Dramatic Moments in Scripture: Joshua and Caleb

Have you ever had a moment in life that you wish you could go back and change? When you were at one of those turning points in life where you made a choice, and the choice you made was not the best, and you wish you could go back, turn back the clock, and change that decision, because that particular choice you made had significant consequences for life. That's the whole point of that great little movie, Back to the Future. You remember that movie? How many of you remember Back to the Future?

Michael J. Fox? You remember his dad was a nerdy, wimpy guy, always being bullied by the town bully? and Michael J. Fox goes back in time to try to understand why is it that my dad is such a wimp?

And it went back to one night in high school when his dad had to face the school bully. And on that night, his dad had to make a choice to either stand and be brave and courageous and fight or turn tail and run. And the choice his dad made that night made all the difference in the scheme of the movie. We're going to come back to that movie in just a few moments. But right now, I want us to turn and look at another turning point.

A turning point in the scripture where choices that were made had significant impact. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with us to Numbers 13. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers chapter 13.

And we're going to look at this whole story in summary fashion and then look at the lessons that this story from the Old Testament has for us.

And here we are. The year is about 1445 B.C.

since the children of Israel came out of slavery in Egypt. You remember? Moses led them out. They crossed the sea. Pharaoh's army was destroyed.

And now we're about a year later. They're on the brink of the promised land. In Numbers 13, verses 1 to 2 says this, The Lord said to Moses, Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites, from each ancestral tribe, send one of its leaders. So at the Lord's command, Moses sent them out from the desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

And what will happen as a result of this exploration by the spies will have significant long-term impact for the children of Israel. Let us pray as we begin. Lord, this day I pray that we will look at this old story, story but we will understand its relevance for us today may we learn from the past so as to live better in the present for your glory in christ's name we pray amen if you go back in well you have to go and read the book of deuteronomy to know this but apparently it was the people of israel who asked that spies be sent into the land. In other words, God said, I'm giving you the promised land. The people said, well, before we go, can we send some folks to check out the land?

Maybe a little lack of faith there, not wanting to go in without knowing what would be in the land. So at the people's request, God says, okay, send one representative, one spy from each of the 12 tribes the land of Canaan, the land that will be the promised land that I, the Lord, am going to give to you. So they choose one member of each tribe. Two key people, Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb from the tribe of Judah are chosen along with representatives from each of the other tribes. Twelve men in all that will be sent into the land.

They start from the desert near Kadesh Barnea. This is in the desert of Paran. These men will travel through the land of Canaan, going through Hebron, the area of Jerusalem, Shechem, all the way up to Lebo Hamath. It's a distance of about 250 miles one way, 250 miles back, a total journey of about 500 miles. It will take them about 40 days to explore the land.

and as they go through the land, Moses gives them certain instructions about what they are to do. After they are selected, they are given these instructions. Moses tells them in verses 17 through 20 of chapter 13 to do a detailed investigation of the land. You're going to check it out. Check out the land.

Is the soil fertile or is it not? What are the people in the land like? towns like? Are they fortified? Are they cities that it will be difficult to conquer? What is the vegetation and the fruit like in the land? And Moses tells them as they go into the land to show courage. The NIV says, do your best to bring back some fruit from the land. That was the instruction Moses gave to the people. Literally, instead of saying do your best, he was really saying show courage by taking some of the fruit of the land and bringing it back. It's sort of like you're sneaking in and bringing back some of the spoils from your entering into the land and spying out to the land. So the spies do what Moses said. They go to explore the land. Forty days of exploration, about 500 miles of journeying. On this journey, they go to Hebron and there they do meet the descendants of Anak. In verses 21 to 25 of chapter 13, this is described. The descendants of Anak are large people. The Anakim, or as the NIV says it, the Anakites were large people, people of giant stature who are in the land. It's interesting, there's actually an ancient Egyptian papyrus that dates back to the 13th century BC, an extra-biblical document, a document outside the Bible that talks about in the land of Canaan there was a people of giant stature measuring over seven feet in height. They would be sort of like the Messiah tribe in Africa, noted for their large height. Well, we have even an extra-biblical account that there was a group of people of large height in this area that was explored by the spies. So they go into the land and they see these big people. They see cities that are fortified. They see fruit and vegetation that is amazing. They actually take a cluster of grapes when they go in to spy the land and it takes two men carrying this cluster of grapes on a pole to bring it out of the land. It was a fertile land, a rich land but a land that was fortified and a land that had large people and from a human perspective it looked like it might be a difficult land to conquer after their journey the spies report the whole israelite community gathers to hear the report and this is where i want to pick up our reading so now look at numbers chapter 13 and go to verse 27

all the people are gathered and starting at verse 27 the spies give this account we went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey here is its fruit but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large we even saw descendants Anak there, this giant people. And then there are other peoples there. The Amalekites live in the Negev. That's in the desert there. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country.

