King James Bible Study – [And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. – Mark 8:34]
Date: Saturday, February 28, 2026
Chapters: Numbers 11-13
Message: Numbers: The Twelve Spies
Hello My Friend,
Yesterday we learned that the Tabernacle was all set up for service, the Levites were offered to God for the priests to assist in fulfilling their duties, and that God’s Spirit was leading them to the promise land from the cloud, when He moved they moved, but when He rested they rested. As we continue in the reading of Numbers we learn that the people were getting restless and started complaining about their journey and God heard them.
[Numbers 11:1-2,4-6 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. 2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched. 4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.]
Notice what they were complaining about, all the things that they had left in Egypt. They would rather be slaves under government control of what they get to eat and do instead of be free feeding off what God gives them. That is often a sad truth today, [Hebrews 4:1-2 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.]
Do you realize that the world is watching us, as well as other Christians who are struggling to find their way? When we murmur and complain at the very moments when we should be rejoicing, it affects the morale of everyone around us. Even the faithful can become discouraged when they see God’s people responding to hardship with grumbling instead of trust. As Moses listened to the people complain about the manna, he himself became discouraged and cried out to God, asking why such a heavy burden had been placed on him.
[Numbers 11:10-11,13-15 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. 11 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? 13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.]
It is not uncommon for us to start thinking about the things we left behind when we chose to follow Jesus, especially when we feel like we are barely scraping by. In moments like that, we need to begin counting the blessings God is giving us right now. My home may have holes in the floor, but it is still shelter, and God will lead us to a better home long before the walls ever come down. He always provides what we need for the season we are in, even when it does not look like what we imagined, [Philippians 2:13-15 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;]
Burdens are not punishments from God. They are windows of opportunity, moments where God invites His faithful ones to hand those weights over to Him alone. Moses felt exactly what we feel. He was overwhelmed, exhausted, and convinced that nothing he did was helping anyone. He questioned why he had to carry the responsibility of all those people by himself, as though he were the one being punished. But God responded with compassion. He not only assured Moses that help was coming, He also told him that He Himself would feed the people.
[Numbers 11:16-18 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. 17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put It upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear It not thyself alone. 18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.]
God places the same Spirit upon every saved, born‑again Christian, and that is His Spirit. Just as He took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and placed it upon the seventy elders, He now places His own Spirit within each of us. God was reminding Moses, and us, that the weight of our burdens was never meant to be carried alone. And did you notice that God chose seventy? Jesus mirrored this pattern when He appointed seventy others, besides the disciples, to go out and preach the Gospel before His passion, [Luke 10:1-2 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. 2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.]
It is interesting how clearly you can hear the sarcasm in God’s response at times. He was not going to send meat for just one day. He said He would send it for an entire month. When Moses heard this, his first reaction was to wonder how such a massive crowd could possibly be fed. From his perspective, the task was impossible. But God was showing him that what seems impossible to us is never impossible for Him.
[Numbers 11:19-23 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; 20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? 21 And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. 22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? 23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’S hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.]
In a sense, God was saying, “Is anything too hard for Me?” It was not that Moses had no faith; it was that in that moment his faith had grown small because all he could see was the weight of his burden. I understand his struggle, because I get the same way, and we all do at times. But the most important thing to remember is that we have Jesus. God may not remove the burden immediately, but He strengthens us to endure it as we trust Him, [James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.]
And just like that, as soon as God placed His Spirit upon those seventy men, they began to prophesy among the people. Two of them, however, did not remain within the boundaries of the Tabernacle. They went out into the camp and continued prophesying right where the people were.
[Numbers 11:25-26,28-29 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. 26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp. 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. 29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them!]
Joshua believed that the prophesying done by these two men in the camp was a presumptuous act on their part and should not be allowed but Moses corrected him. This is basically the same thing that Jesus said when the disciples tried to stop some of the people from going to Him, [Mark 10:13-15 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.]
