Meditate

13. Exploring Canaan

Spies Sent into Canaan

13

The Lord said to Moses,²“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”³So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites.⁴These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;⁵from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;⁶from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;⁷from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;⁸from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;⁹from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;¹⁰from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;¹¹from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son of Susi;¹²from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;¹³from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;¹⁴from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;¹⁵from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.¹⁶These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country,¹⁸and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,¹⁹and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified,²⁰and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.²²They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)²³And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.²⁴That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.

The Report of the Spies

²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.²⁶And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.²⁷And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.²⁸Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.²⁹The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

³⁰ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”³¹Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.”³²So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.³³There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

12. Spiritual Gifts

One Body with Many Members

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.¹⁵If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.¹⁶And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be?²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

119. Psalm 119

113

I hate the double-minded,

but I love your law.

114

You are my hiding place and my shield;

I hope in your word.

115

Go away from me, you evildoers,

that I may keep the commandments of my God.

116

Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,

and let me not be put to shame in my hope.

117

Hold me up, that I may be safe

and have regard for your statutes continually.

118

You spurn all who go astray from your statutes;

for their cunning is in vain.

119

All the wicked of the earth you count as dross;

therefore I love your decrees.

120

My flesh trembles for fear of you,

and I am afraid of your judgments.

121

I have done what is just and right;

do not leave me to my oppressors.

122

Guarantee your servant’s well-being;

do not let the godless oppress me.

123

My eyes fail from watching for your salvation,

and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.

124

Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love,

and teach me your statutes.

125

I am your servant; give me understanding,

so that I may know your decrees.

126

It is time for the Lord to act,

for your law has been broken.

127

Truly I love your commandments

more than gold, more than fine gold.

128

Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts;

I hate every false way.