FOLLOW HIM TO THE LIFE
Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunnneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
Joshua 14:14 NKJV
Introduction
Turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 14. We are now over half way through our study Fight for Life. We are studying the journey of the nation of Israel as they enter into, conquer, and take possession of the Promised Land. God had promised to give the descendants of Abraham the land of Canaan. God told Moses and then Joshua that he would drive out the people of Canaan from before them.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen that Joshua and the army of Israel have been successful at conquering the Promised Land. And last week we discussed that they had not possessed it all yet. They had taken out the military forces and leadership but the people of Canaan still lived in the land.
Joshua had been given two missions as he entered the Promised Land. The first was to conquer the land and the second was to divide it as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel. He had accomplished the first part and starting here in chapter 14 we see him completing the second part. Joshua begins dividing the land by sacred lots and assigning them to the 9 and a half tribes that will get their inheritance on the western side of the Jordan River.
Over the next several chapters we are going to see a very detailed, almost monotonous description of the division of the Promised Land. But before we get too deep into that description we are going to see a very interesting account of a character we haven’t talked about too much during this study. As we look at his life we are going to see a man that is living the life that I have been talking to you about.
All through this study I have been telling you about this victorious, abundant life that Jesus promised us in John 10:10. God has promised every one of us a life that is filled with the amazing power of God. We have been promised a life filled with Christ’s blessings, Christ’s strength, Christ’s love, and everything else that is Christ.
Read Ephesians 1:3 page 617
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Our spiritual position is in Christ. That means that where Christ is, so are we. It also means that we have at our disposal everything that is Christ. Nothing has been kept back from us.
But as we look around at people’s lives, we do not see people living lives that show the power of God that lives within them. Every single one of us that have accepted Jesus has within us the Holy Spirit. Also in Ephesians we are told that we are being built into a holy temple of God. The power of God lives within all of us.
The vision that God has given me for this church to teach people how to unleash that power within their lives so that they can live the life that Jesus came to give them. And not just them but their spouses, children, neighbors, church, and everywhere else that they can reach.
We have got to learn how to let the Holy Spirit do what He wants to do and stop restricting Him. Every believer can live this life and the only thing holding us back is us. There is nothing outside of us that can keep us from living the life that God wants us to except ourselves.
And as we look at the life of Caleb we will see some of the characteristics that will help us to live that amazingly powerful and abundant life. The title of our study for today is: Follow Him to the Life.
The first five verses are a kind of preamble for the next six chapters of Joshua.
Read Joshua 14:1-5 page 124 Bible
Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the leaders of the tribes of Israel all meet to divide the land of Canaan. And so that no one can complain that it wasn’t fair, they let God determine who is going to get what land by casting lots. Eleazar carried in the sacred ephod the Urim and Thummin. These were used to determine the will of God. This is the way that God set it up so that He could help them to resolve questions like this one.
And then here in verse six of our text, Caleb comes into the picture.
Read Joshua 14:6 page 124 Bible
Turn to Numbers 13. Caleb is first mentioned here in Numbers 13 in the listing of the twelve men that were sent into the land of Canaan. They were sent in to spy out the land and determine the best approach into the land. They were to bring back a report that would be used to create a strategy for conquering the Promised Land.
Let’s pick up the account in verse 26 of Numbers 13.
Read Numbers 13:26-29 page 80 Bible
This is exactly how God described the land to them earlier. So far they have not said anything that God hadn’t already told them.
Read Numbers 13:30 page 80 Bible
Caleb is ready to go and begin the conquest of the land of Canaan.
Read Numbers 13:31 page 80 Bible
God had told them that He was going to drive out nations greater and stronger than the children of Israel from before them. The only way that God could fulfill that promise was for there to be nations in the land that were greater and stronger than they were. There were nations stronger and greater than Israel in the land and God intended to drive them all out from before them.
In fact, as we have seen through our study through this book so far, that is exactly what God has done. God promised Joshua that no one would be able to stand before him and every enemy that Joshua has come up against God has defeated.
But the people do not believe God.
Read Numbers 13:32-33 page 80 Bible
Ten of the twelve spies give this discouraging report to the people of the nation of Israel. Skip down to chapter 14, verse 6.
