Living wholeheartedly for God, Nothing Held Back: The life of Caleb
Numbers 13:23 tells us they had a cluster of grapes that they carried on a pole between two men.
- That must have been on impressive cluster of grapes.
Verse 27 They see the goodness of the land. They have the fruit of the land in their hand.
Verse 28 But they also see the obstacles and fear immediately sets in.
- The root of the Hebrew word Anak used here means, “to be Tall” or “to be long necked.”
- Grammatically the word is a noun, but they are using it as an adjective.
Verse 29 The notice the specific locations of all the enemy nations.
- But they didn’t seem to have the same kind of detail for where the fruit and goodness came from.
Verse 30 Caleb shows real leadership and steps up and tries to stop the crowd’s fear.
Verse 31 We see the fear and uncertainty kick in. They only see the size of their enemy.
- They don’t see the size of the blessings and the Goodness promised by God.
Verse 32 The fear lends itself to bad behavior. Lies and hyperbole. It says they spread a bad report.
- The Hebrew word used here means, “to slander or defame.”
Verse 33 Those stirring up dissention now claim that they saw the Nephilim in the land.
- The Nephilim are mentioned in Genessis 6 right before the flood of Noah’s day.
- They don’t seem to be mentioned in the bible again until here in this verse.
- The first time in the bible that the descendants of Anak are mentioned are just a few verses earlier in verse 22.
- Now let’s look at the end of Caleb’s life.
Joshua 14:8 It says that Caleb lived wholeheartedly for the Lord as compared to those that lived in fear.
- The Hebrew word used here means “to be full.”
- The Hebrew word wholeheartedly (or full) is used three times to describe Caleb’s life in these verses.
- Six times in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua this term is used to describe Caleb.
- Living wholeheartedly or fully for the for the Lord seems to stand in contrast to fear, safety, complacency, comfort, etc. of the others.
Verse 9 Caleb has come back to claim what was promised to him.
Verse 10 Caleb is now 85 years old. During the 45 years everyone died except Joshua and Caleb.
- Living in fear gave them a short life and prevented them from receiving the promise of God.
Verse 11 It says Caleb is just as strong today and ready for battle as he was 45 years ago.
Verse 12 At 85 he going to go out with the Lord’s help and take what the Lord had promised him 45 years ago.
He recognizes that the Lord is with him to do this.
Life lessons and take aways for all of us.
- Remember the promise of God and the call of God.
- Don’t give into the worst-case scenario thinking and mind set.
- Remember what God has already done in the difficult moments of the past.
- You are never too old or too young.
- The promises of God are worth fighting for.
- What gets in the way of fully living for God?