The people of Israel had almost reached the Promise Land of Canaan now. Moses told them to go in and conquer it, for the Lord had told them to. But the people begged Moses to send spies first, to go through the land and come back and tell them what it was like.
So Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe. He told them to look at the land to see whether it was good or bad, what sort of people lived there, how many there were, and whether they lived in tents or in cities with walls around them.
Moses told the spies not to be afraid, and to bring back samples of the fruit that grew in the Promised Land. So the spies walked through the Land from one end to the other, and the Lord kept the people who lived there from hurting them. At a place called Eschol, they cut a branch of grapes with a single cluster so large that it took two men to carry it! They hung the cluster on a pole with a man at each end, carrying it between them! They also brought back to Moses some samples of the wonderful pomegranates and figs that grew in the Promised Land.
They were away for forty days before returning with their report and with the samples of fruit they had found. They said the grain and grapevines grew tall and strong and that there was there plenty to eat and drink. But there was one problem; there were walls around the cities, and the people were fierce and strong. The spires were afraid and didn’t think the Israelis would be able to conquer people like that.
But two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, remembered God’s promise that He would give the land to the Israelis. They knew He would keep His promise, for they had faith in Him. Caleb begged the people to enter the land at once; they were well able to capture it, he told them.
But the other spies persuaded the people not to go; there were giants there, the spies said, so large that ordinary people seemed about the size of grasshoppers in comparison!
So the Israelis refused to enter the Promised Land.
Then they began to cry and murmur against Moses and Aaron. “Why did God bring us here to kill us in the wilderness?” they complained fearfully. “We should never have left the land of Egypt. Now what is going to happen to our wives and to our children? They will all be killed.”
Suddenly they decided, “Lets go back to Egypt. Down with Moses! We’ll elect someone else to lead us.”
Moses and Aaron felt terrible about this; so did Joshua and Caleb, the two good spies. Once more they told the people what a wonderful country the Promised Land was. They begged the Israelis not to be afraid of the people living there, for the Lord would help His people. But the people were angry at Caleb and Joshua for saying this, and wanted to kill them.
Then God was very angry with the people of Israel. He told Moses that He would send a terrible plague to destroy them; they could no longer be His people, He said. Instead He would give many children to Moses, and they would become a greater nation than the people of Israel were.
But Moses begged the Lord not to kill them. Moses said that if God destroyed His people and didn’t bring them to safely into the Promise Land, all the heathen nations would say it was because God wasn’t able to do it!
The Lord listened to Moses’ prayer and promised not to kill the people after all. But because the people had disobeyed God so often and wouldn’t believe His promises even though they had seen Him do such wonderful things for them. God said they couldn’t enter the Promised Land for forty years. They must wander around in the wilderness all that time until all of them were dead. At the end of the forty years, God said He would bring their children into the land. And He promised that the two good spies, Caleb and Joshua, would live and enter Canaan with them.
Then the people of Israel were sorry for what they had done. They got up early the next morning and told Moses that now they were willing to go into the Promise Land after all. But Moses told them no, it was too late, now the Lord wouldn’t help them, and if they went they would be killed by their enemies. But they went away, and the people living in the land came and and fought against them and chased them as bees chase those who come too close to their hives.
The Israelis returned to their camp and stayed there several days. Then the Lord led them back into the wilderness.
Questions:
Tell about the spies’ trip to Canaan?
In what way were Caleb and Joshua good?
Why were the people afraid to enter the Promised Land?
How did God punish the people for not trusting Him?
Numbers Chapter 13 & 14
"Only Life Changes" 