Joshua 14, Caleb's Birthday Request! Series

By now, Caleb has reminded Joshua of the promise which Moses had made. Now Caleb is reminding Joshua that a, I’m still alive; b, today is my 85th birthday; c, I’m still as strong now as I was 45 years ago! Joshua may have remembered Moses, being 120 years of age but still as strong as he ever was, even as Moses took that last walk up to Mount Nebo to see the Promised Land—even though he could never enter it in person (compare Numbers 27:12-14 and Deuteronomy 34:1-6).. The LORD had told Joshua back in chapter13, “You are old and stricken in years” but that didn’t seem to be the case for Caleb.

Now Caleb makes his birthday request, and it wasn’t for honor, riches, a military promotion, or anything that just about anybody would or could ask for. Caleb asked Joshua for a mountain, near Hebron, many miles to the south of Gilgal where Joshua was, perhaps, making his headquarters. There was still much to do, but Joshua did have time for Caleb and his request.

And Caleb showed not only a bit of modesty, in not asking for anything great or large; he asked for what might have been some of the most difficult terrain or land in all Canaan! Hebron is located over 3000 feet above sea level (https://bibleatlas.org/full/hebron.htm) and faces travel from all directions!

So then, I’ve sometimes wondered myself why Caleb would want this particular tract of land. Then, some ideas came to mind. One, Hebron was and is where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah were all buried (see Gen. 23:3-20; 25:8-10; 49:31-32, 50:13). These people are all ancestors of Caleb, as he was from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:35).

There could be another reason. Caleb might well have remembered the Anakim, whatever they were (some think they were giants, like Goliath) and how they had lived near Hebron. Caleb, like few of the other Israelites, remembered that the LORD had told the Israelites to utterly destroy all the Canaanites—but some had not, and others did not, do so. The other 10 spies had said, “We looked like grasshoppers” but Caleb didn’t see it that way.

Dr. Vance Havner once wrote in one of his books that D. L Moody was preaching at a certain place and in the audience there were a number of intellectuals, for lack of a better term. After the service, Moody was asked what he thought when he saw all those learned people in the audience and he replied, “They looked like grasshoppers”!

What a fitting comparison!

And Caleb knew that with the LORD’s assistance, he could drive out the Anakim completely. He truly wanted to follow the LORD completely/ Joshua of course gave Caleb a blessing and Hebron as his own inheritance.

The story here closes with the next few verses, but there’s a little more to the story. Let’s go on!

3 The Results

Text, Joshua 14:14-15, KJV: 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.