Lesson 38 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"I go to prepare a place for you"  (John 14:2).

Notes

Nearing the Homeland

When the people led by Moses were nearing the land to which they were going, the Lord told Moses to send 12 men to go to see what the land was like; to see whether the people were strong or weak, and whether they lived in tents or in strong buildings. By seeing the land and the people, they would know how to take the land; for God had told them that He was going to give it to them.

The Bad Report

After 40 days they came back and told Moses and the people that the land was very good, there was much food there; and they brought back a bunch of grapes that took two men to carry. They said that the people were big and strong, and the spies looked like grasshoppers beside them. They said, too, that the cities had very high walls around them.

When the people heard that report, they were afraid. They said they could not take that land and those people, and blamed Moses for bringing them up to that place where they would have to go in and fight.

The Good Report

But there were two men who believed God, trusted in His power and were willing to go in and take the land. Caleb and Joshua knew that if God had told them He would give them that land, He would help them to get it. They knew that there was nothing impossible with God.

The Punishment

Because the people did not believe God's Word and trust Him to do what He had said He would do, God was not pleased with them; and He punished them for their disobedience. Instead of going into that good land they had to turn back into the wilderness and suffer hardships for forty years. Many of the people who had come out of Egypt never did get into that good land. Only the children twenty years old or under twenty were permitted to go into the land many years later.

God punished the spies who brought back an evil report – the Lord sent a sickness on them, and they died. But Caleb and Joshua were not punished.

It is a terrible thing to disobey God, and not to trust Him. When God tells us to do a thing, He will always help us to do it, no matter how hard it may seem to be.

Questions

1. What kinds of fruit did the spies bring back? Number 13:23.

2. What did Caleb and Joshua say about the land? [NUM:13:30]; [NUM:14:7-9].

3. What did the other spies say? [NUM:13:31-33].

4. What happened to those who brought back an evil report? [NUM:14:36-37].

5. Were Caleb and Joshua also punished? [NUM:14:38].