The Two Best Dogs In Israel

(and the Miracle No One Seems to Notice)

Dog #1.   

Dogs get a bad rap in the scriptures.  They are exclusively portrayed negatively in the scriptures.  That’s odd since ancient Israel was a shepherding economy and shepherding depends on sheep dogs.  We know that because Job, in the oldest book of the Bible, refers to his herding dogs.  Job 30.1.   Perhaps the negative references are referring to wild dogs, which are a problem in Israel to this day.  

So why was one of the most uniquely gifted men in all of scripture,  named “Dog” (קלב “Kelev” or "Caleb" in English).   All of biblical history flows through him, his vision, his faith.   If it weren’t for his visionary view of Israel, there would be no “Israel”.   

ועבדי כלב עקב היתה רוח אחרת עמו וימלא אחרי והביאתיו אל־הארץ אשר־בא שמה וזרעו יורשנה

But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

Numbers 14:24  

This passage has caught my attention for many years for three reasons.   

First, because of Caleb and Joshua’s ability to look at exactly the same thing as everyone else and see God’s promise where everyone else sees ruin and futility.   Were they just “optimists”?   Or did they have some deeper ability?

Secondly, it gets harder and harder for me to read the scriptures without seeing the unbroken promise of the Jewish people to possess the land.  

And thirdly, one of the greatest miracles of the scriptures is hidden in plain sight here and no one notices it.  

It only took a year after the Exodus for the Hebrews to reach the border of the promised land.   They knew exactly where it was.  WHY did it take another 39 years to enter it?    Ahhhh, therein lies one of the greatest miracles, this un-noticed miracle.   

The setting of this chapter (Numbers 24) is after one year of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.   The Hebrew name of this book is in fact “In the Wilderness” (not “Numbers”).    Twelve scouts were sent out in pairs to assess the land.  They came back with huge grape clusters from Hebron and reported that “yes it’s a land of milk and honey, and this is its fruit” …but that it's ruled by menacing people, impossible for Israel to re-inhabit and retake.     These wanderers heard this and  wept.  They actually begin to organize a mutiny to return to slavery Egypt and all were in agreement.   But two of the twelve, Caleb and Joshua reject that notion.    They rip their clothes and swear that 

“If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.” Numbers 14:8.   

Are they just optimists?  Zealots?   Would they risk the lives two million men, women and children based on their dewey-eyed dream?  

What is this great un-noticed miracle?

The bible contains an impossible prediction coming true. I've never heard anyone notice it, that it comes true. The odds of this prediction coming true are seven times harder than winning the Powerball lottery. It involves Moses' prediction that two men would be the last standing out of two million Hebrews who left Egypt.

The odds of correctly predicting two specific people to be the last two to die out of a group of 2,000,000 people leaving Egypt, are approximately one in two trillion (1 in 2,000,000,000,000).  

Two trillion quarters laid flat side-by-side, they would cover an area of approximately 36.6 square miles, the land and water area of Manhattan, NY.    If I marked one of those two trillion quarters with an “X” on its bottom, what would the odds be that you could pick that ONE quarter out of all of them given one attempt (and no cheating!).   THAT would be same odds as the Numbers 14:30 prediction that only two specific people, Caleb and Joshua, would survive from leaving Egypt to enter the Promised land.   That is EXACTLY the miracle that this portion predicts. 

Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

Numbers 14:30

Dog #2

My family and I visited Israel during the first Gaza War in August of 2014.   Friends and family told us we were nuts and shouldn’t go, what with 4,000 terrorist rockets falling all over Israel.   I said, "I’ve been to New York City and survived, this should be a piece of cake". Compared to a mere 4000 rockets? I'll take those odds.

We toured as just the four of us snugly in Subaru wagon, changing plans on the fly to go north or south, east or west where the least rockets seemed to be falling.   We went to a remote spot in the Negev to a Camel Ranch to ride the through the rocky hills.  Tourism during that peak August season had dropped to almost zero.   There was no one but us and two bedraggled guides just returned from volunteer service in Gaza at the camp.   One guide told us she’d be right back, but stay away from the corral with the male camels, they were aggressive and could actually charge us.    She disappeared for quite a while.  In that time, the males did indeed start facing us, spitting and snorting, pawing the ground as if preparing to charge.   I was standing next to my youngest son, who was little at the time and wondering if I should get us the heck out of there, when I saw a white streak out of the corner of my eye.   A white dog appeared from no where, jumped the corral fence and charged at the restless herd, barking and nipping at their feet till they backed off, then like a flash, jumped the fence, circled us and sat at the feet of my son in a flourish of unexpected heroism.   

The guide then returned.  She explained that this was a “C’naanite” dog, and my limited Hebrew worked out that she meant a Canaan Dog, one of the oldest breeds on earth.   

This, friends, was the second best Dog in all of Israel.  

Josh and the brave Canaan Dog of the Negev