My Wonder Studio

Some of the leaders of Israel were suspicious of the travel-stained strangers and carefully appraised them, but none detected the fraud. So, Joshua asked them who they were and from whence they had come.

“We have traveled from a far country,” they answered, making their voices sound weary from exhaustion and travel. “Because we have heard of your God and the exploits He has done for you in leading you out of Egypt, and how He has helped you conquer the two kings of the Amorites.”

If the strangers had hailed from a faraway land, they would not have heard of Joshua’s victories over Jericho and Ai, so they avoided mentioning those two cities, which would have exposed them.

Then, seeing that their speech had begun to work its effect on Joshua and the princes of Israel, the strangers pointed to the food they had brought with them.

“Look at our bread,” they said sadly. “We took this hot out of our ovens on the day we left our homes. But now it is dry and moldy. These wineskins, which we filled, were new, and now they are old and cracked. Our garments and our shoes have also become worn by reason of our long journey.”

Joshua believed them, and so did the other leaders who listened to them. How could they deny the evidence of that moldy bread? Joshua made peace with them, and agreed to let them live and to not attack their city.

Within three days, however, the fraud was discovered. You can imagine how foolish and angry Joshua and the others felt over being deceived. But they kept their word, which they had sworn before the Lord, and when they came to the city of Gibeon, they left it unharmed. As a punishment for their deception, however, the Gibeonites were told that they must be servants of the Israelites.

How did it happen that Joshua and the princes of Israel were deceived by these cunning people? The Bible explains that the men of Israel examined the Gibeonites’ provisions but did not ask counsel from God. They looked at their visitors’ appearance and the moldy bread, and even though they had been suspicious, they did not ask the Lord about it.

God was ready to give them counsel on this matter, just as He had given them counsel on how to take Jericho and Ai. But perhaps Joshua and his officers had become a little proud and overconfident after their two victories and thought it was unnecessary to ask God about something that seemed so obvious concerning how to proceed. Consequently, they were off guard and were deceived by worn clothes and stale bread. If they had asked God for counsel and wisdom on the issue, He would have given it and would not have allowed them to be deceived.

First, they were hoodwinked into making a peace treaty with the Gibeonites, but that was not all. When Adoni-Zedek, one of the kings of the Amorites who lived in Canaan, heard that Joshua had conquered and destroyed Jericho and Ai, and that the Israelites had made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites, he became alarmed.

His people also were afraid because Gibeon was an important city—as great as the royal cities of the Amorites. Gibeon’s men were renowned fighters, and now that they had become allies with Israel, King Adoni-Zedek rushed urgent messages to the other kings of the Amorites explaining this disastrous turn of events.

“Come and help me attack Gibeon,” his message read. “They have made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.” So, the five Amorite kings joined forces to make a concerted attack on Gibeon.

Soon Joshua received a message from the Gibeonites telling of the coming attack, saying, “Please do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us!”

It seemed ironic that Joshua would help a people who had deceived him, but he knew that Israel could not afford to lose any ground to the wicked kings of Canaan, whom God had commissioned him to drive out of the land.

This time, however, before putting his plans into action, Joshua sought for that most important confirmation from the Lord. He had learned a valuable lesson with the Gibeonites and was determined to seek God’s direction.

The Lord answered him, saying, “Do not fear them, because I have given the victory into your hand. Not a man of them will be left standing before you once the battle is done.” The answer had come, and the Lord had promised to be with them.

Once he had God’s permission to proceed, Joshua showed himself a man of action. Immediately he summoned his best fighting men, who, along with his regular troops, embarked on an all-night march which put them in Gibeon by dawn and surprising the enemy.

A fierce battle followed, but God had a few tricks up His sleeve. He rained large hailstones upon the enemy army, causing more of them to die from the hailstones than were killed by the Israelite swords.

