My mother had severe dementia for the last years of her life.  But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy life.  Indeed there were certain things which she enjoyed greatly because her long-term memory was not badly affected.  One of these was the TV programme ‘Dad’s Army’ so we bought her the DVD box set.  There was much to keep mum giggling, but one character in particular could be guaranteed to reduce us all too helpless laughter and that was Lance Corporal Jones.  The reason was simple, although his spirit was obviously willing, as he gave his trademark cry of “fix bayonets” or “there’s no substitute for the cold steel,” you got the impression that at his age he was hardly up to it physically or maybe even mentally for the job in hand!  When we come to this passage which concerns Caleb there’s a danger of forming a similar picture!  Caleb is not a young man, he’s 85 years old and he is going on about still being as strong as he was 45 years ago!  It does sound a bit like the Corporal Jones syndrome in that it could be construed as being unrealistic about one’s capability! But let’s take a closer look and we will find that Caleb’s enthusiasm and faith was founded on more dependable things than just his own zeal and strength!

The background to this passage are the events of Numbers chapters 13-14.  Moses sends out men from each of the 12 tribes to spy out the Promised Land with Caleb and Joshua among them.  The initial report from the spies is encouraging, the land (metaphorically at least): “flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 13:27).  But, on the other hand the people of the land: “are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large” (Numbers 13:28).  But this doesn’t bother Caleb as he is convinced that Israel can take the land.  However, the spies who had sprinkled their report with negativity, are only just getting going in presenting an extremely pessimistic view.  After giving a list of the tribes that inhabit the land they embroider their report with extreme negativity.  It’s not just that the people of the land were strong it’s that they had actually seen: ‘the descendants of Anak’ -‘the Nephilim’ in the land (in Deuteronomy 1:28, which is in all likelihood is a reference to these people, some texts translate the part of the verse refers to the stature of these people as ‘giant’)[1] who made them look and feel the size of grasshoppers.  The ‘Nephilim’ also had another to dimension to their character as the word has elements which can be translated as: ‘to fall’ whether this means they were of a fallen nature (or as we might say practically evil and nasty) or that people just fell literally in terror before them is debatable.  What does seem to be inferred in the text of Genesis 6:4 where they are first mentioned, is that they asserted themselves: ‘unlawfully and without measure.’[2]  They would have seemed to the Israelites to be their worst nightmare, an enemy that was large, warlike, brutal and unreasoning. The report was guaranteed to make the spirits of the people hit rock bottom. Yet Caleb risks the possibility of being stoned, along with Joshua, Moses and Aaron, and insists to the people, that: “the land which we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:7-8).  So let’s fast forward 45 years and find out the basis for Caleb supreme confidence when he approaches Joshua at Gilgal.  I think there are three reasons.

Firstly, Caleb followed the Lord exclusively.  We have already noted he was not swayed by the argument of the majority.  Back in Numbers chapter 14 the Lord commends Caleb for having: “a different spirit” and following him “fully” (Numbers 14:24) and: ‘wholly’ (v8).  For this reason Caleb’s judgement was not compromised.  If the Lord had promised them the land, then he would deliver on his promise, and for Caleb it was as simple as that!  This is the stand we desperately need to make today, because we are constantly being challenged by the world around us.  I remember hearing a prominent Church leader say it was a shame that the Church had failed to adopt a new stance and pass certain legislation because it showed the Church was: “out of step with the world.”  Yet Caleb was prepared to be out of step with the majority because in that way he would be obeying God rather than following the crowd!  We should be more alarmed when the world shows approval of new ideas that are being implemented in the Church!  Caleb could do this because he understood the Lord’s nature.  In Numbers 14:24 the Lord has promised that Caleb would survive to see the land and have his descendants inherit it, after all Moses had said as much in relation to what the Lord had promised (vs9-10).  It was quite simple the Lord had said it, so Caleb believed it and he acted as if he did!  I don’t quite know what’s behind this statement: “I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming” that we find in verse 11.  Had Caleb been keeping himself fit and strong in preparation for the invasion of the land?  I don’t know, but Caleb believes the Lord has kept him alive in the light of his promise, concerning him, which was made to Moses.  So here we see the inner workings of Caleb’s mind and his spiritual outlook.  If he was continuing to hit the ‘gym’ (or the ancient Israelite equivalent) and could still bench at 85 what he could bench at 40 it was in the light of the Lord delivering on his promise.[3]

