Caleb's Legacy: Faith, Courage, and Divine Inheritance

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You know, there's a sense in which Israel gained these lands by conquest; other people held the lands, Israel came in and drove them out. Yet, in an even greater sense, a sense greater than conquest, they gained these lands by inheritance because God had promised the land by covenant to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. [00:02:49]

Why did they do it by lot, by just random drawing? Well, because in the mind of the Old Testament, this was a way to leave the choices up to God. Proverbs 16:33 is important here: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." This was a way that they would consciously say, "Lord, You're going to guide the lot." [00:07:21]

Caleb was one of only two spies to come back with a good report, a report of faith, believing that God had given Israel the promised land and that God would enable them to conquer it. You'll find his report in Numbers Chapter 13, starting at verse 26. The other 10 spies believed that Israel would be destroyed in the attempt to take Canaan. [00:14:29]

Friends, those 10 faithless, unbelieving spies measured the giants against their own strength, but Joshua and Caleb measured those giants against God's strength. And you know what? It was true. Measured against their own strength, those giants were fearsome and perhaps unconquerable, but measured against God's strength, there was nothing Israel could not do. [00:15:19]

Caleb also remembered, verse 8 tells us, his brethren who went up with him. He remembered that they were filled with unbelief and that they, to use the phrasing of verse 8, made the heart of the people melt. Caleb remembered; he recognized the damage that unbelief may do among the people of God. [00:15:54]

Caleb could do this because he was a man, as I said before, who did wholly follow the Lord his God. You know, it may be observed that most successful people are those who have wholly given themselves over to something. Friends, it is appropriate for the people of God to wholly give themselves over to following the Lord. [00:20:00]

Caleb is a remarkable example of someone who ages in the very best way, spiritually speaking. He grew older but never weaker in his God. Caleb didn't look forward to a life of ease and indulgence in his elderly years. No, he said, "I'm still strong. I can still do work for the Lord." [00:24:03]

In fact, Caleb wanted the fight. He practically demanded the mountain where difficult foes lived. Caleb could have asked for an easy place, and in a lot of ways, he deserved it, but he knew that those foes must be faced, and he thought, "I may as well be the one to do it." [00:25:10]

Caleb was a man who trusted God's word, who remembered God's word, who believed God's word, and it was a huge source in his strength. You know, when the 10 unbelieving spies brought back their report, they said, "Wow, it's a hill country, the Anakim are there, the cities are large and fortified." Caleb remembers those same things now 45 years later. [00:25:50]

Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. Then the land had rest from war. [00:28:38]

Friends, if all of Israel had the heart and the faith of Caleb, the remaining conquest of Canaan by the individual tribes would have been much more complete. There was a sense of complete commitment to God in Caleb. Faith sees and dares in the day of overwhelming difficulty. Faith waits patiently through delays caused by failures in others. [00:29:44]

Friends, Jesus blesses and honors those who are overcomers in him, just as Caleb was blessed and honored by Joshua. Caleb wholly followed the Lord. Remember that phrase; it's three times in this chapter. Let us face it, nobody's trying to say for a moment that Caleb was sinlessly perfect. [00:35:10]

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