Joshua and his men had done what they could, and the Lord supernaturally intervened to help them. Yet the five kings along with some of their men were able to flee from the battle. Joshua remembered, however, that God had spoken to him in Gilgal promising him a total victory—that not one man would be left standing.

Joshua realized that this was a decisive battle, which would break the power of the Canaanites and open an all-important roadway to the sea. He could not let the opposing forces flee.

There was one problem, though. The day was passing, and the shadows were lengthening. Soon the sun would disappear behind the mountains, giving the enemies the cover needed to escape and perhaps regroup, or even secure reinforcements.

All at once, Joshua lifted his voice in the sight of his troops and cried out in an explosion of faith, “O sun, stand still over Gibeon! O moon, be still over the valley of Ajalon!”

Miraculously, as Joshua and his men fought on in pursuit of their enemies, the sun held its position in the heavens over the battlefield until the army of Israel had vanquished its enemies. The sun had stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down for almost a whole day! God had intervened in a most marvelous way to provide the time needed for the armies of Israel to completely subdue their enemies.

After that great victory, Joshua continued defeating the enemies of the Israelites. The Bible says, “All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:42 NIV).

See “Heroes of the Bible: Joshua” for more on this fascinating Bible character.

That night the people prayed for faith and strength from God. As of yet, they did not know how they would cross that huge swollen river into Canaan. It was harvest season, and every year at that time the Jordan overflowed until it was about a mile wide.

On the following day, Joshua told the priests to take up the Ark and go out in front of the people.

God encouraged Joshua, saying, “Today I will begin to honor you before all Israel so that they will know that just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you. Command the priests who carry the Ark to enter the River Jordan and to stand in its waters.”

“Come, hear God’s words to us!” Joshua cried out to the people. “Through His promises, you will know that the living God is with us. He will not fail to drive out the people of Canaan who live in the land that you will inherit. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. When the feet of the priests that bear the Ark touch the River Jordan, its downstream flow will be cut off and stand up in a wall of water.”

In the distance, the people watched and waited expectantly as the priests approached the river. The swirling waters were rolling on without change, yet the priests marched on until they felt the waters rushing around their feet.

At that very moment, the waters began to reverse their direction and move upstream against the usual flow. A few miles up the river, the waters were rising higher and higher, as though being held back by an invisible dam! Meanwhile, below the point where the priests stood, the river flowed down toward the Dead Sea, emptying the riverbed. All this happened where the Jordan passed near the city of Jericho.

Joshua then commanded the priests to walk out to the middle of the dry riverbed and stand firm. Then that multitude of men, women, and children, with their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, along with their wagons and beasts of burden that carried their tents and provisions, began to cross over the Jordan.

Except for the creaking of wagon wheels and the sounds of animals, one million people trooped silently across that dry riverbed in defiance of nature, yet feeling insignificant in their own strength and dwarfed by the power of their mighty God, who in a moment had stopped the force of a raging river in order to accomplish His purpose.

Many hours later, when all were safe on the other side, God commanded Joshua to send twelve men, one from each tribe, to walk into the middle of the Jordan where the Ark and its bearers still stood. Each was to return with a stone from the river, with which they would build a monument at the river's edge.

“This will be for the future,” Joshua proclaimed to the people. “So that when your children ask what it is for, you can tell them, ‘It is to remind us that the Jordan stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord went across.’”

And when all was finished, Joshua commanded the priests to leave the riverbed, and no sooner had they all set their feet on the opposite side of the river than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood level just as before.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere of Jericho was feverish with activity. From atop the walls of the city, inhabitants had been observing the Hebrews’ movements ever since they miraculously crossed the River Jordan. The king of Jericho had heard of the valiant exploits of Joshua and the Hebrews while they were yet in the wilderness—how their God had parted the Red Sea when they came out of Egypt, and how they had overcome the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan River.

Therefore, the king, expecting an attack at any moment, ordered his men to lock the city gates. No one was allowed to go in or out. The watchmen on the walls were to report any movement around Israel's camp, and every able-bodied man was armed and ready for battle.