And the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan. And now here comes Caleb. I love Caleb. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, We can't attack those people.

They're stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there.

The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. you know when the spies initially reported they gave an accurate account of the land it was a land flowing with milk and honey but it was a land that was fortified it was a land with large and powerful people all of those things were true but then you had to decide given those true facts what are we going to do and we see that there are two reactions to the true report Caleb says let's go mount up the horses let's charge let's take the land but the other people the majority report says are you kidding didn't you hear what we just said they're big there They're strong. And they begin to exaggerate in their fear. The land devours the people as if when you walk into the land, it's just going to swallow you up whole.

They say we look like grasshoppers.

Exaggeration out of fear. And they even call in the name of the Nephilim, apparently to further enhance the fear. The Nephilim are mentioned in Genesis 6-4, these sort of strange people who apparently again were of gigantic size and the Anakites descended from them. And it's after the majority takes this report and gives this fearful perspective to it that all of the people rebel against God and against their leaders. Let's pick up and read verses 1 to 4. That night, this is chapter 14 now, that night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly said to them, if only we had died in Egypt or in this desert. Be careful what you ask for. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Is that Lord was doing? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, And ripped their clothes.

And said to the entire Israelite assembly. The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us. He will lead us into that land. A land flowing with milk and honey.

And will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land. Because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone.

But the Lord is with us. them, but the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. The Israelites were in clear rebellion against God and their leaders to the point that they decided they were going to choose their own leaders and they were going to head back to slavery in Egypt. Why do Moses and Aaron fall on their faces in front of the people?

Why do Joshua and Caleb rip their clothes? Well, I think Moses and Aaron know that this rebellion by the people will be punished by the Lord, and they fall on their faces before the people, getting ready to implore the Lord to forgive the rebellion of the people. their clothes a common sign of mourning at this time in the mid-east they rip their clothes as a sign of mourning and implore the people not to rebel against god but the people have gone so far they prepare to stone their leadership and then god shows up protecting his leaders his glory showing up but he's coming to render judgment against the people for their rebellion they had forgotten all the ways God had delivered them already time and again and God says I'm not going to let this rebellion pass unpunished the consequences of their rebellion are immense

based on God's on Moses intervention God agrees that there will be instead of wiping out all the people there will be 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and all those 20 years of age are older those who are old enough to have known better to have understood what the Lord has done for them in the past who knew better than to rebel, all of them are going to perish in the wilderness in this 40 years of wanderings. Only Joshua and Caleb will be able to go into the land because they, particularly Caleb, the Lord notes, had a different spirit and followed him wholeheartedly. The faithless spies, verse 37 of chapter 14, tells us the faithless spies are killed in a plague. So the ten spies who gave the bad report are killed.

And then the people, realizing, I guess, the mistake they have made, they rebel again against the Lord. The Lord says, look, you're going to wander 40 years in the wilderness. My judgment has been given. What do the people do then? They then say, well, we're going to now go take the land.

And their leadership implores them, don't disobey the Lord again. the Lord has already decreed you're now going to wander 40 years in the wilderness and the people get up and say no we're going to go take the land. And they are defeated soundly when they attempt to do that. This is a great story. And there's so many lessons we need to learn from it.

I'm going to give you seven. There are probably a lot more. But here are my lessons from this particular story.

God offers the promised land. Let's not trade it for slavery or the wilderness.

You know, looking back on this story, it seems obvious to us the people should have gone and taken the land, right? They were former slaves who God had now promised a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet out of fear or maybe lack of trust in God, they begin to say we wished we had died in the wilderness or died in Egypt rather than being brought to this place. How foolish not to have trusted God and taken the promised land. But let me ask you in our own lives, doesn't God offer us the promised land?

He says, come to me, surrender to me, follow me, and I will give you an abundant life, and you can inherit eternal life. Yet what do we so often do? What do so many people do? Well, think what I would have to do, what I would have to give up. I would rather live in slavery, live in bondage of sin, following my own passions, my own desires rather than taking the promised land that God offers us.

