M-G: 8.21.22 // Making a Difference with a Different spirit, Joshua 2:1a, Part 1 of 2

Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove [Shittim, east of the Jordan River] to spy secretly, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho (west of the Jordan River, Josh 2:1a, emphasis mine).1 

Copyright @ 2016 Tyndale House Publishers, INC.

Thirty-eight years prior to Joshua dispatching his own two spies, he had served as one of the twelve men (Deut 1:23; Num 13:8,16b) sent out from Kadesh Barnea (Num 13:3, 26; Josh 14:7), to perform covert reconnaissance in the land of Canaan mid to late July (cf. Num 13:17-20). During the debriefing, there was dissension among the spies concerning the inhabitants of the land.

While the presentation by ten of the spies was dark and negative in tone and full of superlatives, 

Nevertheless, the people…are strong…cities are fortified and very large (Num 13:28); the people…are stronger than we (Num 13:31), a land that devours its inhabitants…men of great stature (Num 13:32); we saw the giants…we were like grasshoppers (Num 13:33),

it supported a bottom-line assessment – “To attempt to take this land would be nothing short of suicide. 

The remaining two of the twelve spies broke from that prevailing opinion and gave a favorable appraisal – “We can do this with Yahweh’s help!” (cf. Num 13:30; 14:6-9). The contentious debriefing is found in Num 13:26-33.

Crowd response? Not so good!

Where can we go up? Our brethren (the ten spies) have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there (Deut 1:28).

They probably reasoned, “What good is a land of milk and honey if we are dead and that of our children (cf. Num 14:3)?” Compare this speculation with reality: Num 14:31; Deut 1:39!); that unfavorable report by the flippant, fearful, and unfaithful ten spies created no small stir among the children of Israel that day! Moses declared that they (the ten spies) gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out… (Num 13:32a). Num 13:32b-33 indicates that the focus of their fears was on the giants.

So many were questioning Yahweh’s character and ability to fulfill His promise made to Abraham, “He brought us to a land whose people we cannot defeat!” Let us select a leader and return to Egypt (Num 14:4) was the popular alternative rather than confronting the giants, included in the will of God for their lives. I might add; that nothing enters our lives unless Yahweh allows it, yes?

This presented a foolish and unthankful challenge to Yahweh’s sovereignty and sufficiency. All that Yahweh had done thus far was not enough (cf. Ex 14:11; cf. Deut 1:29-33) to even give them the assurance of tomorrow that they felt they needed! It was an unthankful and selfish attitude, “That was yesterday, what have You done for me lately, Yahweh?”  

People are no different today because man’s sinful heart is a constant evil that threatens the believer’s ability to please God (cf. Jer 17:9, 10). We are not a victim of our flesh (sin nature) but a volunteer when we allow fleshly desires to override a faith that is pleasing to God (cf. Heb 11:6). It is the choices that we make not the circumstances (or giants) of life that determines our destiny. Look what giants did to the children of Israel in Moses’ day.

Again, the reaction from the fickle, fearful, and faithless among the children of Israel is found in Num 14:1-4, 10a; Deut 1:24-28). It was an ugly affair where all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron (Num 14:2); they questioned Yahweh’s leadership (Num 14:3; cf. Deut 1:27); and called for Joshua and Caleb to be stoned. I assume that was “for not telling them the truth” (Num 14:10)? I wouldn’t doubt that the people saw Joshua and Caleb as company men, yes-men, Moses’ lackeys, particularly Joshua.

The children of Israel wanted to select another leader and return to Egyptian authority (Num 14:4)! They were refusing to enter the land of promise based on the damaging spy report (Deut 1:28). Moses recounts, Yet, for all that [cf. Deut 1:30-31, before your eyes] you did not believe Yahweh your God (Deut 1:32). Their punishment was grave (cf. Num 14:29).

By the way, this doesn’t mean that all of those who refused to enter the land (Num 14:1-4, 10a) went to hell upon their death. Not all were lost, but not all were believers either; many had other reasons for getting out of Egypt and now they wanted to return to be under the yoke of Egyptian authority! God knows (cf. Jer 17:10; 1 Cor 10:5; Heb 3:16-19).

