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Home , Shlach, The Twelve Spies

THIS WEEK’S PORTION NUMBERS 13:1-15:41 תשרפ לש ח ־ ל ך / Parashat Shelach

In this week’s guide…

Our COMMENTARY from Jason digs down deep beneath the surface of the bad report brought back to and Israel by ten of the spies sent into . We know what those spies said (“We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes as well as theirs!” / Num 13:33), but Jason wants us to examine why they said it. This article exposes one of the roots of the negativity that so easily crops up in us when we face obstacles and challenges in life. If you’re ready to live a life of faith and trust, this is going to move you in that direction...... 1 The NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN invites us to take a closer look at Moses’ response to God’s response to Israel’s failure to believe and ’s good report of the (did you follow that?). If you’ve ever been snubbed or disrespected by the very folks you’ve served and made significant sacrifices for, this article is going to help you! Moses’ incredible grace points us BOTH backward and forward in Scripture, challenging us to walk in Yeshua’s directive to His own “Twelve.”...... 2 BY THE NUMBERS explores the phrase that is the sources the name of this week’s Torah portion, Shelach Lecha (“Send for yourself”). The numerical value of this phrase points us to a foundational truth: we need to be strong in our faith and trust in the Lord. We walk with the God who not only makes promises to us—He keeps them. And our ultimate promise awaits us in the Age to Come —the Era of Messiah. This article will have you shouting with John the Revelator: “Amen! Come, Lord Yeshua!” (Rev 22:20)...... 3

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OVERVIEW

Hebrew for “send,” “send to you,” or “send for yourself, ” Shelach is the 37th . Its name comes from the first distinctive words in the portion: “Send some men on your behalf to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to Bnei-Yisrael. Each man you are to send will be a prince of the tribe of his fathers, a man from each tribe” (Num 13:2 emphasis added). This portion details a pivotal moment in Israel’s story—the saga of . Shelach also includes commandments about offerings, the story of the .( ,ציִצתִ) Sabbath violator, and the commandment of the fringes FUSION GLOBAL WITH RABBI JASON תשרפ לש ח ־ ל ך / Weekly Torah Portion – Parashat Shelach Numbers 13:1-15:41 COMMENTARY by Rabbi Jason Sobel

We have two eyes (ayin in Hebrew). Symbolically, two eyes represent actions or choices of the will—in Jewish thought, one eye is known as the good eye, and one is known as the bad, or evil, eye. Yeshua-Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6:22–23 when He said, “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (NASB).

What is the bad eye? It is the pessimistic eye. It is the cynical eye. The bad eye is always the eye that lets us see the cloud instead of the silver lining. We will remain stuck in (symbolic of confinement) and miss the breakthrough to the degree that we see through the bad eye.

On the other hand, the good eye sees the blessing, abundant and hopeful life, and good in all people, circumstances, and situations.

We find an excellent example of seeing through good and bad eyes after the Children of Israel fled Egypt. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, the Promised Land, to spy it out (Numbers 13–14). Ten spies could only see the problems and pitfalls in Canaan and returned to Israel’s camp speaking about everything that was wrong with the Promised Land. Only two spies could see the good, Joshua and Caleb.

Twelve spies returned from the mission, and ten of them gave an unfavorable report. Those ten allowed their bad eye to prevail. They said, “The land is good. It flows with and . It’s amazing. Look at the enormous fruit we carried back. It was excellent, but . . .”

Friends, your big buts will always get you into trouble. Why do we want to insert our big buts into God’s plans for us? But is the most dangerous word we can say when God shows us something that we assume He can’t handle because we can only see it through our bad eye.

He told those spies they would possess the land, yet they didn’t believe Him. Your big buts will rob you of your breakthrough and life in the overflow. Every one of us has a but that keeps us from transformation and breakthrough.

