Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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 Kadesh-barnea.
6 15. The Possession of Caleb
6. in Gilgal ] Where the casting of the lots commenced.
and Caleb the son of Jephunneh ] Caleb was a prince of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Hezron, the son of Pharez, and grandson of Judah ( 1Ch 2:5 ; 1Ch 2:18; 1Ch 2:25). He is first mentioned in the list of the princes who were sent to search the land of Canaan in the second year of the Exodus (Num 13:6), and he and Joshua were the only two who on their return encouraged the Israelites to go up and take possession of the land. In the plague that ensued, these two alone were spared, and deemed worthy to enter the Promised Land (Num 14:24; Num 14:30; Num 26:65).
the Kenezite ] His younger brother Othniel, afterwards the first Judge, is also called “the son of Kenaz ” (Jos 15:17; Jdg 1:13; Jdg 3:9; Jdg 3:11). Hence ( a) some have thought he was a foreigner by birth, descended from the Edomite tribe spoken of in Gen 15:19, a proselyte who had been incorporated into the tribe of Judah (comp. Gen 36:15; Gen 36:42); ( b) others hold that even if Jephunneh was on the father’s side descended from this people, on the mother’s he came from Judah, and that this Kenaz probably belonged to the posterity of Judah of whom nothing further is known. From 1Ch 4:15 it appears that one of Caleb’s sons was called Kenaz, and it is clear that the name was held in great affection by the family, and it was customary both with Hebrews and Arabs to perpetuate certain family names. See Keil’s Commentary.
Thou knowest ] Caleb begins by reminding his friend and leader of the word which Jehovah had spoken to Moses at Kadesh-barnea concerning them both (Num 14:24).
in Kadesh-barnea ] Next to Sinai, the most important of all the resting-places of the children of Israel (see Deu 33:2).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The children of Judah – No doubt, in particular, the kinsmen of Caleb, and perhaps other leading men of the tribe. These came before Joshua, with Caleb, in order to make it manifest that they supported his claim, to be secured in the possessions promised him by Moses before the general allotment should be made to the tribes (compare the marginal references).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jos 14:6-15
Caleb . . . said . . . the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said.
Calebs reflection on the goodness and faithfulness of God to him
I. It is God that keepeth us alive. The Scriptures often remind us of this, and urge it as a motive to religious fear, gratitude, and obedience. They teach us that in Him we live and move and have our being: that in Him is the breath of every living thing and the spirit of all mankind; that He gave it at first and that He taketh it away. More particularly, God preserveth us from many accidents that would be fatal to us. He giveth His angels charge over us, to keep us in all our ways.
II. The aged have peculiar reason to make this acknowledgment. When any arrive at old age, it is proper to do this, with peculiar seriousness and gratitude; considering that, like Caleb, they have been wandering all their days in a wilderness. Dangers surround us on every side. The aged cannot but often reflect upon this; what numbers they have survived! Their own infirmities render the acknowledgment of Gods preservation of them almost natural and peculiarly proper.
III. It is a great satisfaction to aged christians to reflect on their obedience to God, and the accomplishment of his promises to them. They recollect with gratitude and delight, that grace, which began, maintained and improved the Divine life in their souls, amidst innumerable temptations, from without and within; and though they have fallen into trouble, they have been prevented from making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. It is pleasant to them to trace up all these streams to the fountain; to consider them as the displays of rich and free grace; as the accomplishment of the promises of God, and proofs of His fidelity. Their mercies were sweet in the enjoyment, and are sweet in the reflection, when they consider them as founded on the covenant of grace, made with all true believers through Christ Jesus.
IV. The experience which aged saints have had of Gods goodness and faithfulness is a strong encouragement to them to hope and trust in him. Application:
1. Let us all re, member our constant dependence upon God, and learn those useful instructions which that is adapted to teach us.
2. What hath been said should be an inducement to young persons to follow the Lord fully. Instead of possessing the iniquities of your youth, you will have unspeakable pleasure in being able to appeal to God, with Hezekiah, that you have walked before Him in truth, and with an upright heart, and have done that which was good in His sight.
3. The example of Caleb is worthy the imitation of aged Christians. When, like Caleb, you are mentioning your age, your contemporaries, or what happened in the former part of your lives, let it be done with seriousness, with an humble and thankful acknowledgment of God. Further, let the remainder of your lives be faithfully devoted to Gods service. One important branch of this is humbly to relate your own experience for the instruction and consolation of others. (J. Orton.)
Calebs confession
We meet with old men who are continually asking us, with a slight twinkle in their eye, How old do you think I am? and the answer, of course, is meant to bring out that you never would dream that they were such veterans in years, they are so fresh, and sprightly, and springy. That is an evil thing, and would have been evil in Caleb but for this saving clause, Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive. That is the saving clause, my green and vigorous aged friend, with whom all things have prospered. See to it that boastfulness be not found in your heart. Let not that dead fly spoil your ointment, Do not give to yourself the credit and glory of your strength and prowess of body, and brain, and mind. Give all the glory where all is due. The Lord hath kept me alive. I want you to notice this also about Caleb. He says, I have wholly followed the Lord my God; and in the Hebrew that is quite a striking word–more striking than in the English. It is a pictorial word in the Hebrew, and describes a ship going out at full sail. Why, that is the very keynote of Caleb from beginning to end. He was the man he was, from the beginning to the end, because he was out and out–because there were no limitations and provisions with him. He was not a man who, as Paul would say, made provision for the flesh for the lust thereof; but having been called by God to His service, he made it his meat and his drink. He went in for God and His cause, like a ship in full sail. He flung every power of body, and soul, and spirit like a free sheet to the winds of Gods grace, and Gods Spirit, and Gods Providence. He let go. Young fellow, it is the ruin of you that you are holding back. You will never be a Caleb; you will never be a Joshua; you will never be a David–never, never–at this rate of it; hanging back and saving your life, and therefore losing it; taking so much of the programme because it fits you, and scoring out certain other items that you do not like. Go in for a full programme, if you would enjoy Christian life. (John McNeill.)
Joshuas grateful retrospect
A great Alpine climber was asked about the ascent of a high mountain, and said, I was very weary before I got to the top, and found the best plan was just to follow the guide in front of me. At the summit I turned round, and when I saw the grand view, and the dangers through which the guide had brought me, I felt I could have fallen down on my knees to thank him for having led me to such a wonderful place. (Our Own Magazine.)
I am as strong this day as I was.
Caleb–youth in old age
I. A life built on Gods promise. Five times in his short speech does he refer to the word which the Lord spake. The word of promise to Caleb dealt with two things–his prolonged life and his possession of the land whereinto he went (Num 14:24). For five and forty years he had kept this word hid in his heart, and now he puts out a hand, unweakened by age and long-delayed fulfilment, to grasp the realisation–a grand example of steady, persistent faith, which waits for the vision, though it tarry, and buoyantly welcomes it when it comes at last! A life thus filled with trust in Gods faithful word has ever present instalments of accomplishment, as brooks by the way, to keep its hope fresh. The prolongation of Calebs life was the pledge to him of the fulfilment of the remoter promise. Such a life is consciously surrounded with Divine operations, too plain to be ignored, and when looked at in retrospect, presents one solid and homogeneous mass of preserving providences, which are all summed up in saying, Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He spake . . . while Israel walked in the wilderness. Such a life has hope burning as a guiding star to the very end. The hopes of age are few and tremulous, if they be limited to earth. When the feast is near an end, appetite is dulled, and there is little to do but to get up and go away. But if we set our hope on God, our hope is immortal. He keeps the good wine till the last.
II. A life which bears being remembered. We may freely admit that the tone of this retrospect savours of an earlier stage in the process of revelation than ours, and that, if this were a complete account given by a man of his life, we should miss in it the voice of humble penitence, which must always sound through a Christian autobiography. But still, a life of trust and following Christ, however imperfectly, does yield calm remembrances, which nothing else does, and for the lack of which nothing can compensate. If we would lay up for ourselves against old age the treasure of such calm and humble memories, we must in youth and manhood choose God for our God, and Lake heed to follow Him, though we may be singular; and to do it wholly.
I backward east mine ee
On prospects drear,
said poor, brilliant Robert Burns, whose youth of riotous pleasure burnt itself out before he was forty, and had been full of self-reproach and bitterness long before the end. Many a life which grasps at delight and spurns the slow-going puritanical ways of God-fearing, sense-coercing Christians, comes at last to be gnawed by memories sharp and poisonous like a serpents tooth. The only way to secure that at the end we may be able to say, I have fought a good fight, is to become Christs soldier. Recruits for His army are most surely enlisted in youth.
III. A life-preserving youthful vigour to old age. This old young man, as Thomas Fuller calls him, followed the Lord wholly; therefore he brought forth fruit in old age, and the aged tree was full of sap and green in all its gnarled branches. In a very true sense a man may keep himself young all his days. A youth and manhood of Christian sobriety and self-restraint, temperate, chaste, and free from the sins of youth, which rot the bones and lie down with their victims in the dust, is likely to conserve physical vigour, A life of Christian devotion and faith will keep its spring flowers blowing till late autumn, and blossom and fruit will hang together. The buoyancy, carelessness, hopefulness, cheeriness of youth are not far away from the aged heart, which lives by faith, and therefore dwells at ease, and is glad and secure, though the shadows of evening be falling.
IV. A life still eager at last for further enterprise. That is the true temper of the Christian soldier, seeking the hardest, not the easiest, work, and finding in danger an attraction. How nobly it has been exemplified in many a mission field, to which, whenever disease has smitten down one, two have been ready to go! An old Highland legend tells how his foster-brothers made a ring round the chief in a battle, and how, as each that shielded him with his own body fell, the foster-father cried, Another for Hector, and another strode into the fatal empty place. The annals of the Church are full of like incidents. The call for another to stand in some deadly breach for the sake of the elder brother has never been sounded in vain; and to-day American and English Christianity is showing that the old heroic fire burns yet, in the men who, on the Congo and elsewhere, have hazarded their lives for the name of Jesus, and been drawn to the field by its very dangers. (A. Maclaren. D. D.)
Calebs vigour of mind in old age
was equal to his vigour of body in youth. As his strength was in the day that Moses sent him, so was his strength then for war, both to go out and to come in: yea, he had waxed stronger and stronger, and, as is said of the righteous, brought forth fruit in old age. As all other graces, true faith increases in its exercise, and becomes mightier by conflict. They who are strong in faith when young, and have the word of God abiding in them, are not likely to become weak in faith when old. Interesting sight, to behold one grown old in the service of God, still a veteran in the ranks, with a resolution never to yield or return his sword, while an enemy remains unsubdued. One had thought it now time for this old warrior to leave the field, and quietly to enjoy his earthly portion; and had his mind been affected less with things future than things present, had he sought rest only in Canaan, and not rest in heaven, he would have so thought himself. It is a lovely sight, and what must command admiration from all, to see an old believer to the very last ready to testify his faith in God and hope of the promise by a sacrifice of ease, and even at the hazard of life. But they may well be inspired with the fortitude of unyielding valour, and fight even till they die, who are under the command of Jehovah and the banner of the Cross; for a crown of life and eternal triumphs await the slain–they shall rise and reign for ever in the kingdom of glory. The Christian, whose brightest portion lies beyond this world, must not wonder if, as age creeps on, new conflicts arise, and if at last, before he take possession of his eternal settlement, the Anakims, a people tall and great, should still be to be conquered. They are all an easy conquest through Him that hath loved us, so that he may say as Caleb (Jos 14:12). (W. Seaton.)
Give me this mountain.—
Calebs choice
1. In this choice we find a revelation of a sturdy character. There is a powerful individuality about the man who chooses a mountain as his ideal possession. It means climbing and hard work. I knew a veteran who, late in life, bought a rugged mountain, built his house in one of its hollows, cultivated a portion of its slope, and let his sheep wander for a living over the remaining portion. He was as happy in breathing the clear mountain air, and in climbing the mountain steeps, as Adam was in Paradise. There was wonderful congeniality between him and his surroundings. There was a great deal of rugged grandeur about him. To come into contact with that man was as bracing as to climb his mountain, and to breathe the pure inspiring air upon its summit. In Caleb we have a man of similar robust make–a man who not only chose the mountainous district of Hebron while others sought the plains, but also chose that mountain while as yet every crevice in its fastnesses bristled with foes of giant stature. Caleb was charmed with the thought of a possession which involved most of faith and heroism in making his own.
2. This choice further reveals to us the continuity of his character. It is the brave man who stood before Israel and the ten spies who brought depressing news of the land, and exclaimed, Let us go up at once and possess it, that now, forty years later, claims it as his privilege to drive the sons of Anak out of their last fastness. He had done enough to wear out half a dozen ordinary men. There seemed to be endless wear in him. This is the speech of an old soldier. You trace the same man, and he affirms–and gives proof of his affirmation subsequently–that he has the same vigour as of old. Throughout his life we trace one master-feeling, one supreme purpose, one distinctive personality. This unity running through life is one of the glories of a great character.
3. Calebs choice shows his hopefulness and faith. We are not so surprised that when forty-five years of age he should have taken such a bright view of things, as that now in prospect of such a difficult task he should say, If so be that the Lord be with me, then. This is not the if of doubt, but the if of great possibilities, of a large hope, and of a mighty faith (R.V.). It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive, &c. He is willing to risk all upon that may be. He bases all upon what the Lord had promised.
4. This choice shows Calebs wisdom. The mountain fastnesses of the land were the most difficult to win, but having been once won could best be held, and would finally become the greatest centres of strength. It is a general rule of life that what is hardest won is worth the winning most, and is the most lasting good when won. The strength of a life as well as of a country is in its mountain fastnesses and passes, and not in its broad and luxuriant plains.
5. The whole incident reveals the sacredness which Caleb and Joshua attached to a promise given by Moses forty years previously. Moses was dead, but the promise lived. Caleb repeated it, and Joshua honoured it.
6. Observe how the name of a comparatively unknown father is connected with the choice now made by a noble son. Caleb is usually designated as the son of Jephunneh. Jephunneh seems to have belonged to an Edomite tribe, the Kenezites, but all that we know of him besides is that he was the father of Caleb. All that we know, too, of Nun is that he was the father of Joshua. These were two noble sons who made their fathers famous. Young men, take note of that I How largely the fathers reputation is in the hands of his son! A wise son maketh a glad father. (D. Davies.)
Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb . . . because that he wholly followed the Lord.–
God rewards His faithful followers
I. What is implied in Calebs following the Lord wholly. Though this may imply a great deal, yet it cannot imply absolute perfection.
1. It implies that his heart was renewed. He had a filial, dutiful, submissive spirit, which the Scripture calls a perfect heart.
2. It implies that he paid an external respect to all the intimations of His will. If he had allowed himself in one sin, or habitually offended in one point, he would have been guilty of all. It is essential to the character of a good man to follow the Lord in all His precepts and appointments. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.
3. This amiable character implies that he persevered in obedience under every trial and temptation. Such a sincere, uniform, and constant course of obedience, for forty or fifty years, fully verified the Divine declaration that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. But this is not all. God not only approved, but rewarded his obedience.
II. Why the Lord rewarded him for following him wholly.
1. Because his wholly following the Lord was a strong expression of his supreme love to Him. Obedience is the natural expression of love. Ye are My friends, says Christ, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Neither the hosts of Pharaoh, nor the absence of Moses, nor the defection of Aaron, nor the giants of Canaan, could cool his zeal or warp his resolution. He determined to endure unto the end; and unto the end he endured. He loved God sincerely and supremely, and he meant to express his love to Him, by uniform obedience, under the most trying circumstances. This God saw, approved, and rewarded, agreeably to His own declaration, I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me.
2. Caleb greatly promoted the glory of God and the good of His people, by his uniform and persevering obedience. This rendered him one of the principal instruments in the hand of God of conducting His people to Canaan, and of executing His wise and gracious purposes respecting them. By walking with God, and observing His wise and holy providence, he became a man of great experimental and practical knowledge, which enabled him to be very useful in guiding and instructing an ignorant and refractory people. It is natural to suppose that he had a principal hand in forming the lives and manners of that generation, which was educated in the wilderness, and eventually prepared for the promised inheritance. And his great and extensive usefulness was a good reason why the Lord God of Israel should reward his signal services, agreeably to His own maxim, Them that honour Me, I will honour.
3. There was something very distinguishing in Calebs conduct. None but he and Joshua persevered in their allegiance to God. This singularity of his obedience not only displayed, but really enhanced, the worth of his virtue and piety, and laid a proper foundation for God to reward him with peculiar marks of His favour.
Reflections:
1. What great encouragement have all true saints to persevere in the ways of well-doing!
2. What great benefit may those, who follow the Lord wholly, derive from the evils and burdens of their wearisome pilgrimage! Caleb acquired a beautiful character, and a distinguished reward, by properly improving a series of great and complicated trials. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
3. How will saints hereafter admire the distinguishing grace of God by which they were conducted to heaven!
4. Does God speak respectfully of those who follow Him wholly, and graciously reward their faithful labours? Then we must justly conclude that we ought to honour those whom He delights to honour. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Following the Lord
I. What is included in the expression, wholly following the Lord? It is impossible to take the words in their strictly literal sense. There are so many slips, so many wanderings, so many shortcomings, that the strict perfection of obedience is unattainable by any of the children of Adam. But the expression is one which, nevertheless, can be applied to those who honestly and simply give themselves up through Divine grace to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
1. A realisation that the will of God is paramount.
2. A resting upon the Word of God as clear and authoritative.
3. A laying hold of the promises of God as sure.
II. The circumstances under which it is said of Caleb that he wholly followed God.
1. Caleb wholly followed God, though others who were in the same position of influence with himself deserted the side of God and of His truth.
2. Caleb wholly followed God, though the whole congregation feared to walk in the right way.
3. Caleb wholly followed the Lord in spite of opposition. The current of excited feeling set dead against him, and threatened to bear him down. And you will observe that it was not the mere opposition of abuse, insult, and prejudice; it assumed a far more dangerous form (Num 14:10). His life was perilled. Yet no degree of violence, however determined, could drive him from the position which he had been enabled to take up. Oh, what encouragement there is here for those who find themselves in the midst of difficulties and trial for the sake of the Gospel! Caleb was a man of like passions with ourselves. Naturally he had the same aversion to the will of God that others have; but in his case grace was strong, faith triumphed. And what a glorious sight it is to see, when you behold one thus meeting any storm of indignation, coldness, or scorn from man, rather than forsake the way and truth of the Lord Jesus! (C. D. Marston, M. A.)
Caleb the soldier
I. Calebs fidelity. Fidelity is one of the first properties of a soldier; and it were well that every good cause, and especially that of Christ, could boast of such fidelity as gallant men have often shown in the ranks of war. Mere boys have bravely carried the colours of their regiment into battle; and to save them from falling into the hands of the enemy they have been known, when they themselves fell, to wrap them around their bodies and die within their encrimsoned folds. An incident more heroic still occurred on one of those fields where Austria lately suffered disastrous defeat. When the bloody fight was over, and the victors were removing the wounded, they came on a young Austrian stretched on the ground, whose life was pouring out in the red streams of a ghastly wound. To their astonishment he declined their kind services. Recommending others to be removed, he implored them, though he might still have been saved, to let him alone. On returning sometime afterwards they found him dead–all his battles oer. But the mystery was explained. They raised the body to give it burial; and there, below him, lay the colours of his regiment. He had sworn not to part with them; and though he clung to life, and tenderly thought of a mother and sisters in their distant home, he would not purchase recovery at the price of his oath and the expense of a soldiers honour–he was faithful unto death. The property of a good soldier was eminently illustrated by Caleb.
