nce in the ability of Israel to gain the land saying, "If the
Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us;
a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the
Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us:
their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them
not" (vs. 8, 9).

Now, all these men were probably honest. They probably described things
just as these appeared to them. What was the difference? The difference
was not in their eyes, but in that which was back of their eyes. When the
ten went through the land and saw the giants, they forgot all about God.
It was themselves against the giants, with God left out; and when we leave
God out, things look very different. How big those giants looked! "We poor
grasshoppers had better be getting out of here quickly. We do not stand
any show at all," they thought. "How could Israel fight with such fellows,
anyway?" The ten were full of doubts, and they looked through their
doubts, and their doubts magnified the Anakim.

But Caleb and Joshua had no doubts. They had faith in God--faith that did
not waver. They remembered the Red Sea. They remembered the manna from
heaven. They remembered the other things that God had done. They looked at
the situation through their faith; and instead of feeling as if they were
grasshoppers, they felt themselves more than a match for the giants. The
two were not at all frightened. "Why," they said, in effect, when they
came back, "they will be only bread for us. We shall just eat them up.
They have heard what God has done among us, and they are too scared to
fight. Their defense is departed from them." Then these men of faith began
talking about the other side. "The Lord is with us; fear them not. What do
those fellows amount to, since God is not with them? What do their
fortresses amount to? Let us go up at once," said they. "Why, we can whip
them with ease."

But the people listened to both sides, and their ears heard; but instead
of listening through their faith to Joshua and Caleb, they listened
through their doubts to the ten and believed them and became very much
frightened; and in consequence they went to murmuring and complaining
because Moses had brought them out there to face such a situation. The
result was that they were turned back, defeated by their enemies, and had
to wander forty years in the wilderness until all the old ones perished