Caleb\u2014Jos_14:6-12<\/p>\n
The distribution of the southern land which had been conquered, although some strong cities in it remained unsubdued, was attended with one interesting incident. The allotment to Judah brought forward the pious old Caleb, one of the twelve spies who explored the land forty and five years before, and whose concurrence with Joshua in an encouraging report, not only exempted them from the doom which befell the other spies, but made them the sole survivors of that generation. This is the very man whom we should wish to come forward to tell us his experience and his impressions\u2014and we hail his address with all the satisfaction with which it seems to have been received by Joshua and the elders among whom he sat. The strain of familiarity which he adopts in addressing his old companion and friend, is exceedingly natural and becoming\u2014\u201cThou knowest the thing the Lord said unto Moses, concerning me and thee, in Kadesh-Barnea. Forty years old was I when the Lord sent me from Kadesh-Barnea to espy out the land: and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.\u201d We may pause a moment to note these words. From all that appears, the motion to search the land was made by the Israelites; and only conceded by Moses; and the appointment of the spies seems to have been by each tribe, one for itself. Indeed, the appointment of them by Moses in the name of the Lord, might have seemed invidious. How, then, does Caleb say that the Lord sent him? There is but one answer. Whatever a man undertakes with the desire to serve God, and executes so as to obtain his approval, is a work of the Lord, a work on which he was sent\u2014to which he was appointed. Again, he would consider that circumstances were overruled, in the Lord\u2019s providence, to lead to the appointment of himself among the twelve, that the truth might not be left without witnesses. When he perceived that, according to his wish, he had done the Lord\u2019s work, he could not but look out from the external circumstances of his appointment\u2014to the inner guidance, and supreme direction, which, through the outward form of man\u2019s appointment and choice, orders and directs the whole matter. He may have been aware of circumstances which, at the time, rendered it as likely, or more likely, that another should have been appointed by the tribe of Judah to this service\u2014but that the choice fell on himself would, when he came to look at the result, have seemed a special ordination of Providence, and doubtless was such.<\/p>\n
Well, then, on what plan and policy did he undertake this charge? Did he go with the purpose of framing his report according to the desires of Moses\u2014and according to what he pre-supposed to be the mind of the Lord? Not so. He had no plan\u2014he had no purpose but that of telling the plain and simple truth: \u201cI brought them word again, as it was in mine heart.\u201d Therefore that what came from the simple impulses of his heart\u2014of a right judgment, was well pleasing to God, shows that his heart was right with God; and that he had formed true conceptions of his character, his designs, and his covenant relations to Israel. The other spies spoke no less, we may suppose, from their heart, than he did from his. But their hearts were not right with God\u2014they were filled with fear and unbelief, and although they did speak from their hearts the truth as it appeared to them\u2014they spoke wrongly and falsely, because there was a disharmony between their spirits and the spirit of God. A good understanding have all they that seek God\u2014all they that love him; and they can venture to speak all that is in their hearts, knowing under what influence their judgments have been formed. This was the case, as we apprehend, with Caleb.<\/p>\n
Again, he goes on\u2014\u201cNevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.\u201d In this all his secret, all his distinction, lay. He wholly followed the Lord\u2014he had no reserve, no secondary objects, no low fears, no regard to human influence, or man\u2019s opinions. He wholly followed the Lord. And he had his reward, as those who follow the Lord wholly always have. Let us hear what that, in his case, was.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Moses sware on that day, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children\u2019s forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.\u201d Such was the promise, and now, after forty-five years, when the companions of his prime have perished around him\u2014he is alive mud strong, to claim its fulfillment\u2014\u201cAnd now behold the Lord hath kept me alive.\u201d It was the Lord that did everything for him. He does not exult in the strength of his constitution, on which time had made so slight impression. It was the Lord that kept him alive when, in the ordinary course of things, he would have been dead; and it was in spite of the tendencies of nature to dissolution and decay, that he now stood among the living in so much health and strength. His present existence, under all the circumstances, was a kind of resurrection from the dead. Therefore he glories in it\u2014this old man\u2014twenty years older than the eldest (except Joshua) in his nation\u2014he glories in it as a thing of God. \u201cThe Lord has kept me these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word to Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. And yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in.\u201d By this he not only glorifies God, who had so preserved him, and who was the strength as well as the length of his days, but intimates to Joshua that the grant of his application for the inheritance which Moses promised to him, and which was still in the hands of the Canaanites, would not be throwing away a portion upon a weak old man, unequal to the task of either taking or retaining it. On the contrary, if, as was the case, it were to be taken from the hands of giants\u2014for it was Hebron, where the sons of Anak were seen\u2014and would require the utmost prowess, energy, and nerve of the youthful warrior, he was still able to put it forth; and he was not afraid to cope at eighty-five with the same power which be would readily have encountered at forty. Yet after all he does not too implicitly rely upon the prowess of his green old age. His confidence lies elsewhere. Let us hear him: \u201cNow, therefore, give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spoke 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.\u201d Notwithstanding his consciousness of strength even in age\u2014he does not venture to think himself equal to this great enterprise, unless the Lord were with him.<\/p>\n
But there is one point to which an interesting writer directs attention, Note: The Church in Canaan. By William Seaton. London, Holdsworth, Edinburgh, W. Oliphant, 1823. Vol. i. pp. 199, 200. and which deserves special notice. It is that the inheritance was \u201ca mountain that he had himself seen, and that must have been present to his mind\u2019s eye during the whole forty years of wandering. He had seen the mountain when a spy, and notwithstanding all that unbelief did object, believed it would become his, now forty-five years before possession. This singular felicity was the reward of his singular piety. No doubt the thought often proved sweet to his mind, and made his future inheritance so present to view, as to give rest in wandering, and make him feel rich, while as yet he had nothing. The believer in Jesus, though he has not yet seen it with his eye, may claim a part in the portion of his people, and with much satisfaction leave it to his covenant God what that part shall be. Oh, to pass through time with general but lively impressions of that fairer inheritance mercy has entailed upon the faithful, that when the time of the promise shall draw near, and we are ready to enter into rest, we may be able to put in an humble claim, and say to him who is the divider of his people\u2019s portion\u2014\u201cGive me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day. Sweet is it to come to a period that fills the mind with the expectation of long-promised blessings, when just about to receive what the Lord, many years since, has spoken of concerning his people\u2014to realize in old age what has been their hope in youth, and has been their support and solace in the pilgrimage of a lengthened life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caleb\u2014Jos_14:6-12 The distribution of the southern land which had been conquered, although some strong cities in it remained unsubdued, was attended with one interesting incident. The allotment to Judah brought forward the pious old Caleb, one of the twelve spies who explored the land forty and five years before, and whose concurrence with Joshua in … Continue reading ““172. CALEB\u2014JOSHUA 14:6-12””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}