Early that morning, word was rushed to the king that the Hebrews were being mobilized. Soon the alarm was sounded in all quarters, and Jericho's men of war took up their positions along the city walls.

Back at the camp, Joshua gave the Lord’s instructions to the priests. “Take up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and seven of the priests shall carry trumpets in front of it,” he said, and then commanded the people, saying, “Advance! March around the city. Let those who carry arms walk in front of the Ark, and a rearguard will follow it.”

By this time, the walls of Jericho were full of people watching the most unusual procession they had ever seen. This was not at all what the spectators had expected. The Hebrews were not attacking them but were merely marching silently around the city with their priests continually blowing on their trumpets. (Joshua had commanded the people to not shout or make any noise with their voice or say anything until the day he would tell them to shout. Then they were to shout with all their might.)

The people of Jericho had mixed emotions about this strange spectacle, which occurred not only that first day, but also once each day for the next six days. As they stared down from the walls, some mocked the antics of their so-called conquerors, but others were uneasy.

On the seventh day, instead of dispersing after the first march around the city, the Hebrews continued circling, with the seven horns sounding along with the constant tromping of thousands of people. At the seventh time, when the seven priests blew one final long blast on their trumpets, Joshua gave the command, “Shout! For the Lord has given us the city!”

At that moment, the air was filled with every soldier in the ranks giving a powerful shout. And with a mighty rumble, the walls of Jericho began crumbling until they had collapsed flat on the ground. Only Rahab’s house was left standing.

As they had been instructed, Joshua's men rushed the city and spared no life except Rahab and her father's household, because she had hidden the messengers which Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.

God was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

See “Heroes of the Bible: Joshua” for more on this fascinating Bible character.

At the news of Moses' death, all Israel wept for thirty days. It was also a time of deep prayer, not only for the people, but especially for Joshua, who had to face the leadership responsibilities which had been given him. Those first days without Moses to run to for strength and answers to his questions were probably days of learning, more than ever, as Joshua had to now depend upon the Lord alone for the needed help and guidance.

But God was with him, and He gave such wonderful promises to His new leader of the Israelites, saying, "As I was with Moses, I will also be with you. I will not fail you or leave you alone. ... Be stouthearted and brave. Don’t be fearful, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go." This was precisely the encouragement Joshua needed. What a strength it was to him to know that he was not alone!

Before crossing over to Jericho, which stood on the other side of the Jordan River in Canaan, Joshua wisely chose from the ranks two of his most trustworthy men to go over and spy out the defenses of the walled city of Jericho. Any information they could gather would be vital for planning their first conquest in Canaan.

The next day, the two scouts, dressed in clothing similar to that of Jericho's citizenry, passed through the huge gates of the city and found a house located along the city walls where they would lodge for the night. A harlot named Rahab owned it.

As the two scouts conversed with Rahab; however, the clanking of men in armor approaching the house interrupted them. Unbeknownst to the spies, someone had told the king that two Israelite spies had entered the city gates. So, the king had sent messengers to deliver an order to Rahab for the men to appear before him.

"Quick, follow me," Rahab whispered, and she led the two spies to her roof, hiding them beneath stalks of flax.

Regaining her composure, Rahab went to answer the banging at her door. She opened it and smiled. "Whatever is the matter, sirs? May I help you?"

"Bring out the two men who came to you,” the king’s messengers demanded. “They are Israelites, come to spy on our city."

"There were two men here a short while ago, sir,” Rahab said. “But I had no idea from whence they came. They left at dusk when it was time to close the city gate. But if you go now and pursue them, perchance you will catch them."

Not sparing a moment, the king’s men rushed out of the city and onto the road leading to the Jordan River in an attempt to overtake them.

When the messengers were gone, Rahab sighed with relief, but she was still trembling when she went to the two men.

