Bible Commentaries
Numbers 13

Verses 1-33

Moses Sends out Twelve Spies Numbers 13:1-33 records the popular passage of Moses sending out twelve spies into the Promised Land.

While praying in the spirit and interpreting the tongues in English (1 Corinthians 14:14-15), the Lord said to me to take the cluster of grapes to His people and show them His works that they might glorify him (see Numbers 13:23). He also said to me that His paths would drop fatness and be full of pleasure and joy (Psalms 65:11, Joel 3:18, Amos 9:13). [25]

[25] Gary Everett, Co-pastor of Alethia Fellowship Church, Panama City, Florida, 1983-88.

Numbers 13:23, “And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.”

Psalms 65:11, “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.”

Joel 3:18, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.”

Amos 9:13, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.”

Numbers 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Numbers 13:2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

Numbers 13:2 Comments - Spies were used on other occasions by Moses and Joshua.

Numbers 21:32, “And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.”

Joshua 2:1, “And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there.”

Spies were also used by the Danites:

Judges 18:2, “And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.”

Numbers 13:16 Word Study on “Oshea” Strong says the Hebrew name “Oshea” ( הוֹשֵׁעַ ) (H1954) means “deliverer.”

Word Study on “Jehoshua” Strong says the Hebrew name “Jehoshua” ( יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ) (H3091) means, “Jehovah-saves.” PTW says the name means, “YHWH is salvation or help.”

Comments - Moses changed the name from Oshea (meaning - help or welfare) to Joshua (meaning - help of Jehovah). What did this new name mean prophetically? Joshua could not save or help Israel without God's help in anointing him to do so.

Moses = the Law. Joshua = Jesus. Jesus saved us when the law could not, God did not ordain the law to save us, nor did God ordain for Moses (the Law) to lead the people of God in, but God chose Joshua (a type of Jesus) to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land (a type of heaven).

Numbers 13:24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

Numbers 13:24 Word Study on “Eschol” PTW says the name “Eschol” means, “cluster of grapes.”

Numbers 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

Numbers 13:25 Comments - The twelve spies searched out the land for forty days before returning to the camp. Thus, the Lord would judge Israel a year for each day, so that they would march in the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:34).

Numbers 14:34, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”

Numbers 13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

Numbers 13:26 Comments - The story of the evil report of the ten spies and God's judgment is found in Numbers 13:26 to Numbers 14:45. God’s will is that the church not be like those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness (Hebrews 3-4), but to march on in to the Promised Land and possess the land. As the Lord spoke to me later and said that there were mountains that I would have to move and walls that I would speak down to do his will and possess the land. Amen.

Numbers 13:30 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.

Numbers 13:30 “at once” Comments - Do not wait when God tells you to do something. Act on God’s Word now.

Numbers 13:30 Comments - Caleb understood Paul’s concept of God in Romans 8:31 and John's concept in 1 John 4:4.

Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

1 John 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Numbers 13:30 Scripture References - Note:

Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

James 1:22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

Numbers 13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

Numbers 13:32 “they brought up an evil report of the land” - Scripture References - Note:

Numbers 14:37, “Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.”