"But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it."
Numbers 14:24
In Numbers 13 and 14 you will find the fascinating account of Caleb as he was one of the ten spies sent to spy out the land of Canaan for forty days. Now God had already told Moses He was going to give the Israelites this land. When the ten returned they all had the same facts reported, and the same response to the facts except for two, Caleb and Joshua. The land certainly was rich, flowing with milk and honey, and abundant with fruit. However, the people in it were huge and strong and the cities were fortified. The response of eight of the spies, and the Israelites were the same–fear of their circumstances, which were factual, and with no faith in God who had performed miracle after miracle on their behalf, delivering them from Egypt.
In Numbers 13:30 we read of Caleb’s response:
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it."
A key point not to skim over is we need men and women of faith to quiet the crowds who are full of fear acting out of emotions and factual circumstances more than trusting the God they belong to. We either magnify the circumstantial facts, or we live in the truth that God is greater than the facts of the physical realm. He does not lie. He cannot lie. What He says He will do, He does.
What you choose to believe in will determine your outcome in life day by day. God rewards obedience and faith in His love for His own. When we choose to disobey we will suffer the consequences as we will soon discover. One more truth I might point out is democracy doesn’t work when following the God of the Bible. Read the history. The idea of voting and going with the majority was never used, thank God, because the majority was seldom if ever right. Jesus told us broad is the way to destruction, and many will go that way. But the way is small and narrow that leads to life, and few will find it. ( Matthew 7:13-14)
So if your goal in life is to fit in with the masses, you will not want to follow Jesus. We all know what the religious leaders and the masses did to Him during His time on earth. He warned us in John 15:18:
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you."
So perhaps now is a good time to pause and honestly ask ourselves where we stand according to Jesus. Who do we truly belong to? We can’t have it both ways.
You really must take the time to read these chapters in Numbers. It reads like a great historical novel. You will not find it boring, or difficult to understand. It is a great story to share with your children.
One of the greatest life lessons is not to complain against God. He is holy and perfect in all His ways. He is God; we are not. We cannot pull Him down to fit our understanding. We must walk by faith, not by sight or facts. God is not limited by anything He created. He is God of all creation. He will have the final word concerning creation.
He had delivered the Israelites from a horrible life of slavery living in Egypt. When He delivered them it was continuously miraculous! The miracles did not give the Israelites lasting faith anymore than it does us today who are surrounded by miracles daily: the birth of a child, a tiny seed that becomes a huge stalk of corn bearing many ears, the creation itself that is so orderly sustaining itself through the seasons. We simply take it all for granted as the Israelites did. They were fed daily with manna from heaven, but they complained. They even declared they were better off in Egypt! When we don’t like the way God is bringing us into our promised land, let us learn from our history in the Bible.
Numbers 14:1 declares to us:
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?"
Now I want us to focus on Caleb and Joshua’s response that was totally different.
Numbers 14:6 proclaims:
Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, the land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us then He will bring us into this land and give it to us — a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them. "
Please pay careful attention to what the majority is saying, and then what the two out of ten of the ones who spied out the land is saying. Again, learn from the historical facts in the Bible. The majority immediately wanted to stone Caleb and Joshua! They simply spoke the truth for their good, but it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. It is no different from the time we are now living in. We are not to rebel against God no matter what befalls us. We must trust in His character that He has proven over and over as He did with the Israelites. We are never to fear mere men over our reverence for our God. If God is for us it doesn’t matter who is against us! God is always for His children, but He will not reward rebellion and disobedience.
If He isn’t your God then you have a right to fear men if that is all you are trusting in. It is always your choice. God doesn’t ever take away your free will to choose evil or good, the only two forces motivating all our actions. You are either serving God or the devil. One is as real as the other, but the devil was defeated at the crucifixion of the Savior of the World. If you have the assurance that your God is with you, who can prevail over you eternally? There is no power greater than the God of all creation!
Now let’s look at God’s response to Moses in 14:11:
"The Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?"
This is heart wrenching for me to read as I am keenly aware He has had to ask me the same question in my own life. I too have seen many miracles in my life personally, and yet there are times I have failed Him in the testing fires of life. He deserves so much more than we could ever possibly give Him. Yet He disciplines His own, He forgives them, shows unfounding grace and mercy, and never stops loving us if we allow Him to.
In this case He is greatly angered with the Israelites and threatens to destroy them. Moses pleads their cause and God doesn’t give them what they deserved. Moses knew God. Listen to His description of God in 14:18-19:
"The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations. Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."
God had forgiven them over and over. However, they did suffer the consequences of their disobedience.
Let’s look at God’s response, to Moses in 14:20-24:
So the Lord said, "I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit, and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and His descendants shall take possession of it."
I hope Caleb’s life inspires you as much as it does me. There is more to read about Him if you take the time to. I want to be of a different spirit, and to serve the Lord fully with my whole heart, as He loves and serves me, as my all in all. Yes, God does serve His children. Look at His Son how He served while on this earth until His last breath. May that become our goal.
We are to serve our God, not man. Yet, if we choose to serve God, we must learn to serve each other out of obedience to Him, pleasing Him before pleasing one another. Remember when Martha and Mary called for help before Lazarus died? Jesus did not go till the Father said to. They felt He had failed them. He had not. Raising the dead is well within His power. God’s timing is always right because He is God. We must walk by faith, not by sight. May the Lord engrave these truths on our hearts that we might fill the earth with His glory as He is so deserving of. And might our descendants inherit a blessing as Caleb’s did from his life of fully trusting God.
In His love.
Teresa Roberts
Masterpiece Fitness
276-237-668000
A few more pics from Hanging Rock State Park on a recent run. Fun place to roam!