"I know that God has given you this land and that all its inhabitants are afraid because of you,” she said. “We know of how God dried up a passage through the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and of your exploits on the other side of Jordan. No wonder we are afraid of you. No one has any fight left in him after hearing such things, for your God is the supreme God of heaven, not just an ordinary god!

"Now then," she continued, "please swear to me by your God that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you."

"If you won't betray us, we'll see to it that you and your family are unharmed," they said. "We'll defend you with our lives."

Since Rahab’s house was on the city wall, she led them to her window at nightfall and she let them down by a scarlet rope that she had tied to the window bracing.

"Escape to the mountains," she whispered. "Hide there for three days until the men who search for you have returned. Then go on your way."

The men thanked Rahab and left her with a warning. "You must leave this scarlet cord tied to your window. And unless you and your family remain inside your house, we will not be responsible for what happens to you."

Rahab pulled up the rope, but left it tied to the window to identify her lodging to those outside the city walls.

Finally, the two spies made it safely across the Jordan and joyfully reported all that had happened to Joshua.

"God has surely given the whole land into our hands," they said. "All the people are terrified because of us."

What an encouraging report Joshua received from his two faithful men who had braved the dangers of Jericho in their narrow encounter with the enemy. Now Joshua knew that the time for marching had come. First, to cross the Jordan River, then on to Jericho!

See “Heroes of the Bible: Joshua” for more on this fascinating Bible character.

Some one hundred years later, little progress had been made to restore Jerusalem. The once towering walls lay in heaps of charred ruins, and the burned city gates remained broken.

Burdened by his people’s plight, Nehemiah was able to persuade King Artaxerxes to allow him to go to Jerusalem. Because of his faithful service as cupbearer as well as his friendship with him, the king appointed Nehemiah to be governor of the province of Judah. He also gave him his own official letters of recommendation and considerable material and financial support for the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s walls.

Soon after he arrived in Jerusalem, Nehemiah convinced the nobles and people of the city to unite under his leadership to rebuild the city. At first, the work progressed rapidly, and soon the city walls were going up, despite enemy opposition. Nevertheless, there were other difficulties.

A drought had begun to strangle the land. Food production had dropped disastrously and many of the poorer Jews who relied on their harvests began to suffer. But famine was not the only cause of their hardship. Certain affluent nobles and moneylenders in Jerusalem began taking advantage of their impoverished brothers, seeing this season of want as a means to increase their financial holdings.

With food production nearly at a standstill, most families who normally grew their own crops had to seek and buy provisions until drought conditions improved. Then these ruthless moneylenders offered loans to them and charged interest to make profits. To obtain these loans, many of the starving families had to mortgage their fields, vineyards, and homes.

Others had already mortgaged their properties in order to pay taxes to the Persian government, which it levied every year throughout all the provinces, and those who had already mortgaged their lands and were still short of food had to sell their children into slavery in order to survive. Worse yet, because of the high interest on their loans, it became impossible for the destitute to clear their debts, and soon the moneylenders foreclosed on their mortgages and assumed ownership of their lands. The debtors had little hope of buying their children back into freedom.

The grim situation had finally reached the breaking point. Already some of the people’s leaders had complained that the work on the walls had become too difficult.

“The workers’ strength is depleted!” they cried. “And there is so much rubble and debris that we will never finish. If that is not enough, our enemies are threatening to attack us at any moment!”

Up to this point, Nehemiah had always been able to inspire faith in the men to continue building the walls in spite of the odds against them. His courage and perseverance had been contagious. But now he recognized that an even greater adversary threatened to destroy all that his people and he had dreamed. Some of his very own nobles and wealthy civic leaders had been undermining Nehemiah’s efforts through their greed.

One afternoon as Nehemiah rode out along the walls to inspect the work, a crowd of bedraggled workers approached him, protesting against the moneylenders who had lured them into economic slavery.