This brings us to the next reason; Caleb understood the nature of the Lord’s promises. The Lord, as we have seen, had made a promise through Moses.  But the interesting thing is that Caleb seems to set no conditions on how and when those promise would be fulfilled.  He must have expected after Israel’s rebellion, which we can read about in Numbers 14, that the promise made to him wasn’t likely to be fulfilled any time soon.  But I doubt even he had expected to wait another 38 years!  But whatever his expectations were, he does not refer to that time.  At this point in the book of Joshua we are in the second phase of the invasion of the Promised Land.  Victories had been won, but it seems the peoples of the land were regrouping and still putting up a resistance.  The second part of the campaign had been hard graft as we read in 11:18 that: ‘Joshua made war for a long time with all those kings.’ The point is the Lord had promised he would deliver the land to them and there were good reasons to do it slowly (Exodus 23:29-30 and Deuteronomy 7:22).  His method, as we can see from the campaign, varied from miraculous acts that aided the Israelites to just plain ordinary warfare.  So I suspect that Caleb realise that time was not the issue as far as the Lord was concerned.  So he’s been patient and never brings up the fact that it was not his or Joshua’s fault that the promises made to him had been so long delayed.  No, for Caleb the promise, and now its fulfilment, was enough.  What a contrast to the ‘Wealth, Health and Prosperity Gospel’ with its “you can have it all and have it now” attitude!  What an encouragement to faithful Churches working away diligently, staying true to the Gospel yet seeing very little growth or those involved in long-term prayer and witness for an unbelieving family member. Caleb had to wait but now he was on the eve of seeing the Lord’s promise being fulfilled.

Yet verse 11 makes it clear that Caleb does not expect this promise to be served up on a plate for him.  He, at the age of 85, is ready to go and fight for it and be the means by which the Lord’s promise is fulfilled.  He’s been waiting, but now he is ready to go to work.  But how could he say this at the age of 85 even if he was in good shape?  Quite simply with the Lord’s help as that’s the motivation for Caleb’s zeal and faith for the task ahead.  But the Lord’s help has an interesting dimension as Caleb clearly believes the Lord will equip him for the task ahead by giving him the ability.  No doubt this links with Caleb’s faith which although considerable was reasonable.  He had witnessed God at work at various times during the campaign when the Israelites faced greater and superior forces.  But here the help is of a more personal nature.  A. W Pink puts it particularly well: ‘God does nothing by halves: when he appoints a man for any particular work, he also equips the worker and furnishes him with everything needful.’[4]  That is the only reason that Caleb could speak confidently and my word he’s confident!  John Currid puts it rather colourfully: ‘Caleb although eighty five years old, is like a dog straining at the leash!’[5]  It is not he has ‘God-given ability’ as we often think of it when we really mean a person is naturally gifted, but that God will give him the ability needed for such a task.

Thirdly and lastly, in the light of the Lord’s promise and his equipping Caleb for the task, Caleb realised he was thoroughly dependent on the Lord.  The task was huge and Caleb knew it.  The odds of Israel driving out the nations living in the Promised Land seemed impossible, but Caleb was looking at it with the eyes of faith and that’s what made the difference.  Dale Ralph Davis recounts a story that he’d read in the ‘Presbyterian Journal’ some years ago.  ‘An American shoe company sent a salesman to a foreign country.  He had hardly arrived before he cabled for money to come home.  His reason: “nobody over here wears shoes.”  The company brought him back and sent another salesman over.  Soon he cabled: “Send me all the shoes you can manufacture.  The market is absolutely unlimited. No one here has shoes.”’[6]  The moral is simple, the eyes that lack faith see difficulties and very quickly get discouraged, but the eyes of faith see an opportunity!  How much more should that be the case for Christians for the simple reason that the Lord is involved?  The result of Caleb’s attitude and faith is that the Lord really did enable him to go up against those who very possibly were physically giants and defeat them.  In the next chapter we read that: ‘According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriaharba, that is Hebron’(15:13).  In the next verse we read: ‘And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak’ (15:14).  There’s no doubt that the Lord made good on his promise.  The chapter ends with Joshua blessing Caleb and giving him Hebron as his inheritance (vs13-14).  We are informed that Hebron was a name change as formerly it was called: ‘Kiriath-arba ’after Arba, who was the greatest men among the Anakites’ (v15).  The point is simple and that is the land was truly Caleb’s and Israel’s.  The Lord had delivered where his promise was concerned just as Caleb had trusted him to do, despite the many years of waiting.

