Sermon Transcript — December 27, 2003
The reason we're here now is that we have lived in New Zealand for four years. We live in Auckland, and actually we got there on Christmas Day four years ago to the day, and we come back yearly to see our family. My two brothers live here with their wives in southern California, and my parents live in Houston, and they were already making a trip out here to see my brothers. We make an annual trip home with the family, with our children, so we decided to meet up here. It's summer, by the way, not winter; you have it backwards (chuckling.)
Summer just started in New Zealand so we have a summer holiday for six weeks - from mid December to the end of January - so this is the best time to bring our children here, so they don't miss school, and we get a chance to be with the family. So that's essentially why we're here. But another reason as well is - rather than just flying directly to the "states" and back we have around the world tickets; the price Auckland-LA-Houston-return is roughly the same price as going around the world, within a couple of hundred dollars for us buying them in New Zealand. So, by buying around the world tickets for the four of us, we were able to go to various areas where we serve, so we went to Fiji; that's where we were last Sabbath. We're here this Sabbath; next Sabbath we'll be in Big Sandy; the following Sabbath we'll be in Frankfort, the following Sabbath we'll be in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia; the next Sabbath we'll be in Singapore and then home to Auckland, all in one ticket. And at much less expense to the work, as a result we'll be a few miles wearier, but we've done this - this is the third time our girls have been around the world, so they're getting used to being on the plane for long periods of time. But it does offer the opportunity to come and visit our parents in Texas and our family here as well and also see brethren in various diverse places.
As I mentioned, we've been in New Zealand for four years and I think I can bring greetings from brethren in a number of countries. And I'd like to mention a little bit about each, because I could spend the rest of the time - I think I have 'till four is it; or 4:05 - before I need to quit. But I'd like to mention things about various places in passing.
In New Zealand we have just probably sixty brethren, roughly speaking; sixty, sixty-five brethren, and if we look back historically we had about twelve hundred to thirteen hundred brethren; so things have happened there as they've happened in other places as well. But things are growing. We are having new growth, new members, a lot of people on the "Good News" list. Several hundred people have finished the Bible Study course, so the next step, of course, after this is that people start asking about church and other more serious topics. We have four small groups; I mean this is about the size, if not more than we have for the whole Feast of Tabernacles in New Zealand. This is a large group for me to be speaking with you today. It's quite nice to be with you. We do have about fifty people who meet, with children that is, in Auckland every week; and we have three other groups that meet periodically, perhaps every couple of weeks - fortnightly, as we say where we live.
I do a lot of traveling even around New Zealand. It may look on the map to be a small country, but just from the north from Auckland down to the south of the north island, you get that straight, from the north of the north island to the south of the south island, roughly speaking is about ten hours drive. No motorways like you have here, highways, superhighways - none of that. It's two lanes winding through hills and mountains and deserts. Yes, we have desert even, we've got that all the way down to Wellington, and that's one way, so typically I fly many places, even within New Zealand. We send them tapes much as you do to the various outlying brethren; and, in fact we have tapes from this pulpit that we watch regularly - Robin Webber, other individuals who have been speaking from this very spot in the past. They don't want to hear me speaking to them …(laughing); but they do hear others who speak from this spot. So it's much appreciated that we do receive tapes from the United States because I'm not always there. I travel quite a lot.
I also, as was mentioned, look after parts of South Pacific - many different islands, different places - Fiji we have four brethren who meet every week in Suva. In Tonga we have twenty-five people who meet every week for weekly services; they have a Feast of Tabernacles in Tonga. Fiji and Tonga both are about three to three and a half hours flight from Auckland much the same as, say, Houston to LA; so, that's a travel. And also we have many other islands around the South Pacific that we see to have "Good News" subscribers, no members as yet, but we have people with serious interest.
Before I move on to other areas I might mention that it's twelve twenty-five tomorrow in Auckland right now, just to get your bearings, so we've had an extraordinarily long week. I'm actually on Sunday now so it is quite a long trip around the world; we're about half way around, really. We do have the Feast of Tabernacles. We would strongly encourage you to think about it. It is in a beautiful area similar to, really, the Napa-Sonoma only we're not inland, we're in Santa Barbara with Napa-Sonoma right next door. So it's all in a very neat, tidy area and very nice location. We have a number of external expatriates - international brethren who come from Australia, the United States, Canada, even from Europe.
Now also I go to Southeast Asia. We are considering a feast site in Southeast Asia for 2004 and I've already talked to Frank Fish about that, and we are wanting to encourage, if we have the site, it does go through, which we'll have to decide in the next few weeks. It will likely be in Malaysia, just about two to three hours up the coast along the Straits of Malaka from Singapore.
