Torah Shelach L’cha “Send for yourself”
Torah – B’midbar (Numbers) 13:1 – 15:41
Haftorah – Yehoshua (Joshua) 2:1-24
B’rit Hadashah – Ivrim (Hebrews) 3:7-19
When an archer draws back his bow, he has a very defined target in mind to hit. When a congregation sends a brother or sister out on a mission, who or what is the goal they’re aiming for?
The Aim of the Twelve Spies
An archer shooting an arrow – that’s Shelach L’cha pictured in paleo Hebrew. The Hebrew phrase is sheen, lamed, chet, and lamed, kaf. From a paleo-perspective, I propose this phrase pictures:
An archer draws the bow to put tension (sheen) on an arrow (lamed); beyond the fence around the camp (chet). He releases the arrow (lamed) by opening the hand (kaf) on the drawn string.
What did YHWH intend for the twelve spies to aim for outside the camp in the wilderness? What was their defined mission that they were sent out to do?
Send men for you, and they shall spy out the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel; you shall send one man for the tribe of his fathers, one man, every one a leader among them. Num 13:2a
The mission was to spy out the land, in Hebrew ‘to toor,’ meaning to meander about the land to bring back a report to the people. What was to be the focus of the report?
We know it wasn’t what ten of them came back with, for they missed the mark. Ten focused on how big the giants were in the land and how small they were, like grasshoppers in their own sight. They missed it on that mission.
So what did the two that got it right say? Joshua and Caleb nailed it – And they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land into which we passed, to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.” (Num 14:7) Their target was ‘an exceedingly good land.’
The focus of Joshua and Caleb was on how abundant and fertile the land was that the Creator had prepared to give to His people: “If YHWH has delighted in us, then He will bring us into this land and will give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey.” Most importantly, the focused object of their faith was on their God, Who was well able to bring His people into the land and give it to them. They truly believed that YHWH owns the land and that He is mightier than the giants inhabiting it.
The bottom line for each of the spies was upon whom they fixed their eyes. For the ten spies, it was the giants. On the other hand, Joshua and Caleb had their eyes set on the Creator Who had promised the seed of Abraham the Land to be their inheritance.
The Focus of Our Faith
When we face giants in our wilderness journey in life, who or what is the focus of our faith? Who do we believe has the most power and authority over our lives and well-being? Where do we think we’ll all end up – squashed like bugs under the feet of our giant adversaries or on top of them, reducing them to ashes under our feet?
Here’s a prophetic word I’m hearing from the Spirit these days. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. We want the focus of our faith on YHWH of Hosts and His power over our enemies. Hear this:
“But to you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise up, and healing will be on His wings. And you shall go out and frisk like calves of the stall. And you shall tread under the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day I am preparing,” says YHWH of Hosts. (Malachi 4:2-3)
Are we in awe of the mighty Name of YHWH of Hosts and His Son Yeshua – Yah saves? Do we believe in the characteristics and attributes of His strong Name that can overcome our enemies with the armies of Heaven? Nothing is impossible for those with a mustard seed of faith in His Name (Mat 17:20). In the next verse of this end-time prophecy, we hear Malachi hearken back to the Torah:
Remember the Torah of My servant Moses which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and judgments. (Malachi 4:4)
The Mission in the Names
So in remembering the Torah of Moses, let’s go back to the spies and what their mission focus should have been. Did the purpose of YHWH fail to spy out the Land? Even though the ten missed the mark then, YHWH does nothing in vain but will, in the end, accomplish what He sends His Word to do.
“So My Word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend, and will succeed in what I sent it for.” (Isaiah 55:11)
In the Torah, names carry characteristics and the mission assigned to the individuals given the names. Each mission was a part of fulfilling the greater mission. In the case of the twelve spies, individuals were like arrows in the bow of YHWH. The Torah stresses that individuals were sent out:
You shall send one man for the tribe of his fathers, one man, every one a leader among them. (Num 13:2b)
These individuals each had a special, unique role in the mission that the twelve spies were charged with touring the Land. Although ten of these individuals missed their mark and blew their assignment, I believe that end-time individuals of the last generation will not. Today there is a remnant generation of mainly young people and a few old Joshua and Calebs, rising up in covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
By the Spirit of the Living God, we are experiencing an increase in faith and a focus on hitting the mark of Torah like no generation of believers ever before. We are alive with the hope of a new day living in the Land together, and the prophets fuel that fire by the Holy Spirit in our souls! His purposes outlined in the Torah will undoubtedly be accomplished.
The Full Gospel is for the Remnant
Can we expect the last generation of Israel in these end times to succeed with their commission? Are there two reports, one that’s good news and another an evil report, coming out of the land today?
But not all obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “YHWH, who has believed our report?” Then faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of YHWH. (Romans 10:16-17)
The Good News, the whole Gospel that Isaiah and Paul are referring to here, is not just that Yeshua saves us from our sins, but that He promises to deliver us out of Babylon, another type of Egypt. He has yet to bring the exiled, lost sheep of the house of Israel back to the Promised Land. The Messiah has yet to fulfill the mission He’s been sent to accomplish – nothing short of the restoration of Israel in the Land.
Like the apostles who Yeshua sent to the lost sheep of Israel, there is a Joshua and Caleb generation of believers rising up today who say, “I can do all things through the Messiah Who strengthens me.” Like Joshua and Caleb, the believing remnant proclaims a faith-building, triumphant Word. The remnant proclaims the whole Gospel of Yeshua, the Messiah and Redeemer of Israel.
Is the question – do we really believe the full Gospel report? The remnant will.
