For You Fulfilled by Following the Lord

"For You Fulfilled by Following the Lord" - Joshua 14:6-15 Before giving the territorial boundaries, the Spirit of God records the noble request of Caleb, who asked for the city of Hebron. Although he was already "eighty-five years old," his faith, courage, and strength had not diminished. He longed for more spiritual conquests and received "Hebron by inheritance."

I. Hebron included not only the city, but also the surrounding territory (v. 12).

A. Caleb had survived the punishment that killed the unbelieving spies forty-five years earlier. (Numbers 14:36-38).

1. He had been preserved during desert pilgrimages.

2. He had faced several years of war in Canaan.

3. He still saw things with eyes of faith and "not as they seemed to the eye."

4. Caleb makes his demand that Hebron be given to him.

5. Not to draw luck like the rest of the country.

6. Jehovah said to Moses: In order (v. 6) to justify his demand, it shows that God had long since given it to him, earned by obedience.

7. A man of God is to call him.

8. Giving strength to his request for the lands that fell to him, brought with him the sons of Judah, and the heads, and main chiefs of that tribe.

9. His obedience in regard to the matter of spies.

10. He did not do so out of pleasing Moses or appeasing the people, much less out of an eagerness to contradict the other spies, but out of full conviction of the truth of his report and out of an unshakable faith in God's promise.

11. In his obedience, with that, he "fulfilled" following Jehovah his God.

12. The experience he had had since that day of God's goodness to him.

13. That his life in the wilderness was preserved, not only among the common dangers and fatigues of that tedious march, but when a whole generation of Israelites, except him and Joshua, had fallen into the wilderness in one way or another.

14. That he was still fit to fight now in Canaan.

15. Although he was eighty-five years old, he felt as courageous and vigorous as when he was forty (v. 11): I am still as strong as the day Moses sent me.

16. (v. 9) The promise God had made to him, through Moses, that he would possess this mountain.

17. This was precisely the place from which, more than anywhere else in Canaan, the spies had taken stuff for their report, for it was here that they met the sons of Anak (Numbers 13:33), whose sight so frightened the other spies (Numbers 13:33).

18. In his obedience (action of fulfilling the will of the person in charge, of what a rule establishes) we can suppose that Caleb, observing the emphasis they placed on the difficulty of conquering Hebron, whose garrison was of giants, "desired" "bravely" that

that city, "considered by them 'invincible', should be assigned to him by inheritance, as if to say, "I'll take care of her."

19. It was as if he said: I will take care of it and if I cannot conquer it to be my inheritance, "I will be left without an inheritance."

20. He chose this place only because it was the most difficult to conquer.

21. And to show that his spirits had not declined more than his body forty years later he adheres to the choice he had made then and still retains the same mood.

22. His hope in his obedience was that he had to take Hebron, even though this mountain was "in the power of the sons of Anak (v. 12).

23. If Jehovah is with me, I will cast them out, as Jehovah promised me.

24. Joshua had already conquered the city of Hebron (10:37), but the nearby mountain, where the sons of Anak lived, was still unconquered.

25. "Perhaps Jehovah will be with me."

26. In fact, he is completely sure that it will, for it depends entirely on the sovereignty and all sufficiency of God who can easily cast the sons of Anak out from before him.

27. Joshua gives him what he asks for.

28. Joshua then blessed him.

29. He granted what he asked for, extolled his bravery, applauded his demand.

30. Hebron was adjudicated (assign, give, grant) to Caleb and his heirs.

31. By (v. 14) how much he had followed Jehovah God of Israel fully.

32. "God of Israel" such is His greatness, no man on earth is greater than Him.

33. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in those surroundings most of their lives and nearby was the cave of Machpelah, where they were buried.

34. (Genesis 23:2) Kiriath Arba, as the place where Sarah died.

35. Perhaps it was this that brought Caleb to this part of the country, when they were spies, and made him desire it as an inheritance in preference to any other in that territory.

36. It was later one of the cities assigned to the priests (Joshua 21:11-13).

37. When it was in Caleb's power, he was content with the county (portion of territory, smaller than a region) around the city and joyfully ceded the city to the priests, ministers of God.

38. It was a royal city and at the beginning of David's reign, it was the metropolis of the kingdom of Judah; this is where the people came to him, and this is where he reigned for seven years. Amen.