The Mission of the 12 Spies…
Just to get a bit better picture of what the spies did, let’s look at some maps; starting with where on earth is the Wilderness of Paran?
The Wilderness of Zin or Sin is also in this area (see map 1) but it has nothing to do with “sin” as in breaking God’s laws and doing something wicked. It’s pronounced like seen, not sin.
The text gives us the names of the cities on the route the spies took:
“So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 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 ESV
Here’s another map showing roughly the areas of the various tribes they encountered:
Note OG and SIHON in the area of the Amorites. They are giant kings. Note Mount Hermon at the top of the map. The Book of Enoch cites Mount Hermon as the place where the Watchers (Fallen Angels) landed when they rebelled in Genesis 6. It is ground zero in the war against God.
Interestingly, the location of Lebo-Hamath is very close to one of the world’s most mysterious archeological sites: Baalbek. If you look it up, prepare to have a wrench thrown in your YouTube suggested videos algorithm. Nearly every video online about Baalbek is about how “impossible” it would be to build so it must’ve been built by Aliens or Nephilim. 👽🛸🧌😈
But here’s a lovely little video by Dr. Michael Heiser (who DOES believe that the Nephilim were a thing) blowing all the theories to smithereens with a few hard facts.
GRAPES FROM “CLUSTER VALLEY” 🍇
Here’s what the Guinness Book of World Records has on grapes:
The largest bunch of grapes is 10.12 kg (22.31 lbs) and was achieved by Sebastián Gómez Falcón and Delegación de Agricultura del Ayuntamiento de Los Palacios y Villafranca (both Spain) in Los Palacios y Villafranca, Spain, as verified on 4 August 2018.
The grapes were presented and weighed at a local agricultural competition before the viticulturists decided to apply for the Guinness World Records title.
The previous record of 9.4 kg (20.72 lbs) was set in Chile and has stood since 1984!
Sunday school storybooks have ruined us. For this one they generally portrayed two stout men with a pole on their shoulders (ok so far) and then a 5 foot long cluster of basketballs. 🏀 🤨 (You know what I’m talking about.)
“And they came to the Valley of 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.”
Numbers 13:23 ESV
Where exactly in this text does it say anything about the grapes being freakishly gigantic or being SO heavy that it was impossible for one man to carry it?
That is a classic example of reading something into the text because we’ve been preconditioned to do so.
Look at that Guinness Book of cluster of grapes again in the picture above. If you needed to carry it for a week- how would you do it? Stick it in your knapsack and make accidental jelly? Tuck in under your hairy unwashed armpit? Carry it like a bucket and hope you don’t drag it too bad through the brush? Grabbing a sapling and tying the cluster on is a very good idea. And sharing the extra weight between a couple guys is also a good idea.
If you go to Google Images and search giant grape clusters you’ll see piles so big they have to be hung from an engine hoist. (Pretty sure they are either Photoshopped or man made clusters of clusters.) And I’ll absolutely grant that the grapes of Canaan were amazing and worthy of an epic show-and-tell, but let’s be careful that we’re not projecting onto the text some unbiblical frankengrapes from our imaginations.
THE DESCENDANTS OF ANAK 💪🏼
“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 13:22 ESV
“However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.”
Numbers 13:28 ESV
“And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Numbers 13:33 ESV
In case anyone out there is late to the party, I recommend you look up my blog post on Genesis 6 to brush up on the origins of the Nephilim. If you looked up “ Nephilim” or “giant” (from the KJV) in a concordance, here’s what you find:
Here’s the root word:
Recall from our previous ventures into Hebrew that the im ending is plural- which the concordance entry doesn’t show.
If you have 7 1/2 extra minutes and would like to hear one of the most succinct explanations of Genesis 6 and the Nephilim, here’s a video of Dr Chuck Missler that’s been edited down for time.
