Giants in the Land (Numbers 13-14)

Lyrics · Numbers

Giants in the Land

Numbers 13-14

LISTEN HERE

Lyrics

Now playing

Giants in the Land

Numbers 13-14

Lyrics and song details

0:000:00

Volume

Playing next

About this song

This song belongs to the Numbers collection. 8 recordings are available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book: Numbers
Collection: Numbers
Musical styles: World Music, Electronic, Alternative Pop, Rock, Country & Americana, Worship & Gospel

[Verse 1] Twelve men crossed through Canaan, Forty days beneath the sun, Cut a branch of grapes at Eshcol, Brought the fruit when search was done. Milk and honey filled the country, Cities towered, walls were high; Ten men measured fear by giants, Two men measured God nearby. [Split Refrain] Ten said, "We are grasshoppers." Two said, "Do not fear." Ten saw graves within the desert. Two saw promise drawing near. [Verse 2] All the congregation murmured, Wept until the morning came: "Would to God that we had perished Back in Egypt, not in shame." Joshua rent his clothes with Caleb: "The land is very good. Do not rebel against the Lord; Their defense is gone for good." [Chorus] Giants in the land, But unbelief was greater. Promise at the border, Yet the fearful turned away. Giants in the land, And a generation waited; Forty years of wandering For doubting in that day. [Bridge] The glory at the tabernacle Stopped the stones the people raised. Moses pleaded for the nation, Called on mercy, truth, and praise. [Final Refrain] Two would enter, ten would perish, All beneath the sentence given. Giants stood within the country, But the deepest wall was unbelief.

Named in this songCanaan Egypt Joshua Caleb Tabernacle Moses

About the passage

Numbers 13: The same land produces two conclusions

Twelve tribal leaders enter Canaan under one commission and return with one body of evidence but two incompatible conclusions. Moses asks them to investigate the people, cities, land, trees, and produce, and the scouts come back after forty days carrying grapes, pomegranates, and figs. They agree that the land flows with milk and honey and that its inhabitants and fortifications are formidable. The divide appears in what those facts mean. Caleb says Israel should go up and possess the land. The other men say Israel cannot, escalating their report until the inhabitants become giants and the scouts become grasshoppers in their own eyes. Numbers calls their resulting message an evil report. The chapter therefore distinguishes observation from interpretation. The crisis is not that the scouts saw hard facts. It is that men who saw the same land used those facts to announce opposite futures.

Study Numbers 13 in depth

Numbers 14: A generation refuses the land and receives the wilderness

Numbers 14 turns the scouts' divided report into a national refusal. The congregation weeps, wishes for death, fears for its children, and proposes choosing a captain to return to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb defend the land and the LORD's presence, but the crowd moves toward stoning them until divine glory interrupts. Moses then intercedes when the LORD threatens destruction, asking that divine power be shown through the mercy already declared in the LORD's own character. Pardon is granted, yet the counted generation is barred from the land and sentenced to die during forty years in the wilderness, while the children feared as prey are promised entry. The scouts who brought the evil report die by plague. Finally, the people confess and attempt to advance anyway. Because the command has changed, their eager ascent is another act of disobedience, and without Moses or the ark they are defeated.

Study Numbers 14 in depth