Joshua 14: The Inheritance of the Faithful

So this morning we're in Joshua chapter 14, and we are going to cover a little bit of ground.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

We're also going to run into the book of Numbers a little bit and pull some help from there.

But before we do that, let's just pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, God, and thank you for your work in our lives, Lord.

Despite our disobedience and our distance from you at times, God, you are ever faithful.

Lord, you created, you created light, you created sources of light, you created the ocean and the wind and nature, God.

You know the coming and going of every bird and every living creature.

God, additionally, you know us.

And you see us, Lord, and you reach out to us.

And so, Lord, this morning, as you reach out to us, God, I pray that we would be open to what you have for us.

That your word would speak to each heart in here.

Holy Spirit, would you do the teaching this morning?

In my heart and in the rest of us, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So last week we dealt quite a bit with what was happening on the east side of the Jordan.

We talked about a little bit about the different conquests between Moses and Joshua.

We talked about how the Lord said to Joshua that he's not done with him yet.

There's still much land to be taken.

And we now come to this portion of Scripture in Joshua chapter 14.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

And we're talking now about the inheritance.

If your Bible has a headline, it probably does.

The inheritance west of the Jordan.

Okay?

So this is where we pick up.

So verse 1 says, These are the inheritances, inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eliezer, the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel, gave them to inherit.

Their inheritance was by lot, just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine and one-half tribes.

For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one-half tribes beyond the Jordan, that is, on the east side.

But to the Levites, here we are reminded again that he gave no inheritance among them, for the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for the livestock and their substance.

The people of Israel did as the Lord commanded commanded Moses.

They allotted the land.

So, like I said, now we're going to divide the land on the on the east side, excuse me, the west side of the Jordan, the east side's already been done.

And we have some uh presiding overseers.

We have Eliezer, right, the spiritual um overseer.

We have Joshua, the leader of the Israelites at this time, and the heads of the fathers' houses of each tribe.

So overseeing.

And what's happening here is the land is being divided up, and it says by lot, and that is according to the Lord.

Now, lot for us, we we sort of know this, especially if you've been around church for any length of time.

This would sort of be like flipping a coin or maybe drawing straws, okay?

Which seems, I don't know, maybe maybe to you guys that seems sort of uh weird.

But to me, that seems like an interesting way to figure out which tribes are gonna get what pieces of land.

But remember, it's the Lord who has said that that's how we're going to do it.

So, last chapter, two and a half tribes are taken care of already, and now we have nine and a half tribes to deal with, but we get this reminder of the tribe of Levi.

Levi, it's stated in the previous chapter twice, and in this chapter again, that Levi doesn't get an inheritance.

Okay, we're reminded of that.

And so, but we have twelve tribes to get land, and there were twelve sons of Jacob.

So if Levi didn't get anything, do we just have eleven?

We don't have eleven.

Joseph, remember, was given a double portion or a double blessing, and so his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, are actually represented.

So now we're back to twelve again.

And so that's how we get to the twelve tribes.

And so, like I said, these twelve tribes are getting their lots, two and a half.

Manasseh was cut in half, uh, half the tribe of Manasseh was on one side, and now the other half is over here to make the nine and a half plus two and a half, which gives us twelve.

So, um, verse two, like I said, says that the Lord did this by lot.

Now, when I mention drawing straws or flipping a coin, I wasn't trying to say that that the Lord of this decision making was now all of a sudden chance.

That's not to say that.

Actually, a really great verse to let us know that that's not what the Lord is doing is Proverbs 16, 33.

It says the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord.

So you realize that maybe in the absence, uh, especially here in the Old Testament, of just absolute direction and um what I would say, revelation, maybe inspiration for the Lord Himself, the Lord actually uses this system to give us answers.

And it's by his prescription lot.

Okay?

12 10, uh 12 10, Job 12.10 tells us that in his hand is the life of every living thing.

So we can trust to the Lord even in the midst of drawing straws, we can we can trust in the middle of reaching into a hat and pulling numbers, right?

Especially in this Old Testament.

You know, the the reason why I keep bringing up Old Testament is because one, that's where we're at, but two, that's where we see most of these instances of casting lots in order to decide uh the outcome of decisions.

Now, the last place we see casting lots is actually in the New Testament.

Any guys remember where that is?

That's in the book of Acts.

