When the Israelites reached Canaan’s border, God told Moses to send twelve men, one from each tribe, to scout the land and bring back fruit. After forty days, they returned with a large cluster of grapes.

Ten men reported the land was good but the people were strong and lived in fortified cities. Caleb and Joshua urged the people to take the land, confident God was with them. The others feared and doubted, wanting to return to Egypt.

Joshua and Caleb pleaded with the people not to rebel. God’s glory appeared, and He declared that because of their unbelief, the generation over twenty would not enter Canaan but wander the wilderness for forty years. Caleb and Joshua, who trusted God, would enter the land, and their children would inherit it. The people wept, but after the ten spies died of a plague, they insisted on entering Canaan. Moses warned they would fail without God, but they went anyway and were defeated. The Israelites then stayed in the wilderness for forty years, where God provided for them and their clothes and shoes did not wear out.