03.06.2015 Old Testament: Deu 1.22–25

To read the Bible in a year, read Deuteronomy 1–2 on March 6, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

You probably know that twelve spies from among the children of Israel went into the Land of Canaan to survey it, check it out, and report back to Moses and Israel. You also know that ten of those spies said that Israel did not have the ability to take the land, because of the giants living in the land.

However, did you know that it was Israel’s idea to send in the spies? As Moses prepared for his death, he reminded them of this episode about 38 years earlier,

“And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’ The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us’”  (Deuteronomy 1.22–25). 

Yet, as the spies continued to speak, Moses reminded Israel, the spies spoke of the size of the inhabitants of the land and how much smaller the Israelites were. The ten spies concluded that Israel could not win battles against the Canaanites. Although two of the spies worked to persuade the people that the Lord would deliver the Canaanites into the hands of the Israelites, the people believed the ten spies. They believed the discouraging report from those whom they said Moses should send into the land!

Their own idea was their own undoing.

If you have a good idea, wonderful. Go with it. Do not use it to discourage yourself or anyone else.