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Caiaphas
And see what he is! A crafty schemer, as blind as a mole to the beauty of Christ’s character and the greatness of His words; utterly unspiritual; undisguisedly selfish; rude as a boor; cruel as a cut-throat; and having reached that supreme height of wickedness in which he can dress his ugliest thought in the plainest words, and send them into the world unabashed.
Alexander Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 259
He can take one point of view only, in regard of the mightiest spiritual revelation that the world ever saw; and that is, its bearing upon his own miserable personal interests, and the interests of the order to which he belongs. And so whatever may be the wisdom, or miracles, or goodness of Jesus, because He threatens the prerogatives of the priesthood, He must die and be got out of the way…. Caiaphas’ sin is possible, and Caiaphas’ temptation is actual, for every man whose profession it is to handle the oracles of God.
Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 260
Cain
Sin came into the world full-grown; the first man born of woman was a murderer.
D. L. Moody
Sin has entered into the world, and the happy innocence of Eden is destroyed. Cain is born, and the word Cain means possession; Abel is born, and the word Abel means vanity. Was it beginning to dawn thus early on mankind that “man at his best estate is altogether vanity” (Ps. 39:5 KJV)? The curse is beginning to work out to its fulfillment, and men are finding that the wages of sin is death.
GHM, Footsteps of the Flock, p. 16
So what does it mean, after all, that Cain should come to the altar? Our wicked heart is quite capable of devising mischief even in holy places, and as we sing hymns the wolves may be howhng in the cellars of our souls.
Thielicke, How the World Began, p. 192
The history of the world is the space in which Cain’s axe finally becomes dynamite and phosphorus, hydrogen explosions and space rockets.
Thielicke, How the World Began, p. 188
No, envy can be combated only by letting God give me a new faith, a faith that accepts the other person just as he has been sent to me by a higher hand, as someone who has his place and function in God’s plan exactly as I have, as someone who confronts me with the command of love and in whom God’s higher thoughts can come to me.
Thielicke, How the World Began, p. 197
Do not say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” for I shall have to give you a horrible answer if you do. I shall have to say, “No, Cain, you are not your brother’s keeper but you are your brother’s killer.” If, by your effort you have not sought his good, by your neglect you have destroyed him.
CHS, 33:672
Not to love is to hate, and to hate is to kill. See 1 John 3:10–23.
WWW
Caleb
He is “the man who wholly followed the Lord.” God said it (Num. 14:24), Moses said it (Num. 32:12; Deut. 1:36), Joshua said it (Josh. 14:14), and Caleb said it himself (Josh. 14:8–9). He was wholehearted in his walk with the Lord.
As the ten faithless spies not only missed Canaan for themselves but caused tens of thousands of others to miss it, so the two faithful spies not only gained Canaan but they were used of God to lead that entire younger generation into their inheritance in the promised land.
Ruth Paxson, Caleb the Overcomer, p. 39
See Deuteronomy 1:35–36. With God, there are no “generation gaps.” See also 2 Timothy 2:2 and Titus 2:1–8.
Give me men to match my mountains.
Inscription on the State Capitol, Sacramento, CA
Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, p. 7
It was not the great walled cities of Canaan nor even the great stature of the giants that kept them [Israel] from their inheritance in Canaan. It was their own faulty relationship to the Lord. [Numbers 13]
Paxson, Caleb, p. 28
The ten spies saw themselves primarily in relation to their enemies. Consequently their chief concern was for their safety. So they would sacrifice their inheritance in Canaan rather than risk their lives.
Paxson, Caleb, p. 32
During all the forty years of wilderness wandering, Caleb lived in the promised land through anticipatory appropriating faith. He lived above the wilderness by living in the promised land. He was in the wilderness, but not of it.
Paxson, Caleb, p. 51
What shall we do with life’s mountains? We can climb them as did Moses and see the glory of God (Exod. 34). We can level them in the power of the Spirit (Zech. 4) and move ahead in our labors. We can exercise faith and trust the Lord to move them out of the way (Matt. 17:19–21). And, like Caleb, we can conquer them and claim them for our own inheritance.
WWW
Here is where many Christians fail. I haven’t a question that many preachers largely fail because they are looking for easy and soft places. The one thing we are to think about, to care for, is that we may stand in the battle’s front and in the thick of the fight, every man where God wants him, whether lawyer, doctor, minister, teacher, banker, farmer, or what not. If God has hard tasks and big jobs, and gigantic undertakings, let each one give himself to them with the spirit of Caleb, scorning easy places, asking for God to give him anything He wishes, in His infinite wisdom and love…. Let us address ourselves to life’s problems as did Caleb. Let us make up our minds never to get old, never. Let us make up our minds that we will never admit for a breath to ourselves that suggestion of the devil, that we have “done our part.”
George W. Truett, We Would See Jesus, p. 101
Caleb was a man who was perennially young. That is one of the most beautiful things in his life story…. There is not any place, there is not any need for any man ever to get old in this world. And if a man will link himself with the right things, and have the right viewpoint in the life he lives, he will never be an old man.
Truett, We Would See Jesus, p. 99
Caleb was a man who dared to be in the minority. He was a man who could, without any blanching of face, go against the crowd. He was a man who had his anchorage thoroughly defined, and who adjusted himself in absolute obedience to the convictions his soul felt and knew to be right. He dared, therefore, to be in the minority.
Truett, We Would See Jesus, p. 96
Caleb followed the Lord universally, without dividing [his heart]; sincerely, without dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; constantly, without declining.
CHS, 9:620
Cornelius (Acts 10:1–11:18)
Cornelius wasn’t to be saved by his feelings, nor his efforts, nor his alms; he was to be saved by words—the words of Peter preaching Jesus Christ to him. By such words not only Cornelius and all his house, but all sinners everywhere, are to be brought into the kingdom of God. [See Acts 11:14.]
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 124