The Book of Deuteronomy (Hebrew “Devarim”) was recited to Israel on Mt. Nebo just before Israel entered the land. Moses’ work in this age has been completed. Joshua would lead Israel into the Promised Land. Since the specific date was given, the first day of the 11th month of the 40th year, it would be only 70 days before Israel crossed the Jordan River and began the conquest.
The land that God would give to Israel is defined once again.
“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them.’” (Deuteronomy 1:6-8)
This land can roughly be described as the land from the desert in the south (Sinai) to the Euphrates River (the great river) in the north and from the sea in the west (the Mediterranean) to the desert to the east. This is the land bridge between the two ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
God commanded Israel to “go in and possess” the land. To do this they would have to dispossess the Canaanites who were already there. This would entail bold spiritual as well as physical battles. They would have to forcibly take the land from the Canaanites. Moses declared, “Do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you.” God would do this by,
“This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.” (Deuteronomy 2:25).
God would also harden the hearts of the Canaanites as He had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:30). When God “hardens the heart” of an enemy, He makes him foolishly aggressive. God used both fear and the hardening of their hearts to undermine the Canaanites. Whenever Israel believed God and boldly advanced against their enemies, their enemies could not stand in battle and were defeated. The opposite occurred when Israel disobeyed the Lord and attempted to avoid the conflict. Their enemies were emboldened and defeated Israel. Finally, we know from the book of Joshua that God entered the battle directly as needed. I believe that these commands are as applicable today as they were when Moses spoke them.
In the account presented in the book of Numbers, it sounds as if God wanted Israel to send spies into the promised land to assess the difficulty of conquering the land.
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” (Numbers 13:1-2)
It is not often that a clarification occurs in the Bible. This is one such case.
“Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter. The thing pleased me and I took of your men, one man for each tribe…”. (Deuteronomy 1:22-23)
So we may conclude that spying out the land was not God’s idea, it was a result of the apprehension of the people. After the spies returned, two men, Caleb ben Jephunneh and Joshua ben Nun, encouraged Israel to advance in the conquest of the land because they knew that the Lord was with them. The other spies only saw the challenge in terms of their perceived natural strength. This speaks to the faith process. Whenever we have a sure word of faith concerning any endeavor, we know that the Lord is with us; therefore, we will be able to accomplish the endeavor. Making an assessment of our physical capability is counter-productive to our faith. We are admonished to “count the cost” but that only means that we must be able to endure whatever consequences comes with our faith assignment.
Throughout the life of Joshua and beyond, Israel would be engaged in possessing the land that God had promised them. Fulfilling a faith assignment – both then and now – involves believing a word from God and stepping out to act on it. As James writes, “I will show you faith by my works.”
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