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Context No. 1253 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 14:6-15: in context

6Then the children of Judah came near to Joshua in Gilgal. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the thing that the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh Barnea. 7I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where you walked shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ 10“Now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old, today. 11As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, to go out and to come in. 12Now therefore give me this hill country, of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the LORD said.” 13Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly. 15Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, after the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest from war.

As the land is being divided, old Caleb comes to Joshua with a claim. He recalls how, forty-five years earlier, he and Joshua were sent to spy out the land, and while the other ten spies made the people's hearts melt with fear, Caleb brought back a faithful report, because, he says, I wholly followed the LORD my God. Moses had promised him an inheritance for it. Now Caleb is eighty-five, and he declares he is as strong as ever, still able to fight. And his request is bold: give me this hill country, the very place where the giant Anakim live in their great fortified cities; it may be the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out. Joshua blesses him and gives him Hebron.

What defines Caleb, repeated three times in the passage, is that he wholly followed the LORD. Forty-five years earlier, when everyone else caved to fear at the sight of the giants, Caleb followed God fully, and he has kept following fully ever since. And here is the striking thing: that wholehearted following has not diminished with age. At eighty-five, Caleb does not ask for an easy, safe retirement portion; he asks for the hardest territory, the hill country still held by giants, the very thing that had terrified the other spies decades before. His faith at eighty-five is exactly what it was at forty, undimmed, still ready to take on giants because the LORD may be with me. There is a rebuke and an inspiration in that. Caleb did not coast into old age on past faithfulness; he was still asking for giants to fight, still expecting God to be with him in the hard thing. Wholehearted following of God is not a burst of youthful zeal that fades; in Caleb it was a lifelong direction that left him, at eighty-five, still hungry for the hill country. The giants that scared the young Caleb he faced gladly when he was old, because he had wholly followed the LORD the whole way.

Am I wholly following the LORD as a lifelong direction, so that my faith does not fade with age but stays hungry, like Caleb at eighty-five, still ready to take on the hard thing because God may be with me?

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