Joshua 14:7

King James Version (KJV) 

Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

 Meditation

He was eighty-five years old but full of energy. Caleb had lived for this day and could taste it now, and nothing was going to hold him back. God promised it to him at Kadesh-barnea. He was forty years old then, and forty-five years later, he stood with a delegation from Judah to demand his inheritance from Joshua, their leader. His faith, set in an excellent spirit, had won God’s exclusive favor with Joshua for entrance into the Promised Land (Nu. 14:30).

“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” (Jos. 14:11-12).

1. Now, what caused this eighty-five year old man to be so confident in God to ask for the toughest opposition in the conquest of Canaan?
2. Wasn’t the opposition formidable? Didn’t Caleb know about the difficult terrain, the large and fortified cities, and the giants who lived there (12)? So, why did he ask for the hill country, the most difficult land to conquer and possess?
3. Was it not Caleb’s convictions about God that fired his faith? Is that not challenging? Is Caleb’s faith not inspiring?
4. When the man has seen and experienced the extraordinary display of God’s power in Egypt, and His mighty deliverance at the Red Sea crossing, and all the other miracles in the wilderness crossing, how could he fail to completely trust Him? When a man takes time to know God and observe His ways and dealings with His people, how could any daunting situation make him back down (Nu. 13:30)?
5. Have we not experienced God’s extraordinary power in our salvation? Don’t we have a better opportunity to build stronger godly convictions that would fire our faith in God through Christ Jesus our Lord? Do we not have enough enablement from the Holy Spirit to do that?

I pray you give your faith a firm berthing in your convictions, and fearlessly claim your inheritance in Christ Jesus. The forces you contend with might be powerful and intimidating, but the Captain of your life sits above them all through His finished work on Calvary (Eph. 1:20-21).

So: May you not fear or cower like the ten colleagues of Caleb in the surveillance campaign of Canaan; but rather, may the fresh wind of Calvary and the power of His resurrection embolden the claim of your inheritance for the fulfillment of your destiny in Christ!

Shalom