But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
The ten fearful spies who went up with Caleb spoke these words to interrupt his call to go up at once and possess the land, declaring that Israel was not able to go up against the people because they were stronger. Their description of walled cities and giants was in many respects correct, yet it was the voice of unbelief that judged conquest by human strength alone and left God out of the question. It failed to reason from how God had brought Israel out of Egypt, destroyed their enemies, and promised to give them the country. The gloomy report spread fear through the camp until the multitude echoed it in rebellion, and their own fearful words proved true for them in forty years of wandering and death in the wilderness. It stands as a warning not to repeat their work of prophesying defeat and discouraging God's work, but to take Caleb's different spirit of faith and courage that trusts God's promise and presses forward.
Words and Historical Setting
The saying belongs to the report of the spies sent out from Kadesh to examine Canaan, its people, and the natural advantages of the land. It was spoken by the ten unfaithful, fearful spies who went up with Caleb, in answer to and interruption of his call to go up at once and possess the land because Israel was well able to overcome it. In contrast stand the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, who gave a faithful report of its richness and urged Israel to go up in God's strength, while the ten opposed entering Canaan with a discouraging report.
After beginning with a faithful description of the beauty and fertility of the land, all but two enlarged upon the difficulties and dangers of conquest. In this saying they pictured the obstacles in darker colors than at first, magnified them, and turned attention from fertility to danger. It declares that Israel was not able to go up against the people of the land because they were stronger than Israel, treating their strength as proof that conquest was impossible. Their fear of the fortified cities and giants was allowed to discourage action.
The description behind the claim was in many respects correct, for the cities were walled and very great, even walled up to heaven, with giant warriors and sons of giants dwelling there. They were a powerful race, beside whom the spies were like mere pygmies, supported by iron chariots. The fatal mistake was not in seeing the walls, giants, and chariots, but in distrusting God's power to overthrow them.
It was cried out when Caleb forced his way to the front and his clear ringing voice briefly hushed the clamor and commanded attention. At that moment the congregation was filled with madness and disappointment and refused to listen to reason from Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who trusted God's word. Meanwhile Moses and Aaron lay prostrate before God with faces in the dust, and Caleb and Joshua rent their clothes in distress at the discouragement.
Unbelief Leaving God Out
The words are the voice of unbelief, doubt, fear, and cowardly drawing back from action when risks must be met. They show what happens when God is left out of the question and the conquest is judged by human and military strength alone. The ten left God and His promise out of account and concluded Israel could not conquer because the people of Canaan were stronger, treating Israel as dependent only on power of arms. In contrast Caleb acknowledged the strength of the people yet urged Israel to trust God and take the land He had promised.
That unbelief failed to remember and reason from how God had helped Israel. He had brought them out of Egyptian bondage, cut a path through the sea and destroyed Pharaoh's pursuing host, led them and destroyed enemies before them, and promised to give them the country. Instead of reflecting that He who had brought them thus far would certainly give what He had declared, they measured the challenge by human strength and limited His power. Their report treated the inhabitants' strength as proof that taking the land was impossible.
It was a false, exaggerated, and lying report that magnified formidable difficulties into insurmountable impossibilities. Viewing things in a highly colored light for lack of spiritual eyesight, with imagination coloring statements and telling matters as they appeared, it weakened courage, stirred the people almost to panic and frantic disappointment, and helped provoke rebellion against God. Such talk opposed God's purpose to bring Israel in when He promised to be with them, blocked the wheels, and revealed the need to take hold of the work in faith and to gain the mold of Christ. Those who held this view applied the same principle to later difficulties such as an unfavorable location and heavy indebtedness, turning them into reasons that a work cannot go forward where it is.
