Faith In The Words We Speak

What is faith? Faith is difficult to measure and define, however, it is generally defined by a strong conviction in someone or something. In the New Testament we read the following description of faith:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1

Faith expresses a certainty in something that is to be gained in the future or even the certainty of something that exists without actually seeing it with one’s eyes. The New Testament book of Hebrews chapter eleven is filled with account after account of those who lived a life of faith and expressed it by their words and actions.

Are you living a life of faith?

What does it mean to live a life of faith?

In this week’s Torah Portion we are given clear examples through the lives of certain individuals of what faith is and what faith is not. We read about these two sides of faith in the account of the twelve spies who went into the Promised Land:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. – Num. 13:1-2

It began with the command of the LORD to choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel to spy out the Land. Moses then chose the twelve men and sent them out.

The goal of spying out the land was not to decide whether or not the Israelites should go up and conquer the Land but rather, it was only to get perspective of the Land that God had already promised to give to them. Unfortunately, the majority of the spies who went into the Land took it upon themselves to determine which direction the nation should go:

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.” – Num. 13:25-29

The spies confirmed the condition of the Land as being extremely abundant and bearing good fruit, however, the goodness of the Land became overshadowed by their fear of the people living in it.

Fear Destroys Faith

The majority of the spies had determined that although the land did indeed flow with milk and honey, the people living in the land appeared to them as giants and their cities were well fortified, therefore, it was all meaningless. The turning point in the above report given by the spies hinges on the word “nevertheless” which is consistent in most translations of the Bible, however, the original Hebrew conveys an even stronger meaning.

The Hebrew for the word “nevertheless” in Numbers 13:28 literally reads אפס כי – Efes Ki. The word כי – Ki is a conjunction and is commonly used to bring transition in a sentence. The word אפס – Efes, however, has the meaning of ceasing and nonexistence. In Modern Hebrew the word אפס – Efes means nothing and is also the word for the number zero! The ten spies declared that all of the bounty and fruitfulness of the Land was meaningless and counted as nothing because in their eyes the Land was unattainable. Fear of the enemy overshadowed the promises of God to give them this Land.

Most of us are familiar with the story of the twelve spies and we know that although the majority of them lacked the faith to go up and conquer the land, Joshua and Caleb had the faith to accomplish this task:

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” – Num. 13:30-33

Despite Caleb’s rallying call to go forward and possess the Land, the other ten spies were dead set against this as they provided various reasons for not going up, including the statement that the Land devours its inhabitants.

Beware Of Calling Bad What God Calls Good

The ten spies who discouraged the people from going up to possess the Land turned their previous good report about the Land (Num. 13:27) into a bad report about the Land. We read in the above verses the following phrase: “So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land…” (Num. 13:32a). The ten spies chose to speak ill of the blessed Land that God had promised to give them through the prophet Moses:

So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. – Ex. 3:8

The fact that all of these various peoples were dwelling in the Land should not have taken away from the reality of the good Land that God promised His people. The lack of faith of the ten spies led them to even deny the reality of the goodness of the Land. We need to be careful to not call bad what God has called good. Faith speaks in agreement with God’s words, whereas fear denies God’s words and seeks to twist them.

Words Of Faith

In contrast to the negative report of the ten spies regarding the Land, Joshua and Caleb stood up and declared the truth about the Land and remained hopeful that God would fulfill His promise to them:

Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. – Num. 14:6-10

Joshua and Caleb were unashamed to declare the truth about the Land and stated that it is an “exceedingly good land.” They also remained steadfast and proclaimed in faith that the LORD would bring them into the Land and remove the protection of the people. There is a striking contrast between the faith of Joshua and Caleb in relation to the lack of faith of the ten spies who polluted all of the people with their words of doubt and fear.

There Is Power In Our Words

In the end, the LORD Himself judged the whole nation of Israel for their lack of faith but rewarded Joshua and Caleb. All of those in the nation of Israel at that time who were aged 20 years old and upward died in the desert over the next 40 years, however, the ten spies who spoke fear and perverted God’s words were struck down by a plague from the LORD:

As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the LORD. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land. – Num. 14:36-38

Twice in the above verses we read how the ten spies brought out a bad report about the land, even a “very bad report of the land” which is in direct contrast to the exceedingly good report of Joshua and Caleb.

Twelve men toured the Land together and they all saw the exact same landscape, abundant fruit, and various people, however, ten of them only focused on the bad while two of them focused on the good. Above and beyond their perspectives of the Land, Joshua and Caleb repeated the promises of God and had faith in those promises while the other ten ignored the promises of God and sowed doubt and fear among the people. The example of Joshua and Caleb of what it means to have faith and to live a life of faith could not be any clearer. Faith is taking God at His word, believing His word, proclaiming His word, and acting upon His word when necessary. We see one more excellent example of faith in this week’s reading from the prophets.

The Faith Of A Woman

Forty years later, when the Israelites actually entered the Promised Land, Joshua sent two spies into the city of Jericho. The spies went into the city and stayed at the home of a prostitute. The King of Jericho sent men to bring these two spies out but Rahab told them that they had already left, although in reality, she had hidden them on the roof. She then told the two spies everything that was in her heart:

Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” So the men said to her, “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” – Joshua 2:8-14

Rahab and her people had heard all that the LORD had done for the Israelites ever since He had brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and throughout the surrounding countryside. Rahab not only heard about all of this but she fully believed that the LORD was God of heaven and earth and that He had given the Land to the Israelites. Rahab believed in the LORD and believed in what He would do. This is faith!

From the biblical perspective, faith is simply believing what God has spoken and being certain that He will keep His word until the end. When we walk in faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we declare to the world that the Bible is God’s Word and we trust Him to fulfill every promise that He has made. We act on this faith in accordance to what He has commanded us and leave the results to Him. God rewarded Joshua and Caleb with life along with the right and privilege to enter the Land 40 years later. God also gave life to Rahab (Hebrews 11:30-31) and her family and rewarded her with the privilege of continuing the line of the Messiah (Matt. 1:1-6).

The words that we speak every day are powerful. The words that we speak can either be words of faith or words of fear, words that confirm the truth of God’s Word or words that deny the truth of God’s Word. In the book of Proverbs, we read this truth:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. – Prov. 18:21

The words that we speak literally have the power of life and death. By believing and proclaiming God’s Word we are speaking life. Let us learn from the examples of Joshua, Caleb, and Rahab by living a life of faith and speaking in agreement with God’s Word!

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Num. 13:1 – Num. 15:41

Haftara: Joshua 2:1-24

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