Pam Padgett ... teacher
After God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, HE told Moses to
send a man from each tribe to search the land God had promised to give them. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh was sent by Moses from
the tribe of Judah. The men sent by Moses searched
the land forty days, and brought back fruit from the land together with a
report that the land flowed with milk and honey. They also told that
the inhabitants of the land were strong and great ....
Numbers 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after
forty days. 26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all
the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of
Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the
congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told
him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely
it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28
Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities
are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak
there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the
Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains:
and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
Caleb knew the children of Israel were able to overcome even the strong
and great inhabitants of the land because God was with them, and urged
them to go up at once to possess the land. But others who had searched
the land discouraged the people, saying that the inhabitants of the land
were too strong for the children of Israel to overcome.
Numbers 13:30 And Caleb stilled the people before
Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well
able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be
not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched
unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have
gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and
all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And
there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their
sight.
At this evil report, the congregation murmured. But Joshua and Caleb strongly urged the people to trust in God and not fear, reminding them
of how good the land is and that the inhabitants of the land would not
be able to stand before Israel, for God was with them ...
Numbers 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the
son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their
clothes: 7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of
Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an
exceeding good land. 8 If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us
into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and
honey. 9 Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people
of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from
them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. 10 But all the
congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord
appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children
of Israel.
The congregation took up stones to kill Joshua and Caleb as they spoke.
But God judged the matter. Those who had not believed and provoked God would not see
the land. But Caleb would go into the land and his seed would posses
it, for Caleb had fully followed God ...
Numbers 14:22 Because all those men which have seen my
glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and
have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers,
neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24 But my servant
Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me
fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed
shall possess it.
The children of Israel were led in the wilderness for 40 years until
those who provoked God had died. Before Moses died, land to the
east of the Jordan river had been divided to two and one-half of the
tribes. Joshua was appointed by God to lead the children of Israel
(included the 2-1/2 tribes who had already received their inheritance)
into the land of Canaan across the Jordan river, and they overcome many countries in the land. Eleazar, Joshua, and heads of the tribes divided the land
by lots among the nine and one-half tribes, and Caleb came to Joshua concerning the
promise of an inheritance that had been made to him because he had fully
followed God ...
Joshua 14:6 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 Kadeshbarnea. 7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant
of the Lord sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I
brought him word again as it was in mine heart. 8 Nevertheless my
brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I
wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 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.
Joshua gave Caleb Hebron as he asked. Although 85 years old, Caleb was
still strong and able to go to battle, knowing he would be able to drive
out the inhabitants of Hebron as God was with him ...
Joshua 14:10 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. 11
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. 12 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. 13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of
Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. 14 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.
Joshua 15:13 And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part
among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to
Joshua, even the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron.
14 And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman,
and Talmai, the children of Anak.
Its edifying to review how Caleb wholly followed God, even when others did not. Caleb believed God would help them and that because God would help them, they would be able to overcome even strong enemies and inhabit the land as God had promised. Together with Joshua, Caleb tried to turn the congregation away from
fear and rebellion, and to believe God and enter into the land HE had
promised. Because Caleb fully followed God, God gave him an inheritance of the land among the children of Judah.