A Fighting Senior Citizen – Joshua 14:6-15
Intro:
20 Signs That You’re Getting Old
1. You’re asleep, but others worry that you’re dead.
2. Your back goes out more often than you do.
3. You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
4. You buy a compass for the dash of your car/truck.
5. You’re proud of your lawn mower.
6. Your arms are almost too short to read the newspaper.
7. You sing along with the elevator music.
8. You would rather go to work than stay home sick.
9. You enjoy hearing about other people’s operations.
10. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
11. People call at 9:00 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?"
12. You answer a question with, "Because I said so."
13. The end of your tie doesn’t come anywhere near the top of your pants.
14. You take a metal detector to the beach.
15. You know what the word "equity" means.
16. You can’t remember the last time you laid on the floor to watch television.
17. Your ears are hairier than your head.
18. You get into a heated argument about pension plans.
19. You got cable for The Weather Channel.
20. You’re sitting in a rocker and you can’t get it started.
I have a story to tell you today – a great story about an old man. It is found in Joshua 14:6-15. As you are looking that up in your Bibles to read along, let me review what we have been looking at in the book of Joshua up until today.
The first half of the book of Joshua is full of the stories of God leading His people, the Israelites, into the Promised Land. It started with the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River, and continued as the Israelites fought and claimed the land. Last week we looked at chapter 10 and 11, which summarized the military campaign. Chapter 12 is a simple list of all the kings that the Lord’s army had defeated, and it wraps up the first half of the book. The second half of the book of Joshua focuses on the division of the land, and how it was allocated to the various tribes of Israel. We aren’t going to spend time in those historical details, though there certainly are some good lessons for us in those “archives,” and instead we are going to just pull out a couple of the stories that are tucked in around those records. And the first story is in chapter 14:6-15.
READ Joshua 14:6-15
Understanding the Story:
A. Background
At first glance, this story doesn’t seem too remarkable – just another leader showing up and asking for his allotment of the land. But if we dig a little bit and understand the background, the uniqueness really starts to shine through.
The story of Caleb begins forty-five years earlier, in the time of Moses. Caleb was one of the original 12 spies sent into the promised land by Moses, the ones who spent 40 days in the promised land spying out the land and its inhabitants, in order to report back to Moses and the people about what they would face when they entered. If you recall that story, the twelve spies returned and reported to all the people: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is the fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.” (Num. 13:27b-28a). As a result of this report, the people were terrified and did not believe that God could deliver the land to them safely, and so they rebelled against the Lord and were consequently sent back out into the desert for 40 years until all of the unbelievers died and Joshua took over and brought the new generation into the promised land.
Not all 12 spies agreed with the proposed course of action. 2 of them, Joshua and Caleb, dissented, and tried to encourage the people to have faith and believe in God’s promise. Numbers 13:30 reports, “Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’” But the 10 without faith stirred up the people with horror stories about the land, creating fear and disbelief, and so they rebelled.
There is one other critical detail in the report of the spies that illuminates the story we find in Joshua 14. In reporting on the inhabitants of the land, the spies proclaim to Moses, “We even saw descendants of Anak living there… the people of great size… we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Num. 13:28b, 32-33).
Who were these “descendants of Anak?” Well, it is difficult to recreate exactly, but Numbers tells us that the descendants of Anak came from a people called the Nephilim. We find them first mentioned in the book of Genesis, where it tells us they were “heroes of old, men of renown.” (Gen 6:4). It is likely they even had some supernatural lineage, as that same verse tells us “the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.” Whatever the origins, we know that when Moses sent the spies into the land they saw the descendants of Anak still in the land, and that they were strong, fearsome, and large. The spies felt “like grasshoppers” before them.
B. The meat of the story:
Fast-forward forty-five years. Here is Caleb, now 85 years old, having survived the 40 years wandering in the desert, and having fought alongside Joshua as they took the promised land, and he has come to claim the promise of God.
Verses 6-9 find Caleb laying out the facts, reminding Joshua that Caleb had been faithful and followed God even when all the others had not. Then in verse 9 Caleb claims the promise Moses had made to him and his descendants because of his faithfulness: (read?).
Having laid the groundwork, Caleb makes his request: I love vs. 10 (read). Caleb reports his age – he’s getting up there in years! 85 is pretty old!! Caleb has proven his faithfulness, has served his Lord for his entire life, now it is time to claim the promise God made to him through Moses.
Let me pause there for just a moment. Wouldn’t we understand if Caleb was a little tired? Wouldn’t it make sense for him to retreat to the background a little bit more, let the young exuberant warriors take over, retire to a nice senior-citizens’ tent city and live out his last years playing Canasta, sipping ice tea with his feet in a pool, and telling stories about how hard those desert years were? We sort of expect Caleb to continue on from verse 10 by saying, “Yes, I’m 85 now, and the Lord promised me some land to settle in, and He knows I’ve earned it, so this needs to be the next priority for your soldiers Joshua: send them up right away to clear the way for me and my descendants, fight off all the bad guys, and tell them to make sure the pool is clean and the ice tea is cool… I’ll wait over here in my Laz-y-boy until they’re finished.”
But as I read earlier, that is NOT what Caleb said. Listen to it again: (vss. 11-12).
Instead of wanting to retire, Caleb wants to stay in the game. He still has the health, still has the energy, and still has the desire.