Read Numbers 14:6-9 page 80 Bible
Joshua and Caleb both are ready to go in and take the land of Canaan away from the people living there. They are confident that God is going to keep His promise and give them the land. They are sure that God will give the people and the land into their hands. And all the people of Israel believed them and decided to go into the land right? Wrong!
Read Numbers 14:10a page 80 Bible
They wanted to stone them. Their minds were so twisted by fear and their lack of faith in God that they were ready to kill these two guys that wanted to do what God said.
Turn to Deuteronomy 1. The book of Deuteronomy records a speech that Moses made to the children of Israel just before he dies and they enter into the Promised Land. And starting in verse 19 he speaks about the event at Kadesh-Barnea when the spies were sent in. The book of Deuteronomy takes place 38 years after the spies were sent in.
Read Deuteronomy 1:19-38 page 80 Bible
Caleb and Joshua were the only two people that were over twenty at the time the spies were sent in that have survived to this day. Moses was also still alive but would die shortly, leaving only Caleb and Joshua. God made the nation of Israel wander around in the wilderness until all of the adults had died. Turn back to Joshua 14.
God promised Caleb that he would live through the 38 year wilderness hike and that he would receive as his inheritance the land that he walked on while he was one of the twelve spies. And Caleb is coming to Joshua and reminding him of the promises of God.
Read Joshua 14:7 page 124 Bible
Caleb spoke what was in his heart. Even if it meant that he was saying things that almost everyone else disagreed with. What was in his heart was what he said.
Read Joshua 14:8 page 124 Bible
There’s that term again: ‘wholly followed the Lord’.
Read Joshua 14:9 page 124 Bible
Again, there is that phrase: ‘wholly followed the Lord’. There is a key there that we need to understand. .
Read Joshua 14:10 page 124 Bible
Caleb was forty years old at Kadesh-Barnea when he went with the other spies to spy out the land. They wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years until the disobedient generation had all died. And for the last seven years the nation of Israel has been fighting one enemy after another as they conquer and subdue the Promised Land. And Caleb recognizes that it was God that kept him alive during all of that. .
Read Joshua 14:11 page 124 Bible
As I read that verse I can’t help but envision Jack Lalane in my mind. Anyone remember him? He was and still is active as a health and fitness spokesman. He did over a thousand pushups on a regular basis and swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Landing while handcuffed and towing a boat behind him. He is 90 now and doesn’t seem to slowing down very much.
Caleb is 85 and he says that he hasn’t lost a step. He says that he is just as strong as the day that Moses sent him in to spy the land. How many people at 85 could say something like that?
Read Joshua 14:12 page 124 Bible
Caleb is tough! He comes to Joshua at the age of 85 and asks Joshua to give him the land that God had promised him. And. Oh yeah, he says, there are giants and fortified cities there, remember? Do you sense any fear in that statement. Caleb knows that God’s promises are sure. And if he goes out there with God that God will hand over those giants and fortified cities to him.
And Caleb doesn’t ask Joshua to send the army with him to take out these enemies. Caleb says: ‘It may be that the Lord is with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.’ Caleb didn’t need anyone but God.
Just as a little quick side track. Have you noticed that you can tell a lot about people by the vehicles they drive? Some people are sports car people. Some people are economy car people. Some people, like Pastor Scott are classic car people. Some people are truck people. And some are SUV people. I imagine Joshua as the kind of guy that might drive one of those big 4x4 Hummers. But Caleb, I think he would have ridden a Harley. What do you think?
Caleb was a man that wasn’t afraid of what other people thought and wasn’t afraid of what might lie ahead. He knew that if God was with him that he didn’t have anything to worry about. God had promised him the mountain that he had walked upon and he knew that it was time for him to claim the promise of God.
And Joshua agreed. .
Read Joshua 14:13-15 page 124 Bible
There is that term again: ‘wholly followed the Lord’; three times in chapter 14 of Joshua. It is used only two other times in the Old Testament. And all five times it is used in reference to Caleb. Caleb was a man that was living the life of abundance and victory. He was living the life that I have been trying to describe. And here in our text in chapter 14 we see some of the character traits that tell us about Caleb. If we can imitate some of these traits then we also can live that life.
If we want to live a life that is filled with all the good things that Christ came to give us we have to make a decision just as Caleb did to wholly follow the Lord. God blessed Caleb tremendously because Caleb wholly followed the Lord. He will bless us as well if we will do the same thing.
The very first trait that we see is in verse 7 of our text. .
