Old testament survey
Alexandra Griffin
Old Testament Survey
Bro. Boruff
“A Secret Mission”
For thousands of years, militaries, countries, and leaders have been sending out
spies to search out different lands. Sometimes a spy might be sent out for information,
to search for a specific person, or to simply see how a land is laid out in order to capture
it. Even back in Bible times, God had leaders send out spies for some of these very
reasons.
In this paper, I would like to compare two specific sets of spies from the Bible that
were sent on a mission: The spies that Moses sent into the land of Canaan and the
spies that Joshua sent into Jericho. There are some distinct differences as well as
some close similarities between the two missions.
The first thing that we notice in this story is the number of spies sent out by both
Moses and Joshua. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, by the Lord’s command.
There was one man from each tribe of the children of Israel. Each man sent out had to
be a ruler among the people. The Bible lists out everyone that was sent: Shammua,
Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Oshea, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, Geuel.
(Numbers 14:4-15) (Ohsea was actually Joshua, but he was not referred to by that
name at the time that this was listed in the Bible. In fact, he was not referred to as
Joshua until he was called to be the leader of the children of Israel.)
This is quite a dramatic difference from the number of spies that Joshua sent into
Jericho. Joshua only picked out two men for the mission. Although God did not put any
stipulations on who Joshua had to choose, the two men that he did choose were
extremely committed to serving God. Since we see at the end of the first story that
Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent out by Moses, we can probably conclude that
this why he only chose two men to go into Canaan. Because he had been chosen as
one of them twelve
Old Testament Survey
Bro. Boruff
“A Secret Mission”
For thousands of years, militaries, countries, and leaders have been sending out
spies to search out different lands. Sometimes a spy might be sent out for information,
to search for a specific person, or to simply see how a land is laid out in order to capture
it. Even back in Bible times, God had leaders send out spies for some of these very
reasons.
In this paper, I would like to compare two specific sets of spies from the Bible that
were sent on a mission: The spies that Moses sent into the land of Canaan and the
spies that Joshua sent into Jericho. There are some distinct differences as well as
some close similarities between the two missions.
The first thing that we notice in this story is the number of spies sent out by both
Moses and Joshua. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, by the Lord’s command.
There was one man from each tribe of the children of Israel. Each man sent out had to
be a ruler among the people. The Bible lists out everyone that was sent: Shammua,
Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Oshea, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, Geuel.
(Numbers 14:4-15) (Ohsea was actually Joshua, but he was not referred to by that
name at the time that this was listed in the Bible. In fact, he was not referred to as
Joshua until he was called to be the leader of the children of Israel.)
This is quite a dramatic difference from the number of spies that Joshua sent into
Jericho. Joshua only picked out two men for the mission. Although God did not put any
stipulations on who Joshua had to choose, the two men that he did choose were
extremely committed to serving God. Since we see at the end of the first story that
Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent out by Moses, we can probably conclude that
this why he only chose two men to go into Canaan. Because he had been chosen as
one of them twelve