This week’s reading portion covers Numbers 13:1 to 15:41. It contains one of the more famous stories in the Torah: the episode of the twelve spies. Twelve appointed leaders went to Canaan to scout the land and its inhabitants. Moses gave them very specific instructions. They were to enter the land through the Negev Desert and journey up to the hill country in the north. They were to take note of the fertility of the land, its trees, and its produce. Also, the scouts needed to assess if the people in the land were strong or weak, numerous or sparse, and if the towns were fortified.
After 40 days, the spies returned carrying a cluster of grapes so large that they had to drape it from a pole held between two men. They reported that the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey. Side note: For decades, the scholarly consensus was that the Torah’s reference to Israel being rich with honey was date syrup because there was no evidence of organized beekeeping in the Iron Age, only wild honey. However, in 2007, an excavation at Tel Rehov—an ancient city in the Jordan Valley—uncovered the oldest intact commercial beekeeping site ever found in the ancient world. They discovered around 100 unbaked beehives and an industrial-scale honey factory. The Tel Rehov apiary proves that when the spies declared it a land flowing with milk and honey, a commercial bee industry was already part of that landscape.
The spies announced that the people were too powerful and their towns were fortified. They specifically mentioned the Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Canaanites, and the giant descendants of Anak. Anak was the chief of a warrior tribe in Hebron. Apparently, the spies were not the only ones who took notice of the Anakites’ height. There is a letter in the British Museum called the Papyrus Anastasi I that dates to the 13th century BCE and describes the people of Canaan as giants. In the letter, the author describes a treacherous mountain pass in Canaan that is guarded by warriors somewhere between 6 and 9 feet tall.
According to the spies, the Anakites were descendants of the ancient Nephilim:
So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim), and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. (Numbers 13:32–33)
To understand why they made this connection, it helps to examine the ancient context and the theology of the Hebrew Bible. The Nephilim first appear in Genesis 6. They are described as the offspring of the sons of God and human women. In ancient Israelite thought, the Nephilim were not merely tall humans. They were a hybrid race resulting from a rebellion in the divine realm. They represented ancient chaos, violence, and a direct threat to the order God established for creation. The flood narrative immediately follows their introduction. God acts to cleanse the earth of this corruption.
The spies were claiming that the chaotic monsters of the pre-flood world had survived. This rhetorical choice was meant to emphasize the absolute impossibility of the conquest. An army can fight human soldiers. It cannot fight the legendary giants of antiquity. For the ten spies and the weeping congregation, the presence of the Nephilim meant certain defeat. It proved that the land could not be taken.
For Joshua and Caleb, the meaning was entirely different. The Nephilim represented the greatest evil in the biblical worldview. By trusting God to defeat the Anakites, Joshua and Caleb demonstrated that his power was absolute. They believed God could overcome even the most terrifying remnants of early rebellion. Since God destroyed the Nephilim once in the flood, he could deliver the Anakites into their hands now. Joshua and Caleb pleaded with the terrified people:
If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only, do not rebel against the LORD, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them. (Numbers 14:8–9)
The fear tactics of the other ten spies completely demoralized the encampment and drowned out the assurances of Joshua and Caleb. The Israelites wept and demanded a new leader to bring them back to Egypt. They went so far as to accuse Moses and Aaron of setting a trap for them.
Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt. (Numbers 14:3-4)
The Israelites did not just express fear of the Canaanites. They actively accused God of harboring malicious intent. They claimed he brought them into the desert specifically to slaughter them. This accusation turned the entire narrative of the Exodus upside down. God had just miraculously delivered them from centuries of brutal slavery. He parted the Red Sea and fed them manna from heaven. Yet, in a moment of panic, they concluded that his goal was their destruction. To accuse God of malice denied his fundamental goodness and ignores his proven track record of faithfulness.
Egypt was the site of their oppression. It was a place where their male infants were thrown into the Nile. By saying it would be better to return to Egypt, the Israelites declared that the physical security of slavery was superior to the freedom provided by God.
When panic takes over, even the miraculous interventions of God are quickly forgotten. The Israelites looked at the giants and decided God was small. They looked at the Promised Land and decided Egypt was better.
The punishment for their fears could not be greater. Every member of the camp who was 20 or older, counted in the census, would die in the desert over the next 40 years. One year of wandering for every day the scouts were in the land. As for the ten unfaithful spies, they would be struck down immediately for their lack of foresight. God would wait for the next generation to lead. Caleb and Joshua were the only exceptions.
There are a few really important facts to highlight in this drama. First, the problem wasn’t the land. The land was reportedly wonderful. It was the people of the land that struck fear. That fear was based on a lie. As Joshua will later prove, the peoples of the land and their fortified cities certainly turned out to be conquerable. In fact, we learn in Joshua 2 that the people of Jericho were as afraid of the Israelites as the Israelites had been of them. Rahab reported that her people had heard of the mighty wonders that God did in Egypt and their hearts melted with fear. If the God of the Israelites could bring down the greatest empire in the world, the people of Jericho rightly reasoned that he could certainly flatten the walls of Jericho.
Joshua even drove out the sons of Anak from Hebron. No word of their giant-like stature comes up. We only read that Joshua handily beat the Anakites:
At that time Joshua came and wiped out the Anakites from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their towns. (Joshua 11:21)
Grasshoppers Today
When I read of the spies’ account, I can’t help but think of the early struggles of Zionist leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. Even in the Jewish community, Zionist ideals were a minority until the actual establishment of the state of Israel.
In the lifetime of Theodor Herzl, many Orthodox Jews saw the Zionist agenda as a false messianism. Groups like Agudath Israel formed in 1912 to oppose the national movement. They argued that Jewish identity must remain rooted in the Torah. Many secular Jews in the early 20th century saw Zionism as tribalism. They considered it an affront to the Enlightenment.
Reform Judaism in parts of Europe and America also officially rejected Jewish nationalism. They recognized Judaism as a religion but not a nationality. The 1885 Pittsburgh Platform explicitly declared that Jews were no longer a nation. The document stated they expected no return to Palestine. In 1919, 299 prominent American Jews—including both rabbis and civic leaders—endorsed a statement for President Woodrow Wilson. This petition protested the establishment of a Jewish state, saying it countered the ideas of democracy. This resistance continued for decades. In 1942, the American Council for Judaism actively lobbied against a Jewish nation. They feared a state would lead to accusations of dual loyalty for Jewish citizens living elsewhere.
I could list many other examples of internal dissent. But what matters now is that it was eventually the Joshuas and Calebs of the Jewish diaspora whose vision won out. The civil disputes over Zionism were only quieted when the new nation miraculously beat back their external threats. Giants have always been present in the Jewish story. Fear has often halted momentum. But the Bible shows us, and Israel’s history has proven, that the grasshoppers have God on their side.
Study Questions
1. The Power of Perspective (Numbers 13)
Numbers 13 highlights a sharp difference in perspective. Ten spies saw giants and felt like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb saw the exact same giants but trusted God to secure the victory. How does fear distort our perception of reality and minimize our view of God?Scripture
2. Romanticizing the Past (Numbers 14)
In Numbers 14, the terrified Israelites demand a new leader to take them back to Egypt. They prefer the familiar misery of slavery to the unknown challenges of freedom. Why is it so easy to romanticize the past when facing present difficulties? How does God’s discipline of wandering for forty years directly address their refusal to trust him?
3. Tangible Reminders of Faith (Numbers 15:38–39)
Numbers 15 concludes with a practical instruction. God tells the Israelites to wear fringes on the corners of their garments. These tassels served as a daily visual cue to remember his commandments. What physical reminders do you use to keep your faith at the center of your life?