Spiritual mappers love to use the scriptures found in Numbers 13 as a justification to spiritual map their city. In this chapter, we see that the Lord had Moses send spies into the land to find out specific details concerning the land. This chapter details the journey and the report that the spies gave back to Moses and the people. Some of the key scriptures can be found below:

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ' Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. ... And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, 'Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain; and see the land, what it is and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong [hard, bold, violent ] or weak [slack in mind and body ], few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good [bountiful, better, best ] or bad [in affliction, adversity, calamity ]; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents [a tem- porary inhabitant of the land, migrant transient ], or in strong holds [permanent residents ]; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land.' Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. ... The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan."

Numbers 13:1-2, 17-20, 29

Here, spiritual mappers use these scriptures to justify spying on lands and also to "know your enemy". The spies brought back a report about the giant fruits and the giant people who lived in the land. Ten of the twelve people were scared and said that the Israelites could not conquer the land. While two spies said the land was theirs. If you read chapter fourteen, we clearly see that the majority opinion prevaled and the Israelites did not take the land for another forty years and ended up fighting a stronger enemy later on, but done God's way.

But there is another account of this story in the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 1, Moses is about to die. Before Moses dies and the Israelite children enter the Promised Land, Moses reviews and details the history of the Israelite journey to their present state. In verse nineteen, Moses remembers and discusses everything seen in Numbers 13 through 15. Below, you will see some Scripture of Moses' recollections:

"Then, as the LORD our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea. Then I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Then all of you came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to." The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe. They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it. Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, "It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us." But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, `The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.'" Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God,..."

Deuteronomy 1:19-32

Notice the verses I emphasized in bold print. It was the Israelites idea as a group (not Moses' idea) to spy the land. The idea seemed good to Moses and he did not object. While at the same time back in Numbers 13, the Lord gave his command to go forth and spy the land. Why? To spiritually map out a land? NO. If you look at verse twenty-one of Deuteronomy chapter one, the verse states that "See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." See, according to this scripture, the land was already theirs by God's promise. This point was also emphasized in verse nine of Deuteronomy chapter one. In fact, Deuteronomy chapter seven tells the Israelites what to do and who the enemies are. Why waste your time mapping something that is already yours and discerning an enemy that you already know is an enemy? God did not allow the Israelites to go there to map the area, compose a plan of warfare and proceed. God originally allowed the spies to go in to taste and see that the Lord is good. What was supposed to be a sneak preview to rise up the spiritual faith of the believers ended up being a forty year deterrent to appease the flesh. Therefore, God allowed this to happen to test the faith of the people, not to promote a "spy, reconnaissance, and plot" practice. In fact, many of the cities present were destroyed in battle. Therefore, it is illogical to justify these scriptures to promote spiritual mapping when the spies searched the cities that were destroyed. Isn't spiritual mapping supposed to be designed to save a city while destroying the enemy rather than destroying a city and destroying an enemy?

God wanted the battle ahead to be fought his way at his commandments. We cleary see this take place with Joshua when they tried to conquer Ai. Because of sins of the flesh of Achan taking the spoils from Jericho, Joshua sent men to spy the land and was told only 3000 men were needed to defeat the city. Therefore, 3000 men went to fight to experience defeat because of one man's sin. After the sin was dealt with, then God told Joshua to attack Ai by God's plan of setting up an ambush to leave the city open. However, the key to this was Joshua obeyed the Lord by holding a javelin towards Ai where the fighting men led by the spirit of the Lord and not a military leader, knew to go capture the city and set the city on fire. The scriptures also state that Joshua did not even draw back the hand that held the javelin until all in Ai were killed.

To those who wish to use Jericho as a justification for spiritual mapping, I would like to point out some scriptures concerning Jericho. In Joshua 2:1, Joshua tells the two spies he sent to "view the land". Joshua does not tell them to map the land and find out which demon rules the land. He just tells them to look over the land. This was where they met Rahab, a prostitute. In verse two, the king approached Rahab and Rahab covered the spies. The spies made a conditional promise to protect Rahab for her efforts since Rahab told the spies that Jericho feared the Israelites and that the Lord had already given the land to the Israelites. In Chapter 2 and verses 22 and 23, the spies tell everything that happened to them concerning Rahab, not how to stragetically map this city and gain victory. In the last part of chapter five and chapter six, Joshua meets the commander of the Lord. The Lord tells Joshua how to fight the battle and Joshua obeys. Joshua marched around the city and when it was time, the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and the walls came down to where every Israelite went straight in and took the city God's way and by God's plan. There was no "map" to pinpoint the weaknesses and the problem areas. The entire city was conquered and not just the seedy parts of the city.

In verses 24 through 26, Joshua fulfills his promise to Rahab and promises to protect her. Verse 25 states that she lives with the Israelites to this day. What was the real purpose behind Jericho? It was not to promote the spiritual mapping doctrine. But instead, the purpose is twofold. The first purpose was to conquer foreign enemies per the commandments God told Moses and Joshua. The second purpose is found in Matthew 1:5. If you study the scriptures, the Rahab listed in Matthew 1:5 is the same Rahab the prostitute that was spared in the battle of Jericho. You see, by doing things God's way. Rahab is listed as an ancestor of Jesus. Rahab is also listed in Hebrews 11 where she is commended for her faith. The geneology of Jesus remained intact. If one looks at the rest of the geneology in Matthew, one can see different forefathers who committed different kinds and types of sin. With Jesus, the sins and the generational curses of the previous generations came to an end and a standstill when Jesus shed his blood on the cross to die for our sins in order to obtain victory three days later with his rising from the dead. It shows that Jesus, even though he never committed a sin, went through the same trials, tests, and tribulations we went through and had a physical dysfunctional family history like all of us to a certain degree. The key here is that Jesus paved the way to victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave and through his atonement, provided the victory and God later on through the releashing of the Holy Spirit, gave us power to conquer and overcome.

Click here for part five of "Christian Cartography".