Caleb: Wholehearted Faith at 85

Caleb at Forty: A Different Spirit

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Long before the sun stood still at Gibeon, twelve men went to spy out the land. Two of them trusted God. One was Joshua. The other was Caleb.

Twelve spies. Moses sent one leader from each tribe into Canaan. From the tribe of Judah he sent “Caleb the son of Jephunneh” (Numbers 13:6).

A rich land. The spies came back with a cluster of grapes so big that two men carried it on a pole (Numbers 13:23). The land was good, just as God had said.

Ten frightened spies. Ten of them said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we” (Numbers 13:31). They said, “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight” (Numbers 13:33).

Caleb spoke up. “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it’” (Numbers 13:30).

Why so brave? Caleb saw the same giants and the same walls. But he also saw how big God is. Joshua and Caleb said, “If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us” (Numbers 14:8).

The same words. They told the people, “the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9). Forty years later God said those same words to Joshua at Gibeon.

A hard answer. The people did not listen. “All the congregation said to stone them with stones” (Numbers 14:10). Following God does not always make you popular.

God noticed. God said, “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went” (Numbers 14:24).

Forty years of waiting. Because the people refused to trust God, they wandered in the desert for forty years. Only Caleb and Joshua from that grown-up generation would enter the land (Numbers 14:30).

Faith that waits. Caleb did nothing wrong, yet he had to wait forty years with everyone else. He kept trusting God the whole time.

Jesus followed fully. Jesus said of His Father, “I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). Only Jesus followed God perfectly, and He did it for us.

What we learn. Faith looks at how big God is, not only at how big the problem is.

What to do. Think of one hard thing you are facing. Remember that the Lord is with you, and ask Him for courage to do what is right.

Caleb's story begins at Kadesh, where Israel stood at the edge of the land and refused to go in. Numbers 13-14 shows what made him different.

A leader from Judah (Numbers 13:6). Each spy was a chief of his tribe. Caleb represented Judah, the tribe from which David and, in the end, Jesus would come.

Caleb the Kenizzite (Joshua 14:14). Many Bible teachers believe Caleb's family came from the Kenizzites, a people listed among the nations of Canaan (Genesis 15:19), who had joined Judah. If so, an outsider became one of Israel's greatest men of faith.

Facts and faith. The ten spies did not lie about the walls or the giants (Numbers 13:28). Their mistake was leaving God out of the count. Caleb used the same facts but added the Lord.

“Well able” (Numbers 13:30). Caleb's confidence was not in Israel. It rested on God's promise that He would give them the land.

Grasshoppers (Numbers 13:33). Fear shrinks the way we see ourselves and makes the problem look bigger than God. Unbelief begins in our own sight.

“If the Lord delights in us” (Numbers 14:8). Joshua and Caleb rested the outcome on God's pleasure, not on Israel's strength. Then they gave a warning: “Only do not rebel against the Lord” (Numbers 14:9).

A different spirit (Numbers 14:24). God says Caleb “has followed Me fully.” The Hebrew phrase means he filled up after God, following Him completely, with nothing held back.

The cost. The crowd wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:10). Wholehearted faith often stands alone for a time.

Waiting with the guilty. Caleb shared Israel's forty years in the desert. Faithful people often suffer alongside unfaithful ones, but God keeps His word to them.

Numbers 32:12. Moses later said Caleb and Joshua alone “have wholly followed the Lord.” The phrase became Caleb's name tag in Scripture.

The perfect follower. Jesus said, “I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). Caleb followed fully, but not perfectly. Jesus obeyed perfectly in our place, and His Spirit makes wholehearted faith possible in us.

Application. When your friends see only the giants, be the one who adds the Lord to the count. Speak with courage, even if you stand alone.

Caleb at Eighty-Five: Give Me This Mountain

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Forty-five years after the spies came back, the land had been taken. Caleb came to Joshua with a request.

Old friends. Caleb reminded Joshua of the day Moses sent them out: “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land” (Joshua 14:7).

No regrets. He said, “I wholly followed the Lord my God” (Joshua 14:8). Wholly means with all of himself.

Kept alive. “And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years” (Joshua 14:10). Caleb saw every year as a gift from God.

Eighty-five. “Here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me” (Joshua 14:10-11).

The hardest place. Caleb did not ask for an easy field. He said, “Now therefore, give me this mountain” (Joshua 14:12). It was the hill country of Hebron, where the giant Anakim lived.

The same giants. These were the very giants that had frightened the ten spies. Caleb wanted to face them himself.

Humble faith. Caleb said, “It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said” (Joshua 14:12). He trusted God's strength, not his own.

Hebron. “Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel” (Joshua 14:14).

A city with a story. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were buried at Hebron. Its king had joined the attack on Gibeon in Joshua 10. Now a man of faith would live there.

A family of faith. Caleb drove out the giants. His nephew Othniel captured a nearby city and later became Israel's first judge (Joshua 15:13-17). Caleb's courage spread to his family.

New strength. “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31).

Following Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Following fully is a choice we make every day.

What to do. Ask God to help you follow Him with your whole heart, today and when you are old.

Joshua 14:6-15 is Caleb's testimony. He tells his life story in a few sentences, and every sentence points to the Lord.

Forty-five years (14:10). Caleb counts from Kadesh to the end of the conquest: thirty-eight years of wandering and about seven years of fighting. God had kept him alive “as He said” (Numbers 14:24).

“I wholly followed” (14:8). Caleb could say this without pride, because Moses and God had said it first (Numbers 14:24; 32:12). Joshua 14:14 repeats it a third time. His life matched his reputation.

Strength at eighty-five (14:11). Caleb's strength was a gift, not a boast. The same God who sustained Moses to one hundred twenty kept Caleb ready for battle.

“Give me this mountain” (14:12). Caleb asked for the hill country of Hebron, the home of the Anakim. These were the giants of Numbers 13:33. He chose the hardest place on purpose.

“It may be” (14:12). This is not doubt about God. It is humility about himself. Caleb knew victory was the Lord's to give: “as the Lord said.”

Hebron (14:13-15). Hebron was earlier called Kirjath Arba, the city of Arba, the greatest of the Anakim. Abraham bought a burial cave there (Genesis 23). Its king Hoham had led one of the five armies against Gibeon (Joshua 10:3).

The giants driven out (Joshua 15:13-14). Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak. What frightened a nation at Kadesh fell before one old man who trusted God.

Othniel (Joshua 15:16-17). Caleb's nephew Othniel took Debir. In Judges 3:9-11 the Lord raised up Othniel as the first judge. Caleb's faith shaped the next generation.

Isaiah 40:31. “Those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength.” Caleb waited forty-five years and was strong at the end of it.

Faith that finishes. Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith.” Caleb finished well because the Lord he followed is faithful to the end.

Daily following (Luke 9:23). Jesus calls His followers to take up their cross daily. Wholehearted faith is not one brave moment. It is a whole life of trusting God.

Trust, not self. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). That verse describes Caleb's whole life.

Application. Do not wait until you are older to follow Jesus fully, and do not think you will ever be too old to serve Him. Ask Him today for the mountain He wants you to climb.

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