Here we have the report of the spies; and a very sinful one it was. They could not but own the fruitfulness of the land, for the grapes, and pomegranates, and figs, manifested what it was. But when they magnified the power of the enemy, whom Israel, when upheld by the arm of Omnipotence, had so often subdued, and whom GOD had promised to drive out from before them, what a wretched proof do they afford of unbelief, of impatience, disobedience, and distrust! But stop Reader, in the perusal of this rebellious spirit of Israel, search thine own heart. See, if you cannot find similar instances, in your own experience. Hath not GOD promised his people now a better country than even Canaan? Is not our JESUS gone before, to take possession of it in our name? And doth he not send to us, in the sweet influences of his blessed SPIRIT, every now and then most evident tokens both of its reality, and of our assurance of one day obtaining it by his blood and righteousness! And yet do you not find, amidst all this, that you sometimes question the whole, as if it were a delusion? LORD! I would say for myself and Reader, LORD, increase our faith!
Numbers 13:26-29
26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.