Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 51:203 (Jul 1894)
Article: Two Suggestions As To The “Story Of The Spies.”
Author: Joseph Elkanah Walker

BSac 51:203 (July 1894) p. 517

Two Suggestions As To The “Story Of The Spies.”5

J. E. Walker

Foochow, Skaowu, China.

I. As to the greater prominence given to Caleb over Joshua in the account as it stands in Numbers 13. and 14. the two men occupied quite different positions, and the differences were such as had important bearings on

BSac 51:203 (July 1894) p. 518

the matter in hand. Joshua was Moses’ personal attendant, his “minister,” and was in some respects more closely associated with him than was any one else in the camp. When Moses rose up to ascend the Mount, Joshua his minister rose up with him (Ex. 24:13). How far he accompanied him, we are not told; but on the way back Joshua is with Moses, and ignorant of what had been transpiring in the camp (compare Ex. 33:11). His position with Moses on the Mount may have been like that of Peter, James, and John with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, or in the Garden of Gethsemane. He seems to have been in training to be Moses’ successor, just as Elisha, when in training to be Elijah’s successor, became his personal attendant. That this was the case with Joshua, and that it was understood to be so, derives some added probability from the fact that Joshua led the hosts when Israel fought with Amalek. His relations to Moses were both intimate and important. Hence, in any controversy which might arise between Moses and the people, the circumstances in which Joshua was placed, would commit him to Moses’ side. It would require no special courage or fidelity in him to stand by Moses; but it would have been specially base in him to have gone over to the other side. But Caleb was one of the people, and belonged naturally on their side; and, furthermore, his tribe Judah, and Ephraim the tribe of Joshua, were the two leading and rival tribes. Americans have little experience of what rivalry is among clans and tribes, or what courage it takes to rise above it, or what baseness is thought to mark the man who is not true to his own clan. Neither have we experienced how sure such rivalry is to exist wherever tribes or clans are found. Had Caleb been like the ten cowardly spies, jealousy would have put him at their head. It was his loyalty to God’s appointed leader, his faith in God, and his manly courage, and these alone, in the face of strong counter-influences, which brought him to the side of Moses. He was rewarded for being faithful where all others like circumstanced were unfaithful.

Again, in a political campaign, for instance, the arguments of t...