They saw the “descendants of Anak.” The name Anak (aw-nawk) means chain- like a chain or necklace around your neck. It also means to choke. Weird that we have a necklace style called a “choker.” Mr. Giant Chain Choker had 3 descendants named here:
- Ahiman (Akh-ee-mahn) which Strong’s said means “brother of a portion” (like a gift), it’s a compound word of brother + a preposition (usually from or out of).
- Sheshai (shay-shah-ee) which may mean “whiteness” so maybe he was a white dude?
- Talmai (tal-mah-ee) which means ridged- not ridged as in stiff but ridged as in “Ruffles have ridges.” Hmm. I don’t think he was a pretty baby.
They were all in the city of Hebron. And the text wants us to know that Hebron is an exceeding old city- predating even the Egyptian city of Zoan by 7 years. What a weird comment! I feel like there has to be a reason for such a random data point.
I found that Zoan is the location where Moses did the signs that brought on the 10 Plagues.
“In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.”
“They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.”
Psalm 78:12, 42-43 ESV
Zoan is mentioned in Isaiah in conjunction with “princes” and it was indeed the Capitol of Egypt for a time.
You might recognize Zoan by its more famous name which is what it’s called in the Septuagint: Tanis.
And if that rings a bell, I’m betting you might have watched Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark at some point.
Interestingly, Wikipedia says that in 2011, archaeologists found a bunch of walls and structures in Tanis made from… mud bricks. 🧱 🤔
Back to Anak’s 3 giant descendants…
I thought all the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood.
They were. Except for the “and also afterward” part of Genesis 6:4.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” Genesis 6:4 ESV
The “when” here might be understood as “whenever.” The implication is that there must’ve been other incidents similar to Genesis 6 that occurred after the flood.
The ancient world is jammed to the gills with demigods and humans who claimed to be descendants of supernatural beings. They either made it up, or there is some truth there.
Interviewer: Thank you for applying to be the new chieftain Mr… uh…(checks paper) Mr. Talmai. You’re quite the specimen aren’t you? Could I just call you Mr. T.?
Talmai: Uh… I guess?
Interviewer: So what exactly are your qualifications, Mr. T.?
Talmai: Well, I’m about 25% divine on my Dad’s side. My grandpa Anak was full-blooded Nephalim.
Interviewer: (drops papers) Oh… Well… Uh… The job is yours if you want it Mr. T- uh Talmai. I mean, “Your Worship.” Can I get you anything? Wine? Women? Song?
These are the “men of old, men of renown.” They’re the ones about whom the legends were told.
No wonder the spies were concerned. By all normal logic, Israel should’ve turned that camp right around and headed back out to the desert.
One problem: those giants and all those other clans- they were living on the land promised to Abraham and his descendants, and none other than God Himself told them to go live there.
So the spies get back to camp and there are 2 distinct perspectives:
- We’re all gonna die. (10 guys)
- Piece of cake. (Joshua & Caleb)
Joshua was the man chosen from the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph. Caleb was from the tribe of Judah. Remember that Judah had been placed ahead of his brothers by Jacob and the kingship (scepter) was to come from him. Joseph was given a double portion by Jacob and Ephraim (the younger) was placed ahead of Manasseh. I find it fascinating that the only two men who were thinking about this mission in terms of God-will-help-us-because-He-promised are the two men from the tribes carrying the greatest blessings. How about that?
What the 10 negative spies said was true. It was true that the land devoured anything that didn’t eat it first. It was eat or be eaten. There were giants- and not just those 3 guys in Hebron. They were basically annoying little bugs to be squashed in the eyes of these oversized semi-human creatures.
The part that wasn’t true was that the inhabitants of the land were “too strong” and that Israel was “not able” to go in and possess the land.
Caleb’s declaration was not based on human reasoning but on trust in God. Because, when you add the Almighty to an equation, you get a vastly different answer even if none of the other variables change.
“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.”
Numbers 13:30 NASB2020
So which will it be?
Will they? Or won’t they?
Will we? Or won’t we?
To The Reader 