And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he took (because he took a Cushite wife); and they said, “Has Yahweh spoken only through Moses? Has not Yahweh also spoken through us?” And Yahweh heard it. Now the man, Moses, was more humble than any other person on the face of the earth, and Yahweh said suddenly to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Go out, you three, to the tent of assembly.” So the three of them when out. And Yahweh went down in a column of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and he called Aaron and Miriam, and the two of them went, and he said,

“Please hear my words:

If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh,

will make myself known to him in a vision.

I will speak to him in a dream.

Not so with my servant Moses;

in all my house he is faithful.

I will speak to him mouth to mouth,

in clearness, not in riddles;

and he will look at the form of Yahweh.

Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

And Yahweh became very angry with them, and he went away. And the cloud departed from on the tent, and behold, Miriam was infected with a skin disease white like snow; when Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was afflicted with a skin disease. So Aaron said to Moses, “Please, my lord, please do not put on us this sin in which we were foolish and in which we have sinned. Please do not let her be like the dead, whose flesh is half consumed when coming out from the womb of its mother.” And Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “God, please heal her!” But Yahweh said to Moses, “If her father had surely spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be confined for seven days to an outside place of the camp, and afterward she may be gathered.” So Miriam was confined to the outside place of the camp seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam was gathered. And afterward the people set out from Hazeroth, and they encamped in the desert of Paran.

And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Send for yourself men, and let them explore the land of Canaan, which I am about to give to the Israelites; from each tribe of his father send one man, everyone a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran on the command of Yahweh; all of the men were leaders of the Israelites. And these are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to explore the land. And Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua.

Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan, and he said to them, “Go up like this to the Negev, and go up into the hill country, and you will see what the land is like and if the people who inhabit it are strong or weak, or whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they are inhabiting is good or bad, and whether the cities they are inhabiting are camps or fortifications, and whether the land is fertile or lean, and whether there are trees on it or not. You will show yourself courageous, and you will take some of the fruit of the land.” It was the time of first ripe grapes.

So they went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin until Rehob, at Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai the descendants of the Anakites were. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came up to the valley of Eshcol, and they cut off a vine branch and one cluster of grapes from there; they carried it on a pole between two men, with pomegranates and figs. That place he called the valley of Eshcol on account of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut off from there.

They returned from exploring the land at the end of forty days. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to the entire community of the Israelites in the desert of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land that you sent us, and it is flowing of milk and honey; this is its fruit. Yet the people who are inhabiting it are strong and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of the Anakites there. The Amalekites are living in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country; and the Canaanites are living at the sea and on the banks of the Jordan.”

And Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “Surely, let us go up and let us take possession of it because surely we will be able to prevail over it.” And the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up to the people because they are stronger than us.” And they presented the report of the land that they explored to the Israelites, saying, “The land that we went through to explore is a land that eats its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in its midst are men of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their eyes.”

Then all the community lifted up their voices, and the people wept during that night. And all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and all the community said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this desert! Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” They said to each other, “Let us appoint a leader, and we will return to Egypt.”

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly of the community of the Israelites. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the explorers of the land, tore their garments. And they said to all the community of the Israelites, “The land that we went through to explore is an exceptionally good land. If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and he will give it to us, a land that is flowing with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and you will not fear the people of the land, because they will be our food. Their protection has been turned from them; Yahweh is with us. You should not fear them.” And all the community said to stone them with stones, but the glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of assembly among the Israelites.

And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long until this people will despise me, and how long until they will not believe in me, and in all the signs that I have done in their midst? I will strike them with disease, and I will dispossess them; I will make you into a greater and stronger nation than them.”

And Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear that you brought up this people from their midst in your power, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you are seen eye to eye, and your cloud is standing over them, and in a column of cloud you go before them by day and in a column of fire at night. But if you destroy this people all at once, the nations that will have heard your message will say, ‘Yahweh was unable to bring this people in the land that he swore by an oath, and he slaughtered them in the desert.’ But now, please, let the power of my Lord be great, just has you spoke,

‘Yahweh is slow to anger

and great of loyal love,

forgiving sin and rebellion;

but surely he leaves nothing unpunished,

visiting the sin of the fathers on the sons

to the third and fourth generations.’

Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, just as you forgave this people, from Egypt until now.”

Yahweh said, “I have forgiven them according to your word; but as I am alive, the glory of Yahweh will fill all the earth. But because all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the desert yet tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice, they will not see the land that I swore by oath to their ancestors, and all those who despised me will not see it. But my servant Caleb, because another spirit was with him, he remained true after me, and I will bring him into the land that he entered, and his offspring will take possession of it. And the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; tomorrow turn and set out for the desert by way of the Red Sea.”

And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long will I bear this evil community who are grumbling against me? I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites which they are making against me. Say to them, ‘Surely as I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘just as you spoke in my hearing, so I will do to you; in this desert your corpses will fall, and all your counted ones, according to all your number, from twenty years old and above who grumbled against me. You yourselves will not come into the land that I swore by oath to make you to dwell in it, but Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But your little children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected. But for you, all your corpses will fall in this desert. And your children will be shepherds in the desert forty years, and you will bear your unfaithfulness until all your corpses have fallen in the desert. According to the number of the days that you explored the land, forty days, a day for each year, you will bear your sins forty years, and you will know my opposition.’ I, Yahweh, have spoken; I will surely do this to all this evil community who has banded together against me. In this desert they will come to an end, and there they will die.”

As for the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the community grumble against him by spreading a report over the land, the men who spread the evil report of the land died by the plague before Yahweh. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived from among the men who went to explore the land.

And Moses spoke words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly. They rose early in the morning and went to the top of the mount, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that Yahweh said, because we have sinned.” But Moses said, “Why are you going against the command of Yahweh? It will not succeed. You should not go up because Yahweh is not in your midst; do not let yourselves be defeated in the presence of your enemies, because the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned back from Yahweh, and Yahweh will not be with you.” But they dared to go to the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who were living on the mountain descended, and they beat them down, up to Hormah.

A psalm of David.

To you, O Yahweh, I call.

O my rock, do not be deaf to me.

Or else, if you are silent to me,

then I will become like those descending to the pit.

Hear the voice of my supplications

when I cry to you for help,

when I lift up my hands

toward your holy inner sanctuary.

Do not drag me away with the wicked

or with the workers of evil,

who speak of peace with their neighbors,

while evil is in their heart.

Give to them according to their work,

even according to the evil of their deeds.

Give to them according to the work of their hands;

repay them their rightful due.

Because they do not regard the works of Yahweh,

nor the work of his hands,

he will destroy them

and not rebuild them.

Blessed is Yahweh,

because he has heard the voice of my supplications.

Yahweh is my strength and my shield.

My heart trusts him and I am helped.

So my heart rejoices,

and with my song I will give thanks to him.

Yahweh is their strength,

and he is the refuge for the salvation of his anointed one.

Save your people

and bless your heritage.

Shepherd them also and carry them always.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on behalf of you, and those in Laodicea, and all those who have not seen my face in person, so that their hearts may be encouraged, united in love and into all the wealth of the full assurance of insight into the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. I say this in order that no one will deceive you with persuasive speech, for even if I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, live in him, firmly rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding with thankfulness. Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ, because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you are filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority, in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, by the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which also you were raised together with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And although you were dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having destroyed the certificate of indebtedness in ordinances against us, which was hostile to us, and removed it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. When he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of them in public, triumphing over them by it.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ. Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about the things which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world? “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, which things although they have, to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, do not have any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Until next time, keep meditating on the word of God.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.