Torah Meditations: Annexation and the Spies!

It is incredible that deliberations regarding the July 1^st date for the Annexation of portions of the West Bank, by Israel, and the Torah portion Shelach are occurring at the same time! In Shelach, the spies are sent out to see the land that the Lord has given them. We are told in Numbers 13:1,2 The Lord said to Moses,  “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

The amazing part of the above verse is that the LORD was giving the land to the Israelites! There was no doubt, no argument, no enemy that was going to change God’s promise. Yet, he wants men to work with Him and to trust Him, so he allows them to go into the land and explore it. Of course, we know the story. Ten of the twelve spies come back with a bad report – frightening the people with stories of Giants that were, in their eyes, going to squish them like grasshoppers! This report made the Lord so angry that He told them everyone over 20 would die in the wilderness – and they did!

Now, some 1,500 years later, there is an argument over whether some of the territory in the West Bank should be annexed by the Israeli government. Since God never changes, should the focus be on political arguments to answer this question, or should we act on the promise of the Lord which says, “ ……the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.”

                                 This is the question that has to be answered!