Okay, chapter one, we are trying to replace Judas.

You guys remember Judas?

Alright, you go back?

Okay, we're gonna we're going on.

No, I'm just kidding.

We're good.

You guys remember Judas, I hope.

Um, but we're gonna put forward two people to replace Judas.

And so Acts chapter one, verse 23 and 26 uh says, and they put forward two, Joseph called Bar Sabbas, who was called Justice, and Matthias or Matthias.

And they prayed and said, You Lord, know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place, and they cast lots for them.

And the lot fell with Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Interesting, the eleven and then goes to twelve.

But anyway, he goes, prayer preceded this, but it also presupposed that God controls all outcomes.

So he didn't pray and go, you know, we're gonna control this outcome.

They believed God, they prayed in accordance to God's word.

They prayed and said, Lord, you know the hearts of all.

Show us who we are to replace Judas with.

We don't see actually the casting of lots after that instance.

That's also interesting.

And why is that?

The answer is also found in the book of Acts.

See, the Holy Spirit has come in in the book of Acts and given us.

See, Jesus left and we have another helper.

It was to our advantage that John 16 says that that that that he says, I go away so that another helper will come to you.

So now we don't cast lots.

We listen to the Holy Spirit, we seek his face, we we we want to know what God is telling us directly.

We have another helper, and it says it's to our advantage.

So casting lots, uh just to kind of put a bow on that, wasn't trusting luck or chance or karma or fortune, the universe.

That's a good one these days.

I actually, you know, I had a uh a conversation with a colleague, and he said, Do you think that the universe is trying to tell your son something?

And I'm like, hmm, I don't know.

I don't know what the universe is really trying to say.

You know, I I know the universe declares the uh the glory of God and his handiwork, but anyway, so the universe doesn't really speak in the same way.

So this is not what this is.

It's trusting God.

And we just don't do it now because we have the Holy Spirit.

So we circle back and the Levites get quote unquote no inheritance.

Now that doesn't mean that the Lord is not giving them anything.

Okay?

We actually know that the Lord gives them Himself.

That is said to be their portion.

So, and and we'll get into that a little bit, but what the Lord does promise right here in this passage is you're gonna have cities.

You're gonna have cities within the various locations that are given to these tribes.

And I'm not gonna, but I'm not gonna give you land, just cities uh within the given territories throughout Israel.

But when you look at, and they would know this, Numbers 18, 20 through 24, and we will be in the book of Numbers quite a bit this morning.

Verse 20 says, And the Lord said to Aaron, a Levite, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them.

This is the Lord speaking, he says, I am your portion.

I am your inheritance among the people of Israel.

And then he goes on to explain the tithing and how he's gonna take care of the people of the Levites.

You guys, the Lord wasn't mean to the Levites, he was actually blessing the Levites, He was giving them Himself.

So we will go into a lot more on the breaking up of land.

It actually is very, very heavily detailed in the coming chapters.

Uh, chapters 15 through 19 cover quite a bit about exactly what those boundaries look like.

But right now, the shift happens where we go in verse 6 to Caleb.

Now you remember Caleb.

At least I hope you remember Caleb.

And if you're like me, the story of Joshua and Caleb is they were the two faithful spies in the midst of the uh the twelve that go in and spy out the land.

So let's read here what Joshua comes to, I'm sorry, Caleb comes to Joshua with, and it's in verse 6, he says, Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephunah, the Kenesite, said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God in Kadesh Barneah, concerning you and me.

I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land.

And I brought him word again as it was in my heart, but my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt.

Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God.

And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.

Twice now we see that Caleb's wholly followed the Lord, and now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness, and now behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.

Now we talked about age before in relationship to Joshua.

Obviously, it would make sense that Caleb is of similar age, and Caleb is fully ready to just take on whatever God has for him still.

He's not worried about his age.

But it's really uh, we get a lot of clues and maybe some ideas about what's happening here, and if you know the stories, that's great.

But Numbers 13 and 14 really spell out the origin story of Caleb.

Is is he's gonna plea to Joshua, and so let's take a little bit of a closer look.

Because remember, what happens in Numbers 13 and 14 is actually 45 years before the moment that we are in here in Joshua.

So it's before the people of Israel have been have been walking in this promised land that they've been in for just a little while.

Moses is still in charge, and the spies are being sent out into the land, and Caleb's going a little bit down memory lane.