II. Calebs courage. Courage, which has in all ages won the praise of poets and admiration of mankind, is a property for which our seamen and soldiers have been long and eminently distinguished. Descended from ancestors who met the Romans on the sea-beach, and those brave Norsemen who ploughed the stormiest oceans with their warlike prows, our countrymen have proved themselves worthy of their sires; and the repute of a courage which has been tested in many a hard-fought field has proved, under God, the strongest bulwark of our island-home. It is remarkable, and highly creditable to the resolution and bravery of our soldiers, that, notwithstanding all the wars in which they have engaged, no foreign nation flaunts a flag of ours as the trophy of its victory, and of our defeat. No British banner, so far as I know, hangs drooping in dusty folds from the walls of foreign castle or cathedral to make us blush; nor in that proud pillar the great Napoleon raised, whose bronze, formed of the cannon taken by him in battle, commemorates his victories, is there an ounce of metal that belonged to a British gun. I have heard indeed how cowards, probably drawn from the scum of the people, hung back when the bugler in the trenches sounded a new assault, and refused to cross ground so strewed with their fallen comrades as to resemble a field carpeted with scarlet cloth. Yet, whatever may be their defects, our soldiers have been commonly as much distinguished for their courage when the battle raged as for their clemency when the victory was won. For that courage, true, calm courage, which does not lie in insensibility to danger, nor in the violent animal passion which may bear a coward forward as a whirlwind does the dust, or a wave the seaweed on its foaming crest, Caleb presents the very model of a soldier. How bravely he bears himself when the other spies prove traitors! The source of Calebs courage, of a bravery so admirable and dauntless, is not far to seek. In him, as in those noble Christian soldiers whom I have mentioned, and in others also who have maintained their religion in the camp, courage, if it did not spring from, was sustained by piety. He had faith in God. Therefore he did not fear the face of man, though that man were a giant, nor of death itself. From the same lofty source, and none other, the soldier of the Cross, he who fights with foes more formidable than giants–the devil, the world, and the flesh, that trinity of evil–is to draw his courage. More of it may be needed to face the jeers of an ungodly world than a blazing battery of cannon. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Calebs history–piety portrayed and piety promoted
I. Piety portrayed: Caleb wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
1. Genuine piety is the sublimest of all pursuits.
2. Genuine piety accords with the constitutional cravings and powers of the human soul.
II. Piety promoted: Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb. (Homilist.)
The inheritance of Caleb
Caleb is one of those men whom we meet with seldom in Bible history, but whenever we do meet them we are the better for the meeting. Bright and brave, strong, modest, and cheerful, there is honesty in his face, courage and decision in the very pose of his body, and the calm confidence of faith in his very look and attitude. It is singular that there should be cause to doubt whether his family were originally of the promised seed. On the whole, the preponderance of evidence is in favour of the opinion that Calebs family were originally outside the covenant, but had become proselytes like Hobab, Rahab, Ruth, and Heber. Their faith was pre-eminently the fruit of conviction, and not the accident of heredity. It had a timer basis than that of most Israelites. It was woven more closely into the texture of their being, and swayed their lives more powerfully. It is pleasing to think that there may have been many such proselytes; that the promise to Abraham may have attracted souls from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south; that even beyond the limits of the twelve tribes many hearts may have been cheered, and many lives elevated and purified by the promise to him, In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Caleb and Joshua had believed and acted alike, in opposition to the other ten spies; but Caleb occupies the more prominent place in the story of their heroism and faith. Caleb was evidently the man who led the opposition to the ten, not only asserting the course of duty, but manifesting the spirit of contempt and defiance toward the faithless cowards that forgot that God was with them. In his inward heart Joshua was quite of his mind, but probably he wanted the energetic manner, the ringing voice, the fearless attitude of his more demonstrative companion. Certain it is that Caleb reaped the chief honour of that day. It is beautiful to see that there was no rivalry between them. Not only did Caleb interpose no remonstrance when Joshua was called to succeed Moses, but he seems all through the wars to have yielded to him the most loyal and hearty submission. His affectionate and cordial bearing on the present occasion seems to show that not even in the corner of his heart did there linger a trace of jealousy toward the old friend and companion whom on that occasion he had surpassed, but who had been set so much higher than himself. He came to him as the recognised leader of the people–as the man whose voice was to decide the question he now submitted, as the judge and arbiter in a matter which very closely concerned him and his house. And yet there are indications of tact on the part of Caleb, of a thorough understanding of the character of Joshua, and of the sort of considerations by which he might be expected to be swayed. Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Moses the man of God. Why does Caleb select that remarkable epithet? Why add anything to the usual name, Moses? The use of the epithet was honouring to all three. That which constituted the highest glory of Moses was that he was so much at one with God. Gods will was ever his law, and he was in such close sympathy with God that whatever instructions he gave on any subject might be assumed to be in accordance with Gods will. Moreover, in calling him the man of God when addressing Joshua, Caleb assumed that Joshua would be impressed by this consideration, and would be disposed to agree to a request which was not only sanctioned by the will of Moses, but by that higher will which Moses constantly recognised. Having fortified his plea with this strong reference at once to Moses and to God, Caleb proceeds to rehearse the service which had led to the promise of Moses. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me, &c. Why does Caleb put the matter in this way? Why does he not couple Joshua with himself as having been faithful on that never-to-be-forgotten occasion? The only explanation that seems feasible is, that from the pre-eminent position of Joshua this was unnecessary, perhaps it might have appeared even unbecoming. A soldier making a request of the Duke of Wellington, and recalling some service he had done at the battle of Waterloo, would hardly think it necessary, or even becoming, to say how the Duke, too, had been there, and what surpassing service he had rendered on that day. I brought him word again, as it was in my heart. The statement is made in no boasting spirit, and yet what a rare virtue it denotes! Caleb, as we now say, had the courage of his convictions. To break away from your own set, from the comrades of your campaign, to upset their plans, and counsel those in power to a course diametrically opposed to theirs, is one of the most difficult of social duties. The men that have the courage of their convictions are often social martyrs, shut out from the fellowship of their brethren, shut out from every berth of honour or emolument, and yet, for their courage and honesty, worthy of infinitely higher regard than whole hundreds of the time-servers that get on in the world by humouring its errors and its follies. Nevertheless, though most of us show ourselves miserably weak by not speaking out all that is in our hearts, especially when the honour of our Lord and Master is concerned, we are able to appreciate and cannot fail to admire the noble exhibitions of courage that we sometimes meet with. He that believeth shall not make haste. Caleb believed, and therefore he was patient. Five-and-forty long years had elapsed since Moses, the man of God, speaking in the Spirit of God, had promised him a particular inheritance in the land. It was a long time for faith to live on a promise, but, like a tree in the face of a cliff that seems to grow out of the solid rock, it derived nourishment from unseen sources. It was a long time to be looking forward; but Caleb, though he did not receive the promise during all that time, was persuaded of it and embraced it, and believed that at last it would come true. It seems that when acting as one of the twelve spies, Caleb had in some emphatic way taken his stand on Hebron. The land on which thy foot hath trodden will be an inheritance to thee. Perhaps the spies were too terrified to approach Hebron, for the sons of the Anakim were there, and, in the confidence of faith, Caleb, or Caleb and Joshua, had gone into it alone. Moses had promised him Hebron, and now he came to claim it under circumstances that would have induced most men to let it alone. The driving out of the Anakim was a formidable duty, and the task might have seemed more suitable for one who had the strength and enthusiasm of youth on his side. But Caleb, though eighty-five, was yet young. Age is not best measured by years. He was a remarkable instance of prolonged vigour and youthful energy. As yet I am as strong, &c. As one reads these words of Caleb, one recalls the saying of a well-known physician, Dr. Richardson, that the human frame might last for a hundred years if it were only treated aright. There is something singularly touching in Calebs asking as a favour what was really a most hazardous but important service to the nation. Rough though these Hebrew soldiers were, they were capable of the most gentlemanly and chivalrous acts. There can be no higher act of courtesy than to treat as a favour to yourself what is really a great service to another. Well done, Caleb! In the spiritual war fare, too, we do not want instances of the same spirit. We recall Captain Allan Gardiner choosing Tierra del Fuego as his mission sphere just because the people were so ferocious, the climate so repulsive, and the work so difficult that no one else was likely to take it up. We think of the second band who went out after Gardiner and his companions had been starved to death; and still more, after these were massacred by the natives, of the third detachment who were moved simply by the consideration that the case was seemingly so desperate. Or we think of Living stone begging the directors of the London Missionary Society, wherever they sent him, to be sure that it was Forward; turning aside from all previous missionary stations, and the comparative ease they afforded, to grapple with the barbarian where he had never begun to be tamed; his eyes thirsting for unknown scenes and untried dangers, because he scorned to build on the foundation of others, and thirsted for fresh woods and pastures new. We think of him persevering in his task from year to year in the same lofty spirit; disregarding the misery of protracted pain, the intense longings of his weary heart for home. A crowd of noble names comes to our recollection–Williams, and Judson, and Morrison, and Burns, and Patteson, and Keith-Falconer, and Hannington, and Mackay–men for whom even the Anakim had no terrors, but rather an attraction; but who, serving under another Joshua, differed from Caleb in this, that what they desired was not to destroy these ferocious Anakim, but to conquer them by love, and to demonstrate the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change the vilest reprobates into sons of God. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Caleb the Kenezite
I. In all probability Caleb was a proselyte. In Gen 36:42, Kenaz is named as one of the Edomite dukes. In 1Ch 2:50, Caleb is called son of Hur. Many critics assume that this indicates that he was adopted into the family of Hur. This foreigner had the true faith of an Israelite. Sometimes those whose early years have been spent in heathenism, home or foreign, become noted in Christian circles for their moral virtues and foremost in every good work.
II. Caleb had the courage to be in a minority of two (Num 14:1-10). The secret of this courage was–
1. His faith in Gods promise.
2. That the Lord put His fear upon their enemies (Num 14:9).
3. His sense of the Divine presence.
III. Calebs whole conduct was consistent. I wholly followed may mean–
1. The full measure of his days.
2. The whole-heartedness of his life.
IV. At the end of his career he receives his reward.
1. A happy old age.
2. An unfailing faith in God.
3. The people acknowledge his faithful service.
4. The seed of Caleb received the benefit resulting from the fathers fidelity. (Henry Smith.)
Calebs inheritance
I. An old mans inheritance. Old age has its benedictions, its redeemed pledges, its inheritance. The faithful, tireless servant of God has his portion, though he has not gathered, sold, and joined field to field. Caleb had been seeking for a country, not scattering an estate.
II. An old mans request. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints; but the life approaching the grave with a weight of honourable service is alike cherished by the Lord. It must have been so with Caleb, His strength was as great for war as when he received his commission. The old man does not ask for land he may cultivate, on which to raise choice varieties of those grapes whose single clusters weary two men to bear them on a staff. He has led the life of a soldier His service for the Lord he thinks still lies in that direction. Those giants who frightened his comrades forty years ago have been on his mind ever since. The Israelites are not likely to become more warlike in this rich country where they can till the soil. He therefore proposes to take care of those enemies of God himself. When Herod the Great wished to rid the cliffs of Arbela of robbers, he caused Roman soldiers to be let down in cages to fight the outlaws in the mouths of their caves. Caleb did not ask for a Hebrew regiment to help him manage those sons of Anak. Hebron, that ancient city built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, ought not to remain longer in the hand of the infidel. Alien born or Hebrew, he cannot bear that Gods people should be defied in their inheritance. In after-years, when crusading knights took this city, it was not with more righteous purpose than that which stirred the heart of this ancient servant of Jehovah.
III. An old mans request. Calebs first work was to purify his inheritance. He got the iniquity out of it. He did not levy tribute on the brigands and live luxuriously on the income of robbery. This veteran was not a man of compromises. The enemies of God and righteousness could get no terms with him. His hands were not soiled with the revenue or the rents of a nefarious business. They did not close around the rewards of iniquity. Something of the spirit which in after-years stirred the heart of the Master as He drove the money-changers from the temple now rested on this old man. The spirit of reform was strong in him, and it had fuel to keep it burning, for it was fed by the Spirit of God and of righteousness. That mountain was not first cleared of timber, and lawns, parks, and terraces laid out and built on its slopes. There was perhaps no summer-house commanding a view of the distant Mediterranean, but there was some honourable estate to pass onward. There was a remainder which, according to Divine promise, would go to his descendants. It was cleared of the enemies of God. Whoever received it would get an inheritance without any bill of attainder against it for treason. Such a man as Caleb does not impoverish his estate, though he lessen it in behalf of righteousness. The bare mountain was to him a better property than a large rent-roll of criminal tenants. (W. R. Campbell.)
Calebs reward
Calebs reward illustrates the immense difference between a full and a partial following of God. It is the difference between the river and the sea. Both are water, and the river is all well in its way and is useful to man and beast in small services. The sea is something more than mere water, for it is infinite; and as we gaze upon it a sense of its immeasurableness comes over us as never is the case when we behold the largest lake or the Mississippi river. You cannot measure a wholly following servant of the living God, and you can too easily take the dimensions of a half-and-half Christian. You come to form an idea of about how much money he will give to a needy enterprise, about how much time to a pressing work, how long he will stay to push a fresh project in the kingdom, and what pleasures and business engagements he will surrender to help revival efforts. We get tired of these easy measurements. But take a Caleb, and you cannot tell what Divine energies are locked up within him to come forth when needed..
I. One with Calebs spirit sees clearly the good things which God has promised. He has sight and insight. Twelve good men go over the same country, but on the whole they see differently, and so report what they see. Ten, with a common-sense vision of the greatness of the foes, and making no allowance for hidden and supernatural factors, did not see things as they were. On the other hand, Caleb saw all that they did, but he had a power of seeing Him who is invisible, and so of seeing truly. The man who followed fully had a clear eye, a single eye, and his whole body was full of light. In this way he perceived the essential weakness and rottenness of confederated evil. All achieving men have the same vision, and so they persist and wait and return to the same attack until they win the day, and the people that once bade stone them bring out garlands for their graves.
II. Men of Calebs spirit, wholly following the Lord, have the power of standing alone. The mass move with the stream. The few stand like a rock. No one knows who has not tried it what it costs the soul of self-searching, fear, doubt, sorrowful parting with loved friends, and the crushing weight of popular disapproval. In one of his noblest odes Horace speaks in admiration of him who can resist the heated demands of citizens who call for evil things,
III. Those who are like Caleb have the patience of faith. It was a long and wearisome time before the word of God to His trusty servant was fulfilled–more than a whole generation. No doubt sometimes, for he was human, he wondered when God would arise and His enemies be scattered. Have you seen some new possession in the things of the Spirit? Repeat the promise. Though it tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not tarry. We get tired and run away from our own prayers, so that when the answer comes some one else lives where we did when we prayed. Oh, let us seek the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ!
IV. Men of Calebs spirit have to fight the good fight of faith. Hebron was beautifully situated upon the hills to the south of Jerusalem, where even to-day there is a luxuriant vegetation and the grapes as of Eschol are gathered. From it one looks over a wide expanse of country, eastward, westward, northward, southward, towards Edom. There David was crowned and reigned seven years. It was a splendid reward after forty-three years delay. Perhaps on the great expedition with the spies Caleb marked the place and made a vow that, if the people entered in, he would have that abode, and the picture may have dwelt in his memory to cheer him in long years, just as the heavenly hills glow before the eye of Christian faith. But even at last the prize did not drop into his hands like a ripe apple. No; he must draw his sword and expel the sons of Anak who were in possession, for they also loved the high places. It costs to get the best, but it is wise economy to be satisfied with nothing less. Faith, the patience of faith, the fight of faith, the reward of faith–these come before us in this ancient story with the freshness of the Word of God. And now it remains to be said that there is a peculiar need of Calebs to-day, when great things are offered us in the providences of God and we have not far to go to enter into them. Make it personal. Sometimes the Spirit shows you while you are praying or reading or listening to others an attainment beyond all you have ever reached. It is your Hebron. No matter what the precise form of the blessing, if you have had it clearly set before you, it is a call to possess it by faith, just as Caleb went up to his reward among the hills of Palestine. All that your feet press is yours. Saints are more to blame for not walking upon the high places as children of the heavenly King than sinners are for not turning to God in penitence. Saints have great promises made to them and great helps offered them. Make it more general. Before the whole Church to-day there is a promised world to be won for Christ by prayer and toil. Our charter gives it to us for a possession, and the doors are wide for our entrance therein. Another field for faith is the deeper Christianising of the already Christian nations of the earth. Dr. Herren says in his little book, The Larger Christ: The realisation of heaven upon earth is more than a mystic ideal. It is the crowning fact of history. It is the solid reality with which God is displacing the insubstantial materialism underlying the rude social structures of human selfishness. It is the Divine errand upon which white-souled prophets have walked serene through a world ablaze with scorn. The pledge of God is behind it, and the victorious forces of the universe are allied in its behalf. The Bible is its written warrant and the Cross its seal which none can break. It may take us with violence, but it advances to conquer. And the saints shall judge the world! (Edward N. Packard.)
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Introduction to chaps. 15-19
The law of distribution
We come now in earnest to the distribution of the land. The narrative looks very bare, but important principles and lessons underlie it. These lists of unfamiliar names look like the debris of a quarry–hard, meaningless, and to us useless. But nothing is inserted in the Bible without a purpose–a purpose that in some sense bears on the edification of the successive generations and the various races of men.
1. There is something to be learned from the maintenance of the distinction of the twelve tribes and the distribution of the country into portions corresponding to each. In some degree this was in accordance with Oriental usage; for the country had already been occupied by various races, dwelling in a kind of unity–the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, Perizzites, and Girgashites. What was peculiar to Israel was that each of the tribes was descended from one of Jacobs sons, and that their relation to each other was conspicuously maintained, though their dwelling-places were apart. As in the case of the separate states of North America, or the separate cantons of Switzerland, it provided for variety in unity; it gave a measure of local freedom and independence, while it maintained united action; it contributed to the life and vigour of the commonwealth without destroying its oneness of character or impairing its common purpose and aim. It promoted that picturesque variety often found in little countries, where each district has a dialect, or a pronunciation, or traditions, or a character of its own; as Yorkshire differs from Devon, or Lancashire from Cornwall; Aberdeenshire from Berwick, or Fife from Ayr. As in a garden variety of species enlivens and enriches the effect, so in a community variety of type enriches and enlivens the common life. In the case of the Hebrew commonwealth the distinction of tribes became smaller as time went on, and in New Testament times the three great districts Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee showed only the survival of the fittest. A larger individuality and a wider variety would undoubtedly have prevailed if a good spirit had continued to exist among the tribes, and if all of them had shown the energy and the enterprise of some. But the wrong spirit came in, and came in with a witness, and mischief ensued. For distinctions in race and family are apt to breed rivalry and enmity, and not only to destroy all the good which may come of variety, but to introduce interminable mischief. For many a long day the Scottish clans were like Ishmael, their hand against every man and every mans hand against them; or at least one clan was at interminable feud with another, and the country was wretched and desolate. Among the twelve tribes of Israel the spirit of rivalry soon showed itself, leading to disastrous consequences. Many arrangements of our modern civilisation that conduce to our comfort when in good order become sources of unexampled evil when they go wrong. The drainage of houses conduces much to comfort while it works smoothly; but let the drains become choked, and send back into our houses the poisonous gases bred of decomposition, the consequences are appalling. The sanitary inspector must be on the alert to detect mischief in its very beginnings, and apply the remedy before we have well become conscious of the evil. And so a vigilant eye needs ever to be kept on those arrangements of Providence that are so beneficial when duly carried out, and so pernicious when thoughtlessly perverted. What a wonderful thing is a little forbearance at the beginning of a threatened strife! What a priceless blessing is the soft answer that turneth away wrath!
