Numbers 13-14

• What were your reflections from the last bible study on Numbers 10-12, and from Adam's sermon (if you heard it)?

  • What are our struggles with the tension living in the in-between (the now but not yet)?

Read Numbers 13:1-3 & 17-25

• What do you notice about Moses' instructions to the spies?

• What do you think might be unnecessary/unwise/missing?

Hebron was a significant place in the book of Genesis. Gordon J. Wenham writes,

It was near Hebron that God first promised Abraham that he would inherit the land (Gen. 13:14–18). It was from that area that he set out to defeat the coalition of kings (Gen. 14:13ff.). It was in Hebron that he acquired his only piece of real estate for the burial of his wife, and where he and the other patriarchs were buried (Gen. 23; 25:9; 35:27–29; 50:13).

• How should the echoes of Abraham and his experiences in Hebron inform the spies and the people as they approach the promised land?

Read Numbers 13:26-14:4

• What do you think made the people react the way they did?

• How does fear make people rebel?

  • How does faith make people obey?

Read Numbers 14:5-35

• What is your reaction to this story?

  • How do you see yourself in Moses or Caleb or Joshua?

  • How do you see yourself in the fearful Israelites?

• What does this story tell us about our own experience of God, living in faith and hope in the in-between?

Spend some time praying together. You might like to use the words of Psalm 95, which were inspired by this event in the history of God's people.