Okay, and he's going, hey, Joshua, you remember when?

And I want to tell you about that.

And Joshua would have this memory from Numbers chapter 13 as Caleb goes down memory lane.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

Not like Uncle Rico, who went down memory lane, fantasy lane.

Remember that?

Back in 82?

Um, no, Caleb fully remembers what God did.

And so we go to Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

You guys could maybe go there, but I'm gonna skim through it because uh we can't just read the entire thing, but I'm gonna read a good portion of it because this narrative is really important for us and nothing better than the word of God.

As Brock said this morning, one thing we can't mess up is when we have the word of God.

So verse 1 says, The Lord spoke to Moses, remember, Moses is still in charge, saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.

So Canaan is the promised land, they're synonymous.

This is I am giving this to the people of Israel, the land of Canaan.

From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.

So of all the tribes, one person is going.

So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

And we get a list of the twelve.

That I'll just read from verse six from the tribe of Judah, Caleb, and then in verse eight from the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua, the son of Nun.

Skip down to verse 17.

It says, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and wanted to see if it was good.

He wanted to see if the people were strong or weak, if the cities were fortified, if they had a lot of people in them.

In verse 25, it says, In the end of forty days, they returned from spying out the land.

And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Peran at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them, to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

They actually brought back fruit from the land and showed them what was there.

And they told him, We came to the land which you had sent us.

It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

Verse 28.

However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.

And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of Negeb, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan.

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are able to overcome it.

See, in the midst of the opposition, Caleb speaks up.

It's Caleb who's bold.

Yeah, it would be way easier for him to not want to fight, to not want to go, to want to listen to the ten other spies who are saying, This is our report.

We've spent 40 days in this place.

We've looked around.

There's heavily fortified cities, there's tons of numbers, they're well nourished because there's tons of food.

We can't take it.

It's too much for us.

And Caleb says, No.

We need to go at once.

Immediately.

And see, even if he would have stepped back and said, you know what?

That land is going to be really tough for us.

I think if we sit back, we start like an exercise program, you know, some hand-to-hand fighting classes and really raise our game that maybe in a year or two we can go in there and we can overpower them.

He doesn't say that.

He doesn't come up with a really good plan.

He just said, we just need to go.

We just need to go and take it.

The men says in verse 31 who had gone up with him said, We're not able to go up against those people, for they are stronger than we are.

Despite the good fruit, the people in the land are going to defeat us.

The juice isn't really worth the squeeze.

We don't want to go.

It's going to be too much for us.

You know, the thing is, boldness should really inspire boldness.

But Caleb's boldness doesn't inspire boldness.

In fact, the unfaithfulness inspires unfaithfulness.

I just want to encourage you guys to be careful who you listen to.

Because a lot of times you are around people who are negative.

You're around people who are not walking by faith.

They are looking with their eyes, and they don't remember the promises of God.

We look at verse 1 of chapter 14 here.

Together it says, Then all the congregation raised a loud cry.

And the people wept that night.

Now they weren't weeping because they were so sad that they were going to have to go fight.

What they're weeping about is their current situation.

They actually want to go back to Egypt.

That's wild, right?

They want to go back to Egypt.

Like we are in an impossible situation.

We got brought out of slavery, and we're supposed to go in, but we're between a rock and a hard place, and you know what?

The devil we know is better than the devil we don't.

Let's go home.

That's what it says.

And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

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?

Our wives and our little ones will become prey.

Would it not be better for us just to go back to Egypt?

Let us choose a leader.

Let us choose a leader and go back.

God's man is not who they want to follow anymore.

God's plan is not the one they want to follow anymore.

They want to look with their eyes and move in the direction that what they think is best is going to lead them.

I love this about Moses and Aaron in verse 5.

I often look and I bring this up, and what they did not do, they did not argue with the people.

They did not say, hey, trust us, we can do this.

They said, it says in verse 5, then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephanah, who were among those who had spied out the other land, tore their clothes.

Because they mourned, they fall on their face.

And then this is their plea.

The land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us.

A land that flows.

Milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bred for us.

Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them.

They respond with faith.

That's the respond with.

You know, I think as a human being, I think I'm way more like these grumbling Israelites than I am like Caleb and Joshua.

And maybe you guys are sitting there going, like, yeah, I kind of am more like that too.

