Joshua 14:6-14 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said to him… Caleb is one of those Scripture characters in whom we feel a personal interest not measured by the amount of historical information given us respecting him. Scanty as the materials are, they present us with a moral portrait very real and life like and full of dignity. All that we know of him is greatly to his honour. The more so if, as some say, he was of Idumaean rather than Israelitish origin, adopted rather than born into the tribe of Judah. The courage and fidelity he displayed when, as one of the spies, he dared, with Joshua, to counsel the craven hearted people to go in and possess the land (Numbers 13:30; Numbers 14:6, 10; Deuteronomy 1:36), are illustrated again now that almost another half century has passed. The old man has still the same spirit in him. While some of the tribes are so slow to move that Joshua has occasion to rebuke them for their lethargy (Joshua 18:8), he is eager to secure at once his promised inheritance, defying in the strength of God the formidable sons of Anal In several lights Caleb appears before us here as a worthy example. We see in him - I. AN HONEST SPIRIT, FORMING A TRUE ESTIMATE OF ITS OWN VIRTUES AND CAPACITIES. He recounts with honourable pride the doings and distinctions of the past - how he had been faithful to his own convictions in his report of the land, not following the evil example of the other spies, or fearing the anger of the people; how Moses had honoured him, and the vigour of which he was conscious even "this day" was his Divine reward. There is no vain boasting here. His grateful recognition of God disproves that. It is the frank acknowledgment of an honest mind. The true heart is conscious of its own integrity and need never shrink from avowing it. It is well that experience of the happy effects of fidelity to the path of duty should be recorded for the encouragement of others. There are times when we may properly "thank God that we are not as other men are." This may be done in the spirit of profoundest lowliness and self distrust. Self depreciation is often but a mock humility. We honour ourselves and God when we duly estimate the worth of the moral qualities with which He has endowed us and the moral victories He has enabled us to win. Let no man "think more highly of himself than he ought to think," but at least let him "think soberly, according as God has dealt to him the measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). Recognise the Divine origin of every virtue you possess, and it will never make you vain; be true to yourself and to your noblest impulses, and you find in yourself an unfailing source of satisfaction and rejoicing (Proverbs 14:14; Galatians 6:3, 4). II. A BRAVE SPIRIT GATHERING FROM THE MEMORY OF THE PAST AN INCENTIVE TO NEW ENDEAVOUR. There was a moral unity in Caleb's life. He had obeyed the voice of conscience and discharged manfully the sacred responsibility that was imposed on him forty-five years ago, and now he feels the recollection to be stimulating and strengthening to him. He has been lost to us through all the intermediate time, but we may be sure that his life in the desert, as a leader of the great tribe of Judah, had sustained the reputation of early days. And the dauntless spirit of his old age is but the result of habitual fidelity to the call of duty and of God. Such is the moral continuity of our life. So true is it that - "Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are." Every victory of our better nature over the power of meaner motives lays the foundation for further and completer victories. Even the memory of it becomes an inspiration and a strength to us. The fruit of it is seen after many days. Accustom yourself to do the right and to "follow wholly" the path the Lord your God marks out, and there shall be stored up within you a fund of strength that will enable you to look calmly in the face of the most formidable difficulties - to storm the strongholds of the Anakims and "drive them out." III. A DEVOUT SPIRIT LEANING ON GOD FOR THE FULFILMENT OF HIS OWN PROMISE. We gather from ver. 9 that God had given Caleb a distinct promise of the possession of that mountain in addition to the general promise recorded in Numbers 14:24. To the apprehension of faith every Divine word is a living seed that must one day bring forth the fruition of its own fulfilment, and the mercies of the past are pledges of future help and benediction. - W. Parallel Verses KJV: Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea. |
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