In this story, the ten spies let fear keep them from living the life God intended to give them. They were afraid of the and fortified . Their lousy eyesight led to wrong thinking, which led to negative speaking, which undermined the children of Israel’s faith, causing that generation of to wander in the desert for forty years, where they died. Their bad eye caused them to bad-mouth the Promised Land and even God and His promises.

- 1 - The eyes and mouth are connected. The two spies who gave a favorable report, Joshua and Caleb, had a different spirit. They looked at the “obstacles” in the Promised Land through their hope-filled, faith-filled good eye because they had their eyes on God. They said, “There are giants in the land—so what? There are fortified cities—so what? Don’t listen to the bad report; listen to God’s promises. Let’s go up and let God give us the breakthrough. God will empower us to breakthrough.”

We can have a breakthrough when we move in God’s time as we see with our good eye. There’s an anointing that moves us through whatever He’s called us to do. If we stare with our bad eye at the Enemy too long, we can think ourselves out of victory and breakthrough. The ten spies spent too much time talking about the problems, while Joshua and Caleb spoke about how God would work out (or transcend) any obstacle they faced.

This week’s Torah Portion is an excerpt from my book, Breakthrough: Living a Life that OVERFLOWS, available from Amazon, or our Fusion website.

NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN

We all know the story by now.

Twelve spies went into Canaan to investigate the land and its inhabitants. Only two of the scouts believed that Israel would be able to take hold of all that God had promised them. Israel’s decision to side with the negative report of the remaining ten spies provoked God’s judgment. He decided to wipe out Israel and start again with Moses (Num 14:11-12).

Moses’ reply is fascinating. Despite being soundly rejected by Israel just a few verses previous (“Let’s choose a leader and let’s go back to Egypt!” in v. 4 counts as rejection, no?), Moses responded to God’s pronounced judgment with a plea for mercy: “Forgive now the guiltiness of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You have pardoned this people from Egypt until now!” (Num 4:19) It’s not unrealistic to suggest that most of us would probably not have been inclined to ask God to pour out His mercy on the nasty, rebellious folks who just tried to replace us after we consistently did nothing but help them.

Israel rejected God’s promise (Canaan) and then rejected His deliverer (Moses).

Perhaps it’s even more intriguing that the Lord listened to Moses’ plea: “Adonai answered, ‘I have forgiven them just as you have spoken’” (Num 14:20 emphasis added). God made it abundantly clear in this verse that He would show mercy in direct response to Moses’ request. Those words direct our minds to swiftly race to that hill just outside of , Golgotha, some two thousand years ago. In the face not of rejection but execution, Yeshua uttered these incomprehensible words: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

- 2 - Each of us should have a profound sense of gratitude mixed with humble disbelief as we reflect on Yeshua’s prayer (which Moses’ prayer prophetically foreshadowed). Forgive executioners? Songwriters, poets, and preachers have done their best over the centuries to express their awe with lyrics like:

I stand amazed in the presence Of Jesus the Nazarene, And wonder how he could love me, A sinner, condemned, unclean.i

But there is another passage in the B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) that resonates with Moses’ gracious plea for Israel’s forgiveness there on the boundaries of Canaan. God has always been looking for intercessors, for mediators. It is in such mediation that we most faithfully represent Yeshua’s image in the earth, as He is the “one Mediator between God and men—a human, Messiah Yeshua” (1 Tim 2:5). Moses embodied this sort of mediation in this week’s Torah portion, but also echoed the voice of his father, . Unlike , who remained silent when he heard of the Lord’s pending judgment (see Genesis 6), Abraham pled with God when Sodom and Gomorrah’s doom was pronounced (see Gen 18:16-33).

Perhaps this is a primary reason that Abraham, rather than Noah, is the “father of our faith” (see Rom 4:9-12). This spirit of intercession and mediation—a sincere desire for God to extend His mercy to those who least deserve it— might seem far beyond our capacity. But we can walk in this grace because we’ve received it. We can extend supernatural grace to others because we’re already beneficiaries of it ourselves. Maybe this account of Moses’ graciousness helps us become closer to understanding those incredulous words Yeshua spoke to His disciples on the day of His , “If you forgive anyone’s , they are forgiven; but if you hold back, they are held back” (John 20:24).