I'm constantly looking at the circumstance and going, like, I don't know if we could do this.

I don't know if we can do this.

Like the sky is falling.

Is this gonna work?

You know, and like if that's our default, this is what we get to bring to the Lord and see it a different way.

Caleb and Joshua are totally different.

They don't do that.

They walk by faith.

It's like they, and you know, you see Caleb later on.

He says uh that he's strong, and we'll we'll get to that.

But Caleb is just like a warrior.

Like he's just ready to fight guy, likes to fight guy.

You know, and it but he he doesn't talk about that.

He doesn't talk about being willing to fight.

He just talks about his faith in the Lord and how it's all rooted in God and God's ability to deliver him.

Their courage isn't based on the Israelites being greater in number.

It's not based on the fact that they can conquer the enemy because the enemy's weak.

We know that's not the case.

They're ready to move into the land because the Lord is with them.

That's it.

That's why he wants to move.

He's like, that's where God is, that's where I want to go.

And we talked about that last night at the marriage seminar.

The power's over here, so I want to be over here.

I don't want to just look like I'm holy.

I don't want to just look like I'm following the Lord.

I want to be where the Lord's going, and that's that's good for me.

That's it.

I mean, if God is for you, who can be against you?

Then you have Josh 1.9.

Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is with you wherever you go.

For us, the uh we need to look at this and we need to say, God, where am I just being held back?

There's areas in my life that you want me to step into.

There's battles in my life that you want me to take on.

And in what ways am I just not willing to do that?

I think sometimes we see the battle as just too high of a cost.

Sometimes it's just personal enjoyment of life.

It's like to tackle this, I would have to give up a lot of comfort.

I'd have to give up a lot of time.

I'd have to make some new friends who would be willing to pray for me, not just party with me.

There's all kinds of reasons why we might not want to step into that.

Sometimes I think that we just want something different than what God wants for us.

We want to go back into slavery.

We want to go back into the matrix.

I know it's not real, I know it's not gonna last forever, but the reality is just too much for us.

And then sometimes we just we know that that's what God has for us.

I've talked to people, they're like, I know that God actually just had this conversation while we were on a trip we took recently.

And this person said to me, I'm like, like, how you doing spiritually?

Like, hey, listen, you don't have to get on me, I already know.

And I'm like, okay, all right, well, I just just checking, you know.

The spiritual lead in kind of backfired me that one time, John.

Um no, I I pressed in and I just said, you know, how's your time in the word?

It could be better.

Okay, well, I was thinking, no, no, no, don't say anything.

I already know.

See, you guys, sometimes we almost choose unbelief.

We almost choose a lack of faith.

It's not always just something that just happens to us.

And I just want to tell you, it's time to be like Caleb.

That in the face of opposition, we just, we're only really listening to one voice.

It makes it way easier.

See, if you're listening to a lot of voices, it's actually really hard because you have all these inputs.

But if the one input you care about the most is the Lord's, when he says, hey, you should go over here, you're like, yeah, I mean, I don't see why not.

The Lord's telling me to go over there.

But what about all these other people?

I wasn't listening to them.

I'm sorry, I didn't, I didn't even know.

I wasn't listening to them, they didn't tell me that, right?

Like, oh, I'm gonna tackle this addiction.

Yeah, I'm surrounded by addicts who are telling me that you're just gonna be really hard and you can't do this.

It's like, God's like, hey, just do it like this.

Surrender it, lay it down.

Well, it's gotta be more to it than that.

Let me do it like this.

The people of Israel don't agree.

You know, they're not motivated by Caleb and Joshua.

They don't go like, you know what?

You're right.

It says it in verse 10.

In fact, they disagree so much.

This is what they want to do.

They want to kill them.

You don't stone somebody as like a discipline.

You want to kill them.

You want to make an example out of them.

You pick up rocks and you throw it at them because you want to end them.

It says in verse 10, then all the congregation said to stone them with stones.

But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

What a grace of God to show up in that moment.

Not just for Caleb and Joshua, but to show up in such a real way that these disobedient, unfaithful people get to see God.

The glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

If the Lord would just show up, you know, and I could see him, I'd do what he wanted me to do.

And this is what the Lord says to Moses in verse 11.

It says, How long will this people despise me?

