After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, the Israelites captured its surrounding settlements and drove out the Amorites who were there.

• Numbers 21:32

The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.”

• Joshua 2:2

So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

• Joshua 6:23

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

• Joshua 7:2

When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz),

• Judges 1:23

The End Times Quiz series, at least the birth pains, is complete.  But I am continuing the people of war quizzes, every other week.  We have looked at Commander, Leader, Soldier, Warrior, Officer, and Centurion.  There should be enough references for sailor(s) to keep these quizzes going.

Spies are used to explore the land prior to conquest.  They look for weaknesses.  In more than one location in the Scriptures, people were accused of being spies, looking for weaknesses in the other nation’s defenses.  But in the NIV, one of the most famous spy stories never mentions spies, only in the retelling of the story in Deuteronomy.  Numbers talks of men who “explored.”

This quiz is made up of ten questions about verses mentioning a “spy or spies” and a few questions about men who explored.

The verses are in biblical order.  All questions are from the Old Testament except for the last two.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first mention of spies, what group of men were accused of being spies?  Bonus: What were they in Egypt to obtain?
2	How were the men in question 1 supposed to prove they were not spies when they returned the next time?
3	How many men were sent into the Promised Land by Moses to explore?
4	Who was the first to say they should go take the land?
5	How many of these “explorers” returned with a report that they could take the land?
6	How many spies were sent by Joshua throughout the land and especially Jericho?
7	How did Rahab hide the spies of question 6?
8	When the Ammonite king died, David sent an envoy to express sympathy, but the new king thought they were spies, doing what to them before he sent them away?
9	When the religious leaders sent spies, pretending to be followers of Jesus, what was their trick to try to trap Him? Hint: Jesus asked for a coin before answering their question.
10	What two epistles recount the story of Rahab and the spies?

Spy novels get a lot of stuff wrong, but once you are wrapped in intrigue, mystery, and adventure, do you really care?

The people of the spy novels are not the spies.  An operative, or agent, goes into the foreign country and recruits local people to be the spies.

The USSR was good at this.  They would find disgruntled government employees who were passed over for promotion or had some kind of financial hardship.  Another ploy was to lure them into a trap with prostitutes.  They would either want to keep the liaison a secret, or they would want more from the prostitute.  Some of the most notorious “spies” in recent American history were Americans.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first mention of spies, what group of men were accused of being spies?  Bonus: What were they in Egypt to obtain?	Genesis 42:9
2	How were the men in question 1 supposed to prove they were not spies when they returned the next time?	Genesis 42:34
3	How many men were sent into the Promised Land by Moses to explore?	Numbers 13:4-15
4	Who was the first to say they should go take the land?	Numbers 13:30
5	How many of these “explorers” returned with a report that they could take the land?	Numbers 14:6-9
6	How many spies were sent by Joshua throughout the land and especially Jericho?	Joshua 2:1
7	How did Rahab hide the spies of question 6?	Joshua 2:6
8	When the Ammonite king died, David sent an envoy to express sympathy, but the new king thought they were spies, doing what to them before he sent them away?	2 Samuel 10:3-4
9	When the religious leaders sent spies, pretending to be followers of Jesus, what was their trick to try to trap Him? Hint: Jesus asked for a coin before answering their question.	Luke 20:20-26
10	What two epistles recount the story of Rahab and the spies?	N/A

There is a moral issue with spying.  It almost always involves falsehood.

There is the falsehood of not telling all that you know.  Our local media these days is good at that.  They tell only what fits their agenda.  I am not calling the media to be spies, but they do the same thing.  I got into an argument with a journalist, and she boldly said that the information she did not publish were “alternate facts.”  This goes beyond journalism to the fake science of evolution and millions of years.  Any information that does not meet their agenda is suppressed.

So, we are living in more of a Disinformation Age than the Information Age.  And spies work best when no one really knows what the truth is.  They can slip in, do their mischief, and slip out.  Then, the people of that area start pointing the finger at others within the country, long after those that caused the problem are gone.

Ronald Reagan used a translated Russian saying to describe how we should treat anything from Russia, then the USSR.  “Trust but verify.”  There is a lot of disinformation out there, so the verification cannot be superficial.

But in the end, God is our rock and our foundation.  God does not change.  God’s Word is our verification.  And a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ carries with it a trust as if our life depended on it.  And it does.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first mention of spies, what group of men were accused of being spies?  Bonus: What were they in Egypt to obtain?	Genesis 42:9	The ten sons of Jacob who went to Egypt to get grain during a severe famine.  They are talking to Joseph without knowing, and Benjamin stayed with his father.
2	How were the men in question 1 supposed to prove they were not spies when they returned the next time?	Genesis 42:34	They must return with their youngest brother, Benjamin.
3	How many men were sent into the Promised Land by Moses to explore?	Numbers 13:4-15	Twelve, one from each tribe
4	Who was the first to say they should go take the land?	Numbers 13:30	Caleb
5	How many of these “explorers” returned with a report that they could take the land?	Numbers 14:6-9	Two, Joshua and Caleb said that they could take the land if the Lord was pleased with them.
6	How many spies were sent by Joshua throughout the land and especially Jericho?	Joshua 2:1	Two
7	How did Rahab hide the spies of question 6?	Joshua 2:6	She hid them under the stalks of flax that were drying on her roof.
8	When the Ammonite king died, David sent an envoy to express sympathy, but the new king thought they were spies, doing what to them before he sent them away?	2 Samuel 10:3-4	Shaved off half their beards and cut off their garments to expose the buttocks
9	When the religious leaders sent spies, pretending to be followers of Jesus, what was their trick to try to trap Him? Hint: Jesus asked for a coin before answering their question.	Luke 20:20-26	They asked if they should pay taxes to Caesar, but Jesus asked whose face was on the coin.  Then He said to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s and to God what was God’s.
10	What two epistles recount the story of Rahab and the spies?	N/A	Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25.  Only Sarah and Rahab are listed in the Faith Hall of Fame.  Rahab is the last mentioned, not counting those the author mentioned only by name.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Matthew West singing Truth be Told.  This is a poem by Rudyard Kipling.  Rome often encouraged their soldiers and centurions to retire to the far flung provinces.  Thus, this tired old veteran wanted to stay in Britain, rather than return to Rome, a city he admittedly did not know.

Here is Zach Williams singing The Struggle.

Here is Megan Woods with Prayer and a Bible.

Here is Lauren Daigle singing Rescue.

A spy might have to lie to perform his job, but let us be truthful.  Let us proclaim the Truth.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.