Tragic Failure (vv. 24-27). Israel had been out of Egypt about two years when the Lord brought them to Kadesh Barnea on the border of the Promised Land (Num. 13-14). Instead of trusting God to give them the land, the people asked Moses to appoint a committee to survey the land. (God had already done this for them–Ezek. 20:6). But Israel did not need more facts; they needed more faith. It was a “pleasant [beautiful] land” (v. 24; Jer. 3:19; 12:10) and a “good land” (Deut. 8:7-9), but ten of the twelve spies reported that Canaan was a dangerous land filled with giants, high-walled cities, and formidable armies. The people reverted to their usual crisis mode of weeping, complaining, and planning to return to Egypt (Num. 14:1-10). The Lord announced that the generation twenty years and older would all die in the wilderness during the next thirty-eight years, and then He sent a plague that killed the ten unbelieving spies. What should have been a triumphant victory march became a tragic funeral march. That is what happens when we want our own way and refuse to trust the Lord and obey Him.