“We are brothers of these wealthy men, and our children are just like theirs,” they said. “Yet we have had to sell our children into slavery to get enough money to live, and we are helpless to redeem them, for these men have confiscated our fields and lands.”

When Nehemiah heard the situation firsthand, he was outraged. He called a public trial before a great assembly and dealt sternly with the profiteers.

“What is this you're doing?” he demanded. “How dare you require a mortgage as the condition for helping another brother of your own kind!”

He then reminded them that in the laws which God had delivered to Moses it is forbidden for a Jew to lend money to his brother in order to profit by it.¹

“The rest of us are doing all we can to help,” Nehemiah raged as the trial continued. “We are even buying many brethren back from slavery with our own money, but you are forcing them back into slavery again! How often must we redeem them?”

A hush came over the crowd as Nehemiah awaited their reply, but the guilty ones had nothing to say in their defense. They knew that it was unlawful to demand interest on loans. Furthermore, the lender was always obliged to consider the borrower’s financial condition and his ability to pay back the loan, not to extort from them what little they had.²

Nehemiah pressed his point even further before the assembly: “What you are doing is evil in the sight of God! How can we ever expect God to bless our country and our people if we have become our own worst enemies? Should you not walk in the fear of our God? Don't we have enough enemies among the nations around us who are trying to destroy us, without having enemies amongst our own people?

“I have lent the people money and corn without interest, and so also have my companions and the men who work for me. Now, let each of you who has made loans charging interest cancel all of your claims to repayment and all debts that they owe you, whether it be money or corn or wine or olive oil, and give them back their fields and vineyards and olive groves and houses.”

As the accused men faced Nehemiah and the whole assembly, one by one they shamefacedly agreed with his demands. Their selfishness had been exposed before all. The common people looked on in astonishment as the men who had so coldheartedly taken advantage of them promised to assist their brothers both financially and materially without interest and without requiring them to mortgage their lands or to sell their children into slavery.

This seemed an occasion for a celebration, but Nehemiah was taking no chances. He immediately summoned the priests and required the offenders to make a formal vow to carry out their pledges. Nehemiah took off the sash from around his waist and shook it at them.

“This is how God will shake any of you who don't keep your promise,” he said. “I invoke the curse of God upon any of you who refuse, and may God destroy your homes and livelihood if you fail to keep your word.”

All the people shouted, “Amen!” and praised the Lord with great rejoicing. And the offenders did as they had promised.

Because of this victory over the most dangerous of all enemies—the avaricious enemy within—the work on the walls resumed with even greater speed. After the wall’s completion, because of the unity achieved and because of the people's obedience to the Lord and His chosen leadership, a great spiritual revival swept through people’s hearts.

During the twelve years that Nehemiah governed Judah, he refused to accept wages from the government, and in his diary, he wrote, “I accepted no salaries or other assistance from the people of Israel. I stayed at the work on the wall, and neither I nor my coworkers took advantage of our positions for personal gain, neither did we acquire any properties of our own.

“I also required every one of my officials to spend time working on the wall themselves. All this despite the fact that I regularly fed one hundred and fifty Jewish officials at my table daily, besides visitors from other nations, and all this at great personal cost. Yet I refused to make a special levy against the people, for they were already having a difficult enough time.”

It would have been difficult for Nehemiah to persuade others to give to the poor had he not first been an example to all of his love for God and his unselfishness and sacrifice toward his brothers.

Footnotes:
¹ See Exodus 22:25–27 and Deuteronomy 23:19–20.
² See Deuteronomy 15:1–11.

See “Heroes of the Bible: Nehemiah” for more on this fascinating Bible character.

I asked what life was like in Jerusalem, and Hanani recounted the sad story of affliction and suffering of those who'd returned from captivity. The once great wall of the city was still in ruins and the gates were burned down, yet no one had done anything to rebuild.

