Numbers 13:30

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." Num 13:30

"The Lord said to Moses, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel." Men were accordingly sent, being told to "see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds." In a word, they were to make a full survey of the land and its inhabitants, and to report to Moses. "So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath." After forty days' search they returned, bringing with them a branch with one cluster of grapes, and also a specimen of the pomegranates and the figs. On the whole, their report was very gloomy. They had, of course, some good things to say about the productiveness of the land, but they gave a very alarming account of the people: "All the people that we saw in it are men of great stature we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Caleb was a man of another spirit: he stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."

This incident sets forth vividly some of the difficulties which lie in the way of the higher kingdom, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; and it is in this view that we shall regard the graphic narrative.

I. The kingdom of heaven challenges the inquiry of all men. It addresses an appeal to human reason, and to human trust. Though itself a revelation, and therefore not to be handled as a common thing, nor to be tested by common instruments, yet Christianity invites the most careful inquest. It does not seek to rest upon the human intellect as a burden, but to shine upon it as a light; it does not fasten itself upon the human heart as an excrescence, but blesses and enriches it with a new and mightier life. If Christianity may be represented under the image of a land, such as ancient Canaan, then it is fair to say of it, that it offers right of way over its hills and through its valleys, that its fruits and flowers are placed at the disposal of all travellers, and that he who complains that the land is shut against him speaks not only ungratefully but most falsely.

There are not wanting men who say that Christianity forbids inquiry.

The kingdom of heaven is the highest revelation of the mind of God to the mind of man. The mind must be at its highest possible point of energy in order to lay hold of the doctrines which constitute that revelation. To get the mind to this point requires the excitement of the heart; for mind is never fully alive whilst the moral powers are dormant. When the heart is moved in its deepest passions, and the mind is set in its highest key, the man is prepared to enter upon the great studies to which he is invited by the Gospel.

It is certainly true, and ought to be taken account of in this connection, that some people have peculiar notions of what is meant by inquiry. In the first instance, they dismiss everything like reverence; in the next place, they make themselves the standard and measure of all truth; and in the third place, they seek to materialise and debase everything that is spiritual and heavenly. This is not inquiry, it is insolent self-sufficiency; it is not the spirit of a student seeking light; it is the spirit of a braggart who thinks the sun inferior to his spark. The tone of mind must be in harmony with the subject considered; in every department of intellectual life it is required that a student be self-controlled, patient, docile; that his temper be subdued, and that his conclusions be reached through long and earnest watching of processes. This is required in all sciences, why not in the science of sciences the knowledge and worship of the true God?

2. Different reports will, of course, be brought by the inquirers. It was so in the case of the spies: it will be so in all inquiry. The result of the survey will be according to the peculiarities of the surveyors. As streams are impregnated by the soils over which they flow, so subjects are affected by the individualism of the minds through which they pass. Thus Christianity may be said to be different things to different minds. To the speculative man it is a great attempt to solve deep problems in theology; to the controversialist it is a challenge to debate profound subjects on new ground; to the poet it is a dream, a wondrous vision many-coloured as the rainbow, a revelation many-voiced as the tunes of the wind or the harmonies of the sea. Each inquirer will have his own way of reporting the result of his inquiry. Christian testimony is not of one unchanging sort. One Christian will report his experiences in highly intellectual phraseology, as if God had entered his heart through the shining chambers of his mind; another will show that he has reached peace through many a stormy conflict with doubt; another will speak the language of music as though he had been taught it in intercourse with the angels; another will stammer by reason of sobs and tears. Yet the subject is the same, the result is the same this is the diversity that is unity