The Yale expositor., 1907-08-30
The Two Reports
of the Spies
Sunday School Lessonior Sept. I, 1907
Specially Prepared for This Paper
Specially Prepared for This Paper

TIME.--July or August, 1.-The Time OF
the first ripe grapes" (Num. 1320) Ii. g.
400 by the common chronology. This
was two or three months after they left
Sinai on the Goth day of the second
month. sometime in May
PLACE.-Kedesh- barnea. An 11-days
Journey CDeut. 1:O OF continued travel,
modern travellers have found (Robin-
son was exactly IL days.; 1. e.. 100 or 40
miles route from Sinai. IT is so miles
south of Beersheba on the southern
border OF Palestine.
Comment and Suggestive Thought.
For two or three months the peo-
pie of Israel, men, women, and chill
dren, slowly marched through the
great and terrible wilderness" from
Sinai. journey which ordinary trav-
elers could make In eleven days. The
slow march and long rests were nee
essary both on account of the children
and the focks, and on account Of the
need Of longer training Moreover,
the difficulties and priyations OF the
desert would make them more anx-
ious to enter the land flowing with
milk and honey"
Kadesh-barnea. At length, some
time in July or August, they reached
Kadesh-barnea, Ain Qadees, SO miles
south of Beersheba, just at the foot OF
the range of hills which are the south
ern boundary of Palestine.
From Kadesh the people can see,
rising before them toward the north
west, the steep ascent which leads
into the hill country, the destined in
heritance Of the tribe of Judah"
The gates to their new home were
before them, wide open. The fertile
oasis to which they had come was a
foretaste OF their inheritance. Only a
steep climb and they can set their feet
on the land OF promise.
Then Moses said unto them: Be
hold, Jehovah thy God hath set the
land before thee; go up, take posses
sion, as Jehovah, the God of thy IA
Tiers, hath spoken unto thee; fear
not. neither be dismayed.-(Deut,
1:21.)
They had only to trust God and go
forward, and in less than two years
from leaving Egypt the land would
have been theirs. The God who had
delivered them with a mighty hand,
who had made path through the sea,
who had rained mama, and brought
water from a rock, and spoken from
Sinai, and entered into covenant with
them, and was leading them by his
visible presence.-he babe them go
up and take possession of the prom
Used land.
The people were afraid TO go for
ward They were not a warlike peo-
pie Abraham's attack on Chedorlao-
mer and his army in rescue of Lot, in
the far distant past, and their battle
with the Amalekites, year before
this time, are the only battles record
ed in the whole history of their race.
The whole people (Deut. 1929 asked
Moses to first send out spies to in
vestigate. This was wise under the
circumstances, that is, the next wisest
thing TO going forward trusting in
God, and therefore Moses agreed to
the plan (Deut 1929, and it was so
directed by God (Num. 1871, p.
The Committee Of Investigation
Accordingly, Moses selected twelve
leading men best fitted for the SER
vice, whose names are given in VS..
Ais.
"Spy Out the Land."-The object
of this expedition was (D to learn
what were the attractions of the coun-
try; 90 the difficulties in the way of
taking possession; go the best ways
of reaching the country; ca the prep
arations it was necessary to make.
Get you up this way southwark" Bet
ter as in r. ", by the south, not re-
ferring at all to the direction form the
Israelite's camp, but to well-deflned
tract Of territory forming the south
ernmost and least fertile portion OF
the land of Canaan. 1t was called
The Negeb' or the South Country,
literally, the dryness" In the same
way we speak of "the South no
matter In what direction we approach
il.
The Two Reports.-The timid spies
were like Elisha's servant e Kings
6:16, 10, who saw the enemy, but
did not see the heavenly chariots and
horsemen ranged on the hills round
about They saw the giants, but were
blind to God.
The report was evil because IL
omitted the essential factor in the
case.
The minority report of Caleb and
Joshua was a good report because,
while 1t accepted all the material
facts of the other, 1t embodied the
one essential of faith in God with it's
outcome of obedience and courage.
The difference between the two lay
in this: that the ten looked at God
through the difficulties, as when you
look at the sun through a reversed
telescope, and It seems indefinitely
distant and shorn of its glory; while
the two looked at difficulties through
God.-F. b. Meyer.
Practical Points.
God summons us to go up now, inn
mediately, and possess the land, eter-
nal life began in this world and in our
youth