What will we choose? The promised land of eternal life or the slavery of sin? How many have refused to take the offer of the promised land? How many have refused? God gives us so often a promised land of a good marriage and a good home.

how many have said rather than having the freedom and the joy of this marriage and of this home how many trade the promised land for slavery seeking after something else rather than the promised land that God offers and suffering the consequences of their poor choices how many are given the promised land of a great church

with a pastor who loves the Lord, preaches the word, with brothers and sisters in Christ, yet, yet, because we want something else. It's not quite the way I had dreamed it should be. We go in search of other things, other places, rather than staying at the promised land that God offers to us. Don't we do that so often? We trade what God offers that is so good For something else.

Second lesson for life. We need to courageously take on the challenges God places before us in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb who trusted in God's power to accomplish the task. You know, taking the promised land was a big challenge. But Joshua and Caleb knew that no walled city, no people of gigantic size could overcome the Lord God Almighty. If God is with us, we can take them, they said.

You know, God gives us big challenges as his people. He challenges us to do big things in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb, but big things that can only ultimately be accomplished through his power. go make disciples of all the nations. That's a pretty big challenge, a daunting task. And sometimes we shrink back from this task.

Oh, that country's a closed country. Oh, they're persecuting Christians there. Instead of in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb saying, the Lord is with us, let's go take it, we sometimes shrink back from the challenge that is before us. You know, the World Evangelization Research Center reports that currently Christians worldwide spend, this is how much we spend per baptism that occurs. Currently, Christians worldwide spend on average $349,000.

$349,000 for one baptism.

if you take all the money given by Christians worldwide for Christian purposes and causes, on average, one baptism per $349,000 spent.

That's a lot of money for one baptism. You know what? We need less money and more people with the spirit of Joshua and Caleb William Carey in the 1700s decided he was going to go evangelize India. He had no great large organization behind him providing him money. He went with his family and trust in the living God.

And he said in one of his great sermons, he said, Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God. And he went in the spirit and power of God. Francis Xavier, he was a Catholic missionary years ago, but I love reading about his story. He went alone to India in the 1500s with no money, no supplies, no organization.

He went alone to evangelize the whole country of India by himself. And stories tell us that tens of thousands of people came to Christian faith through his ministry. Hudson Taylor in the 1800s went to evangelize China virtually alone.

The Apostle Paul went with no money, no earthly resources to take the Gentile world for Jesus Christ. They weren't afraid. They went in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb knowing that the power of God can accomplish great things through committed people. I guess our challenge from this story is we need to be people who are not so afraid of dying. Instead, we need to be more courageous in the service of Christ.

You know, we're all going to die at some point, folks. Would you rather die courageously 10 years earlier or being a coward and die 10 years later?

would you rather be wandering in the wilderness and die or would you rather die going into the promised land trusting god

i think when we step back from it the choice is easy the key is to remember in the heat of the moment what the right choice is the third lesson for life is this. Beware of crowds. They're often headed in the wrong direction. You know, this is a great lesson for our children, isn't it? Have to teach them not to just follow the crowd. But you know what? It's a great lesson for adults.

We're often just following the crowd, the way of least resistance. Most of the Israelites, the crowd, did not want to go into the promised land. When Shadrach, to bow to the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had resurrected, the crowds all bowed down. When David faced Goliath, most of the people were running from Goliath in fear. At the crucifixion of Jesus, the crowds were shouting for Barabbas. I'm telling you, the crowd is not always wrong, but we need to beware that we don't get swayed by the crowd that often is headed in the wrong direction. We need to be willing to stand firm for the Lord, even if the crowd wants to stone us, as they did Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron.

My fourth lesson is this, where there is a fork in the road, let's choose the way that God wishes for us to travel. You know, our choices are so important. And in life, we are often faced with choosing the fork in the road. Which fork will we take? Will we take the road that is God's way or will we take the other road? And we're constantly presented with these stark choices in scripture. Moses at the end of his life in his last sermon to the people would look at the Israelite people and he would say, I have set before you life and death. You've got two choices to make here. You can choose the way of life, which is the way of following the Lord, or you can take the way of death, which is refusing to follow him. I urge you to choose life. When Joshua would stand before the people in his last sermon, he would challenge the people. If you want to serve the gods that your forefathers served beyond the river, so be it.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. In the New Testament, Jesus would say, there's a narrow way, there's a wide way. The narrow way leads to eternal life, the wide way the narrow way. When we get to the fork in the road, we've got to choose the way that is God's way. What you notice about all these choices is there's no middle way. Jesus doesn't say, well, if you really don't like the narrow way, but you don't want to be on the wide way, well, there's sort of this middle compromise way. You can sort of have some of the world and some of me.

