Twelve Spies Explore Canaan:
After the LORD had given His instruction to Moses at Mt. Sinai, the people set out to enter Canaan since this was the promise God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses sent twelve spies, one from each tribe, who went throughout the land for forty days to learn how they could conquer the land.
When the spies returned, they all agreed that Canaan was a rich land flowing with milk and honey, but ten of them gave a bad report saying that the people and the cities there were very strong and that Israel could not defeat them. However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed they could defeat their enemies because God would help them just as he did in Egypt. But the people rebelled and would not enter.
God became angry and brought judgment on the Israelites. He declared that no one older than twenty years of age at that time would enter the Promised Land, and that Israel would wander in the desert until that generation all died - forty years.
Forty Years in the Wilderness / Israel's Unbelief:
So Israel wandered. Moses led them, and God often provided food (manna and quail from heaven) and water in miraculous ways for them. But the people complained again and again. One time, the people complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we are tired of eating manna!”
The LORD became angry. So he sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they began to bite them, and the people were dying. They went to Moses and said, “We have sinned by complaining against God and you. Please pray for us to the LORD, so that He will take away these snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.
God told Moses to make a replica of one of the snakes out of bronze and to set it high up on a pole. When anyone was bitten, if they looked at the bronze snake, they would be saved. Moses made the snake and put it on a pole. Whenever a snake bit someone, when they looked at the snake on the pole, they lived.
Entering the Promised Land:
Finally, after forty years in the desert, God brought Israel back to the border of the Promised Land. Moses died on a mountain there after looking over into the Promised Land. God then appointed Joshua to lead them into the land.
Before Moses died, he reminded the people to never worship the gods or idols of Canaan, to not become proud and forget their own sinfulness, to remember God’s love and his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to keep his covenant if they wanted to be blessed. He reminded them that God would punish them if they worshiped other
gods, but that if they repented and sought the Lord and obeyed Him, He would have mercy.
Then, under Joshua’s leadership the Israelites crossed through the Jordan River on dry ground and began conquering the land.