2. Again, in the allocation of the tribes in their various territories we have an instance of a great natural law, the law of distribution, a law that, on the whole, operates very beneficially throughout the world. In society there is both a centripetal and a centrifugal force; the centripetal chiefly human, the centrifugal chiefly Divine. Men are prone to cluster together; God promotes dispersion. In the early ages they clustered about the plain of Shinar; the confusion of tongues scattered them abroad. And generally, in any fertile and desirable spot, men have been prone to multiply till food has failed them, and either starvation at home or emigration abroad becomes inevitable. And so it is that, in spite of their cohesive tendency, men are now pretty well scattered over the globe. And when once they are settled in new homes, they require adaptation to their locality, and begin to love it. It is a proof of Divine wisdom that a world that presents such a variety of climates and conditions has, in all parts of it, inhabitants that enjoy their life. The same law operates in the vegetable world. Everywhere plants seem to discover the localities where they thrive best. There is always a place for the plant, and a plant for the place. And it is so with animals, too. The elephant in the spreading forest, the rabbit in the sandy down, the beaver beside the stream, the caterpillar in the leafy garden. Some of the great deserts that our imagination used to create in Africa or elsewhere do not exist. Barren spots there are, and miry places and marshes given to salt, but they are not many. The earth has been replenished, and the purpose of God so far fulfilled. And then there is a distribution of talents. We are not all created alike, with equal dividends of the gifts and faculties that minister in some way to the purposes of our life. We depend more or less on one another; women on men, and men on women; the young on the old, and sometimes the old on the young; persons of one talent on those of another talent, those with strong sinews on those with clear heads, and those with clear heads on those with strong sinews; in short, society is so constituted that what each has he has for all, and what all have they have for each. The principle of the division of labour is brought in; and in a well-ordered community the general wealth and well-being of the whole are better promoted by the interchange of offices than if each person within himself had a little stock of all that he required. The same law of distribution prevails in the Church of Christ. It was exemplified in an interesting way in the case of our Lords apostles. No one of these was a duplicate of another. And throughout the history of the Church the distribution of gifts has been equally marked. Chrysostom and Augustine, Jerome and Ambrose, Bernard and Anselm, were all of the same stock, but not of the same type. At the Reformation men of marked individuality were provided for every country. The missionary field has in like manner been provided for. India has had her Schwartz, her Carey, her Duff, and a host of others; China her Morrison, Burmah her Judson, Polynesia her Williams, Africa her Livingstone. The most unattractive and inhospitable spots have been supplied. Greenland was not too cold for the Moravians, nor the leper-stricken communities of India or Africa too repulsive. And never were Christian men more disposed than to-day to honour that great Christian law of distribution–Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, It was a great providential law, therefore, that was recognised in the partition of the land of Canaan among the tribes. Provision was thus made for so scattering the people that they should occupy the whole country, and become adapted to the places where they settled and to the pursuits proper to them.
3. Still further, in the allocation of the tribes in their various territories we have an instance of the way in which God designed the earth to minister most effectually to the wants of man. We do not say that the method now adopted in Canaan was the only plan of distributing land that God ever sanctioned; very probably it was the same method as had prevailed among the Canaanites; but it is beyond doubt that, such as it was, it was sanctioned by God for His chosen people. It was a system of peasant proprietorship. The whole landed property of the country was divided among the citizens. The extremes of wealth and poverty were alike checked and discouraged, and the lot eulogised by Agur–a moderate competency, neither poverty nor riches–became the general condition of the citizens. It is difficult to tell what extent of land fell to each family. The portion of the land divided by Joshua has been computed at twenty-five million acres. Dividing this by 600,000, the probable number of families at the time of the settlement, we get forty-two acres as the average size of each property. For a Roman citizen, seven acres was counted enough to yield a moderate maintenance, so that even in a country of ordinary productiveness the extent of the Hebrew farms would, before further subdivision became necessary, have been ample. When the population increased the inheritance would of course have to be subdivided. But for several generations this, so far from an inconvenience, would be a positive benefit. It would bring about a more complete development of the resources of the soil. The great rule of the Divine economy was thus honoured–nothing was lost. We in this country, after reaching the extreme on the opposite side, are now trying to get back in the direction of this ancient system. All parties seem now agreed that something of the nature of peasant proprietorship is necessary to solve the agrarian problem in Ireland and in Great Britain too. It is only the fact that in Britain commercial enterprise and emigration afford so many outlets for the energies of our landless countrymen that has tolerated the abuses of property so long among us–the laws of entail and primogeniture, the accumulation of property far beyond the power of the proprietor to oversee or to manage, the employment of land agents acting solely for the proprietor, and without that sense of responsibility or that interest in the welfare of the people which is natural to the proprietor himself. It is little wonder that theories of land-possession have risen up which are as impracticable in fact as they are wild and lawless in principle. Such desperate imaginations are the fruit of despair–absolute hopelessness of getting back in any other way to a true land law–to a state of things in which the land would yield the greatest benefit to the whole nation.
4. In the arrangements for the distribution of the land among the twelve tribes we may note a proof of Gods interest in the temporal comfort and prosperity of men. It is not God that has created the antithesis of secular and spiritual, as if the two interests were like a see-saw, so that whenever the one went up the other must go down. Things in this world are made to be enjoyed, and the enjoyment of them is agreeable to the will of God, provided we use them as not abusing them. In ordinary circumstances God intends men to be fairly comfortable; He does not desire life to be a perpetual struggle, or a dismal march to the grave. The very words in which Christ counsels us to consider the lilies and the ravens, instead of worrying ourselves about food and clothing, show this; for, under the Divine plan, the ravens are comfortably fed and the lilies are handsomely clothed. The characteristic of a good man, when he enjoys a share of worldly prosperity, is, that he does not let the world become his idol–it is his servant, it is under his feet; he jealously guards against its becoming his master. His effort is to make a friend of the mammon of unrighteousness, and to turn every portion of it with which he may be entrusted to such a use for the good of others that when at last he gives in his account, as steward to his Divine Master, he may do so with joy, and not with grief. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite] In the note on the parallel place, Nu 32:12, it is said Kenaz was probably the father of Jephunneh, and that Jephunneh not Caleb, was the Kenezite; but still, allowing this to be perfectly correct, Caleb might also be called the Kenezite, as it appears to have been a family name, for Othniel, his nephew and son-in-law, is called the son of Kenaz, Jos 15:17; Jdg 1:13, and 1Ch 4:13; and a grandson of Caleb is also called the son of Kenaz, 1Ch 4:15. In 1Ch 2:18, Caleb is called the son of Hezron, but this is only to be understood of his having Hezron for one of his ancestors; and son here may be considered the same as descendant; for Hezron, of the tribe of Judah, having come into Egypt one hundred and seventy-six years before the birth of Caleb, it is not at all likely that he could be called his father in the proper sense of the term. Besides, the supposition above makes a very good sense, and is consistent with the use of the terms father, son, and brother, in different parts of the sacred writings.
Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said] In the place to which Caleb seems to refer, viz., Nu 14:24, there is not a word concerning a promise of Hebron to him and his posterity; nor in the place (De 1:36) where Moses repeats what had been done at Kadesh-barnea: but it may be included in what is there spoken. God promises, because he had another spirit within him, and had followed God fully, therefore he should enter into the land whereinto he came, and his seed should possess it. Probably this relates to Hebron, and was so understood by all parties at that time. This seems tolerably evident from the pointed reference made by Caleb to this transaction.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then the children of Judah; either,
1. At that time when Joshua and the rest were consulting about the division of the land, though they did not yet actually and fully divide it. Or,
2. When Joshua, and himself, and the Israelites were proceeding in their conquests, and were going against Hebron, Jos 10:36, which expedition, there mentioned in a general manner, may be particularly described in this chapter, and Jos 15:13,14. But the former seems more probable, because this was done when Joshua was in Gilgal, and not when he was pursuing his enemies. Came, not so much to intercede for Caleb, which was not needful with Joshua, especially in a thing already promised by God, but only to justify and countenance him in his desire.
Gilgal; where the division of the land was designed and begun, though it was executed and finished at Shiloh, Jos 18:1.
Son of Jephunneh; so he is called here, and 1Ch 4:15, to difference him from Caleb the son of Hezron, 1Ch 2:18.
The Kenezite; of the posterity of Kenaz, of whom see Jdg 1:13; 1Ch 4:13,15. The thing that the Lord said unto Moses; in general, the gracious and comfortable promise he made us of possessing this land; and in particular, for my part, that which is expressed here, Jos 14:9.
The man of God; whose words therefore thou art obliged to make good.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6-11. Then the children of Judahcame unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb . . . saidThis incidentis recorded here because it occurred while the preparations werebeing made for casting the lots, which, it appears, were begun inGilgal. The claim of Caleb to the mountains of Hebron as his personaland family possessions was founded on a solemn promise of Moses,forty-five years before (Num 14:24;Deu 1:36; Jos 14:10),to give him that land on account of his fidelity. Being one of thenominees appointed to preside over the division of the country, hemight have been charged with using his powers as a commissioner tohis own advantage, had he urged his request in private; and thereforehe took some of his brethren along with him as witness of the justiceand propriety of his conduct.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal,…. Whither he was returned after the conquest of the kings and their kingdoms; these were not the whole tribe of Judah, but some of the chief men of it who accompanied Caleb, for the honour of him, as Ben Gersom observes, he being their prince; and to second his petition, and to show their consent unto, and an approbation of such an assignment to him as he desired;
and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, said unto him; whether Caleb or Jephunneh called the Kenezite, and what the reason of the name, are not very material; and of which [See comments on Nu 32:12]; and as Caleb was personally and singly concerned in the following affair, he alone dressed Joshua, attended with some principal men of his tribe:
thou knowest the thing the Lord said unto Moses the man of God,
concerning thee and me, in Kadeshbarnea; the place from whence the spies were sent, and whither they returned to Moses there, of whom Caleb speaks with great respect and veneration, which he knew would be very pleasing and endearing to Joshua, who could not but remember what had been said by him concerning himself and Caleb, though it was now forty five years ago; it being so very striking and memorable, that only two of that generation then present should enter into the land of Canaan; the fulfilment of which, in all its circumstances, they had lived to see.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Caleb’s Inheritance. – Jos 14:6. Before the casting of the lots commenced, Caleb came to Joshua along with the sons of Judah, and asked for the mountains of Hebron for his possession, appealing at the same time to the fact, that forty-five years before Moses had promised it to him on oath, because he had not discouraged the people and stirred them up to rebellion, as the other spies that were sent from Kadesh to Canaan had done, but had faithfully followed the Lord.
(Note: The grounds upon which Knobel follows Maurer and others in affirming that this account does not belong to the so-called Elohist, but is merely a fragment taken from the first document of the Jehovist, are formed partly from misinterpretations of particular verses and partly from baseless assumptions. To the former belongs the assertion, that, according to Jos 14:8, Jos 14:12, Joshua was not one of the spies (see the remarks on Jos 14:8); to the latter the assertion, that the Elohist does not represent Joshua as dividing the land, or Caleb as receiving so large a territory (see on the contrary, however, the exposition of Jos 14:13), as well as the enumeration of all kinds of words which are said to be foreign to the Elohistic document.)
This occurred at Gilgal, where the casting of the lots as to take place. Caleb was not “the head of the Judahites,” as Knobel maintains, but simply the head of a father’s house of Judah, and, as we may infer from his surname, “the Kenizzite” or descendant of Kenaz (“ the Kenizzite ” here and Num 32:12 is equivalent to “son of Kenaz,” Jos 15:17, and Jdg 1:13), head of the father’s house which sprang from Kenaz, i.e., of a subdivision of the Judahite family of Hezron; for Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel and father of Achzah, according to 1Ch 2:42 (cf. 1Ch 2:49), was the same person as Caleb the descendant of Hezron mentioned in 1Ch 2:18. From the surname “the Kenizzite” we are of course not to understand that Caleb or his father Jephunneh is described as a descendant of the Canaanitish tribe of Kenizzites (Gen 15:19); but Kenaz was a descendant of Hezron, the son of Perez and grandson of Judah (1Ch 2:5, 1Ch 2:18, 1Ch 2:25), of whom nothing further is known. Consequently it was not the name of a tribe, but of a person, and, as we may see from 1Ch 4:15, where one of the sons of Caleb is called Kenaz, the name was repeated in the family. The sons of Judah who came to Joshua along with Caleb were not the Judahites generally, therefore, or representatives of all the families of Judah, but simply members or representatives of the father’s house of Judah which took its name from Kenaz, and of which Caleb was the head at that time. Caleb reminded Joshua of the word which the Lord had spoken concerning them in Kadesh-barnea, i.e., the promise of God that they should both of them enter the land of Canaan (Num 14:24, Num 14:30), and then proceeded to observe (Jos 14:7): “ When I was forty years old, and was sent by Moses as a spy to Canaan, I brought back an answer as it was in my mind,” i.e., according to the best of my convictions, without fear of man or regard to the favour of the people.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Caleb’s Request. | B. C. 1444. |
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. 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. 15 And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.
Before the lot was cast into the lap for the determining of the portions of the respective tribes, the particular portion of Caleb was assigned to him. He was now, except Joshua, not only the oldest man in all Israel, but was twenty years older than any of them, for all that were above twenty years old when he was forty were dead in the wilderness; it was fit therefore that this phoenix of his age should have some particular marks of honour put upon him in the dividing of the land. Now,
I. Caleb here presents his petition, or rather makes his demand, to have Hebron given him for a possession (this mountain he calls it, v. 12), and not to have that put into the lot with the other parts of the country. To justify his demand, he shows that God had long since, by Moses, promised him that very mountain; so that God’s mind being already made known in this matter it would be a vain and needless thing to consult it any further by casting lots, by which we are to appeal to God in those cases only which cannot otherwise be decided, not in those which, like this, are already determined. Caleb is here called the Kenezite, some think from some remarkable victory obtained by him over the Kenezites, as the Romans gave their great generals titles from the countries they conquered, as Africanus, Germanicus, c. Observe,
1. To enforce his petition, (1.) He brings the children of Judah, that is, the heads and great men of that tribe, along with him, to present it, who were willing thus to pay their respects to that ornament of their tribe, and to testify their consent that he should be provided for by himself, and that they would not take it as any reflection upon the rest of this tribe. Caleb was the person whom God had chosen out of that tribe to be employed in dividing the land (Num. xxxiv. 19), and therefore, lest he should seem to improve his authority as a commissioner for his own private advantage and satisfaction, he brings his brethren along with him, and waiving his own power, seems rather to rely upon their interest. (2.) He appeals to Joshua himself concerning the truth of the allegations upon which he grounded his petition: Thou knowest the thing, <i>v. 6. (3.) He makes a very honourable mention of Moses, which he knew would not be at all unpleasing to Joshua: Moses the man of God (v. 6), and the servant of the Lord, v. 7. What Moses said he took as from God himself, because Moses was his mouth and his agent, and therefore he had reason both to desire and expect that it should be made good. What can be more earnestly desired than the tokens of God’s favour? And what more confidently expected than the grants of his promise?
2. In his petition he sets forth,
(1.) The testimony of his conscience concerning his integrity in the management of that great affair on which it proved the fare of Israel turned, the spying out of the land. Caleb was one of the twelve that were sent out on that errand (v. 7), and he now reflected upon it with comfort, and mentioned it, not in pride, but as that which, being the consideration of the grant, was necessary to be inserted in the plea, [1.] That he made his report as it was in his heart, that is, he spoke as he thought when he spoke so honourably of the land of Canaan, so confidently of the power of God to put them in possession of it, and so contemptibly of the opposition that the Canaanites, even the Anakim themselves, could make against them, as we find he did, Num 13:30; Num 14:7-9. He did not do it merely to please Moses, or to keep the people quiet, much less from a spirit of contradiction to his fellows, but from a full conviction of the truth of what he said and a firm belief of the divine promise. [2.] That herein he wholly followed the Lord his God, that is, he kept close to his duty, and sincerely aimed at the glory of God in it. He conformed himself to the divine will with an eye to the divine favour. He had obtained this testimony from God himself (Num. xiv. 24), and therefore it was not vain-glory in him to speak of it, any more than it is for those who have God’s Spirit witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God humbly and thankfully to tell others for their encouragement what God has done for their souls. Note, Those that follow God fully when they are young shall have both the credit and comfort of it when they are old, and the reward of it for ever in the heavenly Canaan. [3.] That he did this when all his brethren and companions in that service, except Joshua, did otherwise. They made the heart of the people melt (v. 8), and how pernicious the consequences of it were was very well known. It adds much to the praise of following God if we adhere to him when others desert and decline from him. Caleb needed not to mention particularly Joshua’s conduct in this matter; it was sufficiently known, and he would not seem to flatter him; it was enough to say (v. 6), Thou knowest what the Lord spoke concerning me and thee.
(2.) The experience he had had of God’s goodness to him ever since to this day. Though he had wandered with the rest in the wilderness, and had been kept thirty-eight years out of Canaan as they were, for that sin which he was so far from having a hand in that he had done his utmost to prevent it, yet, instead of complaining of this, he mentioned, to the glory of God, his mercy to him in two things:– [1.] That he was kept alive in the wilderness, not only notwithstanding the common perils and fatigues of that tedious march, but though all that generation of Israelites, except himself and Joshua, were one way or other cut off by death. With what a grateful sense of God’s goodness to him does he speak it! (v. 10). Now behold (behold and wonder) the Lord hath kept me alive these forty and five years, thirty-eight years in the wilderness, through the plagues of the desert, and seven years in Canaan through the perils of war! Note, First, While we live, it is God that keeps us alive; by his power he protects us from death, and by his bounty supplies us continually with the supports and comforts of life. He holdeth our soul in life. Secondly, The longer we live the more sensible we should be of God’s goodness to us in keeping us alive, his care in prolonging our frail lives, his patience in prolonging our forfeited lives. Has he kept me alive these forty-five years? Is it about that time of life with us? Or is it more? Or is it less? We have reason to say, It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. How much are we indebted to the favour of God, and what shall we render? Let the life thus kept by the providence of God be devoted to his praise. Thirdly, The death of many others round about us should make us the more thankful to God for sparing us and keeping us alive. Thousands falling on our right hand and our left and yet ourselves spared. These distinguishing favours impose on us strong obligations to singular obedience. [2.] That he was fit for business, now that he was in Canaan. Though eighty-five years old, yet as hearty and lively as when he was forty (v. 11): As my strength was then, so is it now. This was the fruit of the promise, and out-did what was said; for God not only gives what he promises, but he gives more: life by promise shall be life, and health, and strength, and all that which will make the promised life a blessing and comfort. Moses had said in his prayer (Ps. xc. 10) that at eighty years old even their strength is labour and sorrow, and so it is most commonly. But Caleb was an exception to the rule; his strength at eighty-five was ease and joy: this he got by following the Lord fully. Caleb here takes notice of this to the glory of God, and as an excuse for his asking a portion which he must fetch out of the giants’ hands. Let not Joshua tell him he knew not what he asked; could he get the possession of that which he begged for a title to? “Yes,” says he, “why not? I am as fit for war now as ever I was.”
(3.) The promise Moses had made him in God’s name that he should have this mountain, v. 9. This promise is his chief plea, and that on which he relies. As we find it (Num. xiv. 24) it is general, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess it; but it seems it was more particular, and Joshua knew it; both sides understood this mountain for which Caleb was now a suitor to be intended. This was the place from which, more than any other, the spies took their report, for here they met with the sons of Anak (Num. xiii. 22), the sight of whom made such an impression upon them, v. 3. We may suppose that Caleb, observing what stress they laid upon the difficulty of conquering Hebron, a city garrisoned by the giants, and how thence they inferred that the conquest of the whole land was utterly impracticable, in opposition to their suggestions, and to convince the people that he spoke as he thought, bravely desired to have that city which they called invincible assigned to himself for his own portion: “I will undertake to deal with that, and, if I cannot get it for my inheritance, I will be without.” “Well,” said Moses, “it shall be thy own then, win it and wear it.” Such a noble heroic spirit Caleb had, and so desirous was he to inspire his brethren with it, that he chose this place only because it was the most difficult to be conquered. And, to show that his soul did not decay any more than his body, now forty-five years after he adheres to his choice and is still of the same mind.
