Numbers 13:17–20

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;

19 and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;

20 and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.

Biblical Insight

The word translated “southward” is often left untranslated in many modern translations and simply transliterated as “Negev” or “Negeb.” This word could refer to the southern region by that name, simply mean “desert” or “dry place,” or could also refer to a southern direction. In Hebrew it is not uncommon for descriptive words to be used as general directions; for example, the word for sea (yam) is also sometimes used to mean “west.” This definition makes sense when considering Israel’s geography; the most significant body of water, the Mediterranean, made up most of their western border. In any case, God instructed Moses to take inventory of the land He had promised.

Daily Devotion

At the beginning of Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel, the protagonist, Robinson Crusoe, is apathetic towards others, self-serving, and driven by money. His outlook changes when Crusoe becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck on a deserted tropical island. There Crusoe struggles with isolation and despair, realizing everything he once had valued meant nothing to him anymore. The piece of gold he once had sacrificed everything for was now worthless.

The only thing of value on the island was the very thing he once treated with apathy— the Bible. Through reading and meditating on God’s Word, Crusoe realized he could no longer find contentment in material things.

Sometimes instead of feeling contentment in God, we become fueled by a list of never-ending wants. It is in the deserts and wildernesses of life that God wants to reorient our priorities from being driven by wants to finding contentment in Him. Write a prayer declaring your passion to prioritize God above all else.