Commentary - Deuteronomy 1:22-25

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, Moses is recounting the history of Israel's failure at Kadesh-barnea for the benefit of the new generation poised to enter the Promised Land. The section before us details the initial proposal by the people to send spies into Canaan. On the surface, the request seems prudent, a reasonable bit of military reconnaissance. However, when read in the light of what God had already promised and what their subsequent actions revealed, this request was the first crack in the dam of their faith. It was a subtle shift from resting on the plain word of God to demanding empirical confirmation. God had already told them the land was good and that He would give it to them. Their desire to "search it out for us" betrayed a heart that was already wavering. Moses agrees to the plan, and God condescends to it, but the fruit of this man-made strategy, as we will see, was disastrous. The spies' report, though acknowledging the land's goodness, ultimately magnified the obstacles and catalyzed the people's unbelief, leading to forty years of wandering. This is a foundational lesson on the nature of faith: it acts on God's promise, not on the basis of human fact-finding missions that seek to second-guess the Almighty.

The core issue here is the difference between wise preparation and faithless hesitation. God does not condemn prudent planning, but He does condemn a prudence that is rooted in suspicion of His character and promises. The people wanted to know "the way by which we should go up," but God had already promised to be their guide. They wanted to know about "the cities," but God had already promised to defeat their inhabitants. Their request, though it sounded good to Moses, was an attempt to walk by sight, not by faith. This incident serves as a permanent warning against the temptation to place our confidence in our own assessments rather than in the clear, unambiguous promises of our covenant-keeping God.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

This passage occurs at the very beginning of Deuteronomy, which is structured as a series of farewell addresses from Moses to Israel on the plains of Moab. They are on the eastern bank of the Jordan, about to cross over and take the land. The entire book is a renewal of the covenant for the generation that grew up in the wilderness. Moses begins by recounting their history, focusing specifically on the critical turning points. The rebellion at Kadesh-barnea is the central, catastrophic failure of the previous generation, and Moses brings it up immediately to drive home the lesson: unbelief is disastrous and obedience is the path to blessing. This look backward (Deut 1:6-3:29) is intended to prepare them for the look forward. By reminding them of their fathers' failure, which began with this seemingly innocent request to send spies, Moses is arming them against repeating the same sin. The context is therefore intensely pastoral and didactic. This is not just history; it is a sermon using history as its primary text, with the goal of fostering a robust and obedient faith in the new generation.

Key Issues

A Good Idea That Wasn't

One of the most dangerous places for a Christian to be is in the middle of a plan that seems perfectly reasonable, prudent, and wise to every human counselor, but which is subtly rooted in a failure to take God at His word. This is what we see here. "Let us send men before us" sounds like good military strategy. No responsible general marches his army into unknown territory without sending scouts. It is the sort of thing that gets taught at West Point. And yet, in the economy of the covenant, it was the first step off a cliff.

Why? Because Israel was not just any army, and Canaan was not just any territory. They were a covenant people, and their Commander-in-Chief was Yahweh Himself, who had already given them all the reconnaissance they needed. He had said, "I will give you this land. It is a good land. I will drive out your enemies." The demand for more information was not a quest for tactical data; it was a quest for reassurance. It was a desire to have God's bare promise underwritten by a favorable report from their own men. They wanted a second opinion, and in spiritual matters, wanting a second opinion on the word of God is the very definition of unbelief. God condescends to their plan, as He often does, allowing them to follow their own wisdom in order to teach them its folly. The disaster that followed was not because the plan was tactically flawed, but because it was spiritually rotten at the core.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22 “Then all of you came near to 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.’

Moses begins the story by placing the initiative squarely with the people. "All of you came near to me." This was a popular movement. The proposal was not cooked up by a few malcontents; it was the consensus of the congregation. Their request is framed in the language of practical necessity. First, they want the spies to "search out the land for us." The Hebrew word for search, chaphar, often means to dig or explore. They want to do their due diligence. Second, they want a report on "the way by which we should go up." God had promised to lead them with a pillar of cloud and fire; He was their guide. But they wanted a map they could hold in their hands. Third, they wanted intelligence on "the cities which we shall enter." God had promised to give them these cities. He had said He would fight for them. But they wanted to know the height of the walls and the strength of the garrisons. Every part of their request, while sounding sensible, was a subtle vote of no-confidence in the promises and presence of God.

23 And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

Here we see the fallibility of even a great leader like Moses. He says, "the thing was good in my sight." He was persuaded by their logic. It seemed like a wise and prudent course of action. This should be a caution to all leaders in the church. A plan can have unanimous support, it can seem entirely logical, and it can still be displeasing to God if it springs from a root of unbelief. Moses gets caught up in the people's ostensibly reasonable request. So he agrees and sets the plan in motion, selecting twelve men, one from each tribe, to ensure the mission was representative of the whole nation. In Numbers 13, we learn that God permitted this plan, saying "Send men..." God did not command it; He allowed it. He let them have their way, knowing that the lesson learned from the failure of their own wisdom would be more potent than a simple refusal.

24 Then they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out.

The spies carry out their mission. They go up from the wilderness of Paran into the hill country, the mountainous spine of Canaan. They travel as far as the valley of Eshcol, a place name which means "cluster," likely named for the extraordinary produce they found there. They did their job; they spied it out. They were successful in the task assigned to them by the people. They gathered the raw data that had been requested. The execution of the plan was flawless. The problem was never with the execution, but with the premise.

25 Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’

The spies return with two things: evidence and a verdict. The evidence was tangible and spectacular: "some of the fruit of the land." Numbers 13 tells us it was a cluster of grapes so large it had to be carried on a pole between two men, along with pomegranates and figs. This was irrefutable proof that God had not been exaggerating. The verdict they delivered initially confirmed God's promise: "It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us." At this precise moment, everything seems to be going well. The people's plan has worked. They have confirmation. The land is indeed good. This initial, positive report makes the subsequent collapse into unbelief all the more tragic and culpable. They had the promise of God, and now they had a massive cluster of grapes to back it up. They had everything they needed to march forward in faith. And yet, as we know, this good report would immediately be qualified with a "but..." that would curdle the faith of the entire nation.

Application

The lesson of the spies is a foundational one for the Christian life. We are constantly faced with the choice between walking by faith in God's promises and walking by the sight of our own assessments. God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises in His word. He has promised to build His church, to be with us to the end of the age, to provide for our needs, to forgive our sins when we confess them, and to work all things together for our good. The temptation is always to say, "That's a wonderful promise, Lord. Now, let's just send out a committee to see if it's really feasible."

We do this when we look at the cultural giants in our land and conclude that evangelism is hopeless. We do it when we look at our financial statements instead of the promises of our Father and give way to anxiety. We do it when we look at the depth of our own sin and doubt the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse us. We want to bring back a report. We want to see the fruit before we will believe the promise.

This passage calls us to a more rugged, robust faith. A faith that hears the word of God and says "Amen," without needing a focus group to sign off on it. The initial report of the spies was correct: the land is good. The inheritance Christ has won for us is glorious. The fruit is real. The question is not whether the promises are good, but whether we will believe the Promiser. Let us not be like that faithless generation that saw the goodness of the land and still shrank back in fear. Let us rather be like Caleb, who had a different spirit and was ready to go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it through the Christ who strengthens us.