(4.) The hopes he had of being master of it, though the sons of Anak were in possession of it (v. 12): If the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out. The city of Hebron Joshua had already reduced (ch. x. 37), but the mountain which belonged to it, and which was inhabited by the sons of Anak, was yet unconquered; for though the cutting off of the Anakim from Hebron was mentioned ch. xi. 21, because the historian would relate all the military actions together, yet it seems it was not conquered till after they had begun to divide the land. Observe, He builds his hopes of driving out the sons of Anak upon the presence of God with him. He does not say, “Because I am now as strong for war as I was at forty, therefore I shall drive them out,” depending upon his personal valour; nor does he depend upon his interest in the warlike tribe of Judah, who attended him now in making this address, and no doubt would assist him; nor does he court Joshua’s aid, or put it upon that, “If thou wilt be with me I shall gain my point.” But, If the Lord will be with me. Here, [1.] He seems to speak doubtfully of God’s being with him, not from any distrust of his goodness or faithfulness. He had spoken without the least hesitation of God’s presence with Israel in general (Num. xiv. 9); the Lord is with us. But for himself, from a humble sense of his own unworthiness of such a favour, he chooses to express himself thus, If the Lord will be with me. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, If the Word of the Lord be my helper, that Word which is God, and in the fulness of time was made flesh, and is the captain of our salvation. [2.] But he expresses without the least doubt his assurance that if God were with him he should be able to dispossess the sons of Anak. “If God be with us, If God be for us, who can be against us, so as to prevail?” It is also intimated that if God were not with him, though all the forces of Israel should come in to his assistance, he should not be able to gain his point. Whatever we undertake, God’s favourable presence with us is all in all to our success; this therefore we must earnestly pray for, and carefully make sure of, by keeping ourselves in the love of God; and on this we must depend, and from this take our encouragement against the greatest difficulties.
3. Upon the whole matter, Caleb’s request is (v. 12), Give me this mountain, (1.) Because it was formerly in God’s promise, and he would let Israel know how much he valued the promise, insisting upon this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day, as most desirable, though perhaps as good a portion might have fallen to him by lot in common with the rest. Those that live by faith value that which is given by promise far above that which is given by providence only. (2.) Because it was now in the Anakim’s possession, and he would let Israel know how little he feared the enemy, and would by his example animate them to push on their conquests. Herein Caleb answered his name, which signifies all heart.
II. Joshua grants his petition (v. 13): Joshua blessed him, commended his bravery, applauded his request, and gave him what he asked. He also prayed for him, and for his good success in his intended undertaking against the sons of Anak. Joshua was both a prince and a prophet, and upon both accounts it was proper for him to give Caleb his blessing, for the less is blessed of the better. Hebron was settled on Caleb and his heirs (v. 14), because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And happy are we if we follow him. Note, Singular piety shall be crowned with singular favours. Now, 1. We are here told what Hebron had been, the city of Arba, a great man among the Anakim (v. 15); we find it called Kirjath-arba (Gen. xxiii. 2), as the place where Sarah died. Hereabouts Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived most of their time in Canaan, and near to it was the cave of Machpelah, where they were buried, which perhaps had led Caleb hither when he went to spy out the land, and had made him covet this rather than any other part for his inheritance. 2. We are afterwards told what Hebron was. (1.) It was one of the cities belonging to priests (Josh. xxi. 13), and a city of refuge, Josh. xx. 7. When Caleb had it, he contented himself with the country about it, and cheerfully gave the city to the priests, the Lord’s ministers, thinking it could not be better bestowed, no, not upon his own children, nor that it was the less his own for being thus devoted to God. (2.) It was a royal city, and, in the beginning of David’s reign, the metropolis of the kingdom of Judah; thither the people resorted to him, and there he reigned seven years. Thus highly was Caleb’s city honoured; it is a pity there should have been such a blemish upon his family long after as Nabal was, who was of the house of Caleb, 1 Sam. xxv. 3. But the best men cannot entail their virtues.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Caleb’s Request Granted, vs. 6-15
Here is one of the outstanding passages in the Bible, the portrait of the faithful and stalwart Caleb. Caleb belonged to the tribe of Judah, and the tribe is represented as coming for its inheritance, then puts forward the special request of Caleb.
Caleb was one of the spies sent by Moses to spy out Canaan soon after the removal from Mount Sinai, after Moses had received the law. This account is found in Nu chapters 13 and 14.
He and Joshua were the only two of the twelve spies who had favored entering the land at once, depending on the Lord to give it to them (Num 14:6-10). Because of Israel’s rebellion and refusal to enter they were made to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the older generation, except Caleb and Joshua had died (Num 14:26-38). The promise that Caleb should possess the land where his feet had trod is found in Num 14:24.
Forty-five years had passed since that time, and Caleb was now eighty-five years of age. This shows that about five years had elapsed since the conquest of Canaan had begun. Caleb attributed his long life and his continued robust health to the Lord. God had preserved his strength unabated for those many years, seemingly that he might claim and possess the land as Moses had promised.
Specifically Caleb wanted the mountains where those dreaded Anakim, in whose sight the ten rebel spies had felt like grasshoppers (Num 13:33), for his inheritance. He had no doubt he could drive them out of their well-fortified cities with the aid of the Lord. And had not the Lord promised to drive them out? The steadfast faith of this man was exemplary for all the Israelites. Thus Joshua granted the request and allotted Hebron and the entire area of the Anakim to Caleb. Joshua pronounced God’s blessing on Caleb, because “he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel, ” ( Hos 6:3). Hebron, the chief Anakim city, was previously called Kirjath-arba, meaning, “the city of Arba,” who was the father of the giants.
Let us learn from Joshua ch. 14, 1) When the Lord calls men into His special service, He wants them devoted to that alone; 2) one can expect the blessings of faithfulness to come to him, as the Lord has promised; 3) God’s children can always be bold for every encounter in the Lord’s work.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
6. Then the children of Judah came, etc Here the account which had been begun as to the partition of the land is broken off to make way for the insertion of a narrative, namely, that Caleb requested Mount Hebron to be given to him as he had been promised by Moses. This happened a long time before the people had ceased from making war, and it became necessary to cast lots. It is stated to be the fifth year since their entrance into the land, and he does not ask for a locality to be given up to him which was already subdued and cleared of the enemy, but in the midst of the noise and heat of warfare, he asks to be permitted to acquire it by routing and slaying its giants. He only seeks to provide, that when his valor has subdued the giants, he is not to be defrauded of the reward of his labor. The method of so providing, is to prevent its being included in the common lot of a tribe. Accordingly, he does not put forth the claim by himself alone, but the members of his tribe, the sons of Judah also concur with him, because the effect of conferring this extraordinary benefit on one family was so far to make an addition to all. Hence though Caleb alone speaks, all the tribe whose interest it was that his request should be granted were present.
I am not clear why the surname of Kenite was given to Caleb. He is so called also in Num 32:0. I am not unaware of the conjecture of some expositors, that he was so surnamed from Kenas, because either he himself or some one of his ancestors dwelt among the Kenites. But I see no solid foundation for this. What if he gained this title by some illustrious deed, just as victors sometimes assume a surname from the nations they have subdued? As the promise had not been inserted into any public record, and Joshua was the only witness now surviving, he makes his application to him. And it is probable that when the ten spies made mention of the names of the Anakim, with the view of terrifying the people, Caleb, to refute their dishonesty, answered with truth, that when he beheld them on Mount Hebron, they were so far from being terrible, that he would attack them at his own hand, provided that on their expulsion he should succeed to their lands; and that on these conditions Moses ceded to him a habitation in that locality which he should have acquired by his own prowess.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Jos. 14:6. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite] A very interesting question arises as to the birth and parentage of Caleb. He is, as we have seen, styled the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and his younger brother Othniel, afterwards the first Judge, is also called the son of Kenaz (Jos. 15:17; Jdg. 1:13; Jdg. 3:9; Jdg. 3:11). On the other hand, the genealogy in 1 Chronicles 2 makes no mention whatever of either Jephunneh or Kenaz, but represents Caleb, though obscurely, as being a descendant of Hezron and a son of Hur (see, too, chap. 4). Again, in Jos. 15:13, we have this singular expression, Unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah; and in Jos. 14:14, the no less significant one, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, because that he wholly followed Jehovah God of Israel. It becomes therefore quite possible that Caleb was a foreigner by birth, a proselyte incorporated into the tribe of Judah. [Smiths Bib. Dict.] See also Crosbys remarks, in loc., on the similar conjecture of Lord Hervey. The thing that the Lord said unto Moses] Comparing Num. 13:22; Num. 14:24; Deu. 1:36, with this plea offered by Caleb, it seems sufficiently clear that God had promised Hebron to Caleb for a possession.
Jos. 14:7. As it was in mine heart] The expression evidently denotes sincerity, the heart being thus opposed to deceitful words. He acted honestly according to the command given him, without gloss or dissimulation. [Calvin.]
Jos. 14:9. Surely the land, etc.] Although Hebron is not named in any of the verses in the Pentateuch which refer to the mission of the spies it seems to have been mentioned to Caleb in the promise of Moses, the written history being only an epitome of that which actually took place.
Jos. 14:10. These forty and five years] Thirty-eight of these were spent in the wilderness, and the remaining seven had been occupied in the conquest of the land. This is the most important of the chronological data afforded by the book.
Jos. 14:12. This mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day] Shewing, as suggested under verses 6-9, that Hebron and its neighbourhood had been mentioned by name in the Divine Promise.
Jos. 14:14. Unto this day] The book of Joshua was therefore written while Caleb still lived. [Crosby] This, however, is by no means certain; for there is, at least, the possibility of correctness in Keils remark: In Jos. 14:14-15, the author appends to some observations of his own, the narrative, which he has copied verbatim from the original documents.
Jos. 14:15. The name of Hebron before was Kirjath Arba] City of Arba. Hengstenberg contends that the original name was Hebron, that Arba, with the Anakim, did not found the city, but conquered it, and that not till after the time of Abrahams residence there (cf. Gen. 23:2; Num. 13:22). The land had rest from war] This is repeated from chap. Jos. 11:23, shewing that the further division of the land was unaccompanied with any general conflict with the Canaanites who remained unsubdued.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 14:6-15
THE FIDELITY OF CALEB, AND ITS REWARD
Whether Caleb was a native of Israel or a foreign proselyte (cf. Crit. Notes, V.6), he was reckoned among the tribe of Judah. He was one of the foremost men in the tribe, and while his exaltation may have been greatly owing to his faithfulness as one of the spies sent out by Moses, there must have been a preeminence of some kind even to account for his selection on that important occasion. Perhaps he had already shewn some of those traits of the noble character which go conspicuously adorned his after-life. As Caleb belonged to the tribe of Judah, the men of Judah came to support him in his request to Joshua. His privileges and honour would be their honour also. As the representative of Judah in the distribution of the land (cf. Num. 34:19), it was the more desirable that Calebs grant of Hebron should not seem to be in any measure the outcome of his official position. In Calebs petition and its reception we may notice the following things:
I. Earnest piety linked with a remembrance of Gods gracious words. Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said. These two features are each contributive to the other: the man who is truly pious will love to dwell on the words of the Lord, and the man whose memory cherishes Divine words will find them helpful to his piety.
1. God both suffers and encourages us to find a stimulus in the thought of personal reward. For forty-five years Caleb had dwelt with pleasure on this thing that the Lord said. The name and the thought of Hebron had become part of his very life. He could never forget these gracious words of the Lord. The wilderness could not hide them. The terrible plagues and judgments could not obliterate them. Every one of his companions above the age of twenty, excepting Joshua, had died since this thing that the Lord had said was spoken; let what would die, that lived on fresh as ever. And it is not wrong to dwell with joy on the rewards which God promises to us personally. This may not be the highest motive in service, but men are very human, and Gods kindness meets them where they are. The noble hymn of Francis Xavier is inspiring in its loftiness, but the key in which it is set is not within the reach of every voice, and probably of no voice at all times. It does us good to hear the holy strain:
My God, I love Thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because who love Thee not
Must burn eternally.
Then why, O blessed Jesu Christ,
Should I not love Thee well!
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell;
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as Thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord.
Some have urged that this is the spirit in which we should always serve the Lord. Perhaps we should; but God is kinder than to reject our work when it proceeds from less exalted motives. He knoweth our frame. He makes us great by gentleness. The Saviour even urges us to serve in view of the crown which He promises: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. That was a very noble life from which proceeded the utterance, The love of Christ constraineth me; but it was the same life which at another time urged men on with the crySo run that ye may obtain. Caleb did no wrong to treasure up the thing that the Lord said touching Hebron; even so the Saviour has no reproach for us when we find ourselves stimulated to service by the thought of the rewards which await us. So far from reproaching us, when Christ is about to depart from among men, He graciously puts among His last words these: In my Fathers house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you. That is the picture upon which the absent Saviour would have His apostles steadfastly look. This humanness of the Lord is very beautiful.
2. The man who is truly pious will equally remember the things which God says touching duties which are to be performed. Caleb had shewed himself ready to remember commands as well as promises. When he rendered such faithful obedience as one of the spies, his obedience was not merely to Moses, but to God who spake through Moses. He followed the Lord fully. To the memory of a man really pious, a command is as sacred as a promise. There is a sense in which Gods commands to serve Him are far more precious than even promises. They tell of complete forgiveness in a way in which it can be told by no assurance of pardon and by no promise of reward. When God condescends to give us something to do for Himself, we may well feel that He has quite blotted out our iniquity. Suppose Jonah had only been assured of forgiveness for his sin of fleeing to Tarshish, or that a promise of final salvation had been added to such an assurance. No gracious words in this direction could ever have told of complete pardon as it was told by the mercy which condescended to employ him again. What if another prophet had been sent in Jonahs place? In that case, it seems to us, that Jonahs sense of forgiveness could never have been quite satisfactory. The beauty of pardon is seen, not in any promise, but in the commandment which is written in the history: And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Peter may have felt a sweet sense of joy as he received that special message to himself to meet the Saviour in Galilee; but Peters sense of perfect pardon probably came, ultimately, far more through the commandment in which he was again bidden to do the work of his Master. It was in once more feeding Christs sheep and lambs that the sense of complete forgiveness would have entered into the apostles life. No mere assurance of pardon could have ever supplied the comfort that must have come through this re-employment. We have only to think of Peter with nothing more to do for Christ, to realize, as far as any one but himself could realize, his utter and lifelong misery. He who neglects precepts for promises is not wise. Caleb shews us how to remember both. In keeping of Thy commandments there is great reward.
3. The pious man will treasure up, no less, the commendations of the Lord. These words about following the Lord fully, or wholly, had also clung to Caleb (Jos. 14:9). For forty-five years his memory had cherished them as too precious to be forgotten. Those who think that, in uttering on this occasion such words to Joshua, Caleb talked of his own virtue in rather loftier terms than becomes a pious and modest man, utterly overlook the true aspect of the words. God had said them (Num. 14:24); that was what made them so dear to Caleb. His artless reiteration of them, taken in this light, so far from being immodest, is simple and beautiful. It is the language of the commended child, recounting gratefully from his heart his Fathers words of praise. How long will the children above remember the heavenly greetingWell done, good and faithful servant!
II. The consciousness of personal faithfulness associated with trust in precious promises. Caleb walked before God with a deep concern to honour God. He had stilled the people in their rebellion, as far as possible; and when he could prevail no longer with them, he and Joshua had rent their clothes. He was faithful to the trust which had been reposed in him.
1. The faithful life has the greatest desire for the things which God promises. The life of an upright man will have its tastes in harmony with the things which God has to give.
2. The faithful life best knows the value of Gods promises. The man to whom truth and integrity are dear will know that these are much more sacred to Jehovah.
3. Thus the faithful life will most fully trust the promises. They will be deemed worth remembering not only for forty-five years, but throughout all the years in which such a life is spared. The thing which the Lord hath said will seem to be ordered in all things, and sure. It will be regarded as sure in days of adversity, no less than in days of prosperity and victory.
III. Godly manliness going with unselfishness and dependence. Calebs words have in them a frankness and outspokenness which make them attractive. He did not affect to hide the sin of his brethren; on the other hand, he called it by no harsh name. Here is none of the simpering of a false modesty, neither is there anything of the spirit of fault-finding. And as his words touching his brethren, so are his words concerning himself. He frankly said that he wholly followed the Lord God (Jos. 14:8). The words are too brief and too matter-of-fact for egotism. A vain man would have made a sermon of what Caleb put into a sentence. Caleb felt that he had honestly sought Gods glory and Israels good on the occasion in question, and with a manly freedom from affectation he did not attempt to conceal that. We love him both for that which he said and for that which he did not say. We feel, as we read, that we are reading the speech of a man. The language of Caleb is further relieved from any appearance of a vain and weak egotism, if we remember that he was merely reiterating the thing that the Lord said. These words about following the Lord wholly are not Calebs words at all, but the words of Jehovah, which had been so thankfully cherished for so long a time. It might have seemed vain to utter thus merely his own judgment; it was but a grateful love to God, and a manly consciousness that this thing was true, which led Caleb thus to repeat the words of God. Over against all this strong and transparent manliness, it is very beautiful to observe Calebs unselfishness and childlike dependence. These giant Anakim he was perfectly willing to confront. He did not want a lot where there were no foes. Let others seek such an inheritance if they chose; this was a brave man, and he could fight; this was an unselfish man, and while his brethren fought with men, he, although eighty-five years of age, would fight with giants. So manly was this aged Caleb, and so unselfish. And yet this brave and strong man felt as dependent on his God as a little child on its father. He said: If so be the Lord will be with me, then shall I be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. Manly piety is great in its freedom from paltry affectation, great in its unselfishness, but greatest of all in its dependence upon God. Paul said: When I am weak, then am I strong; the converse is no less truewhen we are strong, then we are weak. It is manhood in its noblest form that leans hardest upon God; and he who leans very much upon God is usually strong in a manhood altogether in advance of the manliness of him who is self-reliant.
IV. Gratitude connected with fidelity and trust (Jos. 14:10-11). This man, who had been so strong to follow God, and who was so hale at the age of fourscore and five years, thankfully acknowledged that his vigour had been all of Jehovah. The Lord had kept him alive. His brethren had died in the wilderness; it was of the Lord that he had not died. His brethren had died for sin; Caleb seemed to recognise that it was of the Lord also that he had not sinned as they had done. True greatness and warm gratitude generally go together. It was the great apostle of the Gentiles who said so ardently, By the grace of God I am what I am.
V. A sense of personal fitness united with hope. Calebs trust was wholly in the Lord, and yet he well knew that the Lords way was to work naturally. It needed a strong man to encounter such foes as these Anakim, and Caleb felt that he was strong, and hoped accordingly. However much faith may rely upon God as the only efficient worker, godly wisdom ever recognises this need of being in harmony with Gods methods. Had Caleb been infirm and feeble, probably not even his faith would have dared to hope for victory over these descendants of giants. While God must be all in all, there must also be a consciousness that we are what God can bless. It is thus that a man living in sin cannot dare to hope for salvation. The conscience knows better than to allow that Gods method is to save a man who is deliberately opposing such salvation. There is an unfitness of things which smothers hope at the birth.
VI. Personal worth crowned with permanent rewards.
1. Men reward personal worth. Joshua blessed him. Sooner or later, true merit is acknowledged everywhere.
2. God rewards personal worth. As among men, God recognises and honours fidelity and obedience. The Bible is full of such instances.
3. The great reward of the souls salvation is ever and only because of the merits of Christ. My goodness extendeth not to Thee, said the Psalmist. Our best deeds have much of impurity. In this matter we can rely only on Him who did no sin.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos. 14:6-7. THE PLEASANT MEMORIES OF THE MAN WHO HAS BEEN FAITHFUL TO HIS GOD.