When they didn't believe Caleb and Joshua's report to go where God told them to go, he's like, How long will these people despise my servants?

Nope.

Just like he said to Saul, who later became Paul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

See, when we reject the people who are following God, we are actually rejecting the Lord.

How long will this people despise me?

And how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs I have done among them?

What signs?

I don't know, a pillar, a cloud, uh manna, uh the water delivering them, ten plagues.

This generation saw all of that.

All of it.

They saw it with their own eyes, they walked through it.

And then Caleb and Joshua were like, hey, let's just keep going in the direction that God's already been leading us, and they're like, no, there's giants.

The entire Egyptian army swallowed up, and they're freaking out.

And God is upset.

Almost said the different word.

He's angry, he's ticked.

He says, I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they.

He is telling Moses in that moment, this has gone on too long.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wipe them out with sickness, and I'm gonna bring you a new nation that you can lead.

Can you imagine?

This is what Moses hearing from the Lord.

If I were Moses, man, I would be like, thank you, Lord.

These people are so challenging.

I was hoping you would say that.

Moses doesn't do that.

Moses really doesn't do that.

He says in verse 13, if you do that, Lord, then the Egyptians will hear of it.

The Egyptians who he just crushed by his awesome, wonder working power and through the ten plagues.

And then they will tell that it will say, Oh, sorry, for you so the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought us this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land, they will have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face.

And your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night.

This is what the Egyptians are sharing now.

Now, if you kill this people as you could one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say, It is because the Lord was not really able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, that he has killed them in the wilderness.

So, so right now they're talking about your wonders and how you're with this people.

But if you wipe this people out, God, they're gonna start to think, oh, you weren't really active.

You weren't really doing something, and you're gonna do what?

Moses is appealing to God's glory here.

You're gonna be thought of less than God if you wipe this people out.

And we don't want that.

So he appeals to God's glory.

I think, wow.

He doesn't say, God, please don't do that.

I'd really like to live.

God, I want you to get more glory.

Do we pray like that?

God, whatever you need to do in my life, would you just do what you need to do to give yourself more glory?

I don't always pray like that.

I pray for all the other things.

You know, more security.

I would love more security.

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about money ever again?

I pray in accordance to bills getting paid, retirement accounts getting filled, mortgages getting paid off on a regular basis.

I'm not gloating, that's not good.

What if you didn't have to worry about sickness?

Your memory ever again.

Yeah, that'd be but but and I pray for those things, but for God's glory.

Because guess what, guys?

Our time, it is running out.

You could have 17 retirement accounts, take care of all your kids for the next generation.

But if it's about you and not God's glory, he doesn't look really good in all of it, it is a waste.

It's a waste.

He doesn't stop there.

He says, And now please let the power of the Lord be as great as you have promised, saying, The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, 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 generation.

Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to your to the greatness of your steadfast love.

Just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.

Moses now appeals not just to his glory, but to his love.

Not based on a pattern of obedience in the Israelites, but on a pattern of forgiveness from God.

Let's wrap up this portion in numbers.

We'll take it in a big chunk here.

It says that the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.

And what was Moses' word?

Really God's word.

He was praying back God's promises and his characteristics right back to him.

But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times, and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.

And none of those who despise me shall see it.

So there is a consequence to their unbelief.

An entire generation that came from Egypt and saw all of that, and then is in the wilderness, those people who have those that common denominator between them will all die.

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

That means, set out for the wilderness, not the promised land.

He left them there wandering.

Verse 26, and the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?

I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumble against me.

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing, I will do to you.

Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all of your number listed in the sentence from census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb, the son of Jephanah, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

And so here we are, we're back in Joshua chapter 14, coming all the way back.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

And Caleb and Joshua are reminiscing.

They're having a conversation about the inheritance.

So we see here in verse 11, it's Caleb, the 85-year-old warrior.

I am still as strong today as I was in the day of Moses, when Moses sent me.

My strength now is as my strength was then.

I hear a lot of older people say that their strength is the same as it was.

I believe that Caleb's really was.

So Caleb talks about the strength that God has still left in him, which is incredible.

And he says, Give to me this hill country which the Lord spoke on that day.

And he's talking about the day that we just read in the book of Numbers.

Verse 24, in that same chapter in the book of Numbers, right?

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

So there was a spot in the promised land that Caleb, when he had this conversation with Moses, that he was thinking about, and the Lord knew it.