We have about forty to forty-five brethren amongst three countries, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and I've been responsible for those three countries for the last eighteen months. To get your bearings, it's equal flying LA to Auckland as Auckland to Singapore, about ten hours plus. So these are great distances involved, and we do have a fledgling group of people up in the church up in that area of the world. In Singapore we have twelve members who meet almost weekly; in Malaysia we have roughly eighteen people, twelve of them are from one big extended family, and then in Indonesia we have six members spread about Java and Sumatra in great distances amongst those brethren. I've been to Indonesia just twice. I planned to go two other times, but they had these bombings. You know, those things you hear about in the news; so, I've had to cancel a couple of trips in the last six months, but I'm hoping next month to go there again.
As we make our way around the world with the family we'll be back in Singapore; we'll go to Malaysia, and I will probably go to Jakarta and some other places in Indonesia by myself for two or three days. But it is an unstable part of the world; that is Indonesia. Malaysia is quite fine; I've been there many times historically and very recently and things are fine, and I do believe the Feast of Tabernacles would be a lovely opportunity, so don't think that it's all the same. It's not all the same. Each country has its own history and its own political situation.
Before I conclude with this section, because I could go on for many details, I'd like to mention that in this past July I baptized a young lady who grew up in San Francisco, is Indonesian, but she did grow up in San Francisco with her parents. She's even been here in this area, been to the Feast of Tabernacles, been in the auditorium, even went into one of the homes that we know and love from history, just over in Pasadena. She went back to Indonesia in the early nineties, lost track of the church, came back in touch with it, said, "Wow, what happened?" And somehow she found us, United Church of God on the internet … Long story short, she was baptized in July in a swimming pool in her father's home in Jakarta, one of the suburbs. Twelve days later, after I'd gone home - back in Auckland - we had the J. W. Marriott Hotel bombing. She sent me an email shortly thereafter and said, "Well, I was supposed to be in a restaurant just adjacent to that. My car would have been parked right outside. My friend had invited me to lunch that day. We would be sitting in the restaurant probably within fifty to a hundred meters," and she said, "I would surely have been blown up." But she said, "Uncharacteristically this person, this friend of mine, a girl, rang me up and said, 'Well, why don't we go to lunch somewhere else?'" She couldn't figure out why; she'd never done that before; she's a very straight-on person, didn't change plans, but she's very grateful, of course, or she wouldn't be with us today.
It's pretty sobering, just twelve days after your baptism, but on the other hand, it does make you realize there is a God who's looking out after you. And He is very real and very important for us to keep that in mind even though we feel safe and comfortable as we go through our own daily lives perhaps, wherever we are.
I'd like to move on in the time that we have here to talk about something that perhaps you haven't read about in quite a long time. I'd like to read a story first though, before we get into some scriptures that you're familiar with.
This is from an article in "Christianity Today," just a short story entitled, "Running in Circles." "I once read the following definition of a fanatic: 'A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there.'" I'll read that again. "'A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there." The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere. He's a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a golfer without a green. For a Christian to make progress in learning to please God, he must have a clear idea of what his goal is. Jesus stated it this way, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
It's very familiar to us, isn't it? Many, many years we've heard that and read it and thought about it. In the time remaining I'd like to look at the life of one of the more quiet heroes of biblical record. A person I think you'll see who exemplifies Matthew 6:33 even thought this person did not live in the world of Jesus Christ or the apostles at all. In fact, this person has never even read or seen Matthew 6:33. But I think, as you'll see, this person does exemplify this type of scripture that we've just read - Matthew 6:33; and we frankly regarding this person, we frankly don't find very much written about this individual in the entire BIBLE, but what we do find is very meaningful and important.
If you'll turn with me to Numbers 13, we'll find out who it is. They tell me I am on a cybercast, which is a new thing for me, so, I appreciate the opportunity to be with those who hopefully, can't see me. Maybe it's worse just to hear me (laughs), but I appreciate the chance to be with you and share some of the things that I have prepared for all of us to have a look at today. Look at Numbers 13.
Numbers 13:1 - "…The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Verse 2 - "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader (amongst) among them." Twelve tribes, a leader amongst or within each tribe, select a certain person that's exceptional to spy out the land of Canaan.
Verse 3 - "So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
Verse 6 - We see someone that I would like to focus on, from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh." Let's stop there. Today I'd like to take a moment, a few minutes now to look at the life of Caleb. We all are very familiar and probably say Caleb just in the same breath with Joshua, but he actually is and was a separate individual, and the BIBLE has a little bit to say about him separate from Joshua. Although there is a book about Joshua and all the things he did and God led him to do, there aren't books written, only a few chapters and verses written, about Caleb.
