Joshua and Caleb were the only men out of the 12 spies Moses sent to return with iron-clad conviction that God had given the Israelites the land. So what if the giants, called the Anakins, occupied the land? Joshua and Caleb believed God positioned Israel to defeat the enemy! They could taste victory. Unfortunately, the other ten spies tasted death. They convinced the masses of Israelites that God couldn’t deliver the land into their hands.
So, Joshua and Caleb were forced to walk through the wilderness with their generation of fear-filled, faithless unbelievers for 40 years. However, there was a stark difference between their walk and their counterparts. Joshua and Caleb weren’t punished as God promised them they would walk in the promised land, Canaan. But for the nonbelieving, “we’re going to die in the wilderness” generation, God handed out the punishment of wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, and everyone aged 20 years and older would die in the wilderness. The next generation would walk in the land they didn’t believe God could give them.
Forty years is quite a wait before Joshua and Caleb receive their promise. But time didn’t change the promise or their purpose, age didn’t change the promise or their purpose, and losses around them didn’t change the promise or their purpose! Their conviction didn’t grow stale or become pointless, but it was as fresh 40 years later as it was on that day when they came back with their faith-filled belief that “God would give us the victory” report!
What a blessing it was for Joshua and Caleb to know that the wilderness was not their final destination. They knew they were more than able to conquer the enemy, but they were drowned out by the naysayers. But God didn’t ignore their powerful report. Their faith saved them from destruction, and they walked toward their destiny!
The question for you today is, what do you believe? Are you in the Joshua and Caleb camp, where you see God is more than able to give you victory when you fight the giants? Or are you in the other camp where the giants (physical, financial, emotional, relational, spiritual, etc.) stand taller than the Lord?
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Numbers 13:30-33
22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Numbers 14:22-24 26And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.35 I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, 37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. Numbers 14:26-38
n the Master’s Service,
Author/Pastor Michele D Robertson
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 (KJV)