I. To remember the past is the lot of every man, irrespective of the mans personal character. From the narrow margin of the time which is present, every man has two broad views which are continually inviting his contemplation. The one lies stretched out before him, the other behind him; one deals with the future, the other with the past. The view before us is made up to a very small extent by penetration based on experience. For the irreligious man it is composed very much more by desire, fancy, and imagination; while for the man who believes in the word of God it is wrought principally by faith. The view behind us is, for the most part, dim and obscure; but here and there, in every life that has reached maturity, there stand up in the distance behind it, clear and well defined as the rugged outline of the mountain, which, though past long since, shews no sign of vanishing, memories which are never forgotten.
And these memories of past life are independent of character. They are involuntary: they come whether men will or will not. Not only does faithful Caleb dwell upon the past, but the unfaithful man must think upon it also.
II. The remembrances of the righteous, while often supplying reasons for shame, afford, nevertheless, occasions for thankfulness and joy. A poet has written to us of The Pleasures of Hope; to the man who has been faithful to his God, there come no less powerfully the pleasures of memory. Not only all things, but all time works together for good to the man who loves God. Time to come is made bright with hope of grace yet to be given, and time past is illuminated with the light of victories won through mercy already bestowed. How thankfully would Joseph and Daniel and the three Hebrew youths each look back to the place of temptation where God had helped them to come off more than conquerors.
1. The remembrances of the righteous are some sorrowful and some gladdening. Caleb had this great triumph in which he had wholly followed the Lord; doubtless he had also to think upon many defeats which had to be contemplated with shame. It is thus with the best of men: they have here and there a victory of which to sing, and many failures and overthrows which they are compelled to mourn.
2. The remembrances of the righteous which are encouraging ever stand connected with the name and grace of God. The Lord sent me (Jos. 14:7). Thus, too, in the next verse, Caleb intimates that the Lord had gone before him, and that he had but followed where Jehovah Himself had led.
3. The helpful remembrances of the righteous are made still happier by fraternal fellowship with others who have also been faithful. It did not detract from Calebs joy to remember that Joshua had been faithful too, and that he had also been commended by God. It added to the pleasure of this good man to be able to say, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee. The joy of the pious man is not solitary and selfish. The angels sing together. The godly rejoice with them that do rejoice.
4. These happier remembrances of the righteous always stand well in accord with a good conscience. I brought him word again, as it was in mine heart. When Caleb came back to Moses, he spoke in integrity, and as he felt that he ought to speak. The shout of victory ever goes with the voice of God, and the voice of God goes no less with the teaching of conscience. True, men sometimes sin in ignorance and in unbelief, but, even then, darkness may be only the consequence of a previous abuse of light. He who always follows God with a good conscience, as the word of God is in his heart, will not often stray.
5. The remembrances of the righteous man sometimes contradict intervening seasons of depression. There may have been times when Caleb doubted if he should ever enter upon the promised inheritance. Job was accused of saying, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. To not a few of the godly Jews of Old Testament times, as the Psalms repeatedly bear witness, it seemed a standing problem of difficulty that the ungodly should flourish, while the righteous should be driven to say, Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain. Elijah thought that he had served God almost fruitlessly, and that he only was left of those who had not bowed the knee to Baal. It may be that since his fidelity at Kadesh-barnea, some such moments of depression as these had come upon Caleb. If so, how completely would they have stood contradicted now, as he was about to enter upon his long-promised possession. There are hours and days with most of us when our faithful service seems a thing of nought. We are like children upon the sands at the sea-side, building here a castle and there a fort, which the next tide washes out altogether; so the tides of time wash over our feeble work for men and for God, and seem to obliterate the very marks of our building. We are driven to think our labour as having been in vain, and as having no more endurance than the house built upon the sand. But he who works for God, builds on a rock which cannot be shaken. To every faithful heart the day will come when happy memories will contradict entirely the depression sometimes suffered in seasons of adversity.
III. The remembrances of the ungodly will presently serve to make the retrospect of time as saddening as the prospect of eternity. In the pious man, both time and eternity will serve to provoke gladness, while to the wicked, neither the one nor the other can bring any heritage but pain. To such, the past must ever be full of shame and anguish, and the future dark with fear and despair.
Jos. 14:8. CALEB THE MAN FOR THE TIMES.
It is a rough name thatCaleb. Most translators say it signifies a dog. But what mattereth a mans name? Possibly the man himself was somewhat rough: many of the heartiest of men are so. As the unpolished oyster yet beareth within itself the priceless pearl, so ofttimes ruggedness of exterior covereth worth. A dog, moreover, is not all badness, though without are dogs and sorcerers. It hath this virtue, that it followeth its master; and therein this Caleb was well named; for never dog so followed his master as Caleb followed his God. The name, however, has another signification, and we like it rather better; it means all heart. Here was a fitting surname for the man whose whole heart followed his God. He says of himself that he brought a report of the land according to all that was in his heart.
I. Calebs faithful following of his God. He never went before his God. That is presumption. The highest point to which the true believer ever comes is to walk with God, but never to walk before Him. Caleb followed the Lord; many others do the same, but then they could not win that adverb which is Calebs golden medal. He followed the Lord fully, says one text; wholly, says another. Some of us follow the Lord, but it is a great way off, like Peter, or now and then, as did Saul the king. In explaining this word wholly, I shall follow the explanation of good Matthew Henry.
1. Caleb followed the Lord universally, without dividing. Whatever his Master told him to do, he did.
2. Caleb followed the Lord fully, that is, sincerely, without dissembling. He was no hypocrite: he followed the Lord with his whole heart.
3. Caleb followed the Lord wholly, that is, cheerfully, without disputing. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do that which is unpleasant to them, are not His servants at all.
4. Caleb followed the Lord constantly, without declining. He persevered during the forty days of his spyship, and brought back a true report. Forty-five years he lived in the camp of Israel, but all that time he followed the Lord, and never once consorted with murmuring rebels; and when his time came to claim his heritage, at the age of eighty-five, the good old man was following the Lord fully.
II. Calebs favoured portion. His life was preserved in the hour of judgment. The ten fell, smitten with the plaguo, but Caleb lived. There be many who seek their life that lose it; and there be some who lose it for Christs sake, that find it to life eternal. Caleb was also comforted with a long life of vigour. At eighty-five he was as strong as at forty, and still able to face the giants. Caleb received as his reward great honour among his brethren. He was at least twenty years older than any other man in the camp, except Joshua. Caleb had the distinguished reward of being put upon the hardest service. That is always the lot of the most faithful servant of God. Caleb had the honour of enjoying what he had once seen. He had only seen the land when he said, We are able to take it. He lived not only to take it, but to enjoy it for himself. Caleb left a blessing to his children. He had many sons, but he fought for them, and carved out a portion for them all. If there is any man who shall be able to leave his children the blessing of the upper and nether springs, it is the man who follows the Lord fully. If I might envy any man, it would be the believer who from his youth up has walked, through Divine grace, according to his Lords commandments, and who is able, when his day comes, to scatter benedictions upon his rising sons and daughters, and leave them with godliness, which hath the blessing of this life and that which is to come.
III. Calebs secret character. The Lord said of him, Because he hath another spirit with him. He had another spiritnot only a bold, generous, courageous, noble, and heroic spirit, but the spirit and influence of God, which thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears. Therefore he followed the Lord fully. The real way to make a new life is to receive a new spirit. There must be given us, if we would follow the Lord fully, a new heart, and that new heart must be found at the foot of the cross, where the Holy Spirit works through the bleeding wounds of Jesus. We need the spirit of faith; that spirit which takes God at His word, reads His promise, and knows it to be true. Then a faithful spirit always begets a meek spirit, and a meek spirit always begets a brave spirit. It is said of the wood of the elder tree, that none is softer, but yet it is recorded of old that Venice was built upon piles of the elder tree, because it will never rot; and so the meek-spirited man, who is gentle and patient, lasts on bravely, holding his own against all the attacks of the destroying adversary. The true believer has also a loving spirit, as the result of Jesus grace. He has next a zealous spirit, and so he spends and is spent for God; and this begets in him a heavenly spirit, and so he tries to live in heaven, and make earth a heaven to his fellow-men, believing that he shall soon have a heaven for himself and for them too on the other side of the stream. Oh that the Holy Spirit would lead us to go to Jesus just as we are, and look up to Him and beseech Him to fulfil that great covenant promise: A new heart also will I give them, a right spirit will I put within them. [Met. Tab. Pulpit.]
Jos. 14:9.THE PROMISE IS UNTO YOU AND TO YOUR CHILDREN.
I. The inheritance those who follow God is the inheritance of promise.
II. The inheritance is promised to the man who is faithful, and yet is always by the grace of God.
III. The inheritance is not merely to the faithful follower, but to his children also.
IV. The inheritance, although it may be announced by His servants, is promised by Jehovah Himself, and is thus certain, however long it may be deferred.
Jos. 14:10-12.GRACIOUS KEEPING GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED.
I. They who live, live by the keeping of God. None can keep alive his own soul. He holdeth our soul in life. Caleb had been preserved under circumstances common to men in general, and under such as were unusual.
1. He was kept alive, notwithstanding natural liability to decay and death. His physical strength may have been above the average; that strength was the gift of God. He was probably a man whose life owed much to discipline and regular habits; this disposition to a healthy mode of life had been cultivated by his godliness.
2. Caleb had been kept alive through the dangers of the desert and of the war. The danger of famine God had met by the manna and the quails. When thirst threatened to destroy, the Lord had given streams from the rocks. In the various conflicts in the wilderness, Jehovah had shielded this brave soldier, so that not a single shaft could hit; and in the battles in the land of Canaan itself, mighty miracles had constantly testified to the care and keeping of God.
3. Caleb had been kept alive when all saving Joshua and himself had died. Every other member of the host who was over the age of twenty at the time when Moses sent out the spies, had passed away in the wilderness. Each of these had died, according to the word of Jehovah. Well might Caleb say, The Lord hath kept me alive.
II. They who are kept by God are kept of Gods purpose, and well kept.
1. God does not keep men alive thoughtlessly and in unconcern. The Lord hath kept me alive, as He said. He purposes to preserve. Every living sparrow represents something which He has not yet suffered to fall on the ground, and which He has not forgotten. Every hair of every living head is something which He has numbered, and which still has its place in the count of God. But of those whom He protects as fearing and loving Him, it stands specially recorded, He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. Thus, too, it had been already said of Caleb as one of the host of Israel (Deu. 32:10).
2. Those whom God keeps are kept perfectly. The wilderness not only fails to consume; it does not even weaken. Many years are equally impotent to work harm. As I was in the day that Moses sent me, etc. The dangers of the battle-field had also failed to reach him who was borne in the arms which had made him (cf. Isa. 46:4). God had carried His servant even to old age, and nothing had impaired his strength.
III. They who are thus kept by God should reiterate it to the praise of God. Behold, the Lord hath kept, etc. Caleb was a monument reared and sustained by the hand of God, and in all that he was at that day, he wished men to read the Divine name and Divine mercy.
1. Caleb illustrates the beauty of gratitude. It is pleasant and comely to see this good man tracing the streams of life, health, and strength to their source.
2. Caleb reminds us of the frequency of ingratitude. It is to be feared that this spirit of thanksgiving is rather exceptional than common. True, there are many hearts which ascribe praise unto God for all which they have received, but what are these among the multitudes who render no thanksgiving whatever? After all, there is only here and there a star in the heavens reflecting back the light given of God; the firmament is mostly made up of clouds and darkness and night.
IV. They who have been long kept by God may well undertake great works in the name of God (Jos. 14:12). Gratitude is little without trust. He who thanks sincerely for the past will trust reverently and unquestioningly for the future.
1. Faith has no hesitation because of the magnitude of work which is to be done in the name of God. Giants and walled cities need make no difference to the man who hopes that the Lord will be with him.
2. Faith is as confident in the immediate prospect of such work as in the distant prospect. Compare Calebs language in Num. 13:30; Num. 14:6-9, with the spirit manifested now that the task seemed directly before him. The language of true faith is not merely words; the whole history of the Church of God is thick with the names of men who have also been bold to act.
Jos. 14:10-14.LAUS DEO.
I. Many years of keeping by God, and ardent words of praise to God.
II. Ardent words of praise for the past, and great confidence in view of the difficult future.
III. Great confidence in God for the future, and the future works of faith fully equal to the present words of faith. (Compare Jos. 14:12 with chap. Jos. 15:14; Jdg. 1:9-20.)
IV. Confident faith in God, and gracious rewards from God (Jos. 14:13-14 )
1. The recognition of Calebs piety by Joshua 2. The possession of Hebron.
Jos. 14:12.DESIRING AND POSSESSING.
I. He who seeks should feel able to possess, and strong to occupy. Many covet lots in life which they can never take, which if they took they would be unable to hold, and which if they succeeded in holding they would never occupy usefully.
II. Ability to possess and occupy is not in itself a sufficient testimony that such occupation would be right. There are many who find their title only in their own power. With them, right and might are synonymous. They take, as Wordsworth says,
For why? Because the good old rule
Sufficeth them; the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.
Caleb pleads his ability to occupy, but finds, nevertheless, a far higher title than this ere he seeks to do so.
III. He cannot be wrong in his seeking, who is guided by God, nor fail in possessing when he depends upon God. Caleb found his true title to Hebron in the fact that the Lord spake of it in that day as his. He found his power to conquer the Anakim in the assurance that the Lord would be with him. He who is thus guided, and thus helped, may well look to come into and occupy wisely a right and good inheritance.
THE ORIGIN OF THE PROMISE TO CALEB
Probably the fears of the ten spies were occasioned more by what they saw at Hebron, than by anything which they witnessed elsewhere in Canaan. In Num. 13:22, we are told that they came unto Hebron, and a few verses farther on in the same chapter we have the record of their murmuring, in which, as the burden of their complaint, they are seen crying out about the walled cities and the Anakim. As Hebron is specially mentioned as the abode of the Anakim, the conjecture of Matthew Henry is not unnatural. He says: We may suppose that Caleb, observing what stress they laid upon the difficulty of conquering Hebron, a city garrisoned by the giants, and how from thence they inferred that the conquest. of the whole land was utterly impracticable; in opposition to their suggestions, and to convince the people that he spake as he thought, he bravely desired to have that city, which they called invincible, assigned to himself for his own portion: I will undertake to deal with that; and if I cannot get it for my inheritance, I will be without it. Well, saith Moses, it shall be thine own then; win and wear it.
If the promise of Moses was elicited under some such circumstances as these, we may reasonably suppose that the oath of Moses was confirmed by Jehovah in the conversation which followed, and which is partly recorded in Numbers 14. The allusion to Caleb in Jos. 14:14 of that chapter might well be the occasion when the thing which Moses sware became also the thing that the Lord said.
THE APPROACH TO HEBRON FROM ENGEDI
With Ziph the more desolate region ended. The valleys now began, at least in our eyes, almost literally to laugh and sing. Greener and greener did they growthe shrubs, too, shot up above that stunted growth. At last, on the summits of further hills, lines of spreading trees appeared against the sky. Then came ploughed fields and oxen. Lastly, a deep and wide recess opened in the hillstowers and minarets appeared through the gap, which gradually unfolded into the city of the Friend of Godthis is its Arabic name (El Khalil): far up on the right ran a wide and beautiful upland valley, all partitioned into gardens and fields, green fig-trees, and cherry-trees, and the vineyardsfamous through all ages; and far off, grey and beautiful as those of Tivoli, swept down the western slope the olive groves of Hebron. Most startling of all was the hum through the airhitherto that silent air which I described during our first encampment, but which had grown familiar as the sounds of London to those who live constantly within their rangethe hum, at first, of isolated human voices and the lowing of the cattle, rising up from these various orchards and cornfields, and then a sound, which, to our ears, seemed like that of a mighty multitude, but which was only the united murmur of the population of the little town, which we now entered at its southern end. They had come out to look at some troops which were going off to capture a refractory chief. High above us on the eastern height of the townwhich lies nestled, Italian-like, on the slope of a ravinerose the long black walls and two stately minarets of that illustrious mosque, one of the four sanctuaries of the Mahometan world, sacred in the eyes of all the world besides, which covers the Cave of Machpelah, the last resting-place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We passed on by one of those two ancient reservoirs, where King David hanged the murderers of his rival (2Sa. 4:12), up a slope of green grass, broken only by tombs and floeks of sheep, to the high gates of the Quaranting, which closed upon us, and where we are now imprisoned for the next three days, but with that glorious view of Hebron before us day and night. [Stanleys Sinai and Palestine.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Calebs Request Jos. 14:6-12
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 Kadesh-barnea.
7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea 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 childrens for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
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 Anakim 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.
4.
Why was Caleb called a Kenezite? Jos. 14:6
The word Kenezite is a title given to Caleb or to Jephunneh. This reference causes some to believe that Caleb descended from an Edomite named Kenaz. Kenaz was one of the sons of Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau. He became the leader of one of the Edomite tribes (Gen. 36:11; Gen. 36:15). Caleb also had a brother, the father of Othniel by this same name (Jos. 15:17, Jdg. 1:13; Jdg. 3:9; Jdg. 3:11). Several descendants of Caleb, or names which may be compared with Edomite names are listed here:
a.
Shobal (1Ch. 2:52, Gen. 36:29)
b.
Korah (1Ch. 2:43; Gen. 36:14; Gen. 36:16; Gen. 36:18)
c.
Elah (1Ch. 4:15, Gen. 36:41)
The Kenezites are mentioned in Gen. 15:19 along with the Kenites and the Kadmonites who were among the nations to be dispossessed by Israel. These nations evidently dwelt somewhere in the southern part of Canaan.
5.
How long had Israel been in Canaan when Caleb made his request? Jos. 14:7; Jos. 14:10
Caleb said that he was forty years old when he went to spy out the land (Jos. 14:7). This was in the days of Moses and at the beginning of the wanderings (Numbers 13). When he made his request for land in Canaan he was eighty-five years old (Jos. 14:10). Forty-five years had elapsed between the time of Calebs espionage and the time of his request of Joshua. Forty years of this had been spent in wandering before they entered into the Promised Land. This would indicate that the wars of conquest occupied only five years.
6.
Why did Caleb call the ten spies his brothers? Jos. 14:8
Caleb said the other spies had made the hearts of the people to melt, but he wholly followed the Lord his God. Caleb had very little in common with the spies bringing the evil report, but they were related to him by their common ancestry in Jacob. The brotherhood was one of the flesh and not one of the spirit. The ten spies had come from the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Napthali, Gad, Asher, Manasseh, and Benjamin. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim. Caleb was with the tribe of Judah. These two tribes were honored in having such able men as Joshua and Caleb.
7.
Is there a record of Moses promise to Caleb? Jos. 14:9
Moses said of Caleb that he would see the land and that God would give to him the land that he had trodden on (Deu. 1:36). This appears to be something of a general promise because God said to Joshua: Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses (Jos. 1:3). It is also recorded that God said of Caleb he would be brought into the land and his seed would possess it (Num. 14:24). All of this points to the promise as a rather general covenant made with Caleb. He probably was given the privilege of selecting whatever land he desired.
8.
What was the reason for Calebs strength? Jos. 14:11
Caleb said that he was as strong at eighty-five years of age as he had been when he was only forty. For this reason, some have called him a cheerful old prevaricator. Such a title was given to him by an octogenarian who said that he knew he was not as strong at eighty as he had been at forty. Nevertheless, we find that the natural force of Moses was unabated when he died at one hundred twenty years of age. It was said of him that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated (Deu. 34:7). Caleb had wholly followed the Lord, and God had given him unusual longevity and strength.
9.
What mountain did Caleb want? Jos. 14:12
It is not apparent from the Scripture text that Joshua and Caleb were in the southern part of Canaan when Caleb made his request, yet his request was so definite that there was no misunderstanding about which mountain he wanted. His reference may have been in general to the hill country of Judah, a mountainous section of the land which formed the central part of Canaan. Further clarification of the land he desired was made by his continued description of the territory.
