Chapter9: Caleb's Faithfulness
AFTER THE ISRAELITES HADoverthrown the southern strongholds in one mighty effort, they turned to the north. Since the king of Hazor headed the confederacy of the north, he called on the northern kings to do battle, and the Israelites defeated them at the waters of Merom. The north, too, the Israelites took in one campaign, as Joshua 11 describes. In the sense that the strongholds had been broken, the land belonged to them.
The campaigns took seven years, as we see if we study Joshua 14 carefully. Joshua 14:7 says Caleb was forty years old when Moses sent him to spy out the land. The wilderness wanderings lasted thirty-eight years. This is a total of seventy-eight years. Joshua 14:10 says that Caleb at the end of the campaigns was eighty-five years old. Therefore, the campaigns must have taken seven years. Verse 10 confirms this, for the thirty-eight years of the wandering plus the seven years of the campaigns equal the forty-five years of which Caleb speaks. If the Israelites had entered the land when they could have entered, they would have spent one year coming out of Egypt and seven years fighting west of Jordan. Thus in a bit more than eight years after leaving Egypt, they could have had the land. Instead of that, they wasted thirty-eight years.
Joshua 11, like earlier chapters, insists on the continuity of the law of Moses: “As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses. . . . So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war” (Josh. 11:15, 23). This insistence is important because liberal theologians try to drive a wedge between the Pentateuch and the rest of the Bible. It cannot be done. The rest of the Bible, beginning with Joshua, stands in total continuity with the Pentateuch. Joshua was acting on the basis of God’s revelation through Moses.
Joshua 12 is a summary of the total campaign. The summary is divided into two parts: 12:1-6 describes the campaign under Moses on the east side of the Jordan; 12:7-24, the campaign under Joshua on the west side of the Jordan. When we reach the end of Joshua 12, we are halfway through the book, for the book of Joshua is divided into two parts: First, the conquest of the land (Joshua 1—12), and then the settlement of the land and the division to the tribes (Joshua 13—24).
POSSESSING THE POSSESSIONS
We turn now to the division of the land among the tribes. The major campaigns were past, but land still remained to be secured: “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed” (Josh. 13:1). There was land to be taken to the north, south, east, and west (Josh. 13:2-6). The Israelites had broken the main force of the opposition, but they were still an island in the midst of those who were not the people of God.
Concerning the unconquered people, the Israelites had a promise from God: “Them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee” (Josh. 13:6). The major campaigns had proven that God indeed is great and that the Israelites, in this supernatural way, could break the heart of the enemy force. Now God promised, “Go on. Divide the land, because I’m going to give you the strength to clear it out and to possess your possession.”
Suddenly, however, comes a new note—the failure of the people of God to possess their possessions. Though it lay open before them, they simply did not take hold of what was theirs to hold. Later Joshua said to the children of Israel, “How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?” (Josh. 18:3). In other words, “It’s yours! Why don’t you go and get it?”
There were two reasons for the people’s failure. The first was not their fault. For a time they could not. For instance, “As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day” (Josh. 15:63). And, “The children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land” (Josh. 17:12). But this was not the primary problem, for Joshua
17:13 says, “Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out.” Though there was a time when they could not vanquish them, when they did become strong enough to drive them out, they did not do so. Rather, they put them under tribute. This was their own fault.
The people of God did not go on to do what God had told them to do for two reasons. First, they wanted peace at any cost and in spite of God’s commands; second, they wanted wealth. They were practical materialists. For the sake of ease and money, they did not go forward and do what God had told them to do. “Tribute! Tribute! Tribute!” they demanded. And they let the people stay in the land. And through the time of the judges and beyond, instead of gaining ground, the Israelites slowly lost it because they had not possessed their possessions on the basis of God’s promise.
Does that sound up to date? These were people who would rather have affluence than possess their possessions under the promises of God. Had God lost his power? Had God reneged on the promise? Was he unable to keep it? Not a bit. God’s power was still there. The iron chariots of the enemy should have been no detriment. In Deborah’s day the battle was won in the valley plain where the chariots were most useful. All the land was theirs, but through their lack of faith and their disobedience, they did not make it theirs. The desire for peace and tribute stood in the way. Therefore, on the basis of the conditional portion of the covenant of God, the blessings stopped.
CALEB REMAINS FAITHFUL
In contrast, happily, somebody did possess his possessions:
Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.
