Caleb, the Lionheart
Joshua 14:6b-7a & 10b-11
And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “… I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land. … And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.”
Forty-five years before this inspiring reunion between Joshua and Caleb, God commanded Moses with these words in Numbers 13:2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” As you may recall, Joshua and Caleb were two of the twelve chiefs Moses selected, Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim, and Caleb from the Messianic tribe of Judah. Numbers 13 went on to recount in detail the trouble caused by ten of the spies who returned and reported the ominous news of giants living in the land who were impossible to defeat. But as the people whimpered, Caleb rose up like a lion among goats and roared, “No—let’s go up at once to occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it!” (verse 30). But they wouldn’t listen. Numbers 14 details how a loud cry rose up from the congregation, followed by weeping throughout the night, and ending in a deep, Satanic grumbling against God and Moses. Oh, but Caleb and Joshua rose again, against the virulent legions of devils and small, gutless men, to tell the truth in verse 9: “Do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” But how did the people respond to that encouragement? They picked up stones to stone them.
Friend, we’ll take our time going through this reappearance of Chief Caleb that takes centerstage in Joshua 14, but I wanted to begin by noting the brilliance of his unchanged demeanor and undimmed confidence and unabated strength of character. The bleating of those old goats from decades past has long died out, but this old lion of Judah roars on!