Caleb's Faith

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. We open up in your Bibles with me to the book of Joshua. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. We'll make our way to the 14th chapter, Joshua chapter 14. Joshua chapter 14. If you're using your pew bibles, you'll be able to find that on page 206. Joshua chapter 14. Hear now the word of the living God.

These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as an inheritance to them. Their inheritance was by lot. as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe on the other side of the Jordan, but to the Levites he had given no inheritance among them. For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And they gave no part to the Levites in the land except cities to dwell in, with their common lands for their livestock and their property, as the Lord had commanded Moses. So the children of Israel did, and they divided the land. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal.

And Caleb the son of Jethunah the Kinezite said to him, You know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me in Kadesh-Pernia. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-Pernia to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.

Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt. But I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive.

As he said, these 45 years ever since the Lord spoke, This word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, here I am this day, 85 years old. As yet, I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me. Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day. For you heard that 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 Jethunah, as an inheritance. Hebron, therefore, became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kinezite, to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba. Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest from war. Now jump over one chapter, Joshua chapter 15, beginning in verse 13.

Now to Caleb, the son of Jethunah, he gave a share among the children of Judah according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, namely Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak. Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there. Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.

Then he went up from there to the inhabitants of Dabir. Formerly the name of Dabir was Kirjas Sefer. And Caleb said, he who attacks Kirjas Sefer and takes it, to him I will give Aqsa, my daughter, as a wife. So Aqniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it. And he gave him Aqsa, his daughter, as wife.

Now it was so, when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you wish? She answered, Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the south, give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Grass withers. and the flower fades.

Prayer for Illumination

But brothers and sisters, the Word of our God endures forever. Let's pray to Him. Father, we pray now that these words might not just live on a page, but that they would be embedded in our hearts. That the Word would become alive to us. That we would know You more. That we would follow after You. That we would wholly be your people, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Last week, when we looked at Joshua chapter 13, we saw this reality that they had been going through the promised land, and they were making all of these great strides, that they were conquering all these people, but there's a hint in Joshua chapter 13 that not everything was alright.

People became complacent. Letting some people continue to live there And so we pick up Joshua chapter 14 and we look at the first five verses when they start to divide the land that reality is right in the back of our minds. That there's a danger. That there's a danger in their lives that they could just become complacent in their faith. Francis Schaeffer, when he is writing on this, he says, it is all too easy to fail to possess the possessions God has promised, because we either draw back out of fears of troubles that being a Christian will bring us, or we become caught up in the affluent society where people sail their little boats on this plastic culture. They could just be sucked in by materialism or by fear. And so when we look at The main heart of this passage today, verses 6 through the end of the chapter, and then into chapter 15. How does a person of God respond by faith? What is the model, what is the example that God gives us for how people were to walk before Him?

Well really, chapter 13 started a new... if the book of Joshua was to be cut in half, chapter 13 would be the cutting in half. The second half is all the giving of the law, and in chapter 13 through chapter 17 we really get all the land distributions, but it's bookended by two spies.

First with Caleb in chapter 14, and then with Joshua in chapter 17. And so this morning we need to look at Caleb's example of his faithfulness to God, and what that means for us and our lives. So in the first scene we have, we have Caleb's remembering his past life. He comes to Joshua, they're at Gilgal, they're kind of at the central camp just south of Jericho. They go there and Caleb walks up. Caleb is the senior citizen of the room. It's just he and Joshua. Everybody else is 45 and under. Everyone else is from the younger generation remember everyone else was put to death for their disbelief And yet here Caleb walks up one old man to the other old man, and he says remember Remember what God promised me?

Remember what happened look with me at what he says inverted the second half of verse 6 and following you know You know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me and Kadesh-Birnia. I was 40 years old when Moses, a servant of the Lord, sent me to Kadesh from Kadesh-Birnia to spy out the land. And I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.

He's saying, remember what Moses has said, remember Joshua. We went out and we spied the land. He's saying this to his old friend. He's looking to his past and he's saying, remember that time when we showed faith? There were 12 of us. There were 12 of us who went out into the land. We spied it all out. The other 10 spies, remember how they were complaining about the fortified cities and the people were like giants and we were like grasshoppers. They were afraid that we were just going to get crushed. But we acted by faith. We wholly followed the Lord, even though the other ones One to make the people's heart melt.

Now just in case you think this was an easy thing for Caleb to do, keep your finger here in Joshua chapter 14 and turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 14. Let's just review for a second what this was like for Caleb and Joshua to make this report. Numbers chapter 14 beginning at verse 6. Numbers chapter 14 beginning at verse 6, But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land, tore their clothes.

And they spoke to the congregation of Israel, saying, The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into the land to give it to us, a land which fills with milk and honey only. Do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread and their protection has departed from them.

And the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Do you hear how they're trying to rally the people? They're saying, trust in God's promises. Don't turn back as a land flowing with milk and honey. It's good. Follow the Lord. Notice how the people respond. Verse 10. And all the people, all the congregation said to stone them with stones.

