Numbers 13:30

"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they spied out unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

This crooked rebuttal on the part of the majority is called "an evil report," and the basic meaning of such a charge lays a mighty challenge as to the veracity of what that majority said. The commentators have tried to make their report "accurate," and "in keeping with the facts," but look at that line which says:

"It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof ..." That was simply a bold and unprincipled LIE, designed to scare the people into following the false leaders. We have no patience with the commentators who make this a TRUTHFUL declaration, affirming that it means the land was so fruitful that people continually fought over it, and the consequent wars were what ate up the inhabitants, but that is not the LAND'S doing so! There is another falsehood here.

True, they saw the sons of Anak, and they mentioned the "giants" in their first report; but note the change: "All the people that we saw were men of great stature." So, they saw a few giants and then cried that "all the people" were giants!

Yes, their report was evil, false, inaccurate, exaggerated, slanted, and perverted to serve their lack of faith. It is not the first time, nor the last, that a majority has shouted a lie to persuade the thoughtless to follow them instead of the true leaders. "How exaggerated and one-sided is the distrust of God's promises ..."[23]

Caleb's magnificent challenge here stands out as the words of a true believer: "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."

Such noble words are worthy to be the motto of any church or of any believer. They sprang from a heart of faith. Caleb's confidence was not in Caleb, but in the God of Israel. The "giants" of Canaan struck no fear into his courageous heart, for he, like Paul, knew "Whom he had believed" and was sure of his ability in that strength to overcome.

"They brought up an evil report of the land ..." The Hebrew from which this is translated is, "They made go at a defamation of the land."[24] This has the effect as making their charges to be falsehoods, and certainly this nonsense about the land eating up the people must rank as the yarn of a champion liar!

"The Nephilim ..." is translated "giants" in the Septuagint (LXX), and that is probably the true meaning of it. "They are mentioned elsewhere only in Genesis 6:4."[25]

In regard to the questions that naturally arise concerning those "giants," Plaut has the following:

"The Anakites were long understood to denote `giants.' Although anthropology has no evidence that men of unusual size lived in Palestine during that period, nevertheless the reason for the tradition is clear. "The existing dolmens and the size and strength of the Canaanite fortresses suggest that only giants could have built them. We find this same idea among the Greeks, who reported that huge walls of their ancient cities had been built by the Cyclopes, giant artisans from Asia Minor. This tradition has led to the expression `Cyclopean masonry,' to describe the huge blocks used in constructing some ancient cities."[26]

The Biblical description of Goliath gives his height at "six cubits and a span," (1 Samuel 17:4), namely about 10 feet! There are occasional giants in nearly every country. The famous Cape Breton Giant was a person of great size, as attested by the wax image clad in clothes actually worn by him, and exhibited in the museum at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ethan Allen Crawford of Vermont was also a man of incredible strength who lifted a horse up a thirty-foot cliff! A few of our current basketball stars approach giant stature.

The next chapter reveals what a nation of cry-babies Israel was at this time, and this is an appropriate place to take a closer look at what we shall call:

THE LOST GENERATION

Text: "Surely they shall not see the land that I sware unto their fathers."

Intro: There is a world of interest in this tragic story of a lost generation. Their generation had begun in glorious success. Through God's blessing, they had been liberated from slavery in Egypt. In their immediate past history, there were the astounding wonders of the Red Sea crossing, the destruction of their enemies in the sea, the glory of the fiery, cloudy pillar, the thunders of Sinai, the holy Covenant, the manna, and such miracles as humanity had never before seen. Yet they were defeated, lost, and condemned to die in the wilderness. From their tragic mistakes, there may be gleaned precious truth that might prevent other generations from following their pathetic example. Why did they fail?

I. They had a morbid fear of the dangers. Schooled in slavery and reared in servitude they were, in a word, cowards. They were afraid someone might get hurt.

II. They had no regard for liberty to which they were called, and they even contemplated stoning Joshua and Caleb and returning as slaves of Pharaoh! They were willing that their little children should have holes drilled in their ears marking them the chattels of Pharaoh, rather than suffer the hardships incumbent upon all who would be free.

III. They allowed themselves to fall into "unbelief." When it is recalled that they had every conceivable reason for believing in God, how almost incredible is the record that they let genuine faith slip away! Many Christians are confronted with the same temptation.

IV. They lost their self-respect. Read those lines again about the grasshoppers! What an amazing self-depreciation appears. "We were in our sight as grasshoppers!"

V. They accepted the majority report. What a devilish thing is "the majority"! They gave heed to what "the majority said," not to what God said. All over the world today, many so-called "believers" are willing to take the "majority opinion" on any vital question - baptism, the Lord's Supper, the inspiration of the Bible, or anything else. Majorities are practically always wrong, as they proved to be here.

VI. They were thinking merely of what they personally could do, and not about the power of the Lord.

VII. They had a small eye upon themselves, a big eye upon their enemies, and no eye at all upon God.

Shammua, Shaphat, and Sethur, etc., these were mighty men, princes in Israel, but they were shamefully and tragically wrong. We should never look upon the excellence or the rank of men, nor their appearance of being in the majority, as any kind of a safe criterion by which one may find it safe to follow them. The majority report ruined the thousands of Israel for a whole generation; and may we add, tearfully, it is still ruining countless thousands of others today.