Like Caleb

Have you ever studied much about Caleb? I have read a lot about Joshua but I have never really studied Caleb. I have always heard about Joshua and Caleb, but that is usually the end of what I hear about Caleb. I discovered on Monday, though, that I really want to be like Caleb.

His story starts when Moses sends him, along with Joshua and 10 others to spy on the land of Canaan, the land that the Lord has promised to give to the Israelites. All 12 spies come back, but 10 of them are scared. They have seen the Anakites, who are giants with a giant fortified city and they are afraid. All of them, except Joshua and Caleb. The spies come back and 10 of them try and convince the Israelites not to go to battle because the people in Canaan can not be defeated. Only Joshua and Caleb stand up for the Lord and proclaim the victory that He promised. Unfortunately, the Israelites listen to the other 10 spies, and as a result they had to wander in the desert for 40 years.

During that 40 years, and entire generation of Israelites died off and a new generation was raised. Only Joshua and Caleb survived and were allowed into the Promised Land. They were allowed into the Promised Land, but they also had to suffer through 40 years of wandering in the desert, even though they had been faithful.

Once in the Promised Land, the Israelites were sent to conquer all the different people groups of the land. The Lord promised them victory over everyone, but they had to follow a few rules. First, they were not allowed to take anything from the conquered cities. The "spoils" were to be set aside for the Lord.

Not too long after they began to conquer, they lost a battle!! At first they were very confused; the Lord promised them victory! Joshua went before the Lord to find out what happened and it turns out that Achan, one of the Israelites, had taken some of the "spoils" from their previous battle and the Lord had to punish them. The Israelites lost a battle they should have won, and many people were killed.

They were also told not to make any peace treaties with anyone in the land of Canaan. Enter the Gibeonites. To make a long story short (you can read it in Joshua 9) the Gibeonites tricked the Israelites into thinking they were not from Canaan and the Israelites made a peace treaty with them. (They didn't ask the Lord before they did it). Again, they were punished.

Caleb was not responsible for any of this and had to sit back and not only watch it, but also suffer the consequences. I don't know about you, but if it were me, I would be mad. At this point I would probably be pretty fed up with the Israelites by know. We don't read anything about him being angry and upset, just always faithful to the Lord.

The kicker comes in Joshua 14. As the Israelites are continuing their conquest of the land of Canaan, Joshua and Caleb decide to divide the land. When Caleb was asked which part of the land he wanted, this was his response: "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 desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 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. 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."

Can you believe that?!? Caleb is 85 years old...he has wandered in the desert for 40 years, fought countless battles, suffered the consequences of other peoples' sin...I'm tired just thinking about it. Caleb wasn't ready to rest though, he wanted to continue to see what the Lord could do!!

I have been thinking about Caleb a lot this week, mostly because I haven't gotten to sleep much and I feel tired. There is a lot going on all the time, and sometimes I get overwhelmed and I just want to rest. Not just sleep through the night rest, I want a few days off to do nothing kind of rest. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but I don't think its time for that. Right now the Lord is calling me to continue to fight, and stand strong. I need to be like Caleb.

This mindset has really helped me this week. The girls have been with me and its been really good. They are going to school and actually doing their homework. It makes life a little more chaotic, but its worth it. I have also gotten A LOT done, although I still have a lot to do. We have the Teen Club Retreat this weekend and then a group of 120 teens working at the church next week. They will be running 2 VBS's and a ton of other things. We also have to get Reading Rocks finished before the end of next week because that starts the week after. We also have another group coming in that week to run an outdoor VBS...so there will be a lot going on! There is a lot of planning to do for all of these groups, plus I have 2 more groups coming at the end of July. All of this is in addition to our normal clubs, all the Extreme Team stuff we're doing with the teens and the craziness of my block (which seems to always have something weird going on). Oh, and I have jury duty this Monday and Tuesday, haha...maybe that will be my time off. :)

I am taking Friday completely off, not doing ANY work. My roommates and I are planning on sleeping in as late as we want and then heading to Center City to hang out. We always have so much fun together, I'm really excited!!!