It means unsubdued hearts not in harmony with His plans, limiting the work of God and distrusting the hand that had hitherto safely guided them. In cruel, wicked unbelief it murmured and found fault as if Moses and God Himself had deceived the people by promising a land they could not possess. It dishonors God and is pressed by Satan, who does not leave alone anyone he can tempt into unbelief. One word of unbelief prepares the way for more, growing into an unfaithful and discouraging witness and complete rebellion serving satanic powers.
It proves that as a man thinks in his heart so is he, bearing the fruitage of doubt and fear. Limited vision sees only giants and walled cities and expects failure where God intends success, even prophesying defeat and disaster when difficulties arise. Clearer vision sees beyond those obstacles to God and angels ready to give victory to His truth, counting God's promise superior to giants, walled cities, and chariots of iron.
Judgment on Unbelieving Israel
The ten spies' declaration that Israel could not overcome a stronger people cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation and weakened the faith and courage of all Israel. Their magnifying of difficulties spread unbelief, fear, cowardly despair and discouragement through the whole camp until the multitude echoed the decision of the unbelieving spies. Spoken against Caleb's call to go up at once and possess the land as well able to overcome it, the cry opposed his faith and courage and helped turn hope into rebellion against God.
That discouragement led the congregation into rebellion and apostasy and refusal to go when God had promised to be with them. The people were stirred to bitter reproach and wailing without reflection, to despair that this was the end of all high hopes for the land they had traveled all the way from Egypt to possess, and to repeat the former error of murmuring against Moses and Aaron and blaming their leaders for bringing trouble upon Israel. They wished for death in the wilderness, appointed a captain to lead back to Egypt and bondage from which they had been delivered, and attempted to put to death the only two men who still had faith and courage.
Their own fearful words proved true for them, for as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Having lost sight of the beauty and fruitfulness of the land through fear of cities walled up to heaven, giant warriors and iron chariots, they judged themselves unable to go up, and they were not able to go up. In contrast to the two who counted God's promise superior to giants, walled cities and chariots of iron and entered the land of promise, the fearful wore out their lives in the desert and spent their lives in the wilderness instead of entering the land.
Unbelief brought judgment, for the evil report displeased God. The spies who gave the evil report died by plague, and all of Israel from twenty years old and upward, all above twenty years of age, were sentenced to die before reaching the promised land in forty years of wandering. This was fulfilled in the wilderness before Israel came the second time to the borders of Canaan, a failure and long stay in the wilderness that Israel later wrongly blamed on the report itself.
By this unbelief Israel lost its opportunity and missed the right time to enter, though the Lord was holding back its inhabitants. When they later tried to enter, the favorable time had passed, their enemies were ready, Moses warned that the Lord was not with them, and they were defeated.
The obstacles themselves could not have prevented entry if the people had trusted God, for the spies' description of walled cities and powerful inhabitants was in many respects correct and largely accurate, but their fatal mistake was distrusting God's power to overthrow those enemies. Jericho's mighty walls, the key to the land of Canaan, later fell by God's power, proving Israel could have possessed the city forty years earlier if the people had trusted Him. Because the earlier generation's fear and lack of faith had made the conquest seem impossible and had staggered faith, Israel needed renewed assurance of God's presence and protection before crossing the Jordan. The same test met nearly forty years before, thirty-eight years before, returned in the contests with Og and Sihon and before Og of Bashan, only far more severe, for Israel must now advance against violent, skillful and well-equipped armies, sixty walled stone cities, rocky strongholds, giant inhabitants distinguished for violence, and a giant king, where distrust would bring disaster and defeat.
Warning for Believers Today
The history of the ten spies has direct application to God's people today and is re-enacted among them in the same unwillingness shown in the days of Caleb and Joshua. Faithful reports and true counsel are not heeded, and the servants who bear the burden of the cause with strict self-denial and privation to help the people are seldom better appreciated now than then. Few whose minds have been enlightened dare come boldly forward as Caleb did and stand firmly for God and the right, and those who will not turn from integrity become the target for hatred and malicious falsehood. Darkness and unbelief do not decrease as the time of the second advent nears, truth becomes less palatable to the carnally minded, and hearts are slow to believe and tardy to repent. Long has the Lord borne with wanderings, forgiving and waiting for room in hearts, but false ideas, jealousy, and distrust have crowded Him out.
