Numbers 13:2: “Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, everyone a ruler among them.”
We all know this story, the children of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land. God sends some spies out and they see giants and but for Caleb and Joshua who say: God gave us this land, giants or no giants, let’s go get it.” The other ten spies balked and said these giants will crush us and lop our heads off.
My study partner and I examined this verse in the Hebrew and found some interesting twists. The first thing that stands out is the word after the first word shalach or send. Every English Translation, excepts the NASB translates this as Send thou men. Every modern translation totally ignores the word leka for you or for yourself. I found one commentator who addressed this strange syntax. When God said: Send thou men it was not a command but the granting of permission. In other words God said: “Ok, send for yourself men but it is not my idea or what I want.”
I remember sitting in Sunday School as a child listening to this story and wondering why God wanted to send out twelve spies only to have them return with a negative report. Would it not have been better that He just kept everyone in the dark about the giants and then just sprung it on them at the last minute and before they could get out of Dodge, God would whip out a miracle and suddenly they would see those giants scatter? Instead he sends out ten spies and when they see the giants they are naturally terrified. Some translations will say: “Send out men from among you.” This is done to find some reason for the word leka. But I am sorry, if the intent was from among you it would have used a Mem and not a Lamed. I went to Jewish literature and found in the Midrash Rabbah that they do indeed translate as “Send out men for yourselves.” This is really the most correct rendering, but it does not make much sense unless you follow the Jewish interpretation and that this that God never intended for Israel to know what awaited them in the Promised Land. As just a little kid in Sunday School I had it right all along. God wanted to spring the giants on them at the last minute so they would not have time to run away.
According to Jewish interpretation, the people wanted to know what awaited them in the land, they insisted upon it so God allowed them to spy it out and sure enough what He expected to happen did. They saw the giants and their faith was carried away with the wind. After all those miracles of crossing the Red Sea, the plagues of Egypt, giving them manna from heaven and water from a rock, they come to the end of their journey ready to enter the Promised Land and they still cannot just blindly trust God. They have to know what is in there before they follow God.
If God calls you to do something out of your comfort zone do you become like Israel. After years of miracles from God, provision from God when He ask you to step out into the unknown you hesitate. You stop and think of the dangers of the unknown of what to expect in this Promised Land, just like Israel and insist that God lets you spy it out first to make sure there is a steady paycheck, no giants out there ready to lop your head off. Rather, are you willing to say what Israel should have said; “We don’t know what is waiting for us up there in the Promised Land, we heard stories of giants and powerful armies, but dog gone it, God promised this land to us, He brought us this far by faith and by George we will go the rest of the way by faith.”
Not only does the words leka for yourselves indicate God’s displeasure over this covert operation but look at the word He chose for the men in Send thou men. That is the word ‘anash which is a word for a sickly, grievous cancer ridden man. To Him these men were weak and feeble which is why he called them ‘anash.
Yet my study partner pointed out something very curious in this passage in the Hebrew. The words echod ish is repeated twice. The word echod means one but a collective one and ish is the general word for man both spiritual and physical. It is used in the phrase: “of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man,” Instead of repeating the word ‘anash for man he uses the more common and less derogatory word ish. I can’t say for sure why he used the ish the second time and then repeated is unless God was saying you are to choose men who think like you do, the collective one echod and ish for the physical thinking part of man and then the second echod is for the collective spiritual man. In other words chose a man who thinks like the people and has a spirit like the people have. Thus when they return they will be speaking for the whole body, they will not influence the others for they will only be speaking the mind and spirit of the others.
But soft, look at the end of the verse, God now calls these who are chosen princes. The word used is nasa’ which can mean a prince or ruler, but you have other words for that like adoni and melek. Nasa’ is a strange word to us for a ruler or leader as it really means to exalt or lift up. I suspect there is a play on words here. The first word used for man which is a weak, feeble man an ‘anash which is spelled Aleph, Nun, Shin Yod Mem. The word for princes is nasa’ which is spelled Nun Shin Yod Alep. The shadow meaning of the Aleph is ambivalence, uncertainty, or fluctuation caused by the inability to make a choice. These are the men that God send to send out as spies because they are the men who represented the mind and spirit of the people who could not just focus on doing the will of God, they had to have assurances and guarantees. These men because princes or nasa’ the ones who were exalted and hence the ones they took their advice from and not from Moses or the Godly men like Joshua and Caleb they listened to the nasa’ spelled Nun Shin Yod Aleph, note that the Aleph appears at the end of the word. The men were guided by ambivalence and another meaning for the Aleph is God which finds Himself at the end of the word for prince. The people listened to their leaders before God.
Some of us have been Christians for a long time. We have had a lifetime of God’s protection, provision and guidance. Yet when God calls us to leave our comfort zone we balk, we want assurances. Careful, God may give his reluctant permission for you to get a glimpse of the giants that are ahead and like Israel when you see the giants, you may just remain in your comfort zone and never enter the Promised Land to see God conquer those giants. God did not give us a lifetime of miracles, provisions and guidance only to have us balk just before getting the prize or the Promised Land. Yeah, we will face giants, but we should have enough experience to know God will make short work of them.
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