One in a million

As I continue to consider all that I learned at Pink Impact this weekend, I am thinking a lot about Caleb and Joshua. In Exodus, we see that about 2 million Israelites came out of slavery in Egypt. But, 40 years later, only 2 of the original 2 million were able to go into the land that God had promised. That is 1 in a million. All 2 million were God’s people, believers and followers of Jehovah, but they did not believe Him enough. They saw that there were giants in the land and did not trust God to defeat them. Joshua and Caleb argued that they could take the land because God had promised it to them and He would deliver. God said that they had a different spirit. No one listened, so for forty years, they wandered in the wilderness until all those adults who would not trust God had died, and only Joshua and Caleb were left to lead the new generation into the land. I have been considering Caleb this week.

In Numbers 13:30, after spies gave a report highlighting the fact that the land was inhabited by giants and they did not have a chance against them, Caleb stood up and said "Let's go at once to take the land, we can certainly conquer it!” You gotta love that attitude. He did not deny that the land was inhabited by giants, but he was certain that they could defeat the giants, and he did not want to waste any time getting to it.

God promised that Caleb would eventually enter the land because he had a different spirit: Num 14:24 "But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

After forty years, the new generation comes to enter the Promised Land. This time, Joshua is their leader, and they believe God for victory. As they fight battle after battle to take the land, Caleb makes a special request:
Josh 14:6-12 A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb said to Joshua, "Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave an honest report, 8 but my brothers who went with me frightened the people from entering the Promised Land. For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God. 9 So that day Moses solemnly promised me, 'The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 "Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. 11 I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. 12 So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said."

The descendants of Anak were the giants. Caleb is 85 years old and requests the portion of the land that is still occupied by giants, living in great, walled towns. “If the Lord is with me, I will drive them out.” I think it is interesting that there is no description of the battle that Caleb fought. Joshua 15:13 says that Caleb drove them out, no details. It seems almost anticlimactic, as if winning the battle was not the point; the main point was Caleb’s faith and obedience.

I can imagine Caleb as a young man, ready to go into the promised land, ready to fight the giants, ready to see God bring deliverance and victory. I can imagine that for forty years, he relived the day that the people looked at the giants in fright and refused to go in. For forty years, he dreamed of the day that he would again have the chance to enter the land and drive out its inhabitants. Now, at age 85, he is ready. He tells Joshua, “Moses promised me the area with the biggest giants, living behind the strongest walls. I know I’m 85, but I CAN DO THIS. God will give me the strength I need and He will give me the victory.”

I so love that attitude. So many Christians live with excuses, too old, too young, not enough knowledge, not enough energy, not enough experience, not enough talent…
We need to be the one in a million kind of Christian, the ones with “a different spirit” like Caleb and Joshua, who will believe God and follow Him no matter how big the obstacle.