It's one way or the other. There's a stark contrast. It's either black or white, right or wrong, good or evil, you've got to make the choice. And even as adults, folks, we're still faced with making these choices at the forks that we face in the road of life.

About our marriages, are you going to stick with your spouse that you committed your life to until death do your part, or are you not? Come on. What's it going to be? Are you going to follow Jesus? Or are you not?

What's it going to be?

I'm not saying the choice is necessarily one without consequences. But I'm saying there's a right choice and there's a wrong choice. And we need to stand up and make the right choice. Knowing that our choices do have consequences. I'm mentoring a young man named Trey Lovett.

He's been coming to Joshua's way for several years, and now I'm his official mentor at the high school. Trey committed his life to the Lord just a week or so ago here at Greer First Baptist. And I'm trying to persuade Trey, and have been for some time, and I think the Lord is opening his eyes to the truth of this, that you know what we choose to do today has consequences for our future. You want to have a good job when you grow up? You've got to get an education in high school.

you want to inherit eternal life you got to commit your life to Jesus Christ

choices have consequences and we reap the consequences of our choices you know the unusual thing is the Lord usually lets us do whatever we want to do children of Israel said we'd rather die in the wilderness The Lord says, okay.

You shall receive that which you have asked for. I don't want to stay with my spouse.

Okay. So you'll grow up with children. Your children will grow up in a broken home without the close connections to both mom and dad. they will, by all statistical standards, on average, do less well emotionally, educationally, socially, financially. But if that's what you want,

the Lord will let you go.

Well, Lord, I don't want to surrender my life to you. I'll have to give up too much stuff. I don't want to have to change my way of life. And the Lord says, okay.

But you have been warned.

Choose well.

Two more lessons. Let's practice the discipline of what I call stability. I actually got this from a discipleship journal magazine I was reading. You know, so often we're just up and down in our faith. You know, we seem to, when things are going well, we're trusting the Lord, we're going to church, we're loving the Lord, you know.

And then when things go a little bad, we sort of turn on God, don't we? Why would you let this happen to me? Why this?

We're not this sort of consistently trusting Christian. We swing from one thing to another. we try this church and if it doesn't tickle our fancy we swing to another church until it doesn't tickle our fancy until we swing to another church so it doesn't tickle our fancy

the children of israel time and again they would seem to be trusting the lord then all of a sudden they'd fall off the wagon and just totally distrust him we need to be people who day in day out are stable. We need to show some fortitude through the difficult times and trust the Lord day in and day out. And it's a discipline. We have to work at it. We have to begin to say, Lord, I'm hurting right now.

I'm not sure where you are in this moment, but I'm going to trust you. I'm going to stick with you. I'm going to follow you. The last lesson is this. Let's go for it wholeheartedly.

serving the Lord. Numbers 14, 24. Caleb was of a different spirit. He served the Lord wholeheartedly. And that word has the sense he gave his complete self to serving the Lord and he served him with a passion and an intensity and a focus that showed his commitment.

well at high school night Michael J. Fox's dad had to decide would he fight the bully or would he not and because Michael J. Fox had gone back in time he was able to help orchestrate things so that this time his dad had another chance to do the right thing Dad had turned and run, and that had long-term consequences. But this time, on this night, his dad turned and faced the bully, and he fought for what was right.

Folks, we don't get to go back in time. So my urging is today, do the right thing. And tomorrow, do the right thing because you only get one opportunity. I'd rather die charging into the promised land, trusting God, than die wandering in the wilderness a person who turned on God. How about you?

Let's pray. Lord this day I pray that we will hear the lessons from the past and understand how relevant they are for today

Lord we've all failed you at times we've all failed to measure up to what we should have been but I pray Lord that we will listen and understand that you love us that you offer us the promised land to serve you with courage, with wholeheartedness. And it's my prayer that we will be that kind of people who serve you with passion and intensity and wholeheartedly. For it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.