Read Joshua 14:7 page 124 Bible
When Caleb came back from his first trip into the Promised Land he brought back a positive report just as Joshua did. The other ten men brought back a discouraging report. That didn’t bother Caleb; he still gave the report that was in his heart. The first trait of someone wholly following the Lord is:
Wholly follow the Lord
• Integrity
Another word for integrity is honesty. If we are going to walk in the life that Jesus came to give us, we must be men and women of integrity. We must be honest before God and men. Caleb could easily have seen how things were going and chosen to go along with the crowd or say nothing at all. But his character wouldn’t allow him to do that. Even with the threat of being stoned, he had to speak according to what was in his heart.
Paul exhorted Titus:
Read Titus 2:6-8 page 629
Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.
If we are going to live the life of abundance and victory, we must be men and women that tell the truth no matter what it costs us. Most of us will not facing stoning for telling the truth. And sadly, many of us lie for reasons much less than fear of physical suffering. Proverbs tells us that there is a blessing that comes with integrity.
Read Proverbs 20:7 page 343
The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.
We are going to see in the next chapter that not only is Caleb blessed but so are his children.
Our first trait of the person wholly following the Lord is integrity. We find our second trait in verse eight of our text.
Read Joshua 14:8 page 124 Bible
God had told the nation of Israel to go in and possess the land of Canaan. The ten spies said no and convinced the rest of the people to say no. Caleb said: “Let’s go, we can take them!” Caleb described the people of the land of Canaan as bread for them to eat. Our second trait is:
Wholly follow the Lord
• Integrity
• Obedience
Caleb was ready and willing to be obedient. Unfortunately for Caleb he was out-voted about a million to one. To God, obedience is more important than anything else that we could do. Samuel said to King Saul:
Read 1 Samuel 15:22b page 155
...to obey is better than sacrifice.
It doesn’t matter what you do for God if you are disobedient it counts for nothing. It doesn’t matter how much you sacrifice for God if you are not obedient it is wasted. Jesus said in the gospel of Luke:
Read Luke 6:46 page 545
But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
Our ability to walk in the life that God wants us to have and created for us to have depends directly upon our obedience. You can’t be disobedient and walk in the abundant, victorious life. Now that doesn’t mean if you stumble and fall that you can’t walk in the life. It means that if you choose to disobey that you are disqualified from the abundant, victorious. But even in that God gives you a way to back to that life.
Read 1 John 1:9 page 642
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God wants every one of us to live a life that is rich and full and filled with all the blessings of heaven but we must be obedient. And because God is so full of grace He gives us a way to get right with Him when we have been disobedient through forgiveness. When Christ went to the cross, He not only made the way for you to get to heaven but He also earned the way for you to live a God-filled life.
The first two traits are integrity and obedience. Our third trait is found in verse nine of our text.
Read Joshua 14:9 page 124 Bible
Caleb went into the land of Canaan with a plan. He was going in to determine the best approach for the army to take as they begin to conquer the Canaanites. He did not question what they were to do. God had said “Go in and possess the land” and Caleb was ready to do just that. God had said that He was going to drive the enemy out from before them and Caleb believed Him. Our third trait of someone that is wholly following God is:
Wholly follow the Lord
• Integrity
• Obedience
• Faith
Caleb had faith; not in himself or in the army of God but he had faith in God. He said in:
Read Numbers 14:8a page 80
If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us.
Caleb believed God and believed in God. Caleb believed that God was going to do what He said that He was going to do and all that they had to do was be a delight to God. God delights in hearts that are filled with integrity and are obedient to Him.
Turn to Hebrews 11. Keep a marker in Joshua, we will be coming right back. Faith is believing God! Faith is believing something that we can’t see. Faith is believing something that we can’t touch. Faith is to your relationship to God what air is to your body; it is absolutely necessary. Without air; your body will die. Does anyone have a question about that? If you deprive the body of air for very long it will die. Without faith, you are depriving your spirit what it needs to survive.
Read Hebrews 11:6 page 634 Bible
Caleb said that if the Lord was delighted or pleased with them that he would give them the land and drive out their enemies. And here we are told that it is impossible to please God if we don’t have faith. If you want to live the life that Jesus promised in John 10:10 you must be pleasing to God and the only way that you can be pleasing to God is through faith.
