3
THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL
A sequel to the booklet `The Dispensational Frontier'
A cluster of peculiar blessings, brought from the high calling of the Mystery, and exhibited to the Lord's people
in much the same spirit as prompted the witness of Caleb and Joshua.
The book of Deuteronomy opens with the words of Moses `on this side Jordan' in the wilderness over against the
Red Sea, but the record is interrupted at the second verse, by a parenthetical observation:
`There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea' (Deut. 1:2).
Somewhat comparable, and at first sight as difficult to understand is the strange interruption of the narrative of
Acts 1:15:
`And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, the number of names together were
about an hundred and twenty, Men and brethren, this Scripture, etc., etc.' (Acts 1:15,16).
We have purposely omitted the marks of parenthesis ( ... ), there being none in the original, to intensify the
strangeness of this interpolation. The structure reveals that there is a correspondence between this 120 with the
addition of Matthias to the `eleven' thus making up the number of the apostolate (12) (Acts 1:26), and with the
number of different countries represented at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9-11) which are twelve,
because it was essential, if Israel were to be called once more to repentance, that there should be `twelve' thrones
judging the `twelve' tribes of Israel. So, returning to Deuteronomy, the break in the narrative is inspired and
purposeful. Let us ponder its meaning and its implications. At Horeb, the solemn covenant had been made between
the Lord and this people, and from Mount Sinai the people set out across the wilderness, and the stages of their
journey are all noted in Numbers 33. From Sinai to Kadesh there are twenty-one stages indicated (Num. 33:16-37)
and some of these were marked by gross disobedience as at Kibroth-hattaavah, so that Israel took much longer than
`eleven days' to traverse the route laid down in Numbers thirty-three. Disobedience and unbelief apart, the direct
route would have occupied just eleven days, and the implication is that one more day would have seen Israel over
the border, and into the land. Instead, Moses reminded Israel:
`The space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and
eight years' (Deut. 2:14).
The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Numbers set out the tragedy of Kadesh-barnea at some length. The
twelve spies searched the land from one end to the other, and at Eshcol, a valley in the vicinity of Hebron (Num.
13:22,23), very near the Southern border of the land of promise, they cut a cluster of grapes which they bore
between two upon a staff, and brought it as an evidence of the goodliness of the land towards which the Lord,
through Moses, was leading His people. Alas! while Caleb and Joshua testified to the goodness of the land, and to
the faithfulness and power of the Lord to fulfil His promise and give them the land for their inheritance, the ten spies
intimidated the people by their report concerning the giants, the sons of Anak, so that the faithful two were
threatened with stoning for their pains.
In this booklet we too are bringing as it were `a cluster' from Eshcol even at the risk of being as badly treated for
our pains as were Caleb and Joshua. The country which we have searched and on which we report is represented by
the epistle to the Ephesians, and in the history of the Church, Israel's defection has been, alas, only too faithfully
copied to its loss. Paul, like the faithful spies, was forsaken at the close of his life. `All in Asia' turned away from
him; the precious revelation of the truth of the Mystery which it was his glory to make known was discounted, and
so completely was his testimony rejected that no vestige of it is discernible in the writings of the `Fathers' who go
back to the early portion of Acts, and wandered in their wilderness, even as Israel did in theirs. Should the reader
not quite appreciate this analogy, we suggest that the earlier booklets of this series be consulted, namely The