The verse warns believers not to repeat the spies' work by prophesying defeat and disaster when difficulties arise. Spreading distrust, discouraging reports, and murmuring discourages action and advancing and building up the work, hinders truth from reaching others, confuses minds, and leads people away from following God. Such talk blocks the wheels where the work is established and does harm to the cause, retarding the work for years. Working in faith and hope is set against spreading discouraging reports that discourage action.
It means magnifying formidable objections and difficulties — fortified cities and giants, an unfavorable location, and heavy indebtedness such as that raised against the Health Retreat's continued operation — into reasons that a work cannot go forward where it is. Such confident assertions, shaped by a distorted view that tells matters as they appear with imagination coloring statements, mislead others who receive them and weaken faith. They oppose God's purpose and plan, follow self-pleasing plans, and reveal the need for the mold of Christ so that good material is built into character. The lack behind them is failure to take hold of the work in faith and lack of spiritual eyesight to discern spiritual things, viewing things in a highly colored light.
Against such unbelief God calls for Caleb's different spirit of faith and courage. Though acknowledging the strength of the people, Caleb urged trust in God and His promise to give the land, in contrast to the fear that urged retreat and treated strength as impossibility. That spirit stands boldly and firmly in danger, presses forward instead of obstructing the work, works in faith and hope, and shows spiritual nerve and stamina to resist Satan's artifices. Through God His people are able to do a mighty work, including in temperance and city missions.
The claim stands as a warning that people who disregard God's will can exalt their own judgment and discourage others from following it. One word of unbelief prepares the way for more, carrying others with it until the congregation takes the wrong side against the faithful. In this way the report opposed God's purpose to bring Israel in when He promised to be with them, and led the people to refuse to go.
The ten fearful spies who went up with Caleb spoke these words to interrupt his call to go up at once and possess the land, declaring that Israel was not able to go up against the people because they were stronger. Their description of walled cities and giants was in many respects correct, yet it was the voice of unbelief that judged conquest by human strength alone and left God out of the question. It failed to reason from how God had brought Israel out of Egypt, destroyed their enemies, and promised to give them the country. The gloomy report spread fear through the camp until the multitude echoed it in rebellion, and their own fearful words proved true for them in forty years of wandering and death in the wilderness. It stands as a warning not to repeat their work of prophesying defeat and discouraging God's work, but to take Caleb's different spirit of faith and courage that trusts God's promise and presses forward.
Words and Historical Setting
The saying belongs to the report of the spies sent out from Kadesh to examine Canaan, its people, and the natural advantages of the land. It was spoken by the ten unfaithful, fearful spies who went up with Caleb, in answer to and interruption of his call to go up at once and possess the land because Israel was well able to overcome it. In contrast stand the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, who gave a faithful report of its richness and urged Israel to go up in God's strength, while the ten opposed entering Canaan with a discouraging report.
After beginning with a faithful description of the beauty and fertility of the land, all but two enlarged upon the difficulties and dangers of conquest. In this saying they pictured the obstacles in darker colors than at first, magnified them, and turned attention from fertility to danger. It declares that Israel was not able to go up against the people of the land because they were stronger than Israel, treating their strength as proof that conquest was impossible. Their fear of the fortified cities and giants was allowed to discourage action.
The description behind the claim was in many respects correct, for the cities were walled and very great, even walled up to heaven, with giant warriors and sons of giants dwelling there. They were a powerful race, beside whom the spies were like mere pygmies, supported by iron chariots. The fatal mistake was not in seeing the walls, giants, and chariots, but in distrusting God's power to overthrow them.