10.
Who were the Anakim? Jos. 14:12 b
The Anakim were descendants of Anak, Anak is identified as the son of Arba. The Anakim were a terror to the children of Israel (Num. 13:22-28), but Caleb was not afraid of them. He said if the Lord were with him, he would be able to drive them out. He was resting on the promises of God. He had no fear, even though these people are sometimes described as giants since the name means the long neck ones.
11.
What cities were in the area? Jos. 14:12 c
Caleb described the land as being a land in which the cities were great and fenced. Hebron is mentioned as one of these cities. Another was Debir, a city which was also known as the book cityKirjath-Sepher (Jos. 15:15). These cities had been the capital cities for kings who had entered into the southern coalition to fight against Joshua. The kings had been defeated in battle, but their cities had not been razed. The land had not been occupied. This was Calebs task.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
INHERITANCE OF JUDAH (Jos. 14:6 to Jos. 15:63).
(6) Caleb the son of JephunnehCaleb was the commissioner appointed from the tribe of Judah to divide the land (Num. 34:19). His coming forward on this occasion to ask for his own inheritance first of all might appear to savour of self-interest, if the post of honour for which he applied had not been also the most dangerous and difficult position in the inheritance of his tribe. He applied for the territory of the gigantic sons of Anak, whom he undertook to drive out in the strength of Jehovah. Therefore Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron for his inheritance. It is noticeable that of the two faithful spies whom Moses sent, Caleb received his inheritance first, and Joshua last of all Israel. (See Jos. 19:49.) The characters of the two men are well seen in this contrastthe one foremost in a service of danger; the other last to seek the things that were his own. Thus, even Christ pleased not Himself (comp. Joshua); but the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me, as the conquest of the sons of Anak fell to the lot of Caleb. Observe how the slayer of Goliath is said to take away the reproach from Israel, 1Sa. 17:26. Who can stand before the children of Anak?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
CALEB’S INHERITANCE, Jos 14:6-15.
6. Children of Judah came Caleb was of the tribe of Judah, and probably by his request the elders of his own tribe accompany him to Gilgal, lest they might suspect that he was using his office of commissioner to carve out a splendid portion for himself. They may have seconded his petition as having an important bearing on the question of their own portion, which would naturally contain the tract of Caleb, their tribesman, so that the granting of his request would virtually establish southern Canaan as their lot. Caleb was one of the two spies so famous for their faith in Jehovah, and for their courage and independence in making a very unpopular minority report, for which they narrowly escaped stoning at the hands of the infuriated people. Num 14:6-10. They were spared in the ensuing plague which swept off the faithless ten, and were also excepted when Moses declared that none who were above twenty years old when they came out of Egypt should enter Canaan. Num 14:29-30.
Kenezite That is, a son of Kenaz. He was a pure Hebrew, not an Edomite.
Kadesh-barnea Jos 10:41, note.
7. Forty years old was I When, in the plains of Moab near the banks of the Jordan, Moses numbered Israel, not a man was left of those who had heard the law thundered from Sinai, save these two veterans who now stand face to face, Caleb and Joshua. Num 26:63. The desert of the sojourn had been the nation’s tomb. Joshua had succeeded Moses as leader of the tribes; Caleb now comes forward to claim the patrimony that had been promised by Jehovah to him.
In mine heart Heart means here not the affections solely, but the understanding. See note on Rom 10:10. He made his report a perfect transcript of things as he saw them, uncoloured by cowardice, or faithlessness to Jehovah, or compliance with the people.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Special Allocation to Caleb ( Jos 14:6-15 ).
Jos 14:6
‘ Then the children of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, “You know what it was that YHWH spoke to Moses the man of God, concerning me and concerning you, in Kadesh-barnea.” ’
After the initial wars Joshua and Israel had returned to their camp at Gilgal, and at this time Caleb came to Joshua accompanied by his fellow elders of the tribe of Judah. It was important that his request be seen as official and backed by the elders lest he and Joshua be charged with favouritism. Furthermore as a result of the request the portion of Judah was being fixed as connected with Hebron.
Caleb, with Joshua, had been one of the two princes of Israel who had spied out the land of Canaan forty years before and had returned with a positive view, in contrast with the other ten whose viewpoint had been negative and had caused Israel to sin grievously by refusing to go forward into the land (Num 13:1 to Num 14:10). As a reward for his faithfulness he was then promised that he would one day receive as his possession the land that he had spied out (Num 14:24; Deu 1:36). Now he was laying claim to that promise, a promise made to him by YHWH through Moses.
But what was a Kenizzite doing as a prince of Israel? The Kenizzites had been in the land of Canaan from at least the time of Abraham (Gen 15:19). But like Israel they too would seek shelter in Egypt in times of famine, and a group of them too may have been made slaves as ‘Canaanites’ after the Hyksos expulsion, and have joined up with the Israelites on their departure from Egypt, taking advantage of the parlous situation Egypt found itself in. Thus they would have been incorporated at Sinai into the covenant and have become Israelites. We note later how many Israelites had such different designations (e.g. Uriah the Hittite – 2 Samuel 11). (Alternatively they may have been descendants of those who were previously servants in the households of the patriarchs).
Jos 14:7-9
“ I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of YHWH, sent me from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again, as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed YHWH my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you, and to your children for ever, because you have wholly followed YHWH your God’.”
Caleb outlined the basis of his claim. He had been true to YHWH when ten of the spies had proved unworthy. (He had hardly to point out Joshua’s participation when he was speaking to Joshua. Indeed that is a sign of authenticity). They had discouraged the people, but he had encouraged them. Then Moses had promised him the land on which his foot had trodden. Now he was laying claim to it, to Hebron (Jos 14:13). Note the double stress on the fact that he followed God.
“Forty years old.” A figure regularly used of a man’s age, not to be applied literally but as signifying full maturity (Gen 25:20; Gen 26:34; 2Sa 2:10).
Kadesh-barnea was an oasis on the edge of the wildernesses of Paran and Zin (Num 13:26; Num 20:1), possibly modern ‘Ain Qudeirat. Through the ages it has been a recognised landmark (Gen 14:5-9; Gen 16:7; Gen 16:14; Num 34:4; Jos 15:3; Eze 47:19; Eze 48:28). If the identification is correct it was eventually fortified around 10th century BC. It was from there that the spies went out (Num 13:26; Deu 1:19) and to it that they returned after their abortive attempt to enter the land (Deu 1:46; Num 20:1), and from where messengers were sent to the king of Edom (Num 20:14). They were in its vicinity for thirty eight years (Deu 2:14 compare Deu 1:46).
Jos 14:10-11
“ And now, behold, YHWH has kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, from the time that YHWH spoke this word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness, and now, see, I am eighty 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, and to go out and come in.”
His words were with a view to contrasting his own situation with that of the other spies apart from Joshua who had been unfaithful, who had died of the plague (Num 14:37). YHWH had kept him strong and in good health through the years. They are the words of an old man still conscious of vigour and strength, and still able to fight. He did not need the help of a stick to go in and out. They are probably not to be applied too literally. They were the words of a man confident in his strength. They were simply intended to say that he was in remarkable health for his age.
“Forty and five.” A few years over forty. ‘Eighty and five’, in the third stage of life. He had experienced a remarkable amount over those forty or so years, the long stay at Kadesh and its surrounding oases, and then the movement forward through various battles to where they were now, and yet he still saw himself as being as strong as ever.
Jos 14:12
“ Now therefore give me this mountain, of which YHWH spoke in that day, for you yourself heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities that were great and fenced. It may be that YHWH will be with me, and I will drive them out, as YHWH said.”
Caleb’s words indicated that he also knew that the Anakim and the fenced cities were still there, but the personal reminiscence with Joshua is a sign of authenticity. ‘This mountain’ means ‘this hill country’. Joshua had defeated the cities there during his first campaign, and had ‘devoted’ Hebron (burning it with fire?) although the Anakim had been absent or had escaped (Jos 10:36). It had, however, been restored and reoccupied. Here Caleb is requesting the right to retake the city and destroy the Anakim. His fulfilment of this is described in Jos 11:21. This time they had all been ‘devoted’. (Note that the phrase ‘the land had rest from war’ followed both the incident in Jos 11:21 and the incident here (Jos 11:23; Jos 14:15), confirming that they are related and occurred around the same time). The incident is again described in Jos 15:13-19.
“It may be that YHWH will be with me, and I will drive them out, as YHWH said.” It was not that Caleb doubted it but that he wished to express himself modestly. He did not want to appear to be boasting. His confidence was in YHWH’s promise not in himself.
Jos 14:13
‘ And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for an inheritance.’
Joshua gave his consent and allocated the land to Caleb with the blessing of YHWH. ‘Hebron’ here stands for the whole area around, including ‘all the cities of it’ (Jos 10:37).
Jos 14:14
‘Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kennizite to this day, because he wholly followed YHWH, the God of Israel.’
The writer now sums up both the act and its consequence. It was given to Caleb and by the time this was written he had succeeded in taking it, simply because he was fully obedient to YHWH.
Jos 14:15
‘ And the name of Hebron before was Kiriath-arba, the greatest man among the Anakim. And the land had rest from war.’
“The name of Hebron was previously Kiriath-arba.” This means ‘the city of four’ or ‘city of Arba’ – see Gen 23:2. LXX has ‘it was the mother-city of the Anakim’. But there is no reason to reject Arba as a name or nickname and it is certainly related to the Anakim in some way, so when we are told here that it was named after a famous ancestor of the Anakim, named Arba, possibly because he had the strength or usefulness of four men (compare Jos 15:13; Jos 21:11 – which suggests that LXX translated ‘father’ as ‘mother’ because it related the latter idea more to a city) it makes good sense.
“And the land had rest from war.” Compare Jos 11:23. The two incidents there and here clearly parallel one another.
The whole story of Caleb is a reminder that God does not forget a man’s faithfulness. Men may not reward us, but God will in His own way. He had had to wait a long time for his blessing but at last it had come, although he still had to prove his constant trust and obedience in possessing it.
The Settling of the Land.
Judah, and Joseph, the latter incorporating Ephraim and Manasseh who would at first work together, were dealt with first as composing the largest and most powerful tribes (Joshua 15 & Joshua 16). Joshua would inevitably be swayed by the Patriarchal blessing in Genesis 49, for such blessings were looked on as affecting things into the future. Thus the prophecy that Judah would be like a lion and have royal power (Gen 49:10) and that Joseph would, being a fruitful bough, be strong at arms by the hand of YHWH (Gen 49:22; Gen 49:24-25) almost guaranteed their first selection for the lot when the taking and defending of the important hill country was involved. At this stage Levi was still numbered among the tribes and thus Manasseh and Ephraim were seen as one, another indication of the early date of the narrative.
Their allocation in the northern and southern hill countries necessarily had to be settled first because it was vital that they take full possession of that part of the land as soon as possible. It had been invaded by Joshua, who had left it weak and vulnerable, but it had not in the main yet been settled. Now it was necessary to settle there and finally drive out what remained of the inhabitants for good. Joshua was therefore concerned that they receive their allocation quickly. And he had been spurred on by the eagerness of Caleb to go forward and possess his inheritance.
We should note that very little land had actually been settled under Joshua. There was a great gap between conquest and settlement. He had conquered, but he had moved on. His aim had been to establish their presence in the land and make them safe from attack, and he had defeated the enemy all around while maintaining their central headquarters at Gilgal. Some land was already possessed during the life of Joshua thanks to the persistence of men like Caleb (Jos 15:13-19; Jos 11:21-23), but it was only a beginning and Joshua was now old. His twofold aim was thus to spur the tribes into active possession (Jos 24:28) and seal them together in the tribal covenant (Joshua 24). He wanted to arouse their enthusiasm and to maintain their unity in diversity around the central sanctuary, for he knew that for him death was not far away (Jos 24:29). Then the actual final settlement of the whole of the land must continue in earnest.
What a different picture is presented as Joshua grows old. While he was in command and subduing the inhabitants all was optimism. They went from victory to victory. But now there was hesitancy. Judah under Caleb had commenced possession of the southern hill country and lowland hills, as had Ephraim and Manasseh in the northern hills, but the latter had already declared that the task was too much for them (Jos 17:16) and the other tribes were even more hesitant (Jos 18:3). Conquest under Joshua had been ‘great’. Settling the land and removing the inhabitants without him was different. A covenant treaty with Shechem had been fine but it prevented them taking up all the land in that area, and thus the hills were not sufficient for them (Jos 17:16) and in the plains they now knew that there were chariots with iron accoutrements (Jos 17:16).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Caleb Granted Hebron for an Inheritance
v. 6. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, v. 7. Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea, v. 8. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, v. 9. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children’s forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord, my God. v. 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, v. 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. v. 12. Now, therefore, give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake in that day, v. 13. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance, v. 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, v. 15. And the name of Hebron before,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Ver. 6. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal Or, Now the children of Judah had come, &c.
And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite See Num 32:12.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is a very interesting narrative respecting Caleb. The Holy Ghost hath much endeared this man to the church, in the account given of him when he went up to spy out the promised land. And the modesty with which he puts in his claim to Joshua, who upon that occasion was only equal with himself, evidently gives us to see that he was a possessor of grace and of the spirit of humility. I beg the Reader to observe with me, that in this appeal to Joshua, he founds his pretensions on the divine promise, and brings with him of the tribe of Judah to justify his appeal. It is very sweet when we can plead God’s promises for the accomplishment of God’s glory. And it is very sweet also when we come before our God and Saviour, to bring with us his people. Our Lord sprang out of Judah. Heb 7:14 . There is somewhat particularly interesting in this view of Caleb. He was now the very oldest person except Joshua, (and it is not very certain but he was the elder of the two), in all the host of Israel. To see him therefore, as an old and faithful servant of the Lord, coming with a petition, must have been a very interesting sight; and especially when he was enabled to plead his long and best, however humble, services. If it be a youthful Reader before whom these lines in my Commentary appear, I would have him pause and consider the loveliness of youthful zeal for God, and how sure it is, as in the instance of Caleb, to produce humble confidence in Jesus in old age. See Num 14:24 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jos 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.
Ver. 6. Then the children of Judah, ] i.e., The chief of them came, as advocates for Caleb, who was a man of great eminency in their tribe.
And Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
Thou knowest the thing.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joshua
CALEB-A GREEN OLD AGE
Jos 14:6
Five and forty years had passed since the Lord had ‘said this thing.’ It was the promise to these two, now old men, of the prolongation of their lives, and to Caleb of his inheritance in the land. Seven years of fighting have been got through, and the preparations are being made for the division of the land by lot. But, before that is done, it is fitting that Caleb, whose portion had been specially secured to him by that old promise, should have the promise specially recognised and endorsed by the action of the leader, and independent of the operation of the lot. So he appears before Joshua, accompanied by the head men of his tribe, whose presence expresses their official consent to the exceptional treatment of their tribesman, and urges his request in a little speech, full of pathos and beauty and unconscious portraiture of the speaker. I take it as a picture of an ideal old age, showing in an actual instance how happy, vigorous, full of buoyant energy and undiminished appetite for enterprise a devout old age may be. And my purpose now is not merely to comment on the few words of our text, but upon the whole of what falls from the lips of Caleb here.
I. I see then here, first, a life all built upon God’s promise.
Then notice, still further, how for all these forty-five years Caleb had ‘hid the word in his heart,’ had lived upon it and thought about it and believed it, and recognised the partial fulfilment of it, and cherished the secret fire unknown to any besides. And now at last, after so long an interval, he comes forward and stretches out a hand, unweakened by the long delay, to claim the perfect fulfilment at the end of his days. So ‘the vision may tarry,’ but a life based upon God’s promise has another estimate of swiftness and slowness than is current amongst men who have only the years of earthly life to reckon by; and that which to sense seems a long, weary delay, to faith seems but as ‘a watch in the night’. The world, which only measures time by its own revolutions, has to lament over what seem to the sufferers long years of pains and tears, but in the calendar of faith ‘weeping endures for a night, joy cometh in the morning.’ The weary days dwindle into a point when they are looked at with an eye that has been accustomed to gaze on the solemn eternities of a promising and a faithful God. To it, as to Him, ‘a thousand years are as one day’; and ‘one day,’ in the possibilities of divine favour and spiritual growth which it may enfold, ‘as a thousand years.’ To the men who measure time as God measures it, His help, howsoever long it may tarry, ever comes ‘right early.’
Further, note how this life, built upon faith in the divine promise, was nourished and nurtured by instalments of fulfilment all along the road. Two promises were given to Caleb-one, that his life should be prolonged, and the other, that he should possess the territory into which he had so bravely ventured. The daily fulfilment of the one fed the fire of his faith in the ultimate accomplishment of the other, and he gratefully recounts it now, as part of his plea with Joshua-’Now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive as He spake, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses. And now, lo! I am this day fourscore and five years old.’
Whosoever builds his life on the promise of God has in the present the guarantee of the better future. As we are journeying onwards to that great fountain-head of all sweetness and felicity, there are ever trickling brooks from it by the way, at which we may refresh our thirsty lips and invigorate our fainting strength. The present instalment carries with it the pledge of the full discharge of the obligation, and he whose heart and hope is fixed with a forward look on the divine inheritance, may, as he looks backward over all the years, see clearly in them one unbroken mass of preserving providences, and thankfully say, ‘The Lord hath kept me alive, as He spake.’
And, still further, the life that is built upon faith like this man’s, is a life of buoyant hopefulness till the very end. The hopes of age are few and tremulous. When the feast is nearly over, and the appetite is dulled, there is little more to be done, but to push back our chairs and go away. But God keeps ‘the good wine’ until the last. And when all earthly hopes are beginning to wear thin and to burn dim, then the great hope of ‘the mountain of the inheritance’ will rise brighter and clearer upon our horizon. It is something to have a hope so far in front of us that we never get up to it, to find it either less than our expectations or more than our desires; and this is not the least of the blessednesses of the living ‘hope that maketh not ashamed,’ that it lies before us till the very end, and beckons and draws us across the gulf of darkness. ‘The Lord hath kept me alive, as He said; now give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake.’
II. Further, I see here a life that bears to be looked back at.
Now, of course, such a tone of speaking about one’s past savours of an earlier stage in revelation than that in which we live, and, if this were to be taken as a man’s total account of his whole life, we could not free it from the charge of unpleasing self-complacency and self-righteousness. But for all that, it is not the same thing in the retrospect whether you and I have to look back upon years that have been given to self, and the world, and passion, and pride, and covetousness, and frivolities and trifles of all sorts, or upon years that in the main, and regard being had to their deepest desires and governing direction, have been given to God and to His service. Many a man looking back upon his life-I wonder if there are any such men listening to me now-can only see such a sight as Abraham did on that morning when he looked down on the plain of Sodom, and ‘Lo! the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.’ Dear friends I the only thing that makes life in the retrospect tolerable is that it shall have been given to God, and that we can say, ‘I wholly followed the Lord my God.’
III. Again, I see here a life which has discovered the secret of perpetual youth.
One of the greatest and most blessed of the characteristics of youth is the consciousness that the most of life lies before us; and to a Christian man, in any stage of his earthly life, that consciousness is possible. When he stands on the verge of the last sinking sandbank of time, and the water is up to his ankles, he may well feel that the best and the most of life is yet to be.
‘The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, “A whole I planned.
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid.”‘
‘They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be full of sap and green.’ A gnarled old tree may be green in all its branches, and blossom and fruit may hang together there. The ideal of life is, that into each stage we shall carry the best of the preceding, harmonised with the best of the new, and that is possible to a Christian soul. The fountain of perpetual youth, of which the ancients fabled, is no fable, but a fact; and it rises, where the prophet in his vision saw the stream coming out, from beneath the threshold of the Temple door.