Caleb was a very important person in God's sight as we shall see, and Caleb had some very important qualities about him. If you'll turn with me over to just one chapter, to Numbers 14, one of those characteristics we find right away in verse 24. This is God speaking, as it mentions in verse 20.
Verse 24 - "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it." Now we'll read all the story in between in a little while here, but this is a very important couple of characteristics about this man Caleb. First of all, it says: "My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it." Let's look at this phrase, "Caleb followed God fully" and turn with me, if you'll keep your finger here in Deuteronomy 1:36, it talks about Caleb yet again. Again, one of those few verses in the BIBLE about him. Verse 35 -
Deuteronomy 1:35 - "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,
Verse 36 - "except Caleb… he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked," - why - "because he wholly followed the Lord." My margin says, "fully followed the Lord." Something unique and special that permitted him to enter the land, that good land, and also this allowed many others to enter the land. That quality of fully following the Lord was very, very important. Very simple though, isn't it? Caleb essentially believed God. What a concept! He wholly and fully believed God. A very simple thing said about this man, but very important. He was allowed to enter the Promised Land because he fully believed and followed God.
Go with me to Genesis 12; Caleb fully believed God. Caleb left Egypt as a young man. God had promised that He would lead them into the Promised Land, and Caleb believed this and kept his eye on the goal. And as a young person, he probably would have not heard this promise first hand, would he? He would have had to believe someone else who was telling him this, and then believe that God was the one that made this promise that we're about to read.
Genesis 12:6 - And "Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
Verse 7 - "Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him." …A very simple statement. To your descendants I will give this land. He didn't elaborate; he didn't go off into the details, at least at this point. We don't have it written here, but Caleb believed that. He followed God fully, and when he was sent to spy out the Promised Land he knew in the back of his mind that God had said to this people, "I will give this land." He believed it. He came to believe it fully as he got older, and he was chosen as a leader to be in a position to go in and be amongst those twelve leaders who would go in and spy out the land. He came to believe fully that this was what God had promised. Again, in short, Caleb believed God, and if you take points that's the first one. Caleb believed God. He followed God fully.
Now if we go back to Numbers 14 for a moment we'll read the scripture that we saw a few minutes ago again.
Numbers 14:24 - "… My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it." Sort of a recapitulation of what we've just read - because he followed Him fully and because he believed it, he went into the land. But there's another reason mentioned here - "because he has a different spirit" - that same word is used in Genesis 1; we won't turn there; I'll read it to you:
Genesis 1:2 - " The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Same spirit; we look another place. You don't need to turn there; I'll read it to you - Psalm 51. We know quite well that book, King David -
Psalm 51:11 - "Do not cast me away from Your presence, (and) do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." What was that different spirit? God's Spirit. Again, in some ways this is very simplistic. These scriptures, Numbers 14:24, very small, not a lot there, very simple. Apparently, it was very important to God that he did have a different spirit and that he followed him fully. That he would have His spirit and He gave him a different attitude to deal with the problems and the trials and the disagreements and the complaining and the doubts and fears that those around him exhibited under these circumstances, and we'll see it in a moment. He was literally able to overcome that little world around him, to look beyond the giants that he saw and believe God through his spirit and faith that God would bring them and his descendants into the Promised land.
Jesus Christ overcame the world. In his own way Caleb overcame the circumstances and believed God and his promises. He overcame the world, the children of Israel, really, the people who should have believed most specifically the truth; who should have believed themselves, - this is the God who led them through the wilderness; brought them out of the land of Egypt; led them by cloud and by fire. "You see," they said, "He can't do it; He can't bring us through; He's not capable of it. No, we shouldn't seek first the Promised Land; we should go do something else. He's not capable of it. His arm's shortened."
You see, by this spirit that was given to Caleb by God, he was able to overcome the doubts and the fears; the unbelief that was around him, and not let it shake him up. In fact, he was quite strong in his belief, as you will see in a couple of minutes. That was my second point here if you're taking notes. Caleb had another Spirit within him, God's Spirit. Capital S, if you will, not a little s. God was with him giving him the strength he needed.