And, he picks the biggest battle. That is the part of the story that really excites me! Here is this senior citizen taking on the giants. He says, “give me this hill country… with the Anakites and their large, fortified cities. The Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as He said.” Instead of sitting back at the end of his life, Caleb takes on the biggest challenge.
What do we learn from this story:
1. We’re never done till God takes us home
I believe that as long as God gives us breath, there is something He still wants for us. Maybe it is to know Him more, maybe it is to worship Him more, maybe it is to continue to use the gifts God has given you to serve His Kingdom.
Billy Graham is 82 years old, and planning a big crusade in Texas this fall. He has no plans to “retire,” no plans to stop doing the things God has called him to do.
Caleb was 85 and took on the biggest enemy in the promised land.
This tells me that it doesn’t matter how old you are – you could be 10, 30, 50, or 100 – as long as you have life, God has something for you. Now I’m not going to tell you exactly what that is – that is for you and God. But what I do want to affirm is that God isn’t finished with you until the moment He takes you home.
2. God has been preparing you for today’s task your whole life long
In many ways, Caleb was the perfect person to lead the fight against the giants. He had the most experience, had seen the most battles, and had spent 45 years waiting for this opportunity. This reminds me that whatever we face today, God has been preparing us for. I take comfort from this, I draw strength from the realization that whatever hurdles I face, God had been preparing and equipping me to meet. He is in control, He knows what He is doing, and He will walk with me to handle the situations of life that I face.
It is always difficult, in the midst of challenging situations, to see how God has been preparing us for that situation, and then later to see how that situation prepares us for the next. And that is why I like to talk about how God is in control, how He is the “Manager of the Universe,” and how I know that He is good. It gives me strength, hope, and the ability to try to relax in God’s promises.
3. You might have to wait 45 yrs to see God’s promise, and even then you might have to get in and fight for it.
Caleb waited 45 yrs to experience the promise of God come true in His life. We know from the story that he never forgot the words God said to him through Moses, and that when the time was right he stepped forward to claim the promise. Do you have that patience – to wait for God’s timing to keep His promises?
I love how Caleb was active in his claiming the promise of God, and I’m challenged by it. I don’t know about you, but I often want to claim the promises of God like gifts from Santa – things that just show up in my life without any effort on my part. Caleb models for us the opposite approach – to claim the promises of God by acting like there is nothing that will stand in the way of God keeping those promises. It didn’t matter that he was 85 yrs old, it didn’t matter that the Anakites were the biggest and most intimidating opposition in the promised land, all that mattered to Caleb was that God had made a promise. So Caleb grabbed his sword and headed off to the hills to defeat them.
This is great faith. To act on the promises of God before we see evidence of their fulfillment. To stand up and say, “God has promised this, so I’m going to live it.” For example, God promised that those who seek Him will find Him (Matt 7:7). He promised that when we have opportunity to share our faith, if we simply open our mouths His Spirit will put the words on our lips (Mark 13:11). He promised to teach us the truth and to set us free by that truth (Jn 8:32). Sometimes the promises appear instantly and without any action on our part, but more often I believe we have to act in faith in order to see the fullness of God’s promises in our lives. Like Caleb, we have to march off into battle in we are to claim God’s promises of victory.
The End of the Story (Joshua 15:13-17):
You might be wondering how this battle turned out. We read the answer over in 15:13-17. God was faithful; after 45 years, and with a soldier who was 85 yrs old, the mighty giants were destroyed.
The Challenge to Us:
To the young:
1. Be patient. It might take 45 years, but God will keep His promises.
2. Never underestimate what God can do through someone older than you.
3. Respect those who are older. Lean on their experiences. They’ve fought a lot of battles and can save you a lot of injury and mistake, if only you won’t be too proud to seek them out and ask for their input.
To the old(er):
1. Know that God isn’t finished with you until He calls you home.
2. Actively claim the promises of God.
3. Will you fight the toughest battles now? And what are those, you wonder?? They are the battles fought in prayer. I ask you to pray – to pray for our teens, our children, the kids in our Rec Room and Summer Day Camp. I ask you to pray for our church leaders and our pastoral staff. I ask you to pray for the parents of our young people. I ask you to pray for our children’s ministry teachers. Most of all, will you pray for our community? That the love of Jesus might break through the resistance and bring life to those who do not know Jesus. As I think about what the modern equivalent of the Anakites might be, and how to fight the “giants” of today, I recognize that the battles are only going to be fought and won in prayer. And that is why I ask those of you who are seniors to pray.
Conclusion:
I had the privilege this week of attending a memorial service for Sam Aardema, Rosie Reeder’s dad. I never met him in person, but as his family and friends shared about his life, I got a picture of how God had really worked in his life in his later years. It seemed like God had really gotten a hold on him and re-created him, and made him new, all after he retired. There were numerous stories of how God had used him in mighty ways as a senior citizen, stories of influencing young people, working for reconciliation, seeing gifts of generosity multiplied 30 fold. He reminded me a lot of Caleb – claiming God’s promises and fighting alongside God even in his later years. I was incredibly encouraged by this celebration of life, and reminded that God honestly doesn’t care how old we are. He cares that our hearts are His, and that He is the focus of our lives.
And when that is the case, it doesn’t matter what giants we face. God will be victorious.
