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Page 24
THE STORY OF THE GRAPES FROM CANAAN
The Israelites stayed in their camp before Mount Sinai almost a year,
while they were building the Tabernacle and learning God's laws given
through Moses. At last the cloud over the Tabernacle rose up, and the
people knew that this was the sign for them to move. They took down the
Tabernacle and their own tents, and journeyed toward the land of Canaan
for many days.
At last they came to a place just on the border between the desert and
Canaan, called Kadesh, or Kadesh-barnea. Here they stopped to rest, for
there were many springs of water and some grass for their cattle. While
they were waiting at Kadesh-barnea and were expecting soon to march into
the land which was to be their home, God told Moses to send onward some
men who should walk through the land and look at it, and then come back
and tell what they had found; what kind of a land it was, and what
fruits grew in it, and what people were living in it. The Israelites
could more easily win the land if these men, after walking through it,
could act as their guides and point out the best places in it and the
best plans of making war upon it.
[Illustration: _A cluster of grapes so large that two men carried
it_]
So Moses chose out some men of high rank among the people, one ruler
from each tribe, twelve men in all. One of these was Joshua, who was the
helper of Moses in caring for the people, and another was Caleb, who
belonged to the tribe of Judah. These twelve men went out and walked
over the mountains of Canaan and looked at the cities and saw the
fields. In one place, just before they came back to the camp, they cut
down a cluster of ripe grapes which was so large that two men carried it
between them, hanging from a staff. They named the place where they
found this bunch of grapes Eshcol, a word which means "a cluster." These
twelve men were called "spies," because they went "to spy out the land";
and after forty days they came back to the camp, and this was what they
said:
"We walked all over the land and found it a rich land. There is grass
for all our flocks, and fields where we can raise grain, and trees
bearing fruits, and streams running down the sides of the hills. But we
found that the people who live there are very strong and are men of war.
They have cities with walls that reach almost up to the sky; and some of
the men are giants, so tall that we felt that we were like grasshoppers
beside them."
One of the spies, who was Caleb, said, "All that is true, yet we need
not be afraid to go up and take the land. It is a good land, well worth
fighting for; God is on our side, and he will help us to overcome those
people."
But all the other spies, except Joshua, said, "No, there is no use in
trying to make war upon such strong people. We can never take those
walled cities, and we dare not fight those tall giants."
And the people, who had journeyed all the way through the wilderness to
find this very land, were so frightened by the words of the ten spies
that now, on the very border of Canaan, they dared not enter it. They
forgot that God had led them out of Egypt, that he had kept them in the
dangers of the desert, that he had given them water out of the rock, and
bread from the sky, and his law from the mountain.
All that night, after the spies had brought back their report, the
people were so frightened that they could not sleep. They cried out
against Moses, and blamed him for bringing them out of the land of
Egypt. They forgot all their troubles in Egypt, their toil and their
slavery, and resolved to go back to that land. They said:
"Let us choose a ruler in place of Moses, who has brought us into all
these evils, and let us turn back to the land of Egypt!"
But Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, said, "Why should we fear? The
land of Canaan is a good land; it is rich with milk and honey. If God is
our friend and is with us, we can easily conquer the people who live
there. Above all things, let us not rebel against the Lord, or disobey
him, and make him our enemy."
But the people were so angry with Caleb and Joshua that they were ready
to stone them and kill them. Then suddenly the people saw a strange
sight. The glory of the Lord, which stayed in the Holy of Holies, the
inner room of the Tabernacle, now flashed out, and shone from the door
of the Tabernacle.
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