As much as I love certain branches of history, I am terrible at remembering dates. And that includes the dates of Biblical history. But because of a poem, part of which I recall, I do remember the year of Israel’s Exodus. “In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.” It’s a long poem of which I remember very, very little, but I do remember the first lines. When did Columbus discover the America’s? 1492. And when did Israel leave for the Promised Land? 1492 or thereabouts – Before Christ.
Now, I’d like you to remember back to one special day just a bit later – perhaps 1490 BC. For 40 days, Shaphat, Igal and Palti, along with nine others; one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, made a sight-seeing tour of the Promised Land. They visited the old homesteads of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It must have been an emotional time for many of them, having learned the stories about Hebron, Bethel and Beersheba. Some of them could picture Abraham sitting under an oak at Mamre when the Lord came walking up. Perhaps some of them thought about Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord at Bethel. Unfortunately, when these great-grand-children of Jacob visited their homeland, they found the accursed Canaanites occupying their sacred lands. And not only Canaanites, Hitites and Hivites, but also the gigantic children of Anak. There were Anakims standing in the way to Israel’s possession of the land.
That was about 45 years before our scripture in Joshua. When the twelve spies came back to Moses and Israel at the southern edge of the land, they had the proverbial good news and bad news. The good news was that the land was flowing in milk and honey and a great many other good things. But the bad news was that the people of the land made the little Israelites look like grasshoppers. “There are giants in the land, there are giants in the land.” “The wolf is coming, the wolf is coming – or the wolf is awaiting us.” The report of the spies sent the populace of Israel into a tail-spin. They became a mushy lump of tears and terror.
If, as is thought, Goliath was one of the last of the Anakims, then indeed there were giants in the land. Goliath was between nine and ten feet tall, making even modern basketball players look like midgets. Imagine a small army of Goliaths with spears the size of small trees and spear-heads weighing 600 shekels of iron. Naturally speaking, it would be enough to make one’s blood run cold.
But not only were there giants in that land, there was at least one giant in the nation of Israel as well. His name was “Caleb.” He wasn’t as tall as an Anakim, but he was a giant in faith and in the resulting courage. He was a giant in wisdom, in the Word of God, and even in humility. Caleb is one of the men of the Bible about whom there is not a single word suggesting any sin. We can describe some of the sins Moses, David, Abraham, Paul, Peter and Noah – but not Caleb. I’m sure that he was a sinner like the rest of us, but his transgressions have not been recorded. He was a man who “pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” For more than forty years he had one object in view. What can we glean from Joshua 14 about this great man called Caleb?
Caleb was a giant in the area of holy BOLDNESS.
Picture the scene at the camp in Gilgal, after several years of fighting for the subjugation of Canaan. All Israel is excited about leaving their tents and taking occupancy of some of the Canaanite villas. Joshua calls for the leaders of each of the twelve tribes to step forward. Eleazer is there in his priestly robes, and there had been plenty of prayer and sacrifices. Judah was called first to draw lots for their territory.
I can’t tell you if Caleb was the chosen leader of the tribe of Judah. But if eldership was determined by elderly age, then Caleb was the captain of Judah. Whether he was or wasn’t, that man didn’t just quietly stand before his old comrade Joshua. Caleb took charge at least for a few minutes. The calm and dignified proceedings were interrupted by the voice of this ancient old man. “Anything wrong, Caleb?” “No nothing is wrong, I just would like to have my inheritance first – before anyone else.” A hush falls over the entire nation. Is Caleb insane? Has he become senile in his advanced age. Who is he to make demands like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if Caleb lost the respect of a few in Israel at that moment.
But it’s a valid question – who are you to demand such a thing? “I’ll tell you who I am; I’m the recipient of the promise of the Lord God of Israel. Joshua, don’t you remember what God told you and me on that day forty years ago, when we rebuked the rest of the spies?” “Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God.” “Joshua, I am here to claim the promise made to me that day.”
