February 16

1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 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 father's shall ye 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

17 ¶ And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this new southward, and go up into the mountain:

18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;

19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood the ein, or not. And be ye 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 unto Rehab, as men come to Hamath.

22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheba, and Fala, the children of Anak, were. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

23 And they came unto the brook of Esheol, 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.

24 The place was called the brook Esheol,

because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

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, 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.

27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whether thou sentest us, and surely it floweth usth milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

29 The Analekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell 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 be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

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 eaten up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it, are men of a great nature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, with some of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

There is an apparent difficulty here, in the fact that the spies who brought back such an evil report were sent forth at the Lord's command. In order to understand this, we must refer to Deut. i. 20-35. From this it will be seen that the plan to send up spies did not originate with the Lord, but with the people themselves. It is true that, subsequently, the Lord accepted them in this matter, and gave commandment according to their wish. Nevertheless, the plan of sending out a "committee of investigation" had its root in unbelief. They were not ready to take God at His word, but they must spy out the land and look it over for themselves; the report of the spies would be more satisfactory to them than the report God had given. They leaned unto their own understanding, and were brought to confusion.

Is it not so with us? God has marked out the way of life for us; He has told us "to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and promised that all things shall be added. Yet we are not willing to trust God, so we take life into our own hands; first add these things, and then seek the kingdom of God. It is so in other matters. We are guided by our wisdom rather than God's word, and usually find that our wisdom is foolishness, and the "foolishness of God" which we set aside was true wisdom.

"The New Testament tells us that the cause of this sad failure of the Israelites was unbelief (Heb. iii. 15-19; iv. 1-10). It was not their own weakness nor the strength of their enemies that hindered their entrance. They were, it is true, 'grasshoppers,' and their enemies were 'giants,' and it was indeed manifest that they were not able to overcome. But the Lord was able." No doubt these two parties—the unbelieving and the believing—each found what in their hearts they were looking for when they started out. We always see things from our own stand-point. The empty bucket says: "No matter how full I come up, I always go down empty." This is unbelief. The full bucket says: "No matter how empty I go down, I always come up full." This is faith.

Closet Promise.—He faileth not.—Zeph. iii 5.

He who hath led, will lead All through the wilderness; He who hath fed, will feed; He who hath blessed, will bless; He who hath heard thy cry, Will never close His ear; He who hath marked thy faintest sigh, Will not forget thy tear. He loveth always, faileth never; So rest on Him, to day, forever!

Then trust Him for to day As time unfailing Friend, And let Him lead thee all the way, Who loveth to the end, And let the mirror rest In His beloved hand, His good is better than our best, As we shall understand— If, trusting Him who faileth never, We rest on Him, to day, forever! -- F. R. Havergal.

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