But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
This verse is part of the same story as Numbers 13:32. Moses had sent twelve men to scout the land of Canaan before the Israelites entered it. Two of the scouts — Caleb and Joshua — had already urged the people to trust God and move forward. But this verse captures the pushback from the other ten: "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." Their reasoning was purely human — they compared Israel's military strength to the enemy's and found themselves outmatched. What they left out of the equation entirely was God. Their faith had narrowed to the size of a strength comparison chart, and the result was that an entire nation stood frozen at the edge of everything they had been promised.
Father, I confess that I often forget to put you in the equation. I measure the problem against my own strength and give up before I've even asked you. Remind me that "we can't" is never the whole story when you are involved. Give me the eyes of Caleb. Amen.
"We can't" is one of the most consequential sentences in the Bible. Not because those ten men were cowards — they had literally just walked through dangerous territory on foot. But they made a very human mistake: they did the math without including God. Our strength versus their strength. It didn't add up. They weren't wrong about the enemy's size. They were wrong about whose strength was actually on the table. There is a version of realism that is actually faithlessness wearing sensible clothes. It looks responsible. It sounds measured. It acknowledges the facts. But if your assessment of what's possible never includes God — if the calculation is always just you against the thing — you will always find reasons why "we can't." Where in your life are you running that math right now? What would it look like to put God back in the equation — not as a shortcut past hard work, but as a genuine factor in what is actually possible?
The spies said "they are stronger than we are" — which was probably true in human terms. What was missing from their thinking, and how does including God fundamentally change that calculation?
Where in your own life do you find yourself saying "I can't" — and is that conclusion based on comparing your strength to the obstacle alone, without factoring in God's involvement?
Is there a meaningful difference between wise caution and faithless fear? How do you tell the two apart in your own heart, especially in the moment?
Have you ever been pulled toward giving up because of someone else's "we can't"? How does another person's fear affect your own courage and sense of possibility?
What is one "we can't" you've quietly accepted that you could bring back to God in honest prayer this week — asking him to show you what might actually be possible?
But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are too strong for us."
AMP
Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”
ESV
But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.'
NASB
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”
NIV
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
NKJV
But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”
NLT
But the others said, "We can't attack those people; they're way stronger than we are."
MSG