Saturday, June 20, 2020


Shlach (שְׁלַח) #7972 to send away
Numbers 13:1-15:41
Joshua 2:1-24
Hebrews 3:7-4:11

 Adonai said to Moshe, “Send men on your behalf to reconnoiter the land of Kena‘an, which I am giving to the people of Isra’el. From each ancestral tribe send someone who is a leader in his tribe.” Bamidbar 13:1-2 CJB

This is the LORD giving permission, this is the land that HE had given to them. that HE had commanded them to take possession of, twelve spies one from each tribe save the Levites because they had no inheritance in the land; for the LORD is their inheritance. "From the tribe of Y’hudah, Kalev the son of Y’funeh" Caleb was a Kezenite, a convert from among the mixed multitude, an Edomite now counted as a leader in the tribe of Y'hudah.

In Bamidbar 13:17 Moshe directs the spies to enter the land from the south. The southern portion of Kena'an is barren and dry, the more pleasing and fruitful lands are to the north leading the spies from the less desirable to the better, just as a merchant shows his wares showing the less valuable first and the more precious last. 

Forty days later, they returned from reconnoitering the land and went to Moshe, Aharon, and the entire community of the people of Isra’el at Kadesh in the Pa’ran Desert, where they brought back word to them and to the entire community and showed them the fruit of the land.  What they told him was this: “We entered the land where you sent us, and indeed it does flow with milk and honey — here is its fruit!  However, the people living in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the ‘Anakim there.‘Amalek lives in the area of the Negev; the Hitti, the Y’vusi, and the Emori live in the hills; the Kena‘ani live by the sea and alongside the Yarden.”  Bamidbar 13:25-29 CJB
The spies are describing a seemingly impossible situation, if they enter the land they will not be able to escape.

We saw the N’filim, the descendants of ‘Anak, who was from the N’filim; to ourselves, we looked like grasshoppers by comparison, and we looked that way to them too!” Bamidbar 13:33 - though they only saw three, those named earlier in the chapter;  Achiman, Sheshai, and Talmai whom they saw in Hevron.

The children of Israel turn on Moshe, Lamenting that they wished they had stayed in Egypt, adding that they would rather have died in the wilderness (Bamidbar 11:1-3) than now have to go up against such odds and die by the sword.
Some people seek to stone Moshe, Aharon, Calev, and Y'hoshua; but the glory of the LORD appears in the tent of meeting and rules that no one over the age of twenty, who was numbered in the census will enter the land of promise save Calev and Y'hoshua (and perhaps the Levites who were counted separately from the age of one month and up). then the ten spies who gave a bad report died of the plague there before the glory of the LORD.

When Moshe told these things to all the people of Isra’el, the people felt great remorse.  They arose early the next morning, came up to the top of the mountain, and said, “Here we are, and we did sin, but now we’ll go up to the place Adonai promised.” Moshe answered, “Why are you opposing what Adonai said? You won’t succeed! Don’t go up there, because Adonai isn’t with you. If you do, your enemies will defeat you. The ‘Amalekim and the Kena‘anim are there ahead of you, and you will be struck down by the sword. The reason will be that you have turned away from following Adonai so that Adonai won’t be with you.”
But they were presumptuous and went on up toward the high parts of the hill-country, even though the ark for the covenant of Adonai — and Moshe — stayed in the camp. So the ‘Amalekim and the Kena‘anim living in that hill-country descended, struck them down and beat them back all the way to Hormah. Bamidbar 14:39 - 45
 The children of Israel mourned greatly, not a godly sorrow, or true repentance for sin committed, but a worldly sorrow; it was not on account of their sin, the pardon of which they did not seem to seek after; but because of the consequences that would befall them. And so like disobedience children, they presumed to ignore the LORD's judgment and despite Moshe's warnings set out to take the promised land against the LORD's will (Bamidbar 14:8 - If Adonai is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us — a land flowing with milk and honey.)


Korach (קֹרַח ) #7141 Ice, bald
Numbers 16:1-18:32
1 Samuel 11:14-12:22
Acts 5:1-11

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