This story is particularly refreshing to us as Christians today.  Some areas of the Church have fallen prey to the ‘I want it all and I want it now!’ a philosophy which, if we make the mistake of teaching it will build false expectations.  So what can we learn from the example of Caleb’s faith and realism?

Firstly, our timetable is not God’s.  Put simply God is not governed by what we want and when we want it!  The apostle Peter in his second letter reminds Christians who are being mocked about their belief that Christ will come again: ‘that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’ (2 Peter 3:8 undoubtedly inspired by Psalm 90:4).  However, he reminds them that they are to live: ‘lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God’ (2 Peter 3:11-12).  His point is a simple one, God has promised it, it will happen, but it is not for us to reason when and how, we are just called to be faithful, something that Caleb clearly understood.

Secondly, through the many years of wandering in the wilderness Caleb had lived in the light of the promise given to him and had followed the Lord wholeheartedly.  In other words he lived a holy and godly life.  Caleb got on with the business of serving the Lord rather than being distracted.  Both these points are important to us as Christians and Churches today.  We should seek to be faithful and focus on marching to God’s tune, not the worlds.  The Israelites didn’t have to adopt the tactics or the style of the Anakim or even become like the Anakim to beat them, they just had to serve the Lord and Caleb is held up as an example of this![7]  The church is not to adopt the culture of the world in order to try and win the world for Christ, it will not work!  No, it’s called to be faithful to the Gospel and to promises of the Gospel and that is all that it is called to do!  The Bible gives us all we need to know when it comes to living godly lives and seeking to reach the lost with the good news of the Gospel.  The ministry of the word and the spirit can change the most stubborn heart.  Paul when writing to the Corinthian Church outlines that the gospel message is not popular.  He reminds his readers that Satan aims to keep people blind to the glory and message of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4).  It just goes to show nothing has changed; evangelism was just as hard in Paul’s day as it is today.  But, and this is one incredible ‘but’: ‘God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4:6).  Satan the enemy may be strong, but God is stronger!  The term that Paul uses is the language of creation, but here it is re-creation the re-making anew the human heart!  Satan may have owned the old one, but God remakes it giving it a love for him and his ways that never existed because formerly it was at war with him.  Whatever the Lord’s timing is where we as individuals or as a Church are concerned we should remember this.  God takes a situation that looks impossible and wins the day for his people.  Listen again to the apostle Paul when he describes the victory that has been achieved through the cross.  ‘And you, who were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh.  God had made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to shame, by triumphing over them in him.’(Colossians 2:13-15).  Paul’s readers would have understood this picture instantly, here’s the spectacle of a Roman General returning in triumph and parading his captives so that all can see the extent of his victory.  More and more I am come across Christians and churches that are not living as triumphant people, but how can that be so when we serve a God who does the impossible in taking the spiritually dead are making them alive!  Caleb at the age of 85 went up against those who were considered giants and thoroughly defeated them because the Lord was with him and the Lord enabled him!

Finally it’s not for us to surmise how the Lord may act. The first part of the campaign he acted through miracles the second part it was a case of hard soldiering which resulted in gradual conquest.  It’s often the same today.  God can bring about miraculous blessings by his Holy Spirit when a church sees a good number of conversions over a short period of time because nothing impossible for him.  But often it’s a case of steady grafting for the Gospel, nothing more than continual witnessing and faithfulness to God and his word!  But if the Lord’s with us, we may not know when, or how and we stay faithful to him and his word we will see his blessing.  Let’s pray we learn from Caleb’s faith and even when we go through tough times, we too will have faith and will hold out for a blessing!

Want to listen to a sermon on this passage?  Caleb, Holding on for a Blessing.

[1] J.D. Douglas, editor, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Part 1, Aaron to Golan, (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1980) 48.
[2] John Calvin, Genesis, Geneva Series of Commentaries, (Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965),   244.
[3] “What can you bench?” is a question that is often asked around gyms and refers to the bench press exercise for chest, which is seen as an indication of one’s overall strength.
[4] Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Joshua, (Chicago, The Moody Bible Institute, 1964), 352.
[5] John D. Currid, Strong and Courageous, Joshua simply explained, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2011), 178.
[6]Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua, No Falling Words, (Fearn, Christian Focus Publications, 2003), 120.
[7] Peter Masters, Joshua’s Conquest, was it moral? And what does it say to us today? (London, The Wakeman Trust, 2005), 84.