When God makes a promise, we have scriptural authority to boldly receive it. Without any boasting, I can say that I am a child of God with an inheritance in Heaven. Not only that but the Lord has promised that my salvation from sin is absolutely secure. The Bible tells us all to “come boldly to the throne of grace.” We can “wait (with assurance and earnest expectation) for the Son of God from Heaven.” Boldly can we expect to have our necessities met by the infinite supply of the Lord. And why? Because God has promised such things as these. Many of us are so often turned into timid mice, when we should be as bold as lions. Caleb stepped up and stopped the proceedings based upon the promise of the Lord.
The key to Caleb’s gigantic boldness was his FAITH.
I’m not thinking of his faith as he stood BEFORE Joshua, but when he stood WITH Joshua. Caleb’s faith was first evident at Kedesh Barnea. When they heard about the giants of Canaan, the people cried, “We’ll all be butchered.” But what were the words of Caleb? “No, no, NO – those giants will be butchered.” “If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey” – Numbers 14:8. The majority of Israel measured the giants by their own size and strength. Caleb and Joshua measured those giants by the strength of Jehovah. The majority saw gigantic giants and a little God, but Caleb saw a giant God and tiny giants.
Throughout the next forty-five years, Caleb’s faith remained constant. In fact in verse 8 he boldly declared that he had “wholly followed the Lord.” “Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God.” That was not presumption, but fact.
But what does that MEAN? Well there is a negative explanation given in Numbers 32:10-12 – “And the LORD’S anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the LORD.” Apparently what that means is that Caleb never permitted his faith to wane or abate. When Israel was judged after their sins with Balaam, at Ai and elsewhere, Caleb did not join them in their unbelief. He never murmured; he was not a troublemaker. He was a friend and associate to Joshua. He meditated on the sure word of prophesy for 45 years. And he was so positive of the promise and the ability of God, that he asked for the very city which was the stronghold of the Anakims. That was faith; facing the very thing that caused the all the brouhaha in the first place.
And his very longevity came as a result of his faith in God. “And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old” – verse 10. “It is no accident that I am here in this great service at Gilgal. It’s not a part of luck or fate.” God guaranteed I’d receive that promised land and He is fulfilling that promise.”
The next characteristic that we see of Caleb might sound a bit confusing, but he was a HUMBLE man.
I said that we can be bold in our relationship to the promise of God. But when it comes to ourselves we are nothing but puffs of wind. Notice verse 12: – “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.” It is one thing to be bold in ourselves, but its another to be bold in the Lord.
Caleb had everything in the right perspective. Jehovah had made a promise, and this man expect it to be fulfilled. “God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent; hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? “He is the rock, His work is perfect.” The only time that God’s promises may not be fulfilled is when He directly declares them to be conditional. Some promises like that might be things like national peace, or personal wealth. But things like salvation are not conditional, and neither is eternal security.
So we can be bold in the Lord and yet have nothing in ourselves. Caleb said, “God has given an inheritance to me and my children in this land, Hebron by name.” “And God willing, I will personally conquer it.” Who am I to do the work of the Lord – I’m a nobody. I’m four feet shorter than those Anakim of Hebron. If the Lord is not there to give me strength then this old man is going to go to his grave. There is even a promise hidden in this: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” – James 4:10. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Caleb, in humility, sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
There is one other thing that we shouldn’t ignore here – HEBRON itself.
Here is one of the most important cities of Canaan. It had been the home of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to mention near to the burial place of several of them. It was the capital of the Tribe of Judah and the place where David was first crowned king. It was from near there that the spies brought back the cluster of grapes. But here were the Anakim.
The word “Hebron” means “fellowship” or “association.” Caleb had an eye to no other real estate in all the land but the “City of Fellowship.” “God, make me rich or poor, but permit be to have fellowship with you.” Here is the secret of Caleb’s patience, faith, and victory. We shouldn’t think that he had no fellowship with the Lord before Hebron; he was ever in communion with his Lord. And so it is with the saint of God. Our fellowship with the Lord tomorrow, is based upon our fellowship with Him today. Caleb was always in fellowship with Him, and he longed for even more.
But Hebron was guarded by the most deadly foes of the spirit world. Satan is willing to permit just about anything if he can keep you from intimate fellowship with Christ. “How about prominent Jerusalem, the Jordan valley, or the mountains of Lebanon?” He’ll offer you the world to keep you from Jehovah. Don’t let him do it; be like Caleb. Determine that you are going to wholly follow the Lord.