Upon hearing this, I wept and fasted and prayed for several days. I realized that we, the people of Israel, had suffered these troubles because of our own sins. I confessed to the Lord that I and my people and my father's house had done wickedly.

“Many years ago, Lord,” I prayed. “You warned us through Your servant Moses that if we were a rebellious house, You would scatter us among the nations, and we'd be taken captive by our enemies, who would treat us cruelly. Now all of this has come to pass. But You also said that if we would repent and turn to You and once again be obedient, You would bless us and bring us again to our land.”1

My heart burned with the desire to help my people in Jerusalem, but how could a servant of the king obtain permission to go? As I prayed, the thought came to me that surely God could do a miracle.

“O Lord,” I prayed, “have mercy on me in the sight of King Artaxerxes by giving me his favor!”

During the months that followed, it became increasingly difficult for me to hide my sorrow. One day, as I brought wine to the king (the queen was also sitting with him), he took note of my ever-saddening face, as I was usually cheerful in his presence.

“You are not sick,” he said, “so what is causing you such sorrow?”

“O king,” I answered, “how can I not be sad when I know that the city where my fathers are buried is in ruinous heaps, and my people are in great trouble?”

“Well, then, how can I help you?” the king asked.

I took the plunge and requested that the king send me to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. The king was pensive for a minute or so. I had been a diligent and loyal servant to him—and King Artaxerxes desired to be kind to me.

“How long will you be away?” he asked. I gave him a specific time, and the king granted my request.

Along with personal letters of recommendation, and appointing me governor of Judah, Artaxerxes authorized the keeper of the royal forest near Jerusalem to give me all the timber needed for construction. The king also gave me a military escort for the long and hazardous journey.

After arriving in Jerusalem, I inspected the wall under cover of night because many enemies existed who would oppose any strengthening of the city’s defenses. Therefore, I told no one of my intentions until I had a well-devised plan.

When the time was ready, I called together the rulers, priests, and nobles of the city and told them how the hand of God was with me to rebuild Jerusalem and about the support I had received from the king.

“Let us rise up and rebuild!” the people shouted in response.

My faith and vision sparked a flame of new hope in the hearts of all who heard me. Before my arrival, they had been discouraged and without direction, but now they found themselves happily uniting to work toward a common goal.

Not all was well, however. Israel had enemies. Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite were angry that someone was seeking to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Soon they launched vicious rumors in an attempt to discredit my lead­ership, accusing me of rebelling against the king by fortifying Jerusalem’s defenses.

But I would not be intimidated. Instead, I replied that God would give us success and that we, His servants, were going to rebuild Jerusalem, and that they had neither part in it nor the right to interfere.

At once, I organized the work force by allotting a portion of the wall for each family to rebuild, confident that they would reach their goal. The people also had a mind to work, and when my enemies saw that the wall was rising daily before them, they were outraged, and their verbal attacks increased. They stood at the construction site and continually mocked the workers and me.

“What are you doing?” they shouted. “Do you actually think you'll be able to rebuild that huge wall? Your construction is so weak that if a fox ran into it, the whole thing would cave in!”

But the more they insulted us, the more I prayed, and the more God gave me strength to continue. Finally, when Sanballat and Tobiah saw that the wall was nearly finished, they plotted to stop the work by infiltrating the city and slaying the workmen one by one in order to instill fear in the troops, thus breaking their morale.

Nevertheless, when I heard the rumors of their intentions, instead of cowering, I armed the workers with swords, bows, and spears, and posted a twenty-four-hour guard.

“Be not afraid of them,” I shouted. “Remember the Lord, your God! Fight for your people, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”

From then on, the workers worked with their swords at their sides, and those who fetched building materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other. We were so vigilant that we even slept fully clothed so that we were ready to jump to the rescue in case of any trouble.

When it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah that the wall and the gates were nearly complete, they sent me a special envoy, saying, “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the Plain of Ono.”

But I knew that this invitation to talk peace was a trap to harm me.