Have we ever disagreed with God about something? Of course, we all have; it’s called sin; whenever our will collides with the will of God, bad things will happen because there are always consequences to sin. Some disobediences have graver consequences, resulting in physical death (God’s sovereign call) as in the egregious case of the children of Israel refusing to enter the land of promise.

This is where the grace and mercy found in 1 Jn 1:9 bring relief for all believers (confess = agree/repent). I mentioned above that sin has consequences. All unforgiven sin has consequences; all forgiven sin has consequences (cf. Num 14:19, 29, 33-35). It’s called the ripple effect. The law of the harvest, reaping what we sow. The people wept before Yahweh (Deut 1:45), but their weeping was over the consequences (Num 14:29), not repentance.

There were many that died over the next 38 years wandering in the wilderness due to that incident at Kadesh that uncovered and exposed their unbelief (cf. Deut 1:32). Data is lacking on the exact number of people in the Egyptian exodus (ca.1446-1445). Many reputable scholars hold to a number of two to three million plus; others hold to a much smaller number than that. I believe that there was a very large entourage of people following Moses out of Egypt, but I am not going to die on the hill defending the size of it, however, being impaled on the scholar’s pole!

Now to our text! The Israelites were on the east side of the Jordan River (see map), and it was time for Joshua to dispatch his own scouts, two (Josh 2:1a), not twelve (Num 13:2). Joshua was the main man now, and he did not seek tribal representation for this scouting venture.

How important was the selection of these two spies? Caleb and he had just spent 38 years wandering in the wilderness because of a bad report and those who refused to go into the land flowing with milk and honey due to the giants in the land. This generation of the children of Israel on the cusp of crossing over the Jordan River knew right well there were still giants in the land that their parents, relatives, and friends were afraid of. Ironically, their parents or relatives died not from any physical giant in the land, but by the giant ghost of their own fears.  

Joshua dispatching the two spies had to have caused flashbacks of his brief spy days and was being cautious and wanting an update of the land surrounding Jericho and Jericho proper. Things can change in 38 years, but we know whatever the spies discovered, even if it was a city full to the brim with giants, Joshua and company were going to take down Jericho regardless. Round two of another delay was not going to ever happen under Joshua’s watch.

If in their sandals, most of us would probably submit a complaint to God that it wasn’t fair, but the replacements had to grow up since those at the age of twenty and above at the time of the refusal at Kadesh Barnea to enter the land would die off. These two men, Joshua and Caleb, both had a different spirit (said of Caleb, understood of Joshua). We will get back to the meaning of a different spirit shortly; it is critical for us not to overlook this kind of spirit residing within Joshua and Caleb (cf. Rom 15:4); it is way too vital to our spiritual health to ignore it! A desert death is not too appealing, yes?

When I was meditating on this verse in Joshua 2:1, this phrase two men leaped off the page at me, not literally! I never thought about what Joshua might be thinking about when he dispatched his own two spies before until recently! Being a part of the original twelve, they were commissioned to report the facts of their findings, not offer their opinions as if the will of Yahweh was negotiable! The will of God was for the children of Israel to enter the land promised to Abraham’s seed.

I’m thinking Joshua handpicked these two men, perhaps with Caleb’s input, that had a different spirit like them, not some fickle, fearful, and faithless spirit like those ten other men in the first reconnaissance of the land who robbed themselves of the blessings of God by trading in a land of milk and honey for a grave in the wilderness (cf. Num 14:36-37) and preventing godly men, like Joshua and Caleb from seizing their inheritance for thirty-eight long years in the wilderness! Astoundingly, we never detect any bitterness on the part of Joshua nor Caleb, which is absolutely amazing in and of itself! <><

------------

1. Oddly to some, I am using our text for this article not to talk about these two courageous unknown men, in particular, their spook experiences, nor the rescuing of our damsel in distress in Jericho. Rather, I hope to draw the reader’s attention to the real possibility that Joshua reflected upon his experience as a spy 38 years prior when he selected and dispatched these two unknown men from Acacia Grove or Shittim to scout out the surrounding area of the city of Jericho and the walled city itself while on the east side of the Jordan River. I wanted to bring these two men into the article for a reason but avoid getting sucked into the story of Rahab. This story is more about the men we know by names: Joshua and Caleb, and what set them a breed apart in service to Yahweh. These men will challenge any spiritual complacency.   

To Part 2