Shelach - Yehoshua and Yeshua

In the Torah portion of Shelach, we learn about the 12 spies that were sent into the land of Cana’an. We learn about the 10 spies who gave a negative report about the land, and struck fear into the hearts of Israel. We learn how God punished the people of Israel for refusing to trust in him and cross into the land of Israel. We also learn about Yehoshua (Joshua), one of the two spies who brought back a favorable report, and was destined to lead the people into the land of Cana’an 40 years later. All this, from the people of Israel choosing not to trust in God and in turn being cursed to wander for 40 years, to Yehoshua, the one who would ultimately lead Israel into the promised land, All this points towards the Messiah.

It says in Numbers 13:2:

The name of this Torah portion, Shelach (שלח), means "send out." The Hebrew word shaliach (שליח), has the same root of Shelach and means "a sent one." The word “apostle” comes from the Greek word apostolos (ἀπόστολος). This word means exactly the same thing that shaliach means.

The apostles of Yeshua were called apostles because they were sent out. In this same vein, the spies that Moshe sent to explore the land can be referred to as twelve apostles sent out to Canaan. It says in Matthew 10:1-2:

In the first verse, Yeshua’s followers are "disciples," but in the second verse they are "apostles." As soon as Yeshua sends them out, “his disciples” become “his apostles.”

This relation can be cemented further by looking at the text of these two passages. Right after Moshe sends out the twelve spies, the Torah lists the men's names. Matthew 10 does this same exact thing, right after the “disciples” are referred to as “apostles.” Immediately after the Torah recounts the names of the twelve apostle-spies, it relates a speech that Moshe gave to them before they left. This speech consists of instructions for their mission, things they are supposed to notice and goals they are supposed to accomplish. Matthew 10 does this same thing. Immediately after recounting the names of the twelve apostles, it talks about Yeshua giving a speech to them before sending them out. In Numbers 13, Moshe sent out the twelve spies to spy out the cities and villages of the land of Canaan. In Matthew 10, Yeshua sent the apostles to the lost sheep of Israel among the cities and villages of the land of Israel, telling them not to go "in the way of the Gentiles" (Matthew 10:5). They were to stay within the land of Cana’an with the express intent of helping the people of Israel.

When Yeshua sent out His disciples, He sent them out in pairs. It does not say in the Torah that the spies went in pairs, but it implies it. Yehoshua (Joshua) and Calev (Caleb) are a pair, there are two men who carry a cluster of grapes on a pole, and when Yehoshua sends spies to Jericho some forty years later, he sends them as a pair.

The connection between the sending out of the twelve spies and the sending out of the twelve disciples hints toward the deeper meaning of Yeshua's mission. The future of the people hung in the balance in both missions. When the spies returned and gave their evil report, it is said that the current day of the month was the ninth day of the fifth month, Tisha be'Av (תשעה באב), a Jewish fast day upon which multiple calamities throughout history have occurred.

When the people rebelled and refused to go into the land that God had given them, God doomed the entire generation. As it says in Numbers 14:34:

Yeshua believed that his generation was also doomed in a similar fashion. He says in Luke 11:29, "This generation is a wicked generation." He says in Luke 11:50, "The blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, [will] be charged against this generation." He says in Luke 17:25 that He "must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." He told his disciples that this generation would see the judgement that would come upon Yerushalayim. In Acts 2:40 when the apostles were sharing their message, they said, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" Forty years later, (one biblical generation later) on Tisha be'Av, the Romans burned the Holy Temple, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and took its population into captivity. This was the great judgment that Yeshua had warned about.

This great judgement began the Exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel, that still exists to this day. Yeshua knew that this would happen if the people of Israel didn’t accept his invitation to enter the kingdom. This is why he sent out his twelve disciples with the message in Matthew 10:7, "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

It says in Numbers 13:16:

Moshe renamed Hoshea by adding the letter yod (י) to the front of his name. Hoshea (הושע) means salvation, while Yehoshua (יהושע) means "the LORD saves." The Talmud connects this name change with another famous name change. In Genesis 17:15, God changed Sarai's name to Sarah, removing the letter yod from Sarai (שרי) and replacing it with a heh (ה) to spell Sarah (שרה). The talmud explains that God took this yod and added it to Yehoshua’s name:

This story implies that Yehoshua carried a direct link to the patriarchs and what they hoped to achieve. In this way, Yehoshua foreshadows the Messiah by leading the people into the promised land. Yeshua will lead Israel into the kingdom, the Messianic Age, the resurrection of the dead, and the World to Come. As it says in Hebrews 4:8-9:

In fact, “Yeshua” and “Yehoshua” are the same name. When the name Yehoshua (יהושע) appears in Aramaic, the Aramaic pronunciation truncates it into Yeshua (ישוע). Yeshua is simply a short version of Yehoshua. One could even say that Yeshua’s Hebrew name is Yehoshua. Zechariah 6:12 reveals that the Messiah's name is Yehoshua. It happened when the prophet Zechariah made an ornate crown of gold, placed it on the head of the priest, Yehoshua son of Yehotzadak and declared, "Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD." According to this, the high priest Yehoshua and the Messiah have the same name. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the same high priest appears with the Aramaic form of his name: Yeshua the son of Yotzadak.

In this Torah portion, we learn about the 12 spies that scouted out the land of Cana’an. We learn how their grave mistake of bringing back a bad report and the successive doom that God brings upon them points towards a future time of judgement that is still going on today. We learn how Yehoshua, son of Nun, was a foreshadow of Yeshua.

Torah Talk - Shelach