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down,” I replied. “Why should the work cease while I go to speak with you?”

The enemy then sent four more messages, but when I still refused to meet them, they sent an open letter saying that reliable sources had informed them that I'd fortified Jerusalem in order to rebel against King Artaxerxes. They threatened that if I refused to negotiate with them, they would report my treasonous conduct to the king.

Disloyal nobles of Judah acted as spies for Tobiah, reporting my every move while slyly trying to convince me of Tobiah's supposed goodness, all in an attempt to discourage and confuse me. Yet I kept my eyes on the Lord and on the work.

“Lord,” I prayed, “they are trying to frighten us, thinking we are weakened by much labor. But now, Lord, strengthen my hands.”

True, the people had grown weary with building under the constant barrage of misinformation from our enemies, but my faith remained undaunted, and I persevered. The secret was not depending on my own strength, but seeking the Lord for His strength and wisdom, and God blessed me mightily for this.

Soon the seemingly impossible job of rebuilding the wall was finished—and in only fifty-two days! Jubilation filled the city when the gigantic wood and iron gates were finally mounted and shut. Those same people, who before my arrival had been weary, discouraged, and without hope, were now singing in the streets for joy that the work was finally completed!

“When all of the surrounding nations heard about this,” I later wrote, “they were afraid and lost their self-confidence, realizing that we had done this work with the help of our God.”

Because of our faith and obedience, God poured out His Spirit upon us in a tremendous spiritual awakening. The whole nation gathered together while the priests taught them the Word of the Lord.

For seven days, the people spent each morning listening to the Word of God and confessing their sins, making things right with the Lord. Everyone praised God and counted their blessings, which the Lord had given them, in spite of their many mistakes and sins.

And as the multitude began to realize what the Lord had intended for them all along and how the Lord really loved them in spite of their sins, they began to lament for their past failures. But I stood up before the great congregation to encourage their hearts.

“Neither mourn nor weep!” I said. “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and give some to the poor who have nothing. This day is sacred to the Lord. Do not be sorrowful, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”2

Footnotes:

1 Deuteronomy 4:27–31, 12:5
2 See Nehemiah 8:10.

See “Heroes of the Bible: Nehemiah” for more on this fascinating Bible character.

So Moses chose the spies and sent them out. The twelve spies disguised themselves and went to explore the entire land. On their way back, they stopped at the mountain city of Hebron.

“Look at those colossal fortified walls!” one of the spies exclaimed. “They tower up to heaven!”

“And look who lives here,” another spy cried out, seeing two hairy giants striding by.

The giants turned and looked fiercely down at the men.

“Who are these grasshoppers?” one of them bellowed, pointing his massive spear in their direction.

“Those little field mice, you mean?!” the other giant said, and roared with laughter.

The spies trembled. “L-l-let’s leave!—Quick!”

“No,” said Caleb, the man chosen from the tribe of Judah. “We need to find out more about this place first."

So, leaving the rest of the spies, he and Joshua (from the tribe of Ephraim) headed up to the city and disappeared into its towering gates.

Several hours passed before Joshua and Caleb returned from spying out the city. They had found out that the mountains around Hebron were inhabited by a race of giants known as the Anakims, all of them well over ten feet tall, and that Hebron was ruled by three giants and had been renamed Kiriath-Arba, after the greatest of the giants, Arba.

“It will be a fight, but I believe we can take the city,” Caleb said.

“Take the city?! Are you out of your mind?” said one of the other spies. “I never want to see this land of giants again!”

The spies then left the city and went down into the valley of the nearby Eschol Creek where the giants’ vineyards were ripening in the sun. There they cut down a branch of a giant cluster of grapes, and it took two of them to carry it along with other fruit back to Moses.

When the spies returned, Moses and Aaron and the entire Israelite camp came out to greet them. The spies displayed the fruit to the people and Joshua told Moses, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey as God has promised.”

