Word of Encouragement (06/28/2023)
Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old 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 my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.' 10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." (Josh. 14:6-12)
In this next section (vv. 10-11), Caleb gives a brief account of what has happened since the time he and others came back from spying on the land. Because he was ready to follow God wholly, Caleb was ready to go up at once into the Promised Land and occupy it. But, of course, he couldn't. Because the people of Israel refused to go up in their unbelief, God did not allow them to go into the Promised Land. They were condemned to wander in the wilderness for thirty-eight years and perish there.
Caleb says he was forty years old when he was sent as a spy into Canaan. Now he is eighty-five years old. Though he mentions this casually, it is a loaded statement. It implies that he was forced to spend the prime years of his life wandering in the wilderness, suffering together with the ten spies and the rebellious generation of the Israelites for their sin of unbelief! For no fault of his own, he had to wander in the wilderness for thirty-eight more years before he could enter the Promised Land. Does anything make us angrier than suffering for someone else's fault? What a painful loss! It's like wasting forty years of his prime in prison for a crime he did not commit! But he understood what it meant to belong to a community, to a terribly faulty, flawed community. As broken as it was, it was still God's covenant community. He dared not abandon it. And we have no record of any complaint from Caleb.
Following the Lord wholly means following Him in all circumstances—on sunny days as well as on rainy days, on the green pastures and through the valley of the shadow of death, on the podium of honor and in the prison of humiliation, while walking hand in hand with fellow pilgrims and standing all alone before an angry mob, etc. If we don't deserve the blessings we enjoy, should we complain when God calls us to suffer for His sake?
And God did not abandon him, either. Look at what God had done for him. Caleb confessed, “And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive…. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming” (vv. 10-11). Not only did God keep him alive so he could enter the Promised Land, but He also preserved his strength through all those years so he could still go up and take possession of the land as if no time were lost at all! And God rewarded his faithfulness by allowing him to take his pick in choosing his portion of the land.
Are you suffering because of someone else’s mistakes and sins? Do you feel like you got tangled up with the wrong kind of person? Let us learn from Caleb’s life that God can still work out His good plan for our lives. But the ultimate reason for this assurance is not Caleb but Jesus Christ. He voluntarily entered a covenant relationship with the “wrong” kind of people. For that decision, He had to suffer and die in unspeakable ways. But He did not just suffer meaninglessly. Though He suffered and died, He rose again in glory. Through His suffering and death, He redeemed His people. If we are in Jesus Christ through faith, we can be assured that He can bring redemption to our suffering. May the Lord use this assurance to bring peace and hope to us!