Numbers 13:32 KJV
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.
The ten spies made the observation that the Promised Land, "is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof..." The Bible does not record for us exactly what they meant, but the most plausible to me is that, for the forty days they were there, they saw many funerals. It is possible that there was a plague going through the land at the time and that many of the Canaanites were dying from it.
This makes even more sense when we remember that God had promised Israel
Deut 7:17-20 (KJV)
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
God may have already begun to destroy the Canaanites through plagues and other disasters, but these spies, in direct defiance of Deuteronomy 7 saw these as obstacles for the children of Israel rather than God's promises being fulfilled.
How often do we do the same things, seeing the trials around us, not as tools God is using to bring about His will, but as hurdles this world throws in our path?
How often are we disbelieving and therefore disobedient, because we cannot see God at work in the events transpiring in the world around us?
Would to God we would be so closely tuned to the Bible that we would see God's Word being fulfilled in daily events!
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.
The ten spies made the observation that the Promised Land, "is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof..." The Bible does not record for us exactly what they meant, but the most plausible to me is that, for the forty days they were there, they saw many funerals. It is possible that there was a plague going through the land at the time and that many of the Canaanites were dying from it.
This makes even more sense when we remember that God had promised Israel
Deut 7:17-20 (KJV)
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
God may have already begun to destroy the Canaanites through plagues and other disasters, but these spies, in direct defiance of Deuteronomy 7 saw these as obstacles for the children of Israel rather than God's promises being fulfilled.
How often do we do the same things, seeing the trials around us, not as tools God is using to bring about His will, but as hurdles this world throws in our path?
How often are we disbelieving and therefore disobedient, because we cannot see God at work in the events transpiring in the world around us?
Would to God we would be so closely tuned to the Bible that we would see God's Word being fulfilled in daily events!
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