The people began to talk excitedly of going up to take the land until the other spies said, “But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large! And on top of it, the Anakims live there. They are a race of fierce giants!”

Dismayed at the spies’ announcement, the people started grumbling, but Caleb shouted, “We should go up and take possession of the land without hesitation. We can do it!”

“We cannot attack them!” another of the spies said. “They are far stronger than we are.”

The other spies then began to spread further discouraging reports about the land, saying that it devours those living in it, and that its inhabitants were so enormous that the spies felt like grasshoppers.

Upon hearing this, all the people wept aloud and grumbled even more against Moses and Aaron. “Why did the Lord bring us to this land just to have us all be killed by the sword?” they wailed. “Our wives and children will be taken as captives. Let us choose a captain and return to Egypt! It would be better to die in Egypt!”

Others began crying out, “It'd even be better for us to die in this wilderness!”

Then Joshua and Caleb were filled with anger and tore their clothes and addressed the entire assembly.

“The land we passed through is exceedingly good!” they said. “If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead us into it and will give it to us! Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will completely destroy them! Their protection is gone, and the Lord is with us!”

“Stone them!” the people replied. “They are trying to lead us into danger. Stop them now, stone them!”

The whole camp had lost all faith in God. Suddenly, the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of the Tabernacle and God said to Moses, “How long will these people refuse to believe in Me, in spite of all the miracles I have done among them?

“How long will I put up with this evil congregation that doubts Me and murmurs against Me? I have heard the complaints which they grumble against Me! Say to them, ‘As truly as I live, says the Lord, I will do the very things I heard you ask for, and you shall all fall in this wilderness! Not one of you over twenty years old that grumbled against Me shall enter the Promised Land!’

“‘But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land, and his descendants will inherit it! And Joshua will lead Israel to inherit it!’

“‘As for your children, you who rebel against Me, those children that you have said would be taken as captives, I will give the land to them and they will take possession of it. They will enjoy the land that you have despised! But your bodies shall fall in this desert. For forty years you will suffer for your lack of faith and will wander until the last of you dies! Now turn around and go into the desert again.’”

The ten spies who had brought back a discouraging report died of a plague. Only Joshua and Caleb were spared.

The entire camp wept and mourned before the Lord, but Moses told them it was too late. Some even tried to go into the land of the Amalekites, but God was not with them, and they were defeated. So they turned back into the desert and began their long years of wandering there.

Forty years passed, and the last of the older generation died. Moses, now very old himself and just about to die, told the next generation of Israelites, “Hear, Israel. You are about to go in and conquer nations greater and mightier than yourself, with great cities, walled in up to the skies. The people are strong and tall, the children of the Anakims! But be assured that the Lord your God is the One who goes ahead of you. He will subdue them before you, and you will destroy them as the Lord has promised you.”

After Moses died, Joshua boldly led the armies of Israel into the Promised Land, and soon they had conquered vast portions of it. As they were dividing the land between the twelve tribes, Caleb came to Joshua and said, “You know what the Lord said to Moses at Kadesh-Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses sent me to explore the land, and I brought back a good report. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance forever, because you have wholeheartedly followed the Lord.’”

With spear in hand, the white-haired old man continued, “The Lord has kept me alive for forty-five years since then, and here I am today, eighty-five years old! I'm just as strong to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me the hill country of Hebron that the Lord promised me. The giants are there and their cities are large and fortified, but, God helping me, I will drive them out.”

So Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb as his inheritance, and Caleb led his clan up the mountain in the boldness and might of the Lord his God. In the following battle, eighty-five-year-old Caleb defeated the armies of the giants and took their city. From there he marched against the giants living in nearby Debir, and his young nephew Othniel attacked and defeated them. Joshua’s armies then removed the Anakims from the rest of the hill country so that no giants were left in all the land of Israel.

See “Heroes of the Bible: Caleb” for more on this fascinating Bible character.