Yet it will come about in that day that the remnant of Israel – those of the house of Jacob who escaped – will never again depend on the one who struck them down but will depend upon YHWH, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty Elohim. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed. Justice overflows. (Isaiah 10:20-21)
Micah also prophesied the rest of the entire Gospel message promised to the remnant:
“I will surely gather Jacob – all of you! I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock within its pasture. They will be noisy with people.” (Micah 2:12)
For the remnant who seek YHWH for a word that will increase their faith to bring them back to the Land, Moshe recorded all the names of the twelve spies and their fathers in B’midbar (In the Wilderness) 13:1-15. Let’s take a look.
The Mission for the Remnant in the Twelve Names
A message to the remnant in these last days is hidden within the names of the twelve spies. Embedded in the meanings of their names were their parts in completing the mission.
The Hebrew word for name, shem, means the breath or essence of a person’s character. In paleo-Hebrew, the two letters sheen and mem mean what is breathed through the teeth, producing frequencies from the womb of the soul in words and emanating character, function, and purpose.
Understanding Hebrew meanings can help us to prophetically understand the characteristics of the people that our Messiah sends forth in our day. Ten of them blew their destinies by giving evil reports out of fear. However, His Word will not return void from out of the faithful remnant in the last generation.
The Hebrew names of the twelve spies, as found in Bamidbar (Numbers) Chapter 13, hold prophetic meaning and purpose to be fulfilled by the remnant of Israel. The following message replaces the names of the spies and their fathers with their meanings, starting with chapter 13:1. Hear what the Spirit has to say to those He calls to overcome:
And YHWH spoke to him drawn from the waters (Moshe), “Send out for yourself men, so that they too (spy) the fragmented land of humiliated, lowland traffickers (Canaan), which I am giving to the sons of those who rule as Elohim Who prevails (Yisra’el). You shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, everyone a leader among them.”
And drawn from the waters (Moshe) sent them out with authority as projectiles (shelach) from what comes from the Word (midbar, the wilderness); these are to be ornamental as fruit on a tree (Paran) by the command of YHWH. All of them are men who are heads of the sons of those who rule as Elohim prevails (Yisra’el).
And these were their breaths of character, their reputations, what emanated as frequencies from the wombs of their souls (Shemot, names):
- *Behold a Son to hear, be mindful of, and be heard.
- He has heard their case and has judged the cave dwellers, those who live in darkness.
- Open the door and praise YHWH wholeheartedly, for He will be facing us!
- There is a reward to those He redeems, so let Him continue to add!
- It is then that I shall be doubly fruitful with Salvation’s posterity.
- The Son of the right hand is my Deliverer. I am healed.
- The habitation of Elohim is my good fortune, for He is my confidant.
- Let Him continue to add, causing us to forgive and forget debts. Gain fortune like an invader on his horse, taking the spoils out through the gate.
- The Judge is the Elohim of my people, yielding rewards for good and for evil.
- Straight and happy are those hidden in Him. Who is like Elohim?
- My wrestling and struggling is hidden within walls where riches are added.
- Taking a fortune from the invasion, Elohim is magnified and glorified for my increase!
Gleanings of the Message for This Generation
What can we glean from this message in these names? Great struggles and tests of our faith produce the characteristics of our Messiah in those who are obedient to Him, in those who have been raised up out of chaotic, deadly waters. We find the greatest joy in life when Messiah gives us victory after the greatest of battles. We can experience how deep is His great love for us, even when we face hostile hatred and enmity against us.
We need the bold and courageous in our day to declare faith in YHWH Tsava’ot (LORD of Hosts), Who overcomes today’s giants; our Messiah will restore the Beulah (Married) land to His Bride Yisra’el (Isaiah 62:4).
In the wilderness of Paran (meaning ornamental), the Messiah ornaments His Bride with the fruit of the Spirit. From this beautiful set-apart place, He sends out His shlechim (apostles, sent ones). Herein is a prophetic picture of Tziyon, which means a parched place. Yeshua was anointed by the Ruach Adonai YHWH to beautify that once-barren place to raise up His Bride –
to appoint to those who mourn in TZiyon, to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the spirit of infirmity, so that one calls them trees of righteousness, the planting of YHWH, to beautify Himself. (Isaiah 61:3)
El, YHWH Elohim, has spoken and calls to the earth from the sun’s rising to its going in. Out of TZiyon, the perfection of beauty, Elohim, has shone. (Psalm 50:1-2)
By the Power of His Love
His love is the most beautiful, ornamental characteristic of our Messiah for us to gain. His love is what the Bride wants to achieve more than anything. She wants to know that His love is her good fortune forever intimately.
Our Messiah wants to send us out to shine the light of His love on those dwelling in the darkness that they may be delivered and grafted into His Kingdom.
Will we believe that He is greater than the giants and the mighty ones of the people we face daily? When fierce persecution comes to our doorstep, will we still believe that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world?
Sha’ul (Paul) declared to the believers in Rome that we are victorious in the Messiah by the power of His love:
Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Could oppression, anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Psa 44:22)
Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of Elohim, which is in the Messiah Yeshua, our Master. (Romans 8:35-39)
Whose report are we going to believe? The news media, the anti-Semitic, replacement or dispensational theology, or even the voices of doubt among our mishpocha? Will we fear today’s giants, tyrants, and terrorists and be terrorized? So many voices say we’ll never make it out of America when great tribulation hits. The term anti-semitic comes from being against the descendants of Shem, son of Noah. Shem means ‘name.’
Or will we believe the Shem-itic reports of those who like Caleb wholeheartedly and eagerly trust YHWH for the land? Will we rise up like Yehoshua (Joshua), believing that Yeshua saves, delivers, heals and prospers His people?
Praise YHWH Tsava’ot of armies Who knows no defeat! Praise is the language of faith, so let’s make the most of every opportunity to praise and worship our King!
Maturing with you in the character of our Messiah Yeshua,
David Klug