IV. So, lastly, I see here a beautiful example of a life which to the last is ready for danger and enterprise.
Caleb’s readiness for one more fight was fed by his reliance on God’s help in it. When he says, ‘It may be the Lord will be with me,’ the perhaps is that of humility, not of doubt. The old warrior’s eye flashes, and his voice sounds strong and full, as he ends his words with ‘I shall drive them out, as the Lord spake .’ That has the true ring. What were the three Anak chiefs, with their barbarous names, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, and their giant stature, to the onset of a warrior faith like that? Of course, ‘Caleb drove out thence the three sons of Anak,’ and Hebron became his inheritance. Nothing can stand against us, if we seek for our portion, not where advantages are greatest, but where difficulties and dangers are most rife, and cast ourselves into the conflict, sure that God is with us, though humbly wondering that we should be worthy of His all-conquering presence, and sure, therefore, that victory marches by our sides.
Old age is generally much more disposed to talk about its past victories than to fight new ones; to rest upon its arms, or upon its laurels, than to undertake fresh conflicts. Now and then we see a man, statesman or other, who, bearing the burden of threescore years and ten lightly, is still as alert of spirit, as eager for work, as bold for enterprise, as he was years before. And in nine cases out of ten such a man is a Christian; and his brilliant energy of service is due, not only, nor so much, to natural vigour of constitution as to religion, which has preserved his vigour because it has preserved his purity, and been to him a stimulus and an inspiration.
Danger is an attraction to the generous mind. It is the coward and the selfish man who are always looking for an easy place, where somebody else will do the work. This man felt that this miraculously prolonged life of his bound him to special service, and the fact that up in Hebron there were a fenced city and tall giants behind the battlements, was an additional reason for picking out that bit of the field as the place where he ought to be. Thank God, that spirit is not dead yet! It has lived all through the Christian Church, and flamed up in times of martyrdom. On missionary fields to-day, if one man falls two are ready to step into his place. It is the true spirit of the Christian soldier. ‘A great door and effectual is opened,’ says Paul, ‘and there are many adversaries.’ He knew the door was opened because the adversaries were many. And because there were so many of them, would he run away? Some of us would have said: ‘I must abandon that work, it bristles with difficulties; I cannot stop in that post, the bullets are whistling too fast.’ Nay! says Paul; ‘I abide till Pentecost’-a good long while- because the post is dangerous, and promises to be fruitful.
So, dear friends, if we would have lives on which we can look back, lives in which early freshness will last beyond the ‘morning dew,’ lives in which there shall come, day by day and moment by moment, abundant foretastes to stay our hunger until we sit at Christ’s table in His kingdom, we must ‘follow the Lord alway,’ with no half-hearted surrender, nor partial devotion, but give ourselves to Him utterly, to be guided and sent where He will. And then, like Caleb, we shall be able to say, with a ‘perhaps,’ not of doubt, but of wonder, that it should be so, to us unworthy, ‘It may be the Lord will be with me, arid I shall drive them out.’ In all these things ‘we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 14:6-12
6Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me 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, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. 8Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully. 9So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.’ 10Now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. 11I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. 12Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.
Jos 14:6 Gilgal This refers to the original campsite close to Jericho. This is a flashback to an earlier time.
Caleb The name Caleb means dog (BDB 477). This passage is paralleled in Jdg 1:8-15. However, Caleb is described here as a Kenizzite (cf. 1Ch 4:13-16), which means that he was not originally of the tribe of Judah, but of a clan of Esau (cf. Gen 15:19; Gen 36:11). However, within the Pentateuch he is said to be within Judah (cf. Num 13:6; Num 14:24; Num 34:19; 1Ch 6:55-56). His exact relationship to Judah is uncertain, but he was a faithful, godly man and one of the two faithful spies (cf. Numbers 13, esp. Num 14:30-33).
the word See Num 14:24; Num 14:30.
Moses the man of God The phrase, man of God, is used of several people:
1. Moses (cf. Deu 33:1; 1Ch 23:14; 2Ch 30:16; Ezr 3:2; Psa 90:1)
2. Elijah
3. Elisha
4. Samuel
5. David
6. Shemiah
7. Hanan
8. anonymous person in 1Sa 2:27 and 1Ki 13:1-3
The phrase is never
1. man of YHWH
2. woman of God
For Elohim (God) see Special Topic: Names for Deity .
Kadesh-barnea This (BDB 873 II) was a large desert oasis which became the central point of the wilderness wandering period. It is south of the Dead Sea and midway between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Ocean. The word Kadesh comes from the Hebrew term holy, while the term barnea is unknown.
Jos 14:7 Moses the servant of the LORD This is the more common title for Moses. See note at Jos 1:1. It is an honorific title which was used for Joshua after his death. It may be the source of Paul’s favorite phrase the slave of Christ.
Jos 14:8 This refers to the majority report of the twelve spies recorded in Num 13:25-29; Num 14:1-10.
made the heart of the people melt with fear The VERB melt (BDB 587, KB 604, Hiphil PERFECT) is an idiom for fear and timidity (cf. Deu 1:28; Jos 5:1).
NASBbut I followed the LORD my God fully
NKJVbut I wholly followed the LORD my God
NRSVyet I wholeheartedly followed the LORD my God
TEVBut I faithfully obeyed the LORD my God
NJBwhereas I myself scrupulously obeyed Yahweh my God
JPSOAI was loyal to the LORD my God
The VERB (BDB 509, KB 583, Piel PERFECT, cf. Jos 14:9; Jos 14:14; Num 14:24; Num 32:11-12; Deu 1:36; 1Ki 11:6) is a testimony of Caleb’s faithfulness (i.e., wholly follow), even throughout the period where the other spies gave an evil report.
Jos 14:9 So Moses swore on that day (cf. Num 34:24; Deu 1:36).
forever See Special Topic: Forever (‘olam) .
Jos 14:10 I am eighty-five years old today He may have been been forty years old at the time he was the representative of Judah to spy out the land. Israel wandered thirty-eight years in the desert (cf. Deu 2:14); apparently the conquest had taken seven more years.
Jos 14:11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me This is the same kind of testimony that Moses gives of himself at the age of one hundred and twenty (cf. Deu 34:7).
for going out and coming in This is an idiom (BDB 422 and 97, both Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTS) for the strength and vitality needed for everyday life.
Jos 14:12 give me this hill country The VERB (BDB 678, 733, Qal IMPERATIVE) is a polite request to fulfill a previous promise of YHWH through Moses.
Anakim This is another reference to the giants. The etymology may be the long necks (BDB 778, cf. Jos 13:33). See note at Jos 11:21. Caleb wanted the hard assignment! He fully believed and acted on God’s promises!
perhaps the LORD will be with me This is a Hebrew idiom which does not refer to lack of faith, but is rather an expression of confidence that God will act appropriately.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
and thee. Supply the Figure of speech Ellipsis (App-6) thus: “and [concerning] thee”
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gilgal: Jos 4:19, Jos 10:43
Caleb: Num 13:6, Num 14:6
Kenezite: Jos 14:14, Jos 15:17, Num 32:12
Thou knowest: Num 14:24, Num 14:30, Deu 1:36-38
the man: Num 12:7, Num 12:8, Deu 33:1, Deu 34:5, Deu 34:10, Jdg 13:6-8, 1Ki 13:1, 1Ki 13:14, 2Ki 4:9, 2Ki 4:16, 2Ki 4:42, 2Ki 8:7, 2Ki 8:11, Psa 90:1, *title 1Ti 6:11, 2Ti 3:17
Kadeshbarnea: Num 13:26
Reciprocal: Num 13:30 – General Num 14:38 – General Num 32:8 – General Deu 1:2 – unto Jos 10:41 – Kadeshbarnea Jos 15:13 – Caleb 1Ch 4:15 – Caleb 1Ch 5:1 – reckoned 1Ch 5:2 – Judah Neh 12:24 – the man Jer 35:4 – a man 2Pe 1:21 – in old time
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Dividing the Inheritances
Jos 14:6-15; Jos 15:13-19
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We have come to a very interesting place in the early history of Israel-even to the dividing of the land, and to the allotting of the inheritances to each tribe, and family.
The sad phase of all of this is given to the student for consideration. It is his to consider those who failed of their inheritances, and of entrance into Canaan.
1. A story of unbelief. We remember how the Children of Israel under Moses had come up to Kadesh-barnea. At that time spies were sent out to bring a report of the land. Ten of the twelve brought a bad report. All of this discouraged the hearts of the elders in Israel, and they refused to go up.
The result was that the Lord swore in His wrath saying, “Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb * * and * * Joshua.”
A fuller statement of the unbelief of the elders is given in 1Co 10:1-12. There we read of five things which sprang up from unbelief, and which marred the wilderness journey of those who were turned back from entering into Canaan.
(1) They lusted after evil things. They were not satisfied with the Heavenly manna, the angels’ food which God gave unto them; nor were they satisfied with the meat, the quails, which He gave.
How many there are, today, who lust after evil things and forget the spiritual. They think more of the garlic and onions of Egypt, than they do of the Heavenly Bread. They think more of the red lentil porridge, than they think of the Heavenly Manna. They would rather drink from the wells of men, than to drink the Water of Life which conies from the Riven Rock.
(2) They were idolaters. Our mind goes at once to the golden calf which they worshiped when they sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
(3) They committed fornication; they tempted Christ; they murmured. In all of this they sinned. In one day there fell twenty-three thousand. Another day, they were destroyed by the serpents. Still later they were destroyed of the destroyer.
2. The lesson which we should learn. It is written: “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
In line with the warning above, the Holy Spirit has written two chapters in Hebrews reminding us of how the fathers tempted the Holy Ghost and proved Him, and saw His works forty years.
We read that they hardened their hearts in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Again we read that the Holy Spirit sware in His wrath and said: “They shall not enter into My rest.” With this historical statement recorded, the Spirit adds: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God.”
Thus, as we see those who utterly failed to enter into their Canaan rest and their inheritances, we are reminded that there remaineth a rest unto the children of God, and that into that rest some must enter. The warning, however, is distinctly made, “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
I. DIVIDING THE PORTIONS AMONG THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL (Jos 14:1-2)
1. Each tribe received something. We have just read how the elders of Moses’ day had failed to receive anything. Their bodies, with the exception of those of Caleb and Joshua, all fell in the wilderness. We now read that thirty years later, each tribe of Israel received an inheritance.
There is a passage in the New Testament which coincides with this: “Then shall every man have praise of God.” Our conclusion is, therefore, that all of the faithful will receive something by way of reward. It is written that a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shall receive its reward.
There are many people who vainly imagine that our present life, after we are saved, receives nothing when Christ comes by way of reward. They imagine that all will be alike in Heaven. Not so. Our God is not unfaithful, that He should forget our work and labor of love which we have showed toward His Name, in that we have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Every one of us, therefore, should be occupying with all fidelity till He come.
2. Each tribe received a different portion. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to reward His saints He will give to every one according as his work shall be.
The nobleman who went into a far country, left his servants to serve and to trade until the time of his return. When he returned he rewarded them according to that which they had gained.
Rewards will be based primarily upon three things. First, the life we have lived. Secondly, the faith we have held; and, thirdly, the work we have done. In all of this, let us seek to be faithful. It was a happy day when Israel had divided unto them their inheritances. It will be a happy day for us when ours are divided unto us.
II. CALEB MAKES HIS CLAIM (Jos 14:6)
1. Rewards are based upon worth. Our key verse says: “And Caleb * * said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.”
Caleb is reminding Joshua of the promise which God had made unto Moses concerning himself and Joshua. This promise of rewards was based upon their fidelity to God and their unswerving faith when they returned from espying the land. Caleb said: “I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.” Then he added: “I wholly followed the Lord my God.”
Christians should live their lives, not for present-hour rewards, but for those rewards which Christ will bring with Him when He comes. Christians should serve the Lord, knowing that of the Lord, they shall receive according to that which they do.
In the world we may have tribulation. For the while, it may seem as though there is no reward for faithfulness. However, we need to remember what Paul said in the Spirit: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.”
The undershepherd is to feed the flock of God, with the understanding that when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, he shall receive his crown.
2. Rewards are enlarged by faithfulness in the midst of adversity. Caleb stresses the fact that he followed fully, while his brethren who were spies with him, brought back an evil report of the land, and made the heart of the people to melt. It is one thing to be faithful, it is another thing to be faithful in the midst of predominant opposing forces.
There is something about Enoch which magnifies his fidelity and his testimony. He dwelt in the middle of an age which began with Adam, and ended with the Flood. While the apostasy swept the world he was true.
III. CLAIMING THE PROMISES (Jos 14:9)
1. Promises of long standing are still good. The 9th verse has something illuminating in it. Caleb said: “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.”
God’s Word is always good. It is forever settled in Heaven. The fact that centuries may pass, or even millenniums, between a promise and its fulfillment, has nothing to do with the certainty of God’s Word.
Our works, which are wrought today, awaith the time of Christ’s Return for their full reward.
The fact that Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Paul, lived so far back in the years, does not mean that they have, therefore, lost every possibility of reward at Christ’s Coming.
When we stand in the Millennial Kingdom we will be able to say, “There hath not failed one good thing of all that God hath spoken.” Every promise of God is yea, and Amen, in Christ Jesus.
Every promise in the Book is mine,
Every chapter, every verse, every line,
‘Tis the promise of His love,
Written from the courts above,
‘Tis a Word that’s all Divine,
In the glory it will shine,
It is mine.
2. Promises must be claimed. It was not unseemly for Caleb to press his claim. It was not uncouth for him to remind Joshua of the words spoken of the Lord, by the lips of Moses.
We not only have the right to claim God’s promises, but we honor God in so doing. If He hath spoken, we show our faith in His Word when we claim the verity of its promise. The truth is that God wants us to put in our claims. He delights in having us place our feet upon His pledges. When we pray, claiming some promise from the pen of the Spirit we honor the Spirit.
There is one thing against which we must guard. That is the misquotations of Scripture, and the misapplication thereof. Satan said to Christ: “It is written.” Christ quickly replied: “It is written again.”
IV. GOD KEEPS CALEB FOR HIS PROMISES (Jos 14:10-11)
1. Caleb was kept alive in order that he might inherit his inheritance. In Jos 14:10 he said: “Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses.” Caleb reminded Joshua that he was forty years old when he had returned with a good report of the land, when he had received the promise of his inheritance. He said that through Divine power he had been kept alive by God until his eighty-fifth year. Yet said he: “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.”
2. The inheritance had been kept as securely as Caleb was kept. We love to put it this way: Caleb was kept for his inheritance, and the inheritance was kept for Caleb. Thus it is that God works at both ends of the line.
In the Epistle of Peter we read these words: “An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you.” The word “reserved” means “kept.” There is hardly anyone who will read this study who will doubt God’s keeping power, so far as our Heavenly inheritance is concerned. He is not only able to keep it, but He will keep is undefiled. There is no danger of a cyclone coming, or of some devastating fire to sweep the Heavenly Mansions from the Glory. They are kept awaiting the day when we shall enter in.
It is in this that the believer greatly rejoices, even though for a season he may be in heaviness through manifold temptations. He rejoices that he is kept for an inheritance which is kept for him, Joshua lived to see the day which proved that he who had been kept entered into an inheritance which had been kept for him. The forty-five years of trial did not mar God’s keeping power.
V. HAVING OBTAINED HELP OF GOD (Jos 14:12-15)
1. He who had helped him hitherto. Caleb stood before Joshua and said in effect: God hath hitherto helped me, and He will not fail me now. Caleb knew that the God of yesterday would prove the God of today. The God that he served was not a God merely who had wrought, but a God who could work.
Would that this vision of the Almighty might grip us at this very hour. Too many of us are living on past glories. We delight in reciting the conquests of yesterday. We live in the victories of the past. Church history, with its stories of the martyrs of the faith, with its messages of great achievements and marvelous blessing, thrill us.
We delight to study the biographies of such men as Paul and Melanchthon, as Luther and Calvin, as Spurgeon and Moody. While we do this, we find that the church of our own day is being swept with apostasy, swayed by unbelief, and engulfed with a deluge of worldliness. Are there no present-day herpes and heroines to stem the tide?
2. He who would still help. Caleb asked for no easy inheritance. To be sure the Lord had brought him into the land. To be sure He had led him through forty-five years, and renewed his strength as the eagle’s. However, the place which he asked for an inheritance was a place which had not yet been fully overcome. Therefore, Caleb said: “If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”
At forty years of age, Caleb had told the Children of Israel how the Anakims were there, but said he, “Our God is abundantly able.” Caleb, now at eighty-five years of age, had lost none, of his old-time faith. He was still ready for an aggressive warfare, not, however, in his own strength.
He placed his faith in the Lord, and therefore he was ready to fight.
To us one of the beautiful verses of Scripture is Jos 14:13. “And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb * * Hebron for an inheritance.”
VI. CALEB’S GENEROSITY (Jos 15:16-17)
1. Our minds go to the marriage in the skies. Jos 15:16 says: “And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.” Then we read: “And Othniel * * took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.”
(1) Our Lord is Christ the Warrior. Our Lord met Satan and his principalities and powers upon the Cross. There in a battle unto the death, He vanquished them, triumphing over them in it.
(2) Our Lord by virtue of His conquest has been given a wonderful Bride to become His wife. That was a great day when Othniel took Achsah to be his wife. It was a day of feasting and of rejoicing. That will be a more wonderful day when Jesus Christ takes His wife unto Himself. It will be a memorable feast, that will crown that Heavenly Marriage.
We read in Rev 19:1-21, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” After describing the beauty of the bride, as she was arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the angel said unto John, “Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”
2. Our minds go to the inheritance of the Bride. Caleb gave unto his daughter and unto Othniel a marvelous inheritance. Will God not give unto His Son, and to the Bride of the Lamb, a wonderful inheritance?
In the Book of Revelation we read: “Come hither, I will shew thee the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife.” Then John was carried away, in the Spirit, to a great and high mountain and he saw that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God.
We are entranced as we view the glory of that City. Its light was like unto a stone most precious. The city had a wall great and high. It had twelve gates, and every several gate was one pearl. The street of the City was pure gold. The City had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord did lighten it and the Lamb was the Light thereof.
VII. THE UPPER AND THE NETHER SPRINGS (Jos 15:18-19)
A Blessing to conserve a blessing. Caleb had given to Othniel not alone his daughter as a reward for his valor, but he had given also a certain land for him to possess. Now, in addition to the land they made another request of Caleb. His daughter said: “Thou hast given me a south land: give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.”
It was necessary in order to conserve the fertility of the land to have water wherewith it could be watered. Therefore, the springs were given,-both the upper and the nether springs. Let us consider these two springs in their spiritual significance.
1. The upper springs suggest the believer’s spiritual blessings. We who live down here are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places. The things not seen, take precedence over the things seen; the things which are above, superabound over the things which are beneath.
Saints who are journeying among men delight in setting their affection on the things above, not on the things which are upon the earth.
May we enumerate some of those spiritual blessings which are ours in Christ. These are the waters which flow from the upper springs. In Ephesians chapter 1 we read of the blessings in the Heavenlies as follows:
(1) We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
(2) We are predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself.
(3) We are acclaimed as accepted in the Beloved.
(4) Through Him and His Blood we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.
(5) In Him we have obtained an inheritance.
(6). In Him, after we believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, until the Redemption of the purchased possession.
2. The nether springs. These stand for our earthly and temporal blessings. We do not have time to enumerate them. They are, however, all included in one verse of Scripture: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
Let us not be satisfied with small things. God has a great inheritance for us, A friend of mine, a great preacher who died only a little while ago, once told me this story. He was staying with a friend, and, while dressing, out of his bedroom window he saw a sea gull in the back yard trying to take a bath in a pie dish filled with rain water! The poor bird’s wings were clipped, and it was tamed because of that fact Fancy a sea gull, born to free-wheel over an ocean, and born to circle the moon and the stars, a gull, the child of empires and worlds, trying to feed itself and satisfy itself in a pie dish!
