Lessons from Caleb, a man who wholly followed God: 'Give me this mountain'. Part 1.

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 "Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea"
Joshua 14:6

When I recently read this verse I was particularly struck with the sense of there being a shared knowledge. 

There was a 'thing' that two people, 'me and thee' both knew.  

It was a 'thing' that concerned them both, and it had been said - promised- by God himself, to a godly man, Moses.  A man who could be held in high esteem and was to be trusted as God's chosen leader and authority.

It can be very precious to have a close Christian friend with whom we can share promises which we believe God has spoken concerning us; things which we are trusting God for.  

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Not only can it be a comfort when we are feeling despondent to have that friend remind us of what the Lord has said, to remind us of His faithfulness, but it can encourage our own faith when we look on with delight and wonder as we observe God bringing about His promises in their life.  

Perhaps we have been privileged to know the very start of that promise, when it was a longing desire for something which God had placed in their heart to bring them to pray about it.  We have seen it tested and tried as they thought the prayer was being answered in one way, but the way seemed hedged up with obstacles.  And then as the Lord showed His way of answering it, how beautiful and suitable it seemed.

We don't always want to share the deepest desires of our heart with anybody but God, and sometimes it is not wise to, but if we are blessed with a trustworthy friend and/or spouse we can comfort each other.  As the scriptures tell us:

'Two are better than one...for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow' (Ecclesiastes 4:9,10);

'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend' (Proverbs 27:17).

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Well, as I read this verse again, and started looking back at the context and the history of this 'thing', I started thinking about further lessons we can take from it:  

- thoughts of how sometimes we feel the Lord is leading us in a certain way but the unwillingness or unbelief of others may hold us back; 

- thoughts of how we behave as we wait for the Lord's promises to come to pass; 

- thoughts of living, knowing certain death is in front of us.

But first, let us visit the scene of these words and then next time we will return to considering some of these thoughts.

*  *  *  *  *  

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"Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea"

The man speaking was Caleb, a prince, leader and experienced warrior of the tribe of Judah. Although now an old man at age eighty-five years he was miraculously as strong as he was forty-five years ago - the time in Kadeshbarnea to which he was referring.

Both he and Joshua, the elderly man with whom he was speaking, had spent at least the last five years invading and conquering the land of Canaan.  But Joshua, God's appointed leader was now old and it would appear his age was noticeable, unlike Caleb who was still as ready for battle as the day of which he was speaking those forty-five years ago.

They were met in Gilgal, the settlement where they had first camped after miraculously crossing over the flooded river Jordan, leaving behind them the long years of tedious wanderings through wilderness.

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God had spoken to Joshua about all the land that was yet to be conquered and inhabited, and Caleb was one of the God appointed princes to help allocate the land to the different tribes for inheritance.

And now people from the tribe of Judah headed by Caleb had come to Joshua, and Caleb was reminding him of God's personal promise to him - and Joshua - a forty-five year old promise of deliverance, of safety, and of an inheritance in this land.

"Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea"

Joshua knew only too well of the time to which Caleb was referring.  How could he forget?  These two seasoned warriors held a bond which none other men of the Israelite army held.

Forty-five years ago, at the people's request and on God's instruction they had been specifically chosen by the then leader, Moses, to go with ten other men to spy out the land of Canaan ready for their invasion and take over. 

As rulers - or leaders - of their tribes they were considered 'princes', men who would have not only participated in civil leadership but who were also regarded as 'pillars' in the Israelite religious life, upholding the covenantal way of life.

They were men of importance. Men who would have been looked up to as an example, men who would have been used to having authority and respect, men who we might expect to have been able to motivate and lead people, men of wisdom and knowledge.

They were to go up into the mountain of the Amorites and assess the surrounding land - it's fertility and situation for living in, the current inhabitants and their type of defences and homes, the resources of the land and evidence of some of the fruits growing there.

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Forty days, Caleb, Joshua and the ten other prestigious men had spied out the land, noticing it's abundance and prosperity, the huge walled defended cities and the giants, and had managed to carry back between them a cluster of grapes which was so large it took two of them to carry it, as well as some pomegranates and figs.

But on producing their report of the espionage mission what a negative response they had met with!  The fear that had erupted! 

Caleb had quietened the people down and encouraged them that they would easily be able to overcome the land.  Full of faith in God's power to help them he had enthusiastically said, 

"Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it". 

But his and Joshua's voices were drowned out by the other ten men who focused on the formidable sight of giants and strongly armed and defended cities. 

 "We won't be able to do it", they said, "the people there are bigger and stronger than us - the walls of the cities reach up to heaven! And not only that we have seen giants there!"

What rebellion and mutiny took over the huge camp of people.  No one would listen to Caleb and Joshua.  Well into the night wailing and crying filled the night air as they accused God of hating them and having brought them out of Egypt so that the Amorites could murder them and all their families.

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"Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!", they lamented - a warning to us all to be careful of what we ask for as sadly this would come to pass for so many of them.

Unheeded went Moses' exhortations to not be afraid of the Amorites but to rather trust God who had already done so much for them, God, who had carried them as a man carries his son, would continue to fight for them

Instead the complaining and unrest reached new heights, the people deciding to appoint themselves a captain and return to Egypt

Caleb and Joshua had rent their clothes in expression of the terribleness of their rebellion against God urging them again not to fear the people of the land but to trust in God and to think of the exceeding goodness of the land He was giving them.

It was all to no avail and as the people started gathering stones to throw at Caleb and Joshua - no doubt to silence them by death - the glory of God appeared in the tabernacle, that special tent which He had had them make in the centre of the camp that He might live among them in the most beautiful holy place.

Full of anger for their rebellion God had ordered them to return back through the wilderness where they were to wander (my Study Bible suggests, as shepherds), for the next forty years - one year for each day of the spies' forty day espionage mission - and all the complaining, rebelling, unbelieving thousands above the age of 20years were to die there.  

All, except Joshua and Caleb.

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And then Caleb and Joshua must have watched in awesome solemnity as firstly all the spies died from a plague and then over the next long forty years by one means or another the older population died.

Only Joshua and Caleb had been preserved by God who had promised they would come into this land of Canaan and their children would take inheritance in it.

"My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it".

And now, "Remember this time" Caleb was saying, "Remember how I wholly followed God and He has kept me alive as He promised, my fitness for war today as strong as it was then, and now give me this mountain, this mountain which contains giants and great cities, because if so be the LORD will be with me, I shall be able to drive them out".

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And with Joshua's blessing and in the strength of the LORD this is what Caleb went on to do - you can read about this in Joshua 15 and Judges 1.  But next time, Lord Willing, we will share further thoughts on what we can learn from this account.

(References: Numbers 13, 14, 26:65, 32:12, 34:19, Deuteronomy 1. Joshua 14)

Continued in part 2.

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