What were the similarities and differences between the 12 spies?

 Similarities:

1. All 12 spies were leaders in their tribes. (Num 13:2)
2. All 12 spies received the same promise (Num 13:2)
3. All 12 spies received the same opportunities. (Num 13:2)

 Differences:

Majority Report

1. Ten said “no”
2. Misunderstood their mission
3. Saw God in light of their circumstances

 Minority Report

1. Two said “go”
2. Understood their mission
3. Saw circumstances in light of their God

 The difference was attitude. The ten spies had a horrible attitude about the entire trip. Not once is God even mentioned in their report. Their vision is from a position of their personal power, and not God’s power.

 Attitude of the majority:

1. Disobeyed God
2. Believed the land had no future
3. Displayed cowardice based on fear
4. Utterly ignored God in their report
5. Suffered from a grasshopper complex

 Look at the effect of such a negative attitude. First of all, their pessimitic, sour dispositions spread throughout the camp like a wild fire. It caused the people to become discouraged.

Deu 1:28  Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people [is] greater and taller than we; the cities [are] great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.

Not only that, it turned them completely around; ready to run in the opposite direction that God was leading them to.

Num 14:1  And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

They caused great despair and distress. The people totally lost faith. They completely forgot about their God and all His miracles. Their courage failed them completely. This is the cost of a negative attitude.

But it didn’t stop there.

Num 14:2  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

Num 14:3  And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

A negative attitude and report causes murmuring and complaining. It causes fear to take over and activate an entire mob. This is where mob rule and mob thinking comes in, and people start moving as a mindless group that lacks understanding.

Num 14:5  Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

What else could they do? Ten naysayers spread anxiety throughout the entire camp. John Maxwell put it this way, “Their rotten attitudes infected the whole congregation until the spiritual contagion could not be contained. Through a negative majority report, this ancient commission deprived nearly two million people of their inheritance in Canaan. Through their poisonous influence, the Israelites were driven back into the wilderness to die, and God delayed fulfilling His purpose for His chosen people for 40 frustrating years.”