As the Hebrew nation camped on the border to the land God had promised to give them, Moses selected leaders from each tribe to go in and bring back a report on what it would take to move into this land. There were 12 spies that scouted out the land of Canaan and of the 12 only Joshua and Caleb believed that the Israelites could take the land. After returning with their reports, the 10 leaders had more influence over the people than either Joshua or Caleb. Even though he had the correct position before God, Joshua had not matured into a place of great influence. Read Numbers 14:1-12.

If we look only at this early part of Joshua’s life of leadership, we could get discouraged. I have seen several potentially outstanding leaders give up when they were ineffective in the use of their influence. Fortunately for the nation of Israel, Joshua did not fit into that mold. Joshua had a major setback in his leadership life but he continued to be faithful to God. As he matured he eventually became a leader with great influence and was the man God chose to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land 40 years later.