Now thirdly, look back in chapter 13, just probably a page earlier. Caleb didn't follow the crowd. If you look back in Numbers 13:2 God had said to Moses -
Numbers 13:2 - "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel" - as a reminder, "I am giving this to them; I'm sending them to spy it out, but remember I am giving it to you. You can go ahead and spy it out, but I'm giving it to you anyway. Just go have a look." …"which I am giving to the children of Israel from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among (amongst) them." So Moses did it, he chose the twelve. Go down to verse 17 -
Verse 17 - "Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, 'Go up this way into the South, and go up (into) to the mountains,
Verse 18 - "and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;
Verse 19 - "whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds;
Verse 20 - "whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land." It was harvest time, the time when the "season of the first ripe grapes," so they went up and spied. They did what they were supposed to do. Now moving on to verse 26, they returned after forty days.
Verse 26 - "... they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation." They did what they were supposed to do. They went out and spied, bringing back a report, and they showed them the fruit of the land. They did what they were supposed to there; they brought fruit back. What was it like? What was their report?
Verse 27 - " Then they told him, and said: 'We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.'" Sounds like New Zealand (laughs), sounds like many places, doesn't it? Many beautiful parts of our own land here; it truly flows; it's abundant; it has been blest, and this is its fruit. Perhaps, remember in the old Bible Stories, Basil Wolverton; two men carrying huge grapes, going to, looks like six feet tall clump of grapes on a pole carrying them back into the land as spies, depicting that. I remember that as a little boy. That's what I envision in my mind, that picture in the "Bible Story." Then they told him, and said, "you went to the land where you sent us; this is the fruit."
Verse 28 - "Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong." See they were supposed to look after that, too, weren't they? So that's the report they brought. Are they strong or weak? Yes, they are. "The cities are fortified (with strongholds) and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there." Giants, big people.
Verse 29 - " The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." It doesn't stop there, though.
Verse 30 - "Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.'" Be of good courage. That's what Caleb believed. Let us go up at once, right now and take possession, in spite of these things, for we are well able to overcome it. He was almost preempting the inevitable tide, 'cause probably on the way back out of there he was hearing all of the other ten, not Joshua, but the other ten complaining. "Oh, it's gonna' be rough; there's no way." Moaning, wingeing, (as we say where we live) whining, grumbling, sure enough, verse 31 we get that part of it.
Verse 31 - "…the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.'" Isn't the land, which God himself was giving to the children of Israel - and they said, "No, forget it. We just can't do it." "They are stronger than we.
Verse 32 - "And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.'
Verse 33 - "'There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.'"
The courage has left them. The vision left them. The promises had left their minds. The goal was too great. The Promised Land was too hard to reach. God is not able to bring us into this land. Were they sowing the seeds of defeat in their own minds, in their own hearts? Was their negativity about what God could do for them and what he was going to give to them so overpowering that they just could not see the other side? Did they not have the same spirit and belief and the full confidence that Caleb and Joshua had?
Numbers 14:1 - "So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried," Why, because they listened to Caleb? No, because they listened to the others.
Verse 2 - "…all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, 'If only we had died in the land of Egypt!'" Sounds like Jonah; sounds like others in the BIBLE. "Or if only we had died in this wilderness.
Verse 3 - "Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?
Verse 4 - "So they said to one another, 'Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.'" I thought they already did some selecting of leaders, and one of those leaders came back and said, "Yes, we can do this;" in fact two of them said it.
The other ten said, "No, can't do it, so let's select yet another leader, get rid of Moses, those selected by God and go back. Let's not go into the Promised Land. Let's not go into the kingdom of God. It's not possible for us to enter into it."
You see, Caleb and Joshua were only seventeen percent of the spies present. They believed God; the others did not. The eighty-three percent prevailed in the minds of those around him.
Verse 5 - "Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel," God's people.
Verse 6 - Joshua and Caleb, "who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes." They were distraught. They were sorrowful.
Verse 7 - "… they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: 'The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
Verse 8 - "'If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.'" He will do it; He can do it; He's promised it to us. What are you doing? Why would you back away? You're so close; we've been through so much.
Verse 9 - "Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them." Caleb and Joshua believed God. They had a different spirit. They didn’t follow the crowd, and that spirit gave them a vision that the others just didn't have.
Verse 24 - "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it." That's what brought them through, faith and confidence.
Verse 26 - "…the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
Verse 27- "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
Verse 28 - "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
Verse 29 - "The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.
Verse 30 - "Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the (promised) land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
Verse 31- "But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
Verse 33 - "And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.
Verse 34 - "According to the number of the days in
which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt
one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection." Caleb
didn't follow the crowd; the others did. It's very important for us to stop
and think about these things, isn't it? And I believe that's what we've thought
about for a few years and that's why we're sitting here, going a different direction,
embracing a greater vision. We are seeking first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness and His qualities. The qualities which, it appears, Caleb would
have had to have fought the crowd, done it differently, and he eventually entered
the Promised Land. He received that which was promised to him. Look at Deuteronomy
1 if you would, please. I saw this a bit earlier in one or more places.
