Day 20: Joshua 14:6-15
Wholehearted
Caleb was one of the legendary spies who surveyed the promised land 45 years previously. In this passage we hear the voice of the old, faith-filled warrior who still believes in God’s power. As the tribe of Judah’s leader, he addresses Joshua, who knows the story, but Caleb repeats it again for the sake of all the others who were only children at the time. (verses 6-9)
The account in Numbers 13 shows that Caleb was not fazed by the size of the opposition. Although the other 10 spies reported “we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” Caleb saw with the eyes of faith knowing that with God’s help nothing was impossible.
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30).
Or in other words “Bring it on, they’re no match for our God!”
45 years later Caleb’s faith is still as strong, wholeheartedly trusting God. (verses 10-12)
- “Just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years … so here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.”
- “Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.”
- “You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
Here is a man who has learned to trust in the promises of God and stake his whole future on them. He knows what it is like to have the Lord help him, and he is trusting that the Lord will continue to do so.
It sounds like bragging, but it’s not in his own ability, it is faith bragging in the power of God to keep his promises.
Joshua gives Caleb Hebron and the surrounding hill country and cities as his inheritance. (verse 13)
Note that although Caleb is given the land, he still has to take it and remove the inhabitants who would resist him. Sometimes we receive a promise from God (from scripture, a sermon we have heard or a word of prophecy) then just wait for it to be fulfilled, sometimes ending up frustrated because God hasn’t fulfilled it. We need to take steps to possess it even in the face of opposition. Don’t give up He will help you.
Not only did Caleb follow God wholeheartedly at the age of forty, he still did so at the age of eighty-five. This is the challenge, to finish well, not to lose your first love but to keep your eyes on Jesus.
For him it was physical strength as well as inward strength of character. But for all those who give themselves totally to God there is the inner strength of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promises to you and me. You need this inner strength of the Holy Spirit if you are to finish well and fulfill your calling.
Lord, renew my strength and my vision, so that I can continually move forward with you. May I be able to say at the end of my life, ‘I have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’
Roger Dowding
Management Team Member