Joshua is now standing, an old man, and he's remembering what it was like to bring back that report. We might not think of this, we might gloss over this. This is like people This is a Wild West movie. This would be people putting their hands on their holsters. They're getting ready to execute them. They're getting ready to kill them. They say, no, we won't go there. You're not going to lead us into destruction. That's not what we're doing. We'll just go back to Egypt. They stare death down face to face.

And Caleb's saying, for these 40 years, My faith has remained unmoved. I still believe the same thing. This is still the land that Moses promised to me. This is still the land that he said my children would have forever because I wholly followed the Lord and I am wholly following the Lord now. And this is where he gets into his current faith, but I want to read to you something from Dale Davies as he's commenting on this section about our lives when we make these types of courageous stands of faith.

He says, the devotion of faith required courage, a willingness to stand alone, to go against the grain. The devotion of faith led to the isolation of faith. Such is often the case. The teenager knows what this is like when he or she must go against the moral ethical flow of our high school culture. The Christian executive who tells the superior that he must either resign or be transferred to another department because he refuses to line up prostitutes for the company's weekend visitors, that man knows this loneliness. Even pastors know a good bit of this.

So you will not baptize the grandchildren of a church member because the parents are not believers? Or you have the gall, along with the other elders, to place someone under church discipline? You may seek to follow the Lord completely, and at the same time reduce church membership. God's people then must be prepared, for devoted faith frequently means lonely faith. And yet, and I love this part, This is the reality. I read this quote to you because I think Davies is spot on here. Often a courageous faith is a lonely faith. It's a costly faith. Because people don't like others who go against the grain. And yet when Paul finds himself in the same position and he laments, everyone's deserted me, he adds in the next breath, But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. Some of you are in lonely places in your life.

In your workplaces, you are standing in ways where you're being courageous. You're standing by faith. You're remembering the Lord's faithfulness to you and his promises to you. The Lord is still at your right side, just like he was with Paul, just like he was with Joshua. Just like he was with Caleb. This is the courage. We're weeks and weeks and weeks removed from Joshua chapter 1. But what was God's command to Joshua? Be strong and courageous. And what was the source of his courage? I will never leave you nor forsake you. God had never forsaken Caleb. He had never forgotten Caleb. He had never left Caleb. And so Caleb, remembering that past faithfulness of God, speaks of his present faith in verses 10 through 15. Look with me there. And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive. I love that. Every single breath we take is a blessing from God. It is the Lord who kept him alive. He says, okay, it's God who kept me alive. It's the Lord who did this.

And he has these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now here I am this day, 85 years old, and yet I am as strong this day as on the day Moses sent me. And just as my strength was thin, so now my strength for war, both for going in and coming out. 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 has said.

What is the anchor for Caleb's soul? It's not his faithfulness to God. Even though he wholeheartedly followed, the land was going to be his reward for his faithfulness and following the Lord. But what was his confidence? What was the anchor for his soul? Why he would be able to go up to the Anakim and defeat the giants of the land? It was the promise of God Himself. The Lord has kept me alive. And just before, it was that the Lord had promised him this land. It was that the Lord had given the land of Canaan to the people. It's that the Lord had done these things. And so now in his present old age, let's face it, Caleb is an 85-year-old dude. Some of you are 80-year-olds in here right now. We send flowers to some of you. You ready to go attack an entire village full of giants? Caleb was.

Because he knew if the Lord had promised it, he was going to be able to do it. And he says, God's kept me alive, I'm still this strong. Somehow, this is a miracle, the Lord has made this 85 year old man just as strong as he was when he was 40 years old, and now he's going to go. He's going to stare down the giants. He's going to face them, no matter how he feels about it. He's going to go face them.

Brothers and sisters, this is something that we need to take courage in our own lives. There are going to be times in your life as you are walking by faith that you might not feel strong. You might not even feel courageous. Some of you right now might be feeling downright tired, lonely, depressed. cling to the promises of God. I'm sure there were times in Caleb's life during those 45 years as he would look around and friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend, after friend died.

I'm sure he had grief in his heart as he and Joshua are standing there as the only two old men left in the town. But he says, God brought us to this day. And now I'm willing to go and take the land. I just want to encourage you, especially those who are older in the faith this morning, keep running the race with perseverance. Don't give up. Do not let your knees grow weak, nor your hands go slack. You're closer to the finish line than many of us are. Run the race well. set an example for us of what faithfulness to Christ looks like. I love... I never... I don't know why I never thought about it, but I never thought about it when I was getting... You go through a seminary, you know, they don't have a whole class. They have whole classes on things like end times and the government and worship and stuff like that. You know what they didn't have a whole class for? Funerals.

One of my favorite things, since the Lord has called me here, is getting to remember the lives of those who have walked faithfully their entire lives, who have wholly followed the Lord. They set examples for us, the stories of the generations past, so our senior citizens in the faith today keep running the race well with perseverance.

But see, it wasn't just that Caleb said these things like, oh give me the land and I'm gonna... Caleb had to do something about it! It's good, it's... he wasn't just talk. There's a type of cheap faith that has a big talk but doesn't actually walk. What we find out in chapter 15 is that Caleb actually did what he said he believed God would do. Look at me at verses 13 through 15.