BY THE NUMBERS

This week’s Torah portion is known as Shelach Lecha— Hebrew for “Send for yourself,” as in, “Send for yourself men if you please to spy out the land” (Num 13:1). The numeric value of the phrase shelach lecha is 388. This connection is significant because 388 is also the numeric value of chalash— the word in biblical Hebrew for “weak.”

Lemon Orchard in Galilee “Send for yourself” (388) alludes to the fact that the desire to send spies was rooted in a weakness (chalash/388) of faith. Did they need to determine if the Land was good and fertile? The Lord had told them that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. Was God going to give them something that was not good?

What's also fascinating is that in Hebrew, the last three letters of the phrase “flowing with milk and honey”—Zavat Chalav HuDevash—spells (Sabbath), which means “rest.” The spies lacked the faith and trust they needed to rest in God's promises. As evidence of their weak faith, they referred to the Promised Land as the “land of Canaan” rather than “Israel.” They lacked the faith of their forefather to fight for God’s promises zealously. - 3 - But of course, there is more! In the same way that Moses sent the Twelve Spies to prepare the way, so Yeshua sent the Twelve Apostles into all the world. In Hebrew, the word for Apostle (or Emissary) is Shliach, which comes from the root word (“to send”). Messiah sent out the Twelve Apostles (Shlichim/Shluchim in Hebrew) as a correction and repair for the of the Twelve Spies.

The numbers support this view. The number 388 is also the value of “until Shiloh comes” (Gen 49:10), which the agree is referring to the Messiah. The phrases “your anointed” (meshiecha), “for the Messiah” (L’Mashiach), and “our sorrows he bore yet we” (Isa 53:4) all total 388 in Hebrew. “Through Yeshua,” the one from whom salvation comes, also adds up to 388 and is a vital part of the Apostles’ message.

Shulchan, the Hebrew word for “table” (as in the Table of the Shewbread), also equals 388. This detail points to the Table of the Lord, of which we partake when we eat the broken during the Lord’s Supper. Yeshua was sent from heaven to give the bread of life for all who believe. This teaching in John 6 caused many to lose faith and walk away from Yeshua. Such rejection echoes the Twelve Spies in the wilderness who could not comprehend the plan of God. They spread a dreadful report that led to the people rejecting God's promise. Only those with stable and enduring faith will have the privilege of eating from the “Table” (388) of the Lord at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, “through Yeshua” (388), which will occur in “the era of Messiah” (388).

Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the Tree of Life Version.

- 4 - THOUGHTS for REFLECTION Take some time this week to prayerfully consider and discuss with friends: § And all this time we, thought the “stink eye” was just something parents used to scold rowdy kids! But seriously, are you prone to “see the cloud and never the silver lining”? Ask the Lord to pour His grace into you this week, giving you the spirit (and the eye!) of Joshua and Caleb, seeing the possibilities in the promise!

§ Do you think of yourself as “sent”? It’s easy for us to look at the great heroes in Scripture and presume that God used (“sent”) them because they were intensely holy or exceptional. Yet as the memorable adage goes, “God doesn’t call the qualified—He qualifies the called.” Like the original Twelve, Yeshua still calls men and women “so that they might be with Him” (see Mark 3:13-19). Let’s go!

- 5 - תשרפ חרוק / NEXT WEEK’S READINGS: Parashat

TORAH Sunday / Numbers 16:1-13 Monday / Numbers 16:14-19 Tuesday / Numbers 16:20-17:8 Wednesday / Numbers 17:9-15 Thursday / Numbers 17:16-24 Friday / Numbers 17:25-18:20 Saturday / Numbers 18:21-32

Prophetic Reading (): 1 Samuel 11:14-12:22

New Covenant Reading: John 19:1-17

i My Savior's Love by Chas. H. Gabriel (1905), Public Domain.

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