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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 13 Exploring
The
Lord God had promisedIsrael
the land
of Verses
2 through 16 list the names of the men who were chosen to go out and spy
the land
of In
verse 16 we note that Moses changed the name of Hoshea to Joshua.
"Hoshea" means "salvation".
"Joshua" means "the Lord is salvation".
This suggests a clarification of what salvation means.
Salvation is specifically provided by the Lord, that is, Yahweh
From
verses 17 to 21 Moses tells these twelve men what to look for.
He wanted to know all about the people, the type of land, the
cities, and everything that would be important for them to move in and
take over this land. There
is obviously much intelligent thought given to taking this land, as
there should be. Intelligent
thought is also important in taking the spiritual land in New Testament
times. There is a spiritual
kingdom to be taken, and in the same way that From
verses 22 to 25 these men
did just that. They actually
brought back some of the fruit of the land.
Report
On The Exploration (ch. 13:26 - 33) In
verses 26 to 29 the men gave their report.
The land was good. The
cites were large and well protected.
One group of people to note here is the descendents of Anak. These
people were giants. The name
"Anak" actually means "long neck", or possibly
"strong neck". Genesis
6:4 speaks of the Nephilim. Some
Bible teachers believe these Nephilim were a product of angels coming
down and mating with women, producing giants.
You can read my commentary on Genesis 6 to learn more.
These men here are giants of the same type as the Nephilim.
The same Bible teachers suggest that sometime after the flood of
Noah's day, angels came down from heaven again and mated with women to
produce these giants. Verse
33 unites the Nephilim with the descendents of Anak.
In
verses 30 to 33 Caleb said that he believed Concerning
intelligent thought that goes into taking the land as I have mentioned,
once we've process intelligent thought, we then have to unite it with
our faith or trust in God, something only two out of the twelve men did.
God
had promised this land to Israel. If He had promised this
land, you would think that they could go in and take the land.
Thus, Caleb had faith in God while the other ten men didn't.
They were thinking in human
terms only, and in human terms they would lose.
But since God had clearly promised this land, they should have
not thought in human terms. We
can go out and do God's will if He has clearly told us what to do.
If He has promised something, it will come true.
If He has not promised something, and we merely presume on God,
then there is no guarantee that what we presumed will actually happen.
We need to be sure that God has really said what we think He
said. I think much of what
we do as the church is based on presumption, not God's will.
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