At the October 1979 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball spoke of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to the promised land.
"In that story there is an account of one special man that moves and motivates and inspires me. His name was Caleb," President Kimball said."Shortly after Moses led Israel out of bondage from Egypt, he sent twelve men to search out the promised land and to bring back word about living conditions there. Caleb and Joshua were among the group. After spending forty days on their mission, the twelve men returned. They brought back figs and pomegranates and a cluster of grapes so large it took two men to carry it between them on a pole.
"The majority of the search party gave a very discouraging report on the promised land and its inhabitants. Although they found a land that was beautiful and desirable and flowing with milk and honey, they also found that the cities were walled and formidable and that the people, the sons of Anak,' looked like giants. The Israelite scouts said that they felt like grasshoppers in comparison. Caleb, however, saw things a little differently, with what the Lord calledanother spirit,' and his account of the journey and their challenges was quite different. He said, `Let us go up at once, and possess
their landT; for we are well able to overcome it.' (Num. 13:30.)
"Joshua and Caleb were men of great faith, and they joined in urging that the Israelites go immediately, to the promised land, saying:
" `If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
" `Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for . . . the Lord is with us: fear them not.' " (Num. 14:8-9.)
But the faint-hearted Israelites, President Kimball said, remembered the security of their Egyptian slavery and lacked faith in God. They rejected Caleb and Joshua and sought even to stone them to death.
"Because of their lack of faith, the children of Israel were required to spend the next forty years wandering about and eating the dust of the desert, when they might have feasted on milk and honey," President Kimball said.
"The Lord decreed that before Israel could enter the land of Canaan, all of the faithless generation who had been freed from bondage must pass away - all go into eternity - all except Joshua and Caleb. For their faith, they were promised that they and their children would live to inhabit the promised land."
