Josh 14:6-15 · Read 8 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Moses had died, and the LORD said to Joshua: “Now therefore arise, go across this Jordan, you and all these people” (Josh 1:2).
Then Israel crossed the Jordan: “The priests who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground” (Josh 3:17). They took twelve stones out of the river, and “These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever” (Josh 4:7). At Jericho, “When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat” (Josh 6:20). Later, “Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD spoke to Moses” (Josh 11:23).
“Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. The LORD said to him, ‘You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed’” (Josh 13:1). So they began to divide the land. This lesson reads how, while the land was being divided, Caleb came to Joshua.
6Then the children of Judah came near to Joshua in Gilgal. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the thing that the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh Barnea.
7I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was in my heart.
8Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the LORD my God.
9Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where you walked shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’
10“Now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old, today.
11As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, to go out and to come in.
12Now therefore give me this hill country, of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the LORD said.”
13Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.
14Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly.
15Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, after the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest from war.
Kadesh Barnea. Caleb said to Joshua: “You know the thing that the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh Barnea” (v. 6). That is what we read in Lesson 1. “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land” (v. 7).
Wholly followed. “Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the LORD my God” (v. 8). Moses swore on that day: “Surely the land where you walked shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God” (v. 9). In this passage it is said three times: “I wholly followed” (v. 8), “you have wholly followed” (v. 9), and “because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly” (v. 14).
Forty-five years. “Now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness” (v. 10). “Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old, today. As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me” (vv. 10–11).
This hill country. “Now therefore give me this hill country, of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities” (v. 12). Forty-five years earlier, the spies had said: “Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there” (Num 13:28). What Caleb asked for was the very place where the Anakim were.
It may be. Caleb went on: “It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the LORD said” (v. 12).
Hebron. “Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance” (v. 13). “Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel wholeheartedly” (v. 14). “Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, after the greatest man among the Anakim” (v. 15).
The book of Joshua goes on to record: “He gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, even Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (also called Hebron)” (Josh 15:13); “Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak” (Josh 15:14). The beginning of Judges records it again: “They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove the three sons of Anak out of there” (Judg 1:20).
Readers can see this: the place where, forty-five years earlier, the spies had seen the children of Anak (Num 13:22) later became Caleb’s inheritance.
Perhaps you, too, are waiting for something: an answer to prayer, someone to turn back, news about your health, or a hope you set in your heart long ago. You have waited so many years that sometimes you hardly dare mention it, even to yourself.
This lesson does not say that if you wait long enough you will surely receive it; what Caleb himself said was “It may be” (v. 12). What it shows you is this: through forty-five years, Caleb remembered the hill country “of which the LORD spoke in that day” (v. 12), and remembered too that “the LORD has kept me alive, as he spoke” (v. 10). When the time came, he opened his mouth and asked. A psalm says: “Wait for the LORD. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the LORD” (Ps 27:14).
This week: Write down the thing you have waited for a long time, and the year, roughly, when you began to wait. This week, tell someone you trust about it, and ask them to pray about it with you.
Scripture: World English Bible.