The Statute of Limitation

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” Numbers 13:1-2  NASB

Send out for yourself – When you read this verse, did you think of another “send out” verse, one with the same grammatical oddity?  How about Genesis 12:1? “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country . . .’”  Of course, you wouldn’t see it in translation.  In Genesis the verb construction is the very famous lek leka, “to go out from yourself.”  A lot has been made of this odd construction.  Abraham is not simply directed to go forth.  He is directed to go out of himself, to leave who he has been and begin the journey toward being someone else.  He is to come out of himself in order to follow God’s command.

Of course, Moses isn’t told to “go out of yourself.”  He’s told to “send out from yourself.”  But the parallel is significant.  God doesn’t instruct Moses to simply “send out spies.”  Something else is involved, something that has to come from inside Moses himself.  šelaḥ leka—“from within you, send them.”  Why does God issue His command in this way?

Leka incorporates the preposition le with the second person singular ʾattâ, shortened to ka.  Notice the use of ʾattâ:  “This second person singular pronoun occurs a few hundred times in the ot. It is appended to verbs for emphasis. Its use in oblique cases (genitive and accusative) is to afford stress to a preceding suffix.”^[1]  God doesn’t want Moses to be mistaken.  He puts an exclamation point behind the verb!  Why?

I believe that this is one of those commands that God intends not to be followed.  In other words, God places the choice in Moses.  But what God really wants is for Moses to refuse to send the spies.  Moses is supposed to think, “Wait!  God has already promised us the Land.  He has already demonstrated over and over His unwavering faithfulness to us. He has already told us that we will possess it, and that it is a good Land.  Why would we question Him by sending men out to see if what God said is actually true?  If we send the spies, we will as good as say that we don’t believe God.” That’s the real choice here. That’s why God directs Moses to “send from yourself.”  “Moses, think about this!  Ask yourself if this is really what you want.  Consider the consequences!”

But Moses doesn’t refuse.  He doesn’t send out from himself.  He accedes to the will of the people.  And he fails the test.  He is anxious to have the people finally voluntarily follow him.  He is willing to do what they want so that he won’t have to fight for what God wants.  A great turning point occurs in this moment, a turning point that not only sends the people into forty years of wandering but ultimately breaks Moses’ compassion for them.  For the next forty years, Moses is allowed to experience the consequences of obeying  what he knew wasn’t right.  Free will conquers relying on the character of YHVH—again. The choice that wasn’t a choice. 

And I wonder if Abraham didn’t face the same kind of divine reverse psychological choice when God said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, . .”  What if Abraham had deferred?  “God, this isn’t like you.  You don’t sacrifice the innocent for no reason at all.  No, thank you, but I don’t think I’ll follow your request this time.”

Topical Index: send for yourself, šelaḥ leka, Abraham, lech leka, Numbers 13:1-2

^[1]Feinberg, C. L. (1999). 189 אַתָּה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 84). Chicago: Moody Press.