By: Dale Weckbacher
Text: Joshua
14:1-15
Numbers 13:30-32
But Caleb quieted
the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we
are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who
had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for
they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they
brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied
out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land
that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of
great height.
(ESV)
In a social media age where
friendships are shallow and relationships occur through a screen and not
face-to-face, faithfulness is a rare commodity.
This is because one can end a friendship with the touch of a screen or
click of a mouse. Because of this ease
of ending any relationship and the public nature of social media, people are reluctant
to share deep feelings with each other. Add
to this the physical separation of people continuing to be quarantined due to
Covid19, and faithfulness in relationships may become even rarer. Caleb is an example of faithfulness to God, Joshua,
and the people of Israel that has its reward in Joshua
14:6-15.
The first mention in scripture of
Caleb occurs in Numbers
13:6 where Caleb is selected as one of the spies sent into Canaan by Moses
under the direction of the Lord. These
men were heads of their tribes indicating Caleb was already someone of prominence
in Israel (Numbers
13:3). Numbers
13:25-33 records the report of the 12 spies with Caleb declaring in faith
that Israel was able to overcome the people dwelling in the land. Joshua, one of the other spies also joined
Caleb in declaring Israel could overcome the enemies living in the land with
the Lord’s help (Numbers
14:6-8).
Both Caleb and Joshua remained faithful
to the Lord and now are standing in Canaan after having defeated the enemies
the others believed would overpower them.
Caleb was forty when sent in to spy out the land and is now eighty-five
(Joshua
14:6-10). His faithfulness has
remained through forty years of wandering in the wilderness and five years of war
with the inhabitants of Canaan after Israel entered the land. The Lord has kept Caleb strong during this
time with Caleb now approaching Joshua about claiming his inheritance as a
reward for his faithfulness both to God and to his fellow Israelites (Joshua
14:11-12). Joshua grants Caleb his
inheritance and the land had rest from war (Joshua
14:13-15).
Caleb’s faithfulness teaches us
that God rewards,
1) Those
having faith in God (Hebrews
11:6) – Faith in God is how we please God (Hebrews
11:6). 10 of the 12 spies entering
the Canaan did not have faith in God and instead compared the small army of
Israel against the large armies of the Canaanites, believing it was impossible
to defeat these great armies. Caleb and
Joshua were faithful to God and had faith to believe that with God on their
side, no enemy was too large to defeat because God had promised Israel the land
they were spying out.
2) Those
remaining faithful to God’s people – During forty years in the wilderness, Caleb
and Joshua had seen the unfaithfulness of Israel. They both might have had doubts about whether
those crossing the Jordan with them would remain faithful once they saw the
enemies they would face. This is why God
continued to remind Joshua to remain strong and courageous (Joshua
1:6,7,9,18). Caleb and Joshua’s
faithfulness to God caused them to remain faithful to the people of Israel with
Caleb fighting with the people of Israel even though he was eighty plus years
old.
If someone at the beginning of
2020 were to tell us that we would experience shortages of toilet paper and
hand sanitizer, being told to stay home, the shutting down of Churches, and the
cancellation of sporting events, we would have had them committed. Of course, we would have had to release them
once these things started to happen, wondering how they could have known these
things would happen. The important thing
to remember is it is not what happens to us that matters but how we handle
it.
God’s people must follow the
example of Caleb and Joshua and remain faithful in the unprecedented times in
which we live. Joshua and Caleb did not
know the details of what would happen once Israel entered Canaan and began to
engage the people there, only that these details were in God’s hands and that
God’s promise to Israel that they would occupy the land would come to
pass. God has promised his Church that
the gates of hell will not prevail against it as long as God’s people remain
faithful in declaring the truth that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living
God (Matthew
16:13-18). The Church must remain
faithful to God and His Word and faithful to the communities in which we live
by reaching out with the message of the Gospel to the lost (Mark
16:15) and making disciples of those that believe (Matthew
28:19-20). If you are reading this and
have not made a profession of faith in Jesus as your savior, I invite you to do
so now by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my
sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe you died, spent
three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord
of my life.
Those that just prayed now have a
future of eternal life (John
3:16) but this does not mean life will be free from trouble and challenges,
just that you now have the one that overcame the world fighting on your side (John
16:33). We do not know the details
of what lies ahead in our world but by living a life of faithfulness to God, can
have the courage to face these troubles and challenges. May God bless everyone reading this
post.
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