Possessing Heroic Faith, Joshua 14:6-15, 15:13-19
Pastor Trey Rhodes,
You might wonder why I believe in heaven in an age like this. One of the Russian cosmonauts came back and said, "Some people say God lives out there. I looked around, and I didn’t see any God out there." Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, says he looked in the wrong place. If he’d stepped outside the space ship without his space suit, he would have seen God very quickly.
-- Leighton Ford
Background: Caleb stands out in the Bible as a great hero of faith. Six times we are told that he “wholly followed the Lord” (Num. 14:24; 32:12; Deut. 1:36; Joshua 14:8-9, 14). Caleb was “an overcomer” (1 John 2:13-14 and 5:4), a man who surrendered wholly to the Lord and fully obeyed His Word. We may trace his spiritual history in four stages.
1. HEROIC FAITH IS BORN IN THE FIRE (JOSHUA 14:7A)
Explanation: CALEB THE SUFFERER -Since Caleb was forty years old at Kadesh-barnea (Josh. 14:7), he had to have been born in Egypt.
1 Chron. 2:18 makes Caleb the son of Hezron, a descendant of Pharez (1 Chron. 2:5); and this would put him in the ancestry of Christ (Matt. 1:3). In either case, Caleb was redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, delivered from Egypt, and given the prospects of a great inheritance in Canaan. He would have had no inheritance under Joshua had he not first experienced redemption under Moses.
Caleb was born in Egypt while the Jews were enduring great suffering.
Application: If you’re suffering, then take heart, God wants to build a great faith in you. Here’s how you can release Him to do it:
1) Accept whatever happens to you as God’s will for you;
2) Thank Him for what He’s about to teach you and do in the midst of the trouble (God didn’t work until the Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego were in the fire);
3) Determine to do God’s will no matter the opposition (Never doubt in the dark what God revealed to you in the light)
4) Do the will of the Father. John 5:19- "The Son can only do what He sees His Father doing."
2. HEROIC FAITH IS STRENGTHENED BY THE OBSTACLES (JOSHUA 14:7B-8)
Explanation: CALEB THE DEFENDER Caleb and Joshua were among those spies, which shows the position of confidence they held in the nation. When the report was given, only Caleb and Joshua defended Moses and encouraged the nation to enter Canaan. The ten spies despised the land (14:36), while Caleb and Joshua delighted in the land. The nation wanted to go back; the two men of faith wanted to go ahead. The majority was walking by sight; the minority was walking by faith. The rebellious nation saw only the obstacles, the problems; the believing leaders saw the opportunities, the prospects. What was the result? The ten spies and the unbelieving generation died in the wilderness! But Caleb and Joshua lived to enter and enjoy the Promised Land. “To be carnally minded is death” (Rom. 8:6). It took courage for Caleb to stand against the whole nation, but God honored him for it.
Application: This is when you realize that it is too big for you. You have no choice but to let God take over.
3. HEROIC FAITH IS MOTIVATED BY FULFILLING GOD’S WILL (JOSH. 14:9-12; 15:13-15)
Explanation: CALEB THE WANDERER Caleb did not die in the wilderness, but he still had to suffer with the unbelieving nation during their nearly forty years of wandering. Think of what this godly, believing man had to endure! Every single day he saw people die and miss out on their inheritance. He had to listen to the murmuring and complaining. This man of faith had to put up with the unbelief of his fellow Israelites. He loved Moses, yet he had to listen to the Jews as they criticized their leader and opposed him.
How does a motivated faith respond to the present?
1) A Motivated Faith Plans for God’s Will to Come
How was Caleb able to maintain his spiritual life when surrounded by so much carnality and unbelief? His heart was in Canaan! Even while Caleb wandered in the wilderness, could taste the fruit of Canaan.
Argument: He understood what it meant to set mind on things above he lived it out. (SEE Col. 3:1-4)
2) A Motivated Faith Trusts in the Promises of God
He possessed what Rom. 8:6 refers to as “the spiritual mind.” Caleb was able to endure the trials of the wilderness because he knew that he did not have to fear death, that he had an inheritance, and that God would not fail him. How much more we have in Christ! Yet we give up so easily and fail in our pilgrim journey.