And here he is, 45 years later, making his plea to his brother in arms, Joshua.

It's time.

And there may still be battles to be had in that land.

All the people may not be driven out of that, but you know what I'm gonna do?

I will go in there and I will possess it.

He was the same man.

45 years earlier, he's like, let's go.

45 years now, after that, he says, I'm ready.

Give it to me.

We will go and we will finish pushing them out of that land.

The sons of Anak were there.

If you know your Bibles and we're running slow on time, descendants of the Nephilim, which means they're big and powerful people.

Caleb didn't pick a small fight.

I have this advice I tell young men, I'm like, if you're ever in a situation and you kind of have to fight, pick the biggest guy.

Caleb's like the old man.

Give me, give me the give me the giants of the land.

That's who I want to fight.

Because when I win, God gets the glory.

I'm not like that.

Okay.

Alright, I got all these battles, there's all these people there.

Where's like the smallest tribe?

Let's start with some little wins, you know, and then we'll move to the bigger.

I think the Dave Ramsey, you know, style.

You pay off your little debts, you know, gain some momentum, and then move on and tackle the big ones.

But you guys really, the greatest blessings, truthfully, really are the ones on the other side of our greatest battles.

And we have to remember that.

We can go at those hard battles first and foremost in the Lord.

Be like Caleb.

Trust the Lord in those moments.

And this is what happens is Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunah, for an inheritance.

Therefore, Hebron became an inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunah, who, the Kenesite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

Why did he have an amazing inheritance?

Because he wholly followed the Lord.

We know he was a sinful man.

We know Scripture.

But I can only think of Deuteronomy 6.5.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your might.

This is the kind of man that Caleb was.

Like I said, you might be thinking, Caleb doesn't really sound like me, though, Pastor Ben.

Well, like I said, Caleb was still a sinner.

He wasn't perfect.

He didn't stand before God on his own righteousness.

You know, rest life as a church, the church as a whole, in reality, we are a promiscuous disaster of a bride.

We we hold up our best works.

And the book of Isaiah says they're like filthy rags.

Land isn't the real inheritance for a believer.

Do you know that?

It was just a type and shadow of the victory that we get in Christ.

And that land would go to Caleb and then it would leave and be under control of someone else.

And now we have it, Israel is a nation again since 1948, fulfilling some prophecy and whatnot.

But but we really have this type and shadow of what we're really supposed to have in Christ.

I just want to encourage you guys that you would know that we want to be warriors for Christ on our own sin, on the battles we have in our life, but our own righteousness, it's not what saves us.

We don't have God here just to improve our works.

We have Christ because he gives us his work on the cross in place of us.

And so as we look at Caleb as a faithful example, we still know that he was a man in need of a savior.

And types and shadows pointed him towards something that was coming, and that was the cross.

We look back on the cross, having seen that fulfillment.

And so I just pray that as a church, we would look to the cross as our source of righteousness, not our own attempts.

Let's pray.

Lord, this is we wrap up today, got just a lot of scripture here, Lord, a lot to think about, a lot to digest.

I have no doubt, Lord, that you are at work in your church, you are at work in our hearts, God, that you want to move God in a way that sometimes we aren't ready for.

You want to move us into a place where we're ready to battle the biggest giants in our lives.

And that's a scary thing because when I think about that, I sort of know some of those things that I have that exist within my own self.

I know that I'm my biggest problem, Lord, but within me, there is these things, Lord, that you want me to tackle.

Lord, that you want me to go after.

Because that's where you are.

You don't want to leave me there.

You don't want to leave us there.

So, Lord, I pray that that is, there's been a lot of introspection, Lord, for the for the married group that was here early or late last night, Lord, and then some of them back here this morning, God, there's been a lot of introspection.

As we went through communion, there was a reflection.

And we want to reflect on where we really are before you, God, where you're telling us that there is battles to be had, and then therefore blessings on the other side of.

I pray you'd bless your church and any believer in here who wants more of you.

I pray they wouldn't leave here today without going into the prayer corner and asking for prayer, or sitting here for a moment in their own, oh, in the silence, Lord, in our own little prayer closet that's in the middle of everybody.

And just say, God, help me.

Help me to go after the giants, help me to go after the battles in my life, Lord.

Help me to wholly follow you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.