A Little Further Perspective About the Scouts

“Then, just as the Lord our God commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and traveled through the great and terrifying wilderness, as you yourselves remember, and headed toward the hill country of the Amorites. When we arrived at Kadesh-barnea, I said to you, ‘You have now reached the hill country of the Amorites that the Lord our God is giving us. Look! He has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be discouraged!’ “But you all came to me and said, ‘First, let’s send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.’ “This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes. They headed for the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and explored it. They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported, ‘The land the Lord our God has given us is indeed a good land.’ [Deuteronomy 1.19-25]

The Lord now said to Moses, “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.” [Numbers 13.1-2]

So, whose idea was it to send out the scouts? If we compare the two underlined phrases above, they simply do not match. It cannot be both ways.

Why?

The book of Numbers appears to be an account of Israel and Moses from a third-person perspective. In other words, although Moses is discussed in great detail, he is presented in third person (he, him, etc.) In contrast, the Book of Deuteronomy is written in first person and appears to be Moses' own account and not that of a third party.

It is entirely possible that two different perspectives could yield these conflicting presentations of the same event. 

By fallen nature, no human wishes to admit guilt. If the Numbers account above was written by someone involved in the 'doubting and complaining' faction of Israel, it would 'preserve face' better to say it was God Who told Moses they should send scouts. It is not that the writer would necessarily wish to be deceptive, but memory tends to forget personal transgressions!

The same could be said for the Deuteronomy account as Moses apparently authored it himself.

However, as the combined context of the story goes, it was the people who suffered for the situation and not necessarily Moses (although Moses did not enter the Promised Land, it was because of the "striking the rock" situation and not the scout situation). This information then would seem to indicate that the people were at fault for the scout situation and therefore increases the likelihood that it was in fact their request to send the scouts and not God's instruction.

As readers of the Bible, it is entirely up to us to choose which to believe because both accounts cannot be right. Again, the context of the story and its outcome lead me to believe that sending in the scouts was the idea of the people and not of God.

Father, it is always difficult to discern what to accept when the Bible offers conflicting details of the same event. In this instance, I believe I have rightly considered the facts and made a correct conclusion accordingly. But, my faith is not dampened either way!