Joshua 14:6-14 – Faith or Presumption?
Today we are straying from the controversial topics I’ve been speaking on lately. This message comes with the intention to build up your faith, not make you question it all. Today we are looking at the OT character of Caleb. Turn with me as we read from Numbers 13:1-4,6,21-30-14:9. Then, from Joshua 14:6-14.
I read these fairly lengthy passages to show you what kind of a man Caleb was. The name “Caleb” means “dog”. However, in the ancient language called Akkadian, the name came to mean a loyal servant of the king. If you think of it, both those mean faithfulness. After, dogs are man’s best friend.
And faithfulness certainly applies to describe the Caleb we are looking at today. I think there are a lot of qualities that we could look at from his life. We could speak of his desire to fight giants, even at the age of 85, and connect it to the fact that Christians never get too old to be useful.
We could speak of his generosity. His daughter asked for a good piece of land, and Caleb more than willingly obliged. But, I felt that I wanted to focus more on his tremendous faith. That was the dominant quality that led him through life.
From the 1st time that he saw the Promised Land, 40 years before the book of Joshua took place, he believed God wanted his people to have it, to own it, to work it, to raise their families in it. Others disagreed. The majority of the spies, 10 out of 12, believed the challenge would be too hard, and they backed off. They gave a bad report, and only 2 of the 12, Caleb and Joshua, gave good reports. And of all the men who left Egypt, they were the only men over the age of 20 who would move into Canaan. Caleb’s faith drove him on, and he finally got a piece of the beauty that he had seen and sampled years before. Faith paid off.
Now, all this begs the question: what is faith? We talk of it. We sing of it. But what is it? Here’s how Hebrews 11:1 defines it: “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” It’s about hope. It’s about waiting. It’s about confidence.
Granted, the NT writer James adds this little description: “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” So faith is not just sitting around waiting for things to get better. It’s about doing things as well. I wouldn’t call it faith if a person wants to become a mighty pray-er, but never prays. What? Are they just sitting around waiting to be zapped with inspiration? That’s not faith. That’s laziness. That’s presumption.
Which is where we can gain some insights from Caleb. What he had was faith, not presumption. Caleb had faith that the Promised Land could be taken. He saw it, he believed it, he waited for it, and he finally received it. He was living out what Romans 4 says of Abraham, another hero of “the faith”. V20-21 of Romans 4 says, “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
Now, what this speaks of is faith. Faith, according to Hebrews 11, James 2, and Romans 4 is something like this: God speaks, and tells you what He’s going to do. You hear it and believe it. Then, you keep doing what you should until the time comes that what God said would happen does happen.
That part about hearing God or knowing His will is important. Because, without this, it is not faith; it is presumption. Presumption could be defined as guessing. It’s not that it has no hope. On the contrary, it does. It has tons of hope. But it takes more than hope. It takes some common sense, too.
For example, sometimes we need to make choices based on the weather. We need a sunny day for a day off or lawn-mowing or to put clothes on the line. So the optimistic ones of us say, “Well, have faith that it will be sunny.” Have faith. In what? The weather? Is that safe? You see, we call that faith, but it’s not. Faith is trusting in God’s promises. That is hoping to get what you want. That’s not faith. That’s presumption.
It’s like the story I read. It happened during the Battle of the Wilderness in the Civil War. The Union general John Sedgwick was inspecting his troops. At one point he came to a parapet, a rise in the barrier wall, and from it he looked out in the direction of the enemy. Now, his officers suggested that this wasn’t very smart and maybe he ought to duck while passing the place. “Nonsense,” he sanpped. “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist—.” And you know what happened. A moment later General Sedgwick fell to the ground, fatally wounded.
That’s presumption. There’s all kinds of ways we do this. Have faith nothing will happen to us while we’re driving. Have faith no accidents will happen on the job. Have faith that the sickness will turn out all right. Have faith that the pews will be filled. None of these things is wrong. But, if God didn’t actually promise that nothing would happen, or sickness wouldn’t show up, or that we would have a full church, then we’re putting faith and trust in something less than God. It’s just superstition made to sound spiritual.
