Numbers Chapter 13

As the Israelites travelled closer to the promised land, God instructed Moses to send a man from each tribe into the land to spy it out.  God already knew what was in the land, but He wanted them to see what He had said would be theirs.  And so recorded for all of history are the names of the men from the twelve tribes who went into the promised land to give a report to the people.  Two of those twelve men became infamous because they showed faith in their God.  Their names are Caleb and Hoshea (or Joshua). 

And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua: Joshua was chosen as the leader of the group. His name was first listed as Hoshea, meaning “salvation.” Here we learn that Moses gave him the name he is more commonly known by: Ya-Hoshea meaning, “Yahweh is salvation.” This is the Hebrew way of saying the name “Jesus.”  [Guzik]

We can read about the faith of Joshua in chapter 14.  But we read in this chapter how the lack of faith of the other ten men started a spiraling effect of disbelief for the whole of Israel.  But the question on my mind is this, why did God send them to spy out the land knowing ahead of time that they would come back with a mostly negative report?  We know the rest of the story that it would be many years before they could enter the promised land.  Here is my thought; God always gives us opportunity to put our trust in Him.  He allows us to make the decision whether we are going to step out in faith.  And when we do not trust Him, I believe He causes us to wait and possibly wallow in our lack of faith until we finally realize it was easier to just put our trust in Him.