The verb is key to Calev and Joshua's argument with the people over whether Israel should - or could - enter the Land at this point after sending in the twelve spies to reconnoitre the territory ahead of them. Although the Qal Affix form is most often translated as a past tense, here - particularly coupled with 'if' - it is referring to a state rather than an action, so should be translated in the present tense. is also one of a genre of verbs that are connected to their objects by what would be an unusual preposition in English; other verbs in the same genre include 'choose' and 'rebuke' - the effect is not directed at or towards those chosen or rebuked, but is seen as being placed within them. So here: Adonai's delight or pleasure is in or within 'us', the people, rather than over or about us. Put another way: Adonai's delight is based on who He is and who we are, rather than what we have done.

So, Calev and Joshua's argument goes: if Adonai delights in us, and because He is in complete and absolute control, then it doesn't matter what the obstacles may be, He will bring us into the Land. Notice also the voice of the second verb: while 'bring' is a common translation, here it doesn't do justice to the sense of what is being said. G-d will cause the Israelites to enter the Land; not just that He will lead them in - although He will do that as well - but that He will make it happen, He will cause the people to enter and take possession of the Land. This cuts completely across the complaints of the other ten spies who talked of giants, being like grasshoppers and that land that devoured its inhabitants; these complaints are not addressed or rebutted in any way because they are simply irrelevant. G-d, who is bigger than all the possible difficulties will cause the people to enter the Land. Period. Full stop.

Rav Sha'ul takes up the same argument when he writes to the Jewish community in Rome. "What then are we to say to these things? If G-d is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31, CJB). To Sha'ul it just isn't possible that G-d would give us His Son - given up as a sacrifice for us, to redeem us, to restore relationship between man and G-d - and then allow us to be cut off from Himself again. "Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War? ... For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of G-d which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our L-rd" (Romans 8:35,38-39, CJB).

Further Study: 2 Samuel 22:19-20; Psalm 147:10-11; John 10:27-29

Application: Are you going through a tough patch at the moment, or are you finding it difficult to believe that G-d can "get there from here"? If so, then you need to hear that argument of Calev and Joshua. G-d can and will deliver on every promise He has made and is completely capable of making you enter the land.

© Jonathan Allen, 2006