Now, we all bring our complaints to God at times, and He welcomes it. But this was not an ordinary complaint. They were murmuring against what God Himself was providing for them to eat. There were about six hundred thousand men, not counting the women and children, just from the children of Israel who were headed toward the promised land. Add that to the strangers who traveled with them, that brought them to around two million people. And it was this vast group who complained so intensely that their voices rose all the way to heaven. If the people despised the manna and wanted meat, then God would give it to them meat, and He indeed gave them meat, but watch what happened.
[Numbers 11:31-33 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. 32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. 33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.]
I can just picture it, they must have looked like cannibals sitting there, surrounded by birds, ripping the flesh between their teeth. And notice what happened to them, they all got sick, likely because they ate far too quickly and far too much, and their bodies were not used to something so rich. Those who complain about what God has not given them often find themselves complaining about what others have received. This is exactly what happened when Miriam and Aaron began to complain, not about food, but about Moses himself.
[Numbers 12:1-4 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.]
Miriam used Moses’ marriage as an excuse to discredit him, but the real issue was jealousy. She resented the authority God had given him. And can you imagine being called out by God Himself? I can almost hear the tone of His voice too, [Numbers 12:5-8 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. 6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?]
It was unmistakably clear to everyone that Moses had a relationship with God unlike anything they had ever witnessed. God did not speak to him through dreams and visions, as He did with so many others. He did not speak to him through prophets, as He often did throughout Israel’s history. He spoke to Moses directly face‑to‑face, in a way no one else had experienced. I do not know whether Miriam and Aaron felt confident or terrified, but I am certain Aaron fell to his knees the moment he saw what happened to Miriam.
[Numbers 12:10-14 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. 13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.]
We may wonder why God placed the leprosy only on Miriam, but, Aaron did not even give God the chance to turn away, he fell to his knees immediately, begging for forgiveness and pleading that Miriam would not die. However, God was not going to give Moses what he wanted on this one, the entire congregation was going to know that it was not in their best interest to slander God’s anointed, [Psalms 105:14-15 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.]
After the people waited seven days for Miriam to be healed, the camp finally moved forward again. They traveled until they reached the area just across the Jordan from the promised land. It was there that God instructed Moses to choose twelve men, one from each tribe, and send them to explore the land. Their task was to see what lay ahead, what kind of land God was giving them, and what they would be walking into as they prepared to take possession of the promise.
[Numbers 13:1-3,16-18 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua. 17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: 18 And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;]
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and gather every detail they could about the land itself, its produce, cities, defenses, industries, people, and anything else that would help Israel understand what lay ahead. They began their journey in the southern region of Canaan. From there, they traveled northward where they came upon the brook of Eshcol and found something incredible.
[Numbers 13:21,23-26 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. 23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. 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.]
Can you imagine the size of those grapes? The abundance of that land was undeniably a visible testimony of the goodness of the promise God had given them. At first they got them all excited to learn of what was there but they were so fearful of the people that they discouraged them, well ten of the twelve did not to cross over.
[Numbers 13:27-30 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. 30 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.]
Caleb stood before them with confidence, reminding them of everything God had already brought them through, urging them not to fear the people of the land. But even with the evidence of God’s goodness hanging on a pole between two men, they refused to listen.
[Numbers 13:31-33 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.]
All the ten men who brought back the evil report could see was how big the giants were; they could not see how big their God is. And the truth is sobering: He was not their God in the way as He was Caleb’s, because if He had been, they would have shared Caleb’s faith. Caleb and Joshua saw the same giants, the same fortified cities, the same obstacles, but they also saw the God who had split the Red Sea, crushed Egypt, fed them in the wilderness, and walked with them every step of the way.
[Hebrews 11:13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.]
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for sending Your Son to save me, I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to merit salvation on my own, but my faith in Him alone does. Thank You for Your grace upon my life, for saving my soul, for giving me purpose in life, and for using me despite my endless failures in my walk with You. Lord, Lead me and guide me, keep me walking and talking with You daily so that I remain Your faithful servant, having the same privilege as Moses to be able to speak with You one on one, earning Your respect. And Lord, let me never complain or speak ill toward any of Your anointed, rather let me be blessing to them and to all You send across my path. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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