It was cried out when Caleb forced his way to the front and his clear ringing voice briefly hushed the clamor and commanded attention. At that moment the congregation was filled with madness and disappointment and refused to listen to reason from Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who trusted God's word. Meanwhile Moses and Aaron lay prostrate before God with faces in the dust, and Caleb and Joshua rent their clothes in distress at the discouragement.
Unbelief Leaving God Out
The words are the voice of unbelief, doubt, fear, and cowardly drawing back from action when risks must be met. They show what happens when God is left out of the question and the conquest is judged by human and military strength alone. The ten left God and His promise out of account and concluded Israel could not conquer because the people of Canaan were stronger, treating Israel as dependent only on power of arms. In contrast Caleb acknowledged the strength of the people yet urged Israel to trust God and take the land He had promised.
That unbelief failed to remember and reason from how God had helped Israel. He had brought them out of Egyptian bondage, cut a path through the sea and destroyed Pharaoh's pursuing host, led them and destroyed enemies before them, and promised to give them the country. Instead of reflecting that He who had brought them thus far would certainly give what He had declared, they measured the challenge by human strength and limited His power. Their report treated the inhabitants' strength as proof that taking the land was impossible.
It was a false, exaggerated, and lying report that magnified formidable difficulties into insurmountable impossibilities. Viewing things in a highly colored light for lack of spiritual eyesight, with imagination coloring statements and telling matters as they appeared, it weakened courage, stirred the people almost to panic and frantic disappointment, and helped provoke rebellion against God. Such talk opposed God's purpose to bring Israel in when He promised to be with them, blocked the wheels, and revealed the need to take hold of the work in faith and to gain the mold of Christ. Those who held this view applied the same principle to later difficulties such as an unfavorable location and heavy indebtedness, turning them into reasons that a work cannot go forward where it is.
It means unsubdued hearts not in harmony with His plans, limiting the work of God and distrusting the hand that had hitherto safely guided them. In cruel, wicked unbelief it murmured and found fault as if Moses and God Himself had deceived the people by promising a land they could not possess. It dishonors God and is pressed by Satan, who does not leave alone anyone he can tempt into unbelief. One word of unbelief prepares the way for more, growing into an unfaithful and discouraging witness and complete rebellion serving satanic powers.
It proves that as a man thinks in his heart so is he, bearing the fruitage of doubt and fear. Limited vision sees only giants and walled cities and expects failure where God intends success, even prophesying defeat and disaster when difficulties arise. Clearer vision sees beyond those obstacles to God and angels ready to give victory to His truth, counting God's promise superior to giants, walled cities, and chariots of iron.
Judgment on Unbelieving Israel
The ten spies' declaration that Israel could not overcome a stronger people cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation and weakened the faith and courage of all Israel. Their magnifying of difficulties spread unbelief, fear, cowardly despair and discouragement through the whole camp until the multitude echoed the decision of the unbelieving spies. Spoken against Caleb's call to go up at once and possess the land as well able to overcome it, the cry opposed his faith and courage and helped turn hope into rebellion against God.
That discouragement led the congregation into rebellion and apostasy and refusal to go when God had promised to be with them. The people were stirred to bitter reproach and wailing without reflection, to despair that this was the end of all high hopes for the land they had traveled all the way from Egypt to possess, and to repeat the former error of murmuring against Moses and Aaron and blaming their leaders for bringing trouble upon Israel. They wished for death in the wilderness, appointed a captain to lead back to Egypt and bondage from which they had been delivered, and attempted to put to death the only two men who still had faith and courage.
Their own fearful words proved true for them, for as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Having lost sight of the beauty and fruitfulness of the land through fear of cities walled up to heaven, giant warriors and iron chariots, they judged themselves unable to go up, and they were not able to go up. In contrast to the two who counted God's promise superior to giants, walled cities and chariots of iron and entered the land of promise, the fearful wore out their lives in the desert and spent their lives in the wilderness instead of entering the land.