Application: God will never ask us to do what He will not provide the resources and ability to accomplish.
4. Heroic Faith Is Maintained When You Continually Seek God’s Blessings (Josh. 15:15-19)
Explanation: CALEB THE CONQUEROR
1) Seek the Blessings of God’s Word
Joshua is giving each tribe its special inheritance, and Caleb comes to claim his share. He reminds Joshua of God’s promise (14:6-9), for it is only on the basis of God’s Word that we can claim our blessings. Note the glorious testimony of strength Caleb gives (14:10-11). The person of faith is the person with strength. Forty-five years after the nation’s failure at Kadesh-barnea, Caleb is eighty-five years old, yet he is anxious to claim his inheritance to the glory of God. It is sad when believers allow “old age” to make complainers out of them when they ought (like Caleb) to be conquerors.
“Give me this mountain!” (14:12) Caleb was a man of spiritual vision as well as spiritual vitality, and these two qualities led to spiritual victory. God had promised him the inheritance, and Caleb had faith that what God promised He was able to perform (see Rom. 4:20-21). Caleb was able to drive out the inhabitants of his inheritance (Josh. 15:13-14), the very “giants” that the ten unbelieving spies had feared (Num. 13:28, 33). Unbelief looks at the giants; faith looks to God. Unbelief depends on man’s “common sense”; faith rests wholly on the Word of God.
2) Seek the Blessings for the Sake of Others
Caleb’s nephew Othniel helped him in one of his conquests (Josh. 15:15-17) and gained Caleb’s daughter for a wife. This man later became the first judge of Israel (Jdg. 3:9ff), and thus carried on the family leadership. Caleb’s daughter illustrates a wonderful spiritual truth. After her marriage to Othniel, she returned to her father to ask for a further blessing (15:18-19). Caleb had given her a field, but she also wanted the springs of water to nourish the field. The Christian should joyfully continue to ask the Father for greater blessings, especially for the “spiritual springs” that water the fruitful life. The field that God gives us will never produce fruit apart from the springs of water (John 7:37-39).
Conclusion: What a difference it makes when believers “wholly follow the Lord” and exercise faith in the Word. Caleb’s dedication and faith saved his life, gained him an inheritance, overcame the enemy, and enabled him to enrich his own family for years to come.
You and I have a great expectation on us: We are to be conquerors. In fact, Paul claims that we are “more than conquerors!” (Rom. 8:37)
Although Caleb conquered with physical weapons and claimed a material inheritance, but we conquer with spiritual weapons (2 Cor. 10:3-5) to claim our spiritual inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:3). Christians are supposed to be overcomers through faith in Christ (1 John 5:4). We are to overcome the world (1 John 5:5), false doctrine (1 John 4:1-4), and the wicked one (1 John 2:13-14). Christ has already overcome Satan (Luke 11:21-22) and the world (John 16:33), so that we need only to claim His victory by faith. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things!” promises Rev. 21:7 (NKJV).
IA man used to carry his aged mother up and down the stairs of their home in Chicago. And she would grab onto the banister while he was carrying her up or down the stairs and hold on to it so tightly they couldn’t move.
He’d say, "Momma, you have to let go of the banister or we can’t move."
And she looked at him with her plaintive little eyes and said, "I’m afraid you’ll drop me."
I said, "Momma, I’m going to drop you right now. When I count to three, I’m going to drop you!" And then she would let go, and we’d go two more steps, when she would grab on again.
That is in microcosm my interaction with God. I’m hanging on to the banisters of life. I’m hanging on to these little things that make me feel secure. But God loves me more than I love my little mother, and God would never let me come to any harm. God knows where we’re going.
We Can Possess the same kind of heroic faith that Caleb had when we: 1) Are strengthen by the obstacles, 2) Complete God’s Will, and 3) Seek for Blessings from God. Then we will have the kind of faith that will shouted through the streets of Heaven.
“Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:57, NKJV)
