A Different Spirit
Numbers 13 & 14
Tim Nay
Part of Wanderings & WondersLessons from the Wilderness
August 17, 2025
Numbers 13:1-17
THE STORY:
• Twelve warriors INVESTIGATED the land.
Numbers 13:17-20
Spies Sent to Investigate the Promised Land:
• Are the people strong or weak?
• Are the people many or few?
• Is the land (soil) good or bad?
• Are the cities, camps or strongholds?
• Is the land rich or poor?
• Are there trees or no trees?
• Bring some fruit of the land.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) —Numbers 13:21-22
Numbers 13:25-29; 31-33
Ten of Them Report:
- It flows with milk and honey
- People are too strong for us.
- Cities are too fortified for us.
- People are giants.
- The land devours its inhabitants.
- We are NOT able to go against these people.
THE STORY:
• Twelve warriors investigated the land.
• Ten saw DEFEAT.
Numbers 13:30; 14:6-9
Two of them report:
- It’s an exceedingly good land.
- God delights in us!
- God will give it to us!
- We are well able to overcome it!
- Let’s go into Canaan at once!
THE STORY:
• Twelve warriors investigated the land.
• Ten saw defeat.
• Two saw VICTORY.
LESSONS
What is POPULAR is NOT always RIGHT.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” —Matthew 7:13-14
—Hebrews 13:7
1 “Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” —Numbers 14:1-4
LESSONS
What is popular is not always right.
On the road to God’s future, DO NOT look BACK.
Have the ‘DIFFERENT spirit’ Caleb had.
—Numbers 14:20-24
29 “your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.” —Numbers 14:29-31
Have the ‘different spirit’ Caleb had.