You must believe that God is who He says that He is and you must believe that He can and will do what He says. That is the way that you are going to get to the abundant, victorious life. If you want to live the blessing-filled life, you must believe that God wants you to live that life and you must believe that God can help you to get it. If you don’t believe that, you never will live that Promised Life.
The three traits we have seen so far are: be men and women of integrity, obedience, and faith. Back in Joshua we have our fourth trait in verse 10.
Read Joshua 14:10-11 page 124 Bible
Forty-five years earlier God had made a promise to Caleb that he would be allowed to enter into the Promised Land. What did he do for thirty-eight years after that promise was made? He wandered around in the wilderness while God dealt with the rebellious generation. What did Caleb do to deserve the penalty of wandering around in the wilderness for thirty-eight years? Nothing! He was innocent and yet he had to pay for the sins of the rest of the nation by having to wait to enter into the Promised Land. Our fourth trait of someone wholly following the Lord is:
Wholly follow the Lord
• Integrity
• Obedience
• Faith
• Perseverance
To persevere is to keep going no matter what the obstacles or difficulties. We don’t like this one because it usually means some amount of suffering or pain. This trait is so hard to have to share with people. I often see the need for this trait in marriage counseling.
A couple will come to see me or just the woman will come and the husband is behaving badly. And often because he doesn’t think he is doing anything wrong and therefore doesn’t need to change, the situation does not improve for the wife. It is very hard to tell a wife that she needs to persevere. It is hard to tell her that she needs to wait until God manages to break through the thick skull of her husband. But often that is what God is telling her to do, to wait; to persevere.
And that is exactly what Caleb did; he persevered. And we know that because he remained strong even during the time that he waited. He waited thirty-eight years to enter into the Promised Land and then another seven years while the nation of Israel conquered the land before he got his inheritance.
When we are persevering, we maintain our strength because we are trusting God to be faithful to His promises. Even the ability to persevere comes from God. Galatians 5:22 tells us that one of the fruits of the Spirit is long-suffering which is another word for perseverance. And in Psalms we are told:
Read Psalms 31:23-24 page 296
Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
God preserved Caleb because he was faithful to the Lord. I pray that none of you has to persevere anything for thirty-eight years but if you do you can use Caleb of an example of someone that God preserved and blessed as faithful.
So far the traits of someone wholly following the Lord are integrity, obedience, faith, and perseverance. We find our last trait in verse 12 of our text.
Read Joshua 14:12 page 124 Bible
We have already said that Caleb was a man that was not afraid. Or at least he acted like he wasn’t afraid. Our fifth and last trait of a person that is wholly following the Lord is:
Wholly follow the Lord
• Integrity
• Obedience
• Faith
• Perseverance
• Courage
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is action in spite of fear. Caleb was a man of courage. His courage was a direct result of the other four traits. All the traits of integrity, obedience, faith and perseverance have combined to give Caleb great courage.
Caleb was not afraid to face the giants and fortified cities in Hebron. He was convinced that God would lead him into the land and that God would drive out the enemies from before him. And we are going to see next week, maybe, that is exactly what happens.
And we can be men and women of courage. It was the same God that led Caleb into Hebron that leads you into the Promised Life. It says in:
Read 2 Timothy 1:7 page 628
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Caleb knew that there was nowhere that God was going to lead him that God couldn’t keep him. He knew that God would only lead him where God wanted him to go and that god would take care of him while he was there.
Read Romans 8:31b page 598
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Caleb was a man that lived the abundant, victorious life. He was a man of integrity. He was a man that obeyed God. He had faith; Caleb believed God, and trusted God. Caleb persevered until God’s timing was complete for him to receive what God had promised him. And Caleb had the courage to go where God said go. Caleb wholly followed the Lord.
If you want to live the life that Jesus promised you, then you will need to be like Caleb. If you want to live a life that is full of all that God has promised us then you must decide today to wholly follow the Lord, Jesus. Only by wholly following Jesus do you stand a chance of reaching the Promised Life. You can’t do it part way. You can’t have 2 out of the 5 traits and expect to have the Promised Life.
If you want it all, you have to do it all. You have to have all five traits. Make a decision today to start developing all five traits in your life. Make a decision today not to settle for less than all of the life that God promised you. Every one of us can have the whole of the life that Jesus died to give us. But to get it we have to wholly follow Jesus. We have to follow Jesus to the life!
