9/2/12. Joshua 14:6-15. CALEB RECEIVES HIS INHERITANCE-devotional

Joshua 14:6-15
Key Verse: 14:12

Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF   Sunday, September 2, 2012

“Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said”
Dear Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you for helping me to be set free from my sins and helping me to have hope. When all is “stripped away” who else can I turn to except to Jesus Christ? When all hope seems to be gone, where else can I turn except to Jesus? Jesus gives us the best answers. Jesus gives us the best solutions. Jesus helps us to get up and walk spiritually. Jesus fills my heart with love and hope. Help me Lord, to overcome all of “the issues” and walk in newness of life. Please grant me one word of God to hold onto in my heart through this passage. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: Caleb Remained Faithful (6-12).

Verses 6-12 read, “6 Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’ 10 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

Caleb was one of the original spies. He was a great man and a man of great influence. Caleb was the next in line to Joshua for obvious reasons. Because of his faith, God promised him a personal inheritance. His faith was unwavering. He trusted the Lord and was willing to continue the fight. His testimony is about God. He was claiming the promise of God. God gave him the blessing. Such faith overcomes the world.

I am really impressed about the faith of Caleb. He is an old man and yet he is so full of faith and so full of zeal. He is the same as he was four decades previous. How often are we stuck in the mindset that we are just waiting to die? We are just waiting for the end to come and we live like it too? When I fall into depressed feelings I become as weak as a 100 year old man. I can do nothing by feel sorry for myself and be full of dark thoughts that render me powerless and no longer able to follow and serve my Lord Jesus Christ. I spend more time wallowing in my darkness than running in the light, like Caleb was doing. I must come out of it. I need to take a lesson from this senior citizen, Caleb. May God fill heart full of the spirit of God and a passion to reveal Jesus and love Jesus and participate in the expansion of the kingdom of God.

Part 2: Caleb Maintained His Faith In God (13-15).

Verses 13-15, “Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.) Then the land had rest from war.”

The Anakites were a race of giants who inherited parts of the land before Joshua’s conquest. Now that the land was Caleb’s, it still had the same giants present. However, Caleb’s heart was not swayed. Caleb was not afraid. He was as sure now as he was back then that the Lord would give him the good land. And God did. God came through with his promise after 45 years.

There are times when I loose hope anything promised in this life, other than the Kingdom of God itself. But God has been and will continue to be faithful. Even though I have despaired about my kids’ apparent lack of passion for Jesus, they actually are believers and Jenn is actually enjoying a Christian frosh week at her university. She is glorifying God in the first week at McGill. She is setting an example of faith. All of my kids are quietly finding their Christian path in this world. They surprise me on so many ways. God is also bearing fruit in my house church. In some ways I had lost hope in campus ministry at NIU. But this vision is not dead. We are simply stepping back and forming a new UBF/Kishwaukee Bible church hybrid among us. Campus ministry is still on my radar. It is still possible among us. In fact I do teach the Bible to two NIU students and I am starting to think that I could study the Bible with more students. God is at work in my family. But I must hold onto the promises of God. I must hold onto God himself. I know that I have the kingdom of God, but I also know that while I am alive in this world, God will be working through me and my house church, my family in many powerful ways. I just need to believe and hold onto faith and God will continue to unfold what he has already began to unfold in our lives.

Prayer: Lord, it is not easy to maintain our faith in your promises throughout our lifetime. But grant me the faith of Caleb and help me to be faithful.

One Word: I still believe!