There are thousands of people who arc doing no better than that today. We cannot satisfy our immortal interests, our Divine nature, with the things that we can handle any more than that poor little clipped-wing sea gull could satisfy himself in a pie dish.-From The Beauty of Jesus, by Gipsy Smith.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Jos 14:6. Then the children of Judah came When Joshua, Eleazar, and the rest were consulting about the division of the land, and before they had begun to cast lots, some of the children of Judah interposed in behalf of Caleb, coming along with him to show him respect, to testify their consent that he should be provided for by himself, and to be witnesses of the truth of what he alleged. In Gilgal Where the division of the land was designed, and begun, though it was executed and finished in Shiloh. The Kenezite Of the posterity of Kenaz. Thou knowest the thing the Lord said In general, the promise he made us of possessing this land, and what he said concerning me in particular, Jos 14:9.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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 {c} thee in Kadeshbarnea.
(c) Which was that only those two should enter into the land, Num 14:24.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Caleb’s inheritance 14:6-15
Before the casting of lots began, Caleb came to Joshua with his fellow tribesmen from Judah to request the inheritance that Moses had promised him (Jos 14:9; Deu 1:36; cf. Num 14:26-38). Moses had promised Caleb land in Canaan but had not specified its location. The reason for this special blessing was Caleb’s faithfulness to God when he served as one of the 12 spies. Joshua also received a personal allotment later (Jos 19:49-50).
"Caleb represents all of Israel as one who receives an allotment and takes the land for himself." [Note: Hess, p. 239.]
Caleb was a member of the clan in Judah called the Kenizzites (Jos 14:6; Jos 14:14). He was probably not a descendant of the Kenizzites who were early inhabitants of Canaan (Gen 15:19). Another view is that the early Canaanite Kenizzites joined the tribe of Judah before the Exodus. [Note: Campbell, "Joshua," p. 357.]
The references to Caleb’s age enable us to determine the length of the conquest of Canaan. Caleb had received the promise of a portion in the land at Kadesh Barnea 38 years before the Israelites crossed the Jordan and entered Canaan (Num 14:24). Caleb was 40 years old then (Jos 14:7). He was now 85 (Jos 14:10). Forty-five years had elapsed, and Caleb had spent 38 of them in the wilderness. Therefore the conquest must have taken the remaining seven years.
The portion Caleb requested was within the tribal allotment of Judah, his tribe. He asked for part of the hill country that the giants who had discouraged his fellow spies still inhabited. In making his request (Jos 14:12), Caleb referred to the very things that the unbelieving spies had pointed out to discourage the Israelites from entering the land: hill country, Anakim, and large fortified cities (cf. Num 13:28-29). Joshua gave him the town of Hebron that was, and still is, an important city. The notation that the ancient name of Hebron was Kiriath-arba, the city of Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim (giants), is significant (Jos 14:15). It recalls God’s faithfulness in giving this giant’s city to Caleb, who had believed God could do so 45 years earlier.
Caleb was still strong in faith as well as in body, even though he was old. He continued to trust in God to fulfill His promise concerning the land rather than in his personal physical ability to take it from the enemy. His name means "according to the heart."
"It would have been natural for Caleb to ask for a ’soft spot’-a portion of land already conquered where he could settle down and spend the rest of his life raising a few vegetables or flowers. Instead, at 85, he asked for the very section that had struck terror into the hearts of the ten spies. . . .
"This courageous old warrior, who did not expect to receive his inheritance without exerting himself, is a splendid example for an age which increasingly looks for cradle-to-casket protection." [Note: Jacobsen, p. 100.]
John Cawood identified Caleb’s outstanding features as uncompromising convictions, unreserved commitment, unalterable courage, and unwavering confidence. [Note: John Cawood, "The Godly Features of Caleb," Confident Living 44:10 (November 1986):53-55.]
"Joshua 14 thus sets forth two major points, which continue to have value for the people of God. Life in all its dimensions is to be lived according to the plans set forth by God, not by the greedy, selfish plans designed by man. Blessing comes ultimately to the man who totally follows God." [Note: Butler, p. 175.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXII.
THE INHERITANCE OF CALEB*.
Jos 14:6-15.
CALEB is one of those men whom we meet with seldom in Bible history, but whenever we do meet them we are the better for the meeting. Bright and brave, strong, modest and cheerful, there is honesty in his face, courage and decision in the very pose of his body, and the calm confidence of faith in his very look and attitude. It is singular that there should be cause to doubt whether his family were originally of the promised seed. When introduced to us in the present passage he is emphatically called “Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite” (R.V., Kenizzite, rightly, same as Kenizzite in Gen 15:19), as if he had been a descendant of Kenaz, a son of Esau (Gen 36:11; Gen 36:15), and a member of the Kenizzite tribe. It was not customary to distinguish Israelites in this way, but only those who had come among them from other tribes, like “Heber the Kenite,” “Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite” (Jdg 4:11; Jdg 4:17), Uriah the Hittite, Hushai the Archite, etc. Moreover, Othniel, Caleb’s younger brother, is called the son of Kenaz (Jos 15:17); and further, when it is recorded in the fourteenth verse of this chapter that Hebron became the possession of Caleb, the reason assigned is that he “wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” On the other hand, in the genealogical list of 1Ch 4:13; 1Ch 4:15, Othniel and Caleb occur as if they were regular members of the tribe; but that list shows obvious signs of imperfection. On the whole, the preponderance of evidence is in favour of the opinion that Caleb’s family were originally outside the covenant, but had become proselytes, like Hobab, Rahab, Ruth, and Heber. Their faith was pre-eminently the fruit of conviction, and not the accident of heredity. It had a firmer basis than that of most Israelites. It was woven more closely into the texture of their being, and swayed their lives more powerfully. It is pleasing to think that there may have been many such proselytes; that the promise to Abraham may have attracted souls from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south; that even beyond the limits of the twelve tribes many hearts may have been cheered, and many lives elevated and purified by the promise to him, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
*There is some difficulty in adjusting the three passages in which the settlement of Caleb is referred to. From this first passage of the three, we are led to think that it was before the tribe of Judah obtained its portion. Again, from Jos 15:13 we might suppose that it was simultaneously with the rest of the tribe. From Jdg 1:10, again, it might be thought that the subduing of the natives in Hebron was effected, not by Caleb alone, but by the tribe of Judah, and that it took place “after the death of Joshua ” (Jdg 1:1). Putting all these together, it would appear that Hebron was assigned to Caleb before the tribe of Judah was settled; that this allocation was ratified at the general settlement; that as Caleb was a member of the tribe, his services against the Canaanites, and especially the Anakim, were ascribed to his tribe; and that the process of dispossessing the Canaanites went on for some time after the death of Joshua. The repetitions in the narrative concerning Caleb form one of the considerations that favour the idea of more sources than one having been made use of in the composition of this book.
Caleb and Joshua had believed and acted alike, in opposition to the other ten spies; but Caleb occupies the more prominent place in the story of their heroism and faith. It was he that “stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it ” (Num 13:30); and at first his name occurs alone, as exempted from the sentence of exclusion against the rest of his generation: ”But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went: and his seed shall possess it ” (Num 14:24). As we have said before, it is probable that Caleb was the readier speaker, and it is possible that he was the firmer man. Joshua seems to have wanted that power of initiation which Caleb had. It was because he had always been a good follower that Joshua in his old age was fitted to be a leader. Because he had been a good servant he became a good master. As long as Moses lived, Joshua was his servant. After Moses died, Joshua set himself simply to carry out his instructions. It was a happy thing for him on the return of the ten spies that Caleb was one of them, otherwise he might have found himself in a condition of embarrassment. Caleb was evidently the man who led the opposition to the ten, not only asserting the course of duty, but manifesting the spirit of contempt and defiance toward the faithless cowards that forgot that God was with them. In his inmost heart Joshua was quite of his mind, but probably he wanted the energetic manner, the ringing voice, the fearless attitude of his more demonstrative companion. Certain it is that Caleb reaped the chief honour of that day*.
*Some readers may no doubt prefer the explanation that when Caleb is mentioned alone one document was followed, and when Caleb and Joshua are coupled, another.
It is beautiful to see that there was no rivalry between them. Not only did Caleb interpose no remonstrance when Joshua was called to succeed Moses, but he seems all through the wars to have yielded to him the most loyal and hearty submission. God had set His seal on Joshua, and the people had ratified the appointment, and Caleb was too magnanimous to allow any poor ambition of his, if he had any, to come in the way of the Divine will and the public good. His affectionate and cordial bearing on the present occasion seems to show that not even in the corner of his heart did there linger a trace of jealousy toward the old friend and companion whom on that occasion he had surpassed, but who had been set so much higher than himself. He came to him as the recognised leader of the people – as the man whose voice was to decide the question he now submitted, as the judge and arbiter in a matter which very closely concerned him and his house.
And yet there are indications of tact on the part of Caleb, of a thorough understanding of the character of Joshua, and of the sort of considerations by which he might be expected to be swayed. There were two grounds on which he might reasonably look for the conceding of his request – his personal services, and the promise of Moses. Caleb knows well that the promise of Moses will influence Joshua much more than any other consideration; therefore he puts it in the foreground. “Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.” “Moses, the man of God.” Why does Caleb select that remarkable epithet? Why add anything to the usual name, Moses? The use of the epithet was honouring to all the three.
That which constituted the highest glory of Moses was that he was so much at one with God. God’s will was ever his law, and he was in such close sympathy with God that whatever instructions he gave on any subject might be assumed to be in accordance with God’s will. Moreover, in calling him “the man of God” when addressing Joshua, Caleb assumed that Joshua would be impressed by this consideration, and would be disposed to agree to a request which was not only sanctioned by the will of Moses, but by that higher will which Moses constantly recognised. In short, when Joshua considered that the particular wish of Moses which Caleb now recalled was only the expression of the Divine will, Caleb felt assured that he could not withhold his consent. The three men were indeed a noble trio, worthy descendants of their father Abraham, even if one of the three was no son of Jacob. Long before our Lord taught the petition “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” it had become habitual to them all. Moses was indeed ”the man of God,” – preeminently in fellowship with Him; in a lower sphere both Caleb and Joshua were of the same order, men who tried to live their lives, and every part of them, only in God.
Having fortified his plea with this strong reference at once to Moses and to God, Caleb proceeds to rehearse the service which had led to the promise of Moses. The facts could not but be well known to Joshua. “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 my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the Lord my God.” Why does Caleb put the matter in this way? Why does he not couple Joshua with himself as having been faithful on that never-to-be- forgotten occasion? The only explanation that seems feasible is, that from the pre-eminent position of Joshua this was unnecessary, perhaps it might have appeared even unbecoming. A soldier making a request of the Duke of Wellington, and recalling some service he had done at the battle of Waterloo, would hardly think it necessary, or even becoming, to say how the Duke, too, had been there, and what surpassing service he had rendered on that day. A soldier like the Duke occupying a position of unrivalled pre-eminence on account of long and brilliant service, does not need to be told what he has done, Joshua was now the leader of Israel, and the last few years had crowned him with such manifold glory that his whole life was transfigured, and individual acts of service did not need to be spoken of Caleb was comparatively an obscure individual, whose fame rested on a single service now nearly half a century old, which could not, indeed, be quite forgotten, but amid the brilliant events of later times might easily pass out of sight and out of mind. There was no disparagement of Joshua, therefore, in his not being mentioned by Caleb, but, on the contrary, a silent tribute to his exalted office as chief ruler of Israel, and to his all but unparalleled services, especially during these later years.
“I brought him word again, as it was in my heart.” The statement is made in no boasting spirit, and yet what a rare virtue it denotes! Caleb, as we now say, had the courage of his convictions. He had both an honest heart and an honest tongue. We can have but little idea what temptations he lay under not to speak what was in his heart. For six weeks these ten men had been his close companions. They had eaten together, slept under the same canvas, walked by the same paths, beguiled the long way by story and anecdote, and no doubt by joke and play of humour, and done kind offices to each other as circumstances required. To break away from your own set, from the comrades of your campaign, to upset their plans, and counsel those in power to a course diametrically opposed to theirs, is one of the most difficult of social duties. And in these days of ours there is no duty more commonly set aside. Moral cowardice has been well said to be one of the most common vices of our age.
What more common in Parliament, for example, than for men to differ strongly from some of the measures of their party, and yet, because it is their party, support them by their votes? And in the ranks of the Church and of its various sections the same tendency prevails, though it may be in a less degree. Of the many able and seemingly honest prelates of the Roman Church who dissented, often with vehemence, from the Vatican decree of the pope’s infallibility, what became finally of their opposition? Were there more than one or two who did not surrender in the end, and agree to profess what they did not believe? And to come to more ordinary matters, when our opinions on religious subjects are at a discount, when they are met with ridicule, how often do we conceal them, or trim and modify them in order that we may not share in the current condemnation? The men that have the courage of their convictions are often social martyrs, shut out from the fellowship of their brethren, shut out from every berth of honour or emolument, and yet, for their courage and honesty, worthy of infinitely higher regard than whole hundreds of the time-servers that ”get on” in the world by humouring its errors and its follies.
Nevertheless, though most of us show ourselves miserably weak by not speaking out all that is “in our hearts,” especially when the honour of our Lord and Master is concerned, we are able to appreciate and cannot fail to admire the noble exhibitions of courage that we sometimes meet with. That beautiful creation of Milton’s, the Seraph Abdiel, “faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he,” is the type and ideal of the class. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resisting the enthusiasm of myriads and calmly defying the fiery furnace; the Apostle Paul clinging to his views of the law and the gospel when even his brother Peter had begun to waver; Martin Luther, with his foot on the Bible confronting the whole world; John Knox defying sovereign and nobles and priests alike, determined that the gospel should be freely preached; Carey, going out as a missionary to India amid the derision of the world, because he could not get the words out of his head, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature,” – have all exemplified the Caleb spirit that must utter what is in the heart; nor has any new idea commonly laid hold of mankind till the struggles of some great hero or the ashes of some noble martyr have gone to sanctify the cause.
“He that believeth shall not make haste.” Caleb believed, and therefore he was patient. Five-and-forty long years had elapsed since Moses, the man of God, speaking in the Spirit of God, had promised him a particular inheritance in the land. It was a long time for faith to live on a promise, but, like a tree in the face of a cliff that seems to grow out of the solid rock, it derived nourishment from unseen sources. It was a long time to be looking forward; but Caleb, though he did not receive the promise during all that time, was persuaded of it and embraced it, and believed that at last it would come true. He did not anticipate the proper time, though he might have had as plausible reasons for doing so as the two tribes and a half had for asking leave to settle on the east side of the river. He bore his share of warlike work, bore the burden and heat of the day, waited till the proper time for dividing the land. Nor did he rush forward selfishly by himself, disregarding the interests of the rest of his tribe; for the children of Judah, recognising his claim, draw near to Joshua along with him. Nor was it a portion of the land which any tribe might be eager to enter upon that he asked; for it was still so harassed by the Anakim, that there would be no peace till that formidable body of giants were driven out.
It seems that when acting as one of the twelve spies, Caleb had in some emphatic way taken his stand on Hebron. “The land on which thy foot hath trodden will be an inheritance to thee.” Perhaps the spies were too terrified to approach Hebron, for the sons of the Anakim were there, and, in the confidence of faith, Caleb, or Caleb and Joshua, had gone into it alone. Moses had promised him Hebron, and now he came to claim it. But he came to claim it under circumstances that would have induced most men to let it alone. The driving out of the Anakim was a formidable duty, and the task might have seemed more suitable for one who had the strength and enthusiasm of youth on his side. But Caleb, though eighty-five, was yet young. Age is not best measured by years. He was a remarkable instance of prolonged vigour and youthful energy. “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, and to go out and to come in.” Faith, and temperance, and cheerfulness are wonderful aids to longevity. As one reads these words of Caleb, one recalls the saying of a well-known physician, Dr. Richardson, that the human frame might last for a hundred years if it were only treated aright.
There is something singularly touching in Caleb’s asking as a favour what was really a most hazardous but important service to the nation. Rough though these Hebrew soldiers were, they were capable of the most gentlemanly and chivalrous acts. There can be no higher act of courtesy than to treat as a favour to yourself what is really a great service to another. Well done, Caleb! You do not ask for a berth which there will be no trouble in taking or in keeping. You are not like Issachar, the strong ass couching between the sheepfolds: “and he saw a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under task-work.” The dew of youth is yet upon you, the stirring of lofty purpose and noble endeavour; you are like the warhorse of Job – “he paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength; he mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed; he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.”
There is nothing we admire more in military annals than a soldier volunteering for the most hazardous and difficult of posts, – showing
“That stern joy which warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel.”
In the spiritual warfare, too, we do not want instances of the same spirit. We recall Captain Allan Gardiner choosing Tierra del Fuego as his mission sphere just because the people were so ferocious, the climate so repulsive, and the work so difficult that no one else was likely to take it up. We think of the second band who went out after Gardiner and his companions had been starved to death; and still more after these were massacred by the natives, of the third detachment who were moved simply by the consideration that the case was seemingly so desperate. Or we think of Livingstone begging the directors of the London Missionary Society, wherever they sent him, to be sure that it was “Forward”; turning aside from all previous mission stations, and the comparative ease they afforded, to grapple with the barbarian where he had never begun to be tamed; his eyes thirsting for unknown scenes and untried dangers, because he scorned to build on the foundation of others, and thirsted for “fresh woods and pastures new.” We think of him persevering in his task from year to year in the same lofty spirit; disregarding the misery of protracted pain, the intense longings of his weary heart for home, the repulsive society of savages and cannibals, the vexations, disappointments, and obstacles that seemed to multiply every day, the treachery of so-called friends whom he had helped to raise, the indifference of a careless world, and of a languid Church; but ever girding himself with fresh energy for the task which he had undertaken, and of which the difficulties and trials had never been absent from his thoughts. We think of many a young missionary turning away from the comfortable life which he might lead at home and which many of his companions will lead, that he may go where the need is greatest and the fight is hottest, and so render to his Master the greatest possible service. A crowd of noble names comes to our recollection – Williams, and Judson, and Morrison, and Burns, and Patteson, and Keith- Falconer, and Hannington, and Mackay – men for whom even the Anakim had no terrors, but rather an attraction; but who, serving under another Joshua, differed from Caleb in this, that what they desired was not to destroy these ferocious Anakim, but to conquer them by love, and to demonstrate the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change the vilest reprobates into sons of God.
And even now there are other Anakim among us for whom the fate of the Canaanite giants ought to be reserved. Anakim within us – greed, selfishness, love of ease, lust, passion, cruelty – all, if we are faithful, to be put to the edge of the sword. And there are Anakim, tremendous Anakim, around us – drunkenness, and all that fosters it, despite the paltry excuses we so often hear; sensuality, that vile murderer of soul and body together; avarice, so cruelly unjust, and content to gather its hoard from the thews and sinews of men and women to whom life has become worse than slavery; luxurious living, that mocks the struggles of thousands to whom one crumb from the table or one rag from the wardrobe would bring such a blessed relief. With giants like these we need to wage incessant war, and for the necessary spirit we need constant supplies of the faith and courage that were so remarkable in Caleb. He followed the Lord fully; believing that if the Lord deserved to be followed at all. He deserved to be followed in full. What was there to gain by following Him one half, and surrendering the other half to the world? Could he count on God helping him if he went with but half his heart into His service, and, like Lot’s wife, looked back even when flying from Sodom? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy might.”
The tendency to compromise is one of the besetting sins of the day. In the army or the navy, if one is to serve God at all, one must serve Him wholly. Decision is eminently requisite there, and Christians there are commonly more whole-hearted and consistent than in many circles nominally Christian. Decision is manly, is noble; it brings rest within, and in the end it conciliates the respect of the bitterest foes. Courage is the ornament of Christianity, and the crown of the Christian youth. “Fear not” is one of the brightest gems of the Bible.