And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. (Josh. 14:6-14)
Caleb said, “In the past I followed the Lord God.” What was he talking about? He and Joshua were the spies under Moses who years earlier had believed God’s promises. While the rest of the spies had said, “We are afraid,” and had turned the people aside, Caleb and Joshua had said, “We can take the land because God says we can.”
When the campaigns had broken the heart of the land, Caleb (now eighty-five) came to Joshua and said, “Now by faith I’m going to do what I said all along could be done.” What a man! Here he was, out of step among a people who, for the sake of peace and wealth, were not continuing the warfare. In that moment, as in the past, Caleb followed the Lord. Caleb actually went up and claimed his land—he fought for it and won it (Josh. 15:13-19) and proved what he had believed for many long years. Apparently the city he captured was one of the great fortresses. When the spies had seen it, they thought it would be extremely difficult to take; but Caleb had maintained, “We can take it under God.” Now he proved this by faith. This was Caleb!
Caleb was not following a new principle. This was the principle of his life. When he was a spy, he was faithful to God, saying the conquest could be achieved. Under Joshua, we can be sure, he continued in battle with confidence. When the heart of the land was broken, he reaffirmed his principle of trusting God by not turning aside into these cul-de-sacs. So a section of the promised land fell into Caleb’s hands while the others were sitting in the midst of peace and tribute and not possessing the promises of God.
PROMISES TO CHRISTIANS
Caleb’s faithfulness speaks to us today. If you and I have cast ourselves upon Christ, if we have believed in him in the biblical way, if we have been justified, the central battle has been won, just as when the Israelites’ southern and northern campaigns broke the heart of the resistance. But there are also promises made to Christians. We are called upon to possess our possessions. Was God, who gave the people the power to break the strongholds, not able to give them the possessions? Was God’s power ended? If we are Christians, we have believed that Christ in the infinite value of his death takes away our guilt and opens the way to God for us. Has Christ lost his power since we were justified? Have God’s promises to us diminished?
What are God’s promises to Christians? We could follow several veins, but I would like to follow this one: the promises of the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus was preparing to leave his disciples, he promised, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). Here is the promise of God: “I am going to send the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to live within every true Christian from Pentecost on.” Romans 8 emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is the agent through which the power of the victorious, resurrected Christ brings forth fruit in a Christian’s life.
Christ has not left us orphans. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. And this fact has great implications. Jesus promised his followers, “But ye shall receive power [from the same Greek word that gives us our word dynamite], after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit will be Christ’s agent in us—producing dynamite power so we can witness to this rebellious world.
The Holy Spirit also gives us the fruit of the Spirit, which is described in Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:2225). If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that fine? All right, then, let us walk in the Spirit. Let us possess our possessions.
What was the Israelites’ trouble? Why did they not possess their possessions? Very simple. They wanted their peace and materialism. These things always stand in the way of the people of God. There is an intriguing parallel in the parable of the sower: “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14). There are people who hear the gospel and turn away because of the cares of life, and there are people who turn away because of their fears of losing riches and pleasure. But Christians, too, can be so caught up in the cares and riches and pleasures of this world that they bring little or no fruit to perfection.
What Jesus desires is this: “That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). Hold it fast! Bring forth fruit with patience! Patience in what? First, patience in enduring the cares of this world and the trouble that Christianity brings. Does Christianity bring you any troubles? If it does not, you have not been active enough. As Christians, we are in the midst of war. If we never have any troubles, if we have nothing but peace, we have not been involved in this war in the midst of a generation that has rebelled against God. Second, we need patience in resisting the riches and pleasures that can also stop fruit-bearing.
What was the first reason the Israelites did not possess their possessions? They wanted peace. Doesn’t this exactly parallel the “cares”? What was the second reason? They wanted tribute. Because of riches and pleasures, a Christian can also be distracted from continuing God’s conquest. What stood in the way of blessing in the time of Joshua is exactly what today stands in the way of a Christian’s bearing fruit.
With the Israelites, the master conquest was over. With us, the master conquest ended at two great historic points: a cross in space and time (where Jesus said, “It is finished”—the propitiatory work was complete) and the moment we personally were justified (when God, the judge of all the universe, declared, “Your guilt is gone. You are returned to me”).
Back in Joshua’s day, when the master conquest was over, God was the same, his promise was the same, his power was the same. But the people did not possess their possessions because of their desire for peace and for tribute. We Christians stand in the same danger. It is all too easy to fail to possess the possessions God has promised because we either draw back out of fear of the troubles that being a Christian will bring us or we become caught up in the affluent society where people sail their little boats upon this plastic culture.