Courageous Passion

I generally think it is a bad idea to call your child a dog. I think it will affect them when they go off to school or out to play. Yet, for Caleb’s parents in the Old Testament, that’s what they called their son. The name Caleb means, “dog.” There’s an outside chance that Caleb’s name could have a positive spin of a watch dog that could describe a faithful servant. We say a dog is man’s best friend, but still we don’t generally call people we like a dog.

We meet Caleb in Numbers 13 as he was honored to represent his tribe of Judah along with eleven others on spy mission. The mission of the 12 spies was to explore the promised land that God was giving His people. Moses gave the special ops group these instructions, “Go up…into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in: Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land” (Numbers 13.17-20).

The group spends 40 days exploring the land. They find a cluster of grapes so big that it took two people and a pole to carry it back. The twelve spies report, “We went into the land which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit” (Num. 13.27).

Then the group said, “But…the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there” (Num. 13.28). The people of Anak were known as giants. People believed them to be 7-9 feet tall.

As Caleb heard this report, his heart became unsettled. He told everyone to be quiet. He said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Num. 13.30).

The group countered, “We can’t attack these people. They are stronger..The land we explored devours those living in it” (Num. 13.31-32). “Did you see how tall those folks are? We look like grasshoppers to them.”

The group grumbles all night. Joshua joins Caleb to challenge the group. They said to all people of Israel, “The land we explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land…and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land. (They won’t devour us.)…We will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (Num. 14.7-9).

For Joshua and Caleb, they replaced the fear of the giants with faith in God.

Do you think their speech convinced the group? Instead of accepting their speech, they talked about getting stones and killing Joshua and Caleb.

God condemns the 10 fearful spies. He says that they will not set foot in the land that they explored. All of them will die in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb of their generation would see and live in that new land.

In Numbers 14.24, Moses tells us why Caleb will enter the land.

Numbers 14:24 NIV

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Many times following God fully brings hardship and requires much patience. Caleb waited and watched for forty years. Have you ever been in God’s waiting room?

Louis Zamperini was not on a spy mission but on a search and resuce mission over the Pacific Ocean on May 27, 1943. Their plane suddenly lost power to two of its engines and careened into the sea. Only three of the ship’s 11 crewmen survived: Zamperini, along with two others spent over 40 days braving blistering heat, hunger, dehydration and circling packs of sharks. The men had drifted 2,000 miles when they found land. Only one problem, the island was controlled by the empire of Japan. Zamperini endured two years of torture in several Prisoner of War camps. (adapted from Evan Andrews, history.com, updated 8-29-18, see also Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand).

I wonder what is was like for Caleb to wait and watch for those 40 years in the wilderness as they people died off.

Fast forward 45 years later. Joshua and Caleb are the old men in the group. Joshua leads God’s children into the land of promise. Caleb continues serving God and partnering with Joshua. After a handful of years of battles in the promised land, and as Joshua assigned the different areas for the tribes, Caleb and his family approach Joshua.

We pick up their story in Joshua 14.6.

Joshua 14:6–9 NIV

Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’

Caleb reminds Joshua of that promise that God gave to him through Moses. You remember after they talked about stoning us, that God said you will have a place in this new land because you served me fully. Joshua, you remember don’t you?

The story continues in Joshua 14.10

Joshua 14:10–12 NIV

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

Caleb tells Joshua, “It’s been 45 years. Now is the time for me to receive my inheritance.” Caleb at age 85 confesses, “I am still as strong today as the day I went into the land to spy it out as a young 40 year old.” I am strong for battle now as I was then. Now, give me the hill country that God promised me on that day. Give me the high ground. Now is the time.

The time came for Louis Zamperini. After two years of torture in the prison camps, Zamperini was rescued. But during his time as a prisoner, he was forced to hold a log over his head and if he dropped it, he would be shot. As a star Olympic athlete before the war, his captors “forced him to run a relay race against well-fed Japanese runners. Despite his near-skeletal condition, he prevailed.” (https://news.usc.edu/1836/the-great-zamperini/)

After the war, he turned to alcohol to fight away his nightmares and his desire for revenge. His wife introduced him to a preacher named Billy Graham, and Zamperini embrace Christ and fully following Him even traveling to Japan and forgiving his enemies.

Caleb knew what it was like to face your enemies. He knew who lived up in those hills. The Anakites live up there in the hills. The giants are there. The ones that scared the people away a generation ago. What I love about Caleb is this 85 year old man is willing to go after and attack the giants to claim His inheritance.

Many people decades earlier than 85 start thinking about slowing down and taking life easier. Humans are wired to take the path of least resistance. Here is Caleb at age 85 and says, “Bring it on. Let’s go. Off to slay the giants.” What kind of old person do you want to be?

In 1998, at the age of 81 Louis Zamperini had he opportunity for the third time in his life to carry the Olypmic torch. This time it was in the country of Japan and the route took him near the place of his prisoner of war camp. In some ways, a modern day Caleb who was strong enough to carry an Olympic torch at the age of 81 past the place that nearly killed him.

At the age of 85, Caleb receives a blessing from Joshua and his inheritance.

Joshua replies in Joshua 14.13.

Joshua 14:13–15 NIV

Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.) Then the land had rest from war.

Joshua blesses Caleb. I wonder what that moment was like? Do you think they thought back to that day when the crowds turned against them and now they were old men? Joshua blesses Caleb with this gift of land that was promised by God to him. I wonder if Joshua said to Caleb, “Go, get ‘em.”

Dominant Thought: Blessings come when wholehearted followers replace fear with faith.

The Bible is one long story of blessing. From God blessing Adam and Eve in the Garden, to those blessings from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount to the seven blessings of Revelation, God is blessing His people. Blessings come not on our willpower, but from the kindness of God.

For the third time in our text we see that Caleb followed the Lord wholeheartedly. He followed the Lord fully. Remember who Caleb followed. It was not himself, but the Lord.

While Caleb was never crowned a king, he did belong to the royal tribe of Judah. One that was known to take down some giants. Caleb took down three giants and moved into their towns (Joshua 15.14).

Generations later, there would another giant show up from one of the towns that the children of Israel failed to conquer in Caleb’s time. The giant was Goliath. This time, it wasn’t an old man going after the giant. It was a young boy from the same tribe of Judah. When faced with the giant, this young boy, David declared, “I come against you in the name of the Lord…the Lord will deliver you into my hand…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel 17.45-46).

David confessed his trust in the Lord to fight the giant while the soldiers were quaking in fear.

There was another from the tribe of Judah. He went up a hill and faced an enemy that we could not defeat. I had the opportunity to walk where Jesus walked as He carried the cross to His place of execution. As we walked the streets of Jerusalem that day, I noticed that Jesus carried that heavy crossbeam uphill, after he had been whipped and beaten by His captors. We serve a strong Savior. Because of His strength, we can turn from our fears to faith in Him because He is worthy of all our devotion.

Dominant Thought: Blessings come when wholehearted followers replace fear with faith.

5 Day Devotional Guide

Blessings come when wholehearted followers replace fear with faith.

You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:

What are you thankful for today or this week?

What challenges are you facing?

Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.

Can you summarize this passage in your own words?

What did you discover about God from this passage?

What have you learned about people from this passage?

How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)

With whom are you going to share what you have learned?

Based on this passage, what can we pray about?

Day 1: Numbers 13.26-33

Day 2: Numbers 14.1-9

Day 3: Numbers 14.20-24, 38

Day 4: Joshua 14.6-15

Day 5: Joshua 15.13-17

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