Old Testament Reading – Numbers 14:17-38
New Testament Reading – 2 Timothy 2:1-13
Victorious Christian Living
“Caleb: A Man of Faith and Courage”
Joshua 13:1-14:15
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
We have now entered into the second half of the Book of Joshua.
- In chapters 1-12, we learned how Joshua, under God’s authority, led the Israelites through 31 victories in seven years of war, defeating 31 kings, and reclaiming Israel as the land God promised Abraham and his seed, a testament to the fulfillment of God’s promises.
- Though the land had not been completely conquered, Joshua 11:23 states, “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.”
- In chapters 13-21, Joshua divided the land between the 12 tribes. (See map on page 4)
- In chapters 22-24, Joshua delivers a solemn warning to the Israelites, urging them to remain steadfast in their faith and not allow worldly influences to draw them away from God.
The Book of Joshua gives us the key to living the victorious Christian life, for what the Promised Land was to Israel, the Christian Life is to believers.
- When we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we receive not only our ticket out of hell and our passport into heaven, but we received Jesus.
- Our heavenly blessings are not only from and through Christ, they are in Christ. While every heavenly blessing is already included in His promise, we must partner with the Holy Spirit in removing every vestige of sin and evil from our lives, just as Joshua removed the Canaanites, so the Holy Spirit can fill our hearts with glorious peace.
- The Christian life is not a playground; it’s a battleground.
- While none of us have won every battle or claimed every blessing that God the Father has granted to us, if we will cry out unto God like Caleb, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground,” while it will require a deeper level of faith than we’ve ever expressed before, we can enjoy the Victorious Christian Life.
Even though there were still pockets of Canaanite resistance, God told Joshua to divide the land among the 12 tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. (See map on page 4)
- Joshua 13:33 – “But to the tribe of Levi Moses had given no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as He had said to them.”
- Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were granted permission to settle on the east side of the Jordan River.
- However, by isolating themselves from the other tribes, in 740 B.C., the Assyrians captured them and took them to serve as enslaved people in Assyria.
In Numbers 12-14, Moses documented how, after they had crossed the Red Sea and were camped at Kadesh Barnea, in obedience to the Lord, he sent 12 men to scout out the Promised Land.
- The spies were in the land for 40 days before they returned to the Israelite camp with their report.
- Ten of the spies said the Israelites were unable to go up against the Canaanites, because they were too strong.
- Joshua and Caleb “tore their clothes,” and said that if the Lord were pleased with them, He would bring them into the land, but the people began to throw stones at them.
- While God forgave the ten men who gave the bad report, they all died with the plague, and the people spent 40 years in the wilderness – one year for every day the spies were in the Promised Land – and that whole generation of Israelites died in the wilderness.
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Caleb’s Ability to Wait on the Lord –
- Caleb was 40 years old when the spies entered the Negeb and came to Hebron. (Numbers 13:22)
- Caleb was in the wilderness for 38 years and spent seven years fighting for the land God had promised him.
- Caleb was 85 years old when he asked Joshua for his portion of the Promised Land, which means he had carried the vision of Hebron for 45 years.
- Numbers 14:24 – “Here’s Caleb. He has a different spirit.”
- Caleb always had his eyes upon God.
- Not that Caleb was blind to the problems, but his focus was upon the solution.
- Not that Caleb didn’t see the Anakim, as the other spies did. Caleb said God was bigger than the giants.
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Caleb’s Ability to Fight for the Lord –
- While Caleb was ready to receive the inheritance God had promised him, he was also aware that there were still some areas where the Canaanites had hidden in the caves in the hope that the Israelites would leave them alone.
- Numbers 14:24 – “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
- Joshua 14:12-14 – “Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.”