Unbelief brought judgment, for the evil report displeased God. The spies who gave the evil report died by plague, and all of Israel from twenty years old and upward, all above twenty years of age, were sentenced to die before reaching the promised land in forty years of wandering. This was fulfilled in the wilderness before Israel came the second time to the borders of Canaan, a failure and long stay in the wilderness that Israel later wrongly blamed on the report itself.
By this unbelief Israel lost its opportunity and missed the right time to enter, though the Lord was holding back its inhabitants. When they later tried to enter, the favorable time had passed, their enemies were ready, Moses warned that the Lord was not with them, and they were defeated.
The obstacles themselves could not have prevented entry if the people had trusted God, for the spies' description of walled cities and powerful inhabitants was in many respects correct and largely accurate, but their fatal mistake was distrusting God's power to overthrow those enemies. Jericho's mighty walls, the key to the land of Canaan, later fell by God's power, proving Israel could have possessed the city forty years earlier if the people had trusted Him. Because the earlier generation's fear and lack of faith had made the conquest seem impossible and had staggered faith, Israel needed renewed assurance of God's presence and protection before crossing the Jordan. The same test met nearly forty years before, thirty-eight years before, returned in the contests with Og and Sihon and before Og of Bashan, only far more severe, for Israel must now advance against violent, skillful and well-equipped armies, sixty walled stone cities, rocky strongholds, giant inhabitants distinguished for violence, and a giant king, where distrust would bring disaster and defeat.
Warning for Believers Today
The history of the ten spies has direct application to God's people today and is re-enacted among them in the same unwillingness shown in the days of Caleb and Joshua. Faithful reports and true counsel are not heeded, and the servants who bear the burden of the cause with strict self-denial and privation to help the people are seldom better appreciated now than then. Few whose minds have been enlightened dare come boldly forward as Caleb did and stand firmly for God and the right, and those who will not turn from integrity become the target for hatred and malicious falsehood. Darkness and unbelief do not decrease as the time of the second advent nears, truth becomes less palatable to the carnally minded, and hearts are slow to believe and tardy to repent. Long has the Lord borne with wanderings, forgiving and waiting for room in hearts, but false ideas, jealousy, and distrust have crowded Him out.
The verse warns believers not to repeat the spies' work by prophesying defeat and disaster when difficulties arise. Spreading distrust, discouraging reports, and murmuring discourages action and advancing and building up the work, hinders truth from reaching others, confuses minds, and leads people away from following God. Such talk blocks the wheels where the work is established and does harm to the cause, retarding the work for years. Working in faith and hope is set against spreading discouraging reports that discourage action.
It means magnifying formidable objections and difficulties — fortified cities and giants, an unfavorable location, and heavy indebtedness such as that raised against the Health Retreat's continued operation — into reasons that a work cannot go forward where it is. Such confident assertions, shaped by a distorted view that tells matters as they appear with imagination coloring statements, mislead others who receive them and weaken faith. They oppose God's purpose and plan, follow self-pleasing plans, and reveal the need for the mold of Christ so that good material is built into character. The lack behind them is failure to take hold of the work in faith and lack of spiritual eyesight to discern spiritual things, viewing things in a highly colored light.
Against such unbelief God calls for Caleb's different spirit of faith and courage. Though acknowledging the strength of the people, Caleb urged trust in God and His promise to give the land, in contrast to the fear that urged retreat and treated strength as impossibility. That spirit stands boldly and firmly in danger, presses forward instead of obstructing the work, works in faith and hope, and shows spiritual nerve and stamina to resist Satan's artifices. Through God His people are able to do a mighty work, including in temperance and city missions.
The claim stands as a warning that people who disregard God's will can exalt their own judgment and discourage others from following it. One word of unbelief prepares the way for more, carrying others with it until the congregation takes the wrong side against the faithful. In this way the report opposed God's purpose to bring Israel in when He promised to be with them, and led the people to refuse to go.