The Ten Spies

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2014, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

The Lord brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt with great signs and wonders.

They got near the promised land, and twelve spies were sent forth to check out the promised land, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Two of the spies brought back a good report.  Ten of the spies brought back an evil report.

The children of Israel began to murmur and grumble, and it displeased God.

Here is the narrative from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version, (Amazon.com).

___Numbers chapter 13

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Send men, so they can search the land of Canaan, that I give to the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a ruler among them."

3 And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran, all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

4 And these were their names, of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.

9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

16 These are the names of the men that Moses sent to spy out the land.  And Moses called Oshea, the son of Nun, Jehoshua.

17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way southward, and go up into the mountain,

18 And see the land, what it is, and the people that live in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many,

19 And what the land is that they live in, whether it is good or bad, and what cities are like that they live in, whether in tents, or in strong holds,

20 And what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether or not there is wood in it.  And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.  Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, as you come to Hamath.

22 And they ascended by the south, and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were.  (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

23 And they came to the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it between two of them on a staff, and they brought some of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from there.

25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

27 And they told him, "We came to the land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it.

28 However, the people are strong that live in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great, and also we saw the children of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites live in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites and the Amorites live in the mountains, and the Canaanites live by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan."

30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it."

31 But the men that went up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are."

32 And they brought up an evil report about the land that they had searched to the children of Israel, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up the inhabitants of it, and all the people that we saw in it are big and tall men.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come from the giants, and we were in our own sight like grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

___Numbers chapter 14

1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried, and the people cried that night.

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3 And why has the Lord brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, so that our wives and our children will be a prey?  Wouldn't it have been better for us to return into Egypt?"

4 And they said to each other, "Let's choose a leader, and let's return to Egypt."

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who searched the land, tore their clothes,

7 And they spoke to all the company of the children of Israel, saying, "The land, that we passed through to search it, is a very good land.

8 If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

9 Only don't rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us, their defense has departed from them, and the Lord is with us, don't fear them."

10 But all the congregation said stone them with stones.  And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

11 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will these people provoke me?  And how long will it be before they believe me, for all the signs that I have shown among them?

12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a greater nation and mightier than they are."

13 And Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for you brought up this people in your might from among them,)

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that you Lord are among this people, that you Lord are seen face to face, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 Now if you shall kill all these people like one man, then the nations that have heard the fame of you will say,

16 Because the Lord was not able to bring these people into the land that he promised them, therefore he has killed them in the wilderness.

17 And now, I beg of you, let the power of my Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving sin and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.

19 Pardon, I beg of you, the sin of these people according to the greatness of your mercy, and as you have forgiven these people, from Egypt even until now."

20 And the Lord said, "I have pardoned according to your word,

21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

22 Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not listened to my voice,

23 Surely they shall not see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of them that provoked me see it,

24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went, and his seed shall possess it.

25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley.) Tomorrow, turn and get into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea."

26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27 "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, who murmur against me?  I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, that they murmur against me.

28 Say to them, As truly as I live, says the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you,

29 Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

30 Doubtless you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore to make you live in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, that you said would be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.

32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies are wasted in the wilderness.

34 After the number of the days in which you searched the land, forty days, each day for a year, you shall bear your sins, forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise.

35 I the Lord have said, I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that have gathered together against me, in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

36 And the men, that Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander on the land,

37 Those men that brought up the evil report on the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of the men that went to search the land, continued to live.

39 And Moses told these sayings to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

40 And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "See, we're here, and will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned."

41 And Moses said, "Why now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord?  But it won't prosper.

42 Don't go up, for the Lord is not among you, so that you're not smitten before your enemies.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you'll fall by the sword, because you've turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you."

44 But they presumed to go up to the hill top, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.

45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that hill, and struck them, and discomfited them, as far as Hormah."

Chapter 2

Of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb brought back a good report, but the other ten, and evil report.

The land was so good that it took two men to carry a cluster of grapes back on a staff.

The ten said, “We were like grasshoppers in their sight.”(the people of the land)   Had they already forgotten how God performed great wonders against Pharaoh and the Egyptians?

Had they forgotten how the Lord took off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians, as they pursued Israel into the momentarily dry Red Sea?

When that happened, many of the Egyptian charioteers immediately lost interest in continuing the pursuit against Israel.  A few moments later, the Egyptians drowned from the returning waters.

Israel provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord gave judgment against them.  He said they would wander in the wilderness until that generation died out.  Only Joshua and Caleb survived, and went into the promised land.

But Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

God has said, “The just shall live by his faith.”  God wants us to be in faith, and to walk in faith.

In Hebrews we read, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”

But grumbling and murmuring is unbelief, the opposite of faith.

Think of it, the Children of Israel were finally given deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, and got close enough to the promised land to send spies, and then they lost the right to go into the promised land because of grumbling and unbelief.

So, their children later went into the promised land, but that generation died out, except for Joshua and Caleb.

Some people think it’s wise to “go with the flow.”  But if you went with the flow of the majority consisting of ten spies, you were on the wrong side with God.

Jesus said, “Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go that way.  Narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few that find it.”

Are you going to go with the flow to hell, or are you going to be in the minority of people that goes to heaven?

People may read about those Old Testament events and think, “Well that happened to those people thousands of years ago.”  Yes, but many of the problems and temptations they had back then, we still have today.

The Devil makes it his business to provoke people to doubt and unbelief, and to speak words of unbelief.

But the Lord wants to see our faith.

In Numbers 14:8, above, Joshua and Caleb said,  “If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.”

And the Lord did delight in them, but the Children of Israel were behaving as though the Lord was being nasty to them.

The Lord was even talking about replacing the Children of Israel with a new nation that the Lord would make out of Moses, but Moses talked the Lord out of it.

From the book of Proverbs, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean to your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.”

___James chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.

2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,

3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,

10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.

11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,

24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2

1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,

3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"

4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?

7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,

9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.

12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.

14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,

16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?

17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3

1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.

4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.

5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,

8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.

11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.

3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"

6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.

11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?

13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"

14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."

16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5

1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.

6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.

8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.

9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.

13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.

17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,

20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.