Now to Caleb, the son of Jethunah, he gave a share among the children of Judah according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, namely, hear Jetharba, which is Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak. Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there. Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Then he went up from there to the inhabitants of Dabir, formerly the name of Dabir was Kirjath Sefer.

Caleb goes and he acts out his faith. He actually goes to Hebron. And he attacks it. He actually doesn't just say, oh I want this land. I just want God to give it to me. No, he goes and he pursues it. He goes and he fights against Anakim. Not one giant, not just David against Jeliah, not two giants, three of the sons of Anak. He goes and he faces down those who are taller than tall, who are stronger than strong. And he goes toe to toe with them in battle and he takes out the enemy. He lives out His faith.

Here's my question for you. How often in our lives do we say we believe the things that the Scripture says, and yet we act like the Holy Spirit hasn't given us power to actually do those things? We love the fruits of the Spirit. We love joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We love talking about it. But are you fighting for them? Are you abiding in Christ? Are you following after what Christ said? If you love me, what's the challenge He lays down? If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

This is not a slavish type I'm not telling you to just be, you know, just courageous for courage's sake. Actually, let's pull back just for a second and remember what even Caleb said. He doesn't think that God's a little toy. He recognizes his promises, but he also acknowledges God's sovereignty. It may be, the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.

It may be, Christian, that in your life, you have sin to put to death. And I stand here to encourage you, to admonish you, to exhort you, that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to the day of completion. So be busy about it. God has given us an active faith. for you to be busy about the good works He has given you to do. He prepared them in advance. He saved you for good works. He's given you His Spirit so you can actually accomplish them.

So out of a heart for Him, love Him and follow Him. And this is where I love Caleb and his example. He spurs on the next generation. Look with me at verses 16 and 17, what Caleb does. And Caleb said, he who attacks Kirjath-Sethir and takes it to him, I will give Ahsa, my daughter, as wife. So Ahniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it. And he gave him Ahsa, his daughter, as wife. Caleb challenges the younger generation, he says. Maybe some of you older people, you need to lay down some challenges for the younger generation. Each generation needs to step up to the plate themselves.

But he says, okay, I follow the Lord wholeheartedly. I took Kiryat Arba, Hebron. Now who's going to take the next town? If you show that type of faith, this is the type of man, I want to marry my daughter. And Othniel steps up. This is his nephew and he says, I'll do it. And he goes and he conquers the land. Each generation must step up and prove their own faith is not a dead faith but one of living faith. But just in case you think this is all a manly story about men conquering lands, notice his daughter's faith. Aksa's faith in verses 18 and 19. Now it was so, when she came to him that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field, so she dismounted from her donkey.

And Caleb said to her, what do you wish? She answered, give me a blessing. Give me a blessing since you have given me land in the south. Give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Aksa. has faith as well. That yeah, the city's been given to Othniel, but they're in the Negev. And she shows her faith by saying, go to my father and ask him for a field. And when she and her husband go, she gets off her donkey and she goes and she tells her dad more than just that.

Give me springs in the Negev. Give me water in the desert. And that's what Caleb does. He gives her the upper springs and the lower springs. It is not... It is not an unchristian thing to go to our Heavenly Father and to ask for blessings. Give us this day our daily bread. And this is what she does.

This is exactly the faith that we see happen time and again with women in the New Testament. When she trusts her father's generosity, Aksa goes to her and she asks for a piece for her own inheritance. And this is the same type of faith that we find like the woman with the issue of blood who knows that if she comes to Jesus and just touches a hem of his garment, he'll show her mercy. She knows that if she goes and she makes a request, that Jesus will listen to her. It's even this Syro-Phoenician woman who comes to Jesus, and she has a sick daughter, and she begs Jesus to heal her daughter, and he says, I wasn't sent here for the nations, but just for Israel. And she says, yeah, but even the children eat the crumbs from the dog, or even the dogs eat the crumbs from the children's table.

And Jesus sees her faith, that she would have that type of trust in Him, in His goodness. that He heals her daughter. This is a story of faith, a story of God's faithfulness to His people, of His promises, and how we are to follow by faithfully clinging to His promises and then walking our entire lives in light of those promises. So when you walk out these doors, when you go home today, when you go into your workplaces, you're going to be given opportunities.

Do you cut against the grain? Will you have courage to be lonely in your faith? Will God be enough for you? That might last for 40 years. But will you know that he's always at your right side. That Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. And that he is always there ready to remind us of the inheritance that we have in him.

Closing Prayer

Walk by faith. Trust in Christ. Cling to the promises. Let's pray. Father, we pray indeed that you would give us courage. We pray, Lord, that in the humdrum of life that we would remember you. Please, Lord, do not make us rich that we would forsake you, nor poor that we would steal. But Lord, may we abound in the riches of grace. always clinging to you, always loving you. Even when we're 85 or 105, may we be able to be those people who say we have wholly followed you our entire lives.

We pray this in Jesus's name. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.