But Caleb’s assurance that he would live in the Promised Land was not based on hope. It was based on hearing God’s promises. It flowed from knowing what God wanted, and then acting on it until it finally appeared. Maybe that’s why we get so few things that we ask for. We pray for them, assuming it’s God’s will, but never really taking the time and finding out if it is. We ask for things and then quote Bible verses like Matthew 7:7 which says, “Ask and it will be given to you.”
We quote verses like Matthew 18:20, which says, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” But what happens when we pluck a verse like that out, we wind up not looking at other verses that speak of God’s will, and what He wants. That verse all by itself says that 2 or 3 Christians praying will get what they want.
Well, you know what happens then. Not getting what we hoped for, we get discouraged and lose faith in prayer or in God because it seems we proved Him a liar. It has nothing to do with that, folks. It flows from our lack of understanding of God’s Word and God’s will. It flows from hand-picking verses from things we like, and ignoring or not knowing the other parts. Again, faith is trusting that God will do what He said. Presumption is hoping He will do what we want Him to.
Someone once said that every promise in the Bible is for me. Now, call this lack of faith in my own life or something, but I don’t think so. God promised the Israelites land in the OT. I don’t think that promise still holds for today, and I certainly don’t think that God ever promised Christians land. That’s a promise not specifically for you.
There’s a verse in Acts 16 that says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Yes, there’s a principle there. Yes, there’s a truth. Yes, sometimes it happens, as in Bobby Storey’s family. But that is not a promise for every believer. That is an observation of the Philippian jailer and his family.
Well, what is, then? I certainly can’t answer that question easily or quickly. All I can say is, let God tell you. Thinking of this promise of your family being saved, for example, as you pray for your family, be sensitive to what God might be saying. Don’t just talk in prayer; listen too. Is God laying a certain verse on your heart, in your mind? Does He lead you to a particular passage? Ask Him if it applies to you. If you feel that He is saying YES, then take that as a promise to you from God. And believe it to the very end, as Caleb did. That’s faith. That’s not superstition or faith in the weather patterns. That’s trust in God.
Christian author Neil Anderson wrote a list he called The Twenty Cans of Success. These are based on what the NT says is true of Christians. These are promises, claimed by believers through the centuries. Allow God to speak to you through these assurances.
1. Why should I say I can’t when the Bible says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)? 2. Why should I lack when I know that God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)? 3. Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)? 4. Why should I lack faith to fulfill my calling knowing that God as allotted to me a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)? 5. Why should I be weak when the Bible says that the Lord is the strength of my life and that I will display strength and take action because I know God (Psalm 27:1; Daniel 11:32)?
6. Why should I allow Satan supremacy over my life when He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)? 7. Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says that God always leads me in triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14)? 8. Why should I lack wisdom when Christ became wisdom to me from God and God gives wisdom to me generously when I ask Him for it (1 Corinthians 1:30; James 1:5)? 9. Why should I be depressed when I can recall to mind God’s lovingkindness, compassion, and faithfulness and have hope (Lamentations 3:21-23)? 10. Why should I worry and fret when I can cast all my anxiety on Christ who cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)?
11. Why should I ever be in bondage knowing that there is liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is (2 Corinthians 3:17)? 12. Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says I am not condemned because I am in Christ (Romans 8:1)? 13. Why should I feel alone when Jesus said He is with me always and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)? 14. Why should I feel accursed or that I am the victim of bad luck when the Bible says that Christ redeemed me from the curse of the law that I might receive His Spirit (Galatians 3:13-14)? 15. Why should I be discontented when I, like Paul, can learn to be content in all my circumstances (Philippians 4:11)?
16. Why should I feel worthless when Christ became sin on my behalf that I might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)? 17. Why should I have a persecution complex knowing that nobody can be against me when God is for me (Romans 8:31)? 18. Why should I be confused when God is the author of peace and He gives me knowledge through His indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:33; 2:12)? 19. Why should I feel like a failure when I am a conqueror in all things through Christ (Romans 8:37)? 20. Why should I let the pressures of life bother me when I can take courage knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and its tribulations (John 16:33)?
