Dale Pollard
Decades earlier, out in the wilderness, a young Caleb stood (nearly) alone. Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan to scout the land (Numbers 13), in the minds of the terrified ten– the land of giants was unconquerable. Only two men believed that God was bigger, Joshua and Caleb. They urged the rest to move forward and take what He had promised, but it wasn’t going to happen.
For his courage, God vows to Caleb:
“But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it” (Numbers 14:24).
That promise wouldn’t be fulfilled for nearly half a century! By the time the land being divided among the tribes, Caleb was 85 years old. His spirit, however, was stronger than before. In Joshua 14, Caleb goes confidently to Joshua. He says,
“I am 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me… Now therefore give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day” (Joshua 14:10-12).
Which mountain? That would be Hebron. A mountain that was still inhabited by the Anakim– giants descended from the very people who melted the hearts of those ten spies years ago. To anybody else Caleb’s inheritance seemed like an impossible one. It would have appeared more like a curse– certainly not a blessing.
But up the mountain he went. God and Caleb secured that territory (Joshua 15.13-14), and the mountain that covered the people in a shadow of their previous shame now serves as a reminder. Between Faith and fear, the former is the more formidable force.
Four Quick Lessons:
- Faith will always outlast fear.
- Waiting is not wasted. Caleb looked forward for 45 years, but never became bitter or gave up on God.
- Strength is spiritual. That “different spirit” that Caleb possessed sounds similar to that of the saints (Romans 8.9-11, I Corinthians 3.16).
- Excuses are useless, God uses the toothless (Caleb was 85).
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