, they felt worse than before. They changed their minds as suddenly as they had made up their minds.

“No,” they all said, “we will not go back to the wilderness; we will go straight into the land and see if we are able to take it, as Joshua and Caleb have said.”

“You must not go into the land,” said Moses.

On the other hand, the people refused to obey. They marched their way up the mountain and attempted to march straight into the country as soon as they could. But they did not have any leaders, and there was no order among them; they were just a group of individuals who were inexperienced and confused. And the people who lived in that portion of the country, the Canaanites and the Amorites, marched down against them and slaughtered a significant number of them before driving the rest of them out. The people were defeated and disappointed at this point, yet they nevertheless followed the Lord and Moses and travelled back into the desert.

The children of Israel were forced to spend close to forty years wandering about in the desert of Paran, which is located to the south of the country of Canaan. This all happened because they refused to have faith in the Lord.