Numbers 13:21 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a brief account of the survey the spies made of the promised land. They went through it from Zin in the south to Rehob near Hamath in the north (Numbers 13:21). See also (Numbers 34:3), (Numbers 34:8). It is likely they did not travel together as one group, so they would not draw suspicion or be stopped. That danger would have been greater if the Canaanites knew, as they likely did, how close the Israelites were to them.

The spies also gave special attention to Hebron (Numbers 13:22). This was probably because near it was the field of Machpelah, where the patriarchs were buried (Genesis 23:2). Their buried bodies seemed, as it were, to keep that land in possession for their descendants. They made a special visit to that burial place, but the nearby city was held by the sons of Anak, the giant people named here. In the very place where they might have expected the greatest encouragement, they met the greatest discouragement.

Where the bodies of their ancestors seemed to hold the land for them, the giants held it against them. They went up through the south and came to Hebron, that is, "Caleb" in particular, say the Jews, because Caleb later receives special mention there (Joshua 14:9), (Joshua 14:12), (Joshua 14:13). Yet the report about the Anakim in verse 33 shows that other spies were there too.

The spies also brought back a bunch of grapes and some other fruit from the land as proof of how good the country was. They likely gathered these fruits as they were leaving and returning home. The cluster of grapes was so large and heavy that two of them had to carry it on a pole between them (Numbers 13:23), (Numbers 13:24). The place where they found it was later called the Valley of Eshcol, or the Valley of the Cluster, because of that remarkable bunch of grapes.

That cluster became for Israel both a pledge and a sample of the fruit of Canaan. In the same way, the present comforts we enjoy in fellowship with God are foretastes of the full joy we expect in the heavenly Canaan. From them, we can learn something of what heaven will be like.