Verse 35 - "Surely not one of these men of this evil
generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,"
My promise.
Verse 36 - "except Caleb… he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord." And of course, Joshua as well.
Now from what we've read so far, it would appear there's a lot's said about
Caleb in the BIBLE, but there's not much more. If you turn with me to Joshua
14 you'll look at a little bit more that's said about him.
Joshua 14:5 - "As the Lord had commanded Moses, so
the children of Israel did; and they divided the land.
Verse 6 - "Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb (our friend Caleb …said to him: 'You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.'" My good friend, we've been around a long time together. Remember when we went into the land, and we spied it out? We came back, and God said those kind and wonderful things to us.
Verse 7 - "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.
Verse 8 - "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt," (become discouraged, some versions say), "but I wholly followed the Lord my God." There it is again, "wholly followed the Lord my God.
Verse 9 - "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.'
Verse 10 - "And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old." It was mentioned earlier that someone passed their hundredth birthday recently in this year and this gentleman Caleb is a youngster, comparatively. Well, let's read about him in verse 11 - he was quite an individual.
Verse 11 - "As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in." He's ready to go; he's full of courage. "I'm ready to go to war." Eighty-five years old; what an attitude, what a mind, what a spirit that God had given to him.
Verse 12 - "Now therefore, give me this mountain
of which the Lord spoke in that day." Let's see what he gave him,
considering what they were up against when they went spying. "For you
heard in that day how the Anakim" (the giants) "were there,
and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be
with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said."
Give me the tough job. I'll go where it was the worst. I'll take on the giants.
Verse 13 - "And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron
to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
Verse 14 - "Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly" (there it is again) "wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
Verse 15 - "And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim) (the giants). Then the land had rest from war." The very thing which the others feared; the land in which they lived was given to this very man who said, "Look, let's go to possess it today." We can enter the Promised Land. We can enter the kingdom of God. The Lord does not delay his coming. He is here with us now, today, with us in this room today.
Joshua 15:13 - "Now to Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a share among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, namely, Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak).
Verse 14 - "Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak." Eighty-five years old, he went in; he finished the job. God made it possible. He conquered the giants. He received his inheritance. He inherited the very place where the giants lived. He drove them out, which God said he would be able to do.
Let's look now at Numbers 34. Very simple things said about Caleb. He wholly, fully believed God and followed Him. He had another spirit in him. He didn't follow the crowd. He didn't go with the rest of the congregation, and he received his inheritance.
Numbers 34:17 - "These are the names of the men who shall divide the land among you as an inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun.
Verse 18 - "And you shall take one leader of every tribe to divide the land for the inheritance." Look who comes first.
Verse 19 - "These are the names of the men: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh." Now if you were to go to Hebrews 11, would you expect to find Caleb mentioned? He's not there, but these qualities certainly would qualify him, wouldn't they? Let's look at Hebrews 11 for a couple of minutes here as we come to an end.
Throughout the faith chapter as we know it, Hebrews 11, it talks about various men and women by name who were people faith, and then it goes on to say -
Verse 32 - "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthat, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
Verse 33 - "who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Verse 34 - "quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens" (the giants.)
Verse 35 - "Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Verse 36 - "Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment." If you were to go back through these ones that were mentioned here, all of these things didn't happen to all of these people. They must be talking about yet other people. And of course some of them couldn't happen to the same individual. You can't die by three, four, five different horrible means, can you? No, these individuals they're talking about are other people who suffered and believed and wholly followed God and received the end of their faith.
Verse 36 - "Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Verse 37 - "They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted (or tested or tried) were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—" And now verse 38; get to focus on the next three, four verses.
Verse 38 - "of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
Verse 39 - "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
Verse 40 - "God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." Caleb, Joshua, of that original group entered the Promised Land. They entered the kingdom, the physical kingdom of God at that time; but they have yet to enter the kingdom of God, as we will. We know that we're part of that.
I was thinking during the sermonette, talking about space, proximity, the Earth is a huge, huge place. Aircraft have made so many incredible things possible, but think about when we're spirit beings and able to zip around and go all these fantastic places that we wanted to go all of our lives and also be of great service. How will we receive that promise and that blessing and that new body, that new being? By being wholly and fully in concert with God and His plan; believing him, trusting him, following Him, being like one of the unsung heroes of the BIBLE, Caleb, and others who aren't even listed.
Caleb was just an ordinary man, but with great blessings in his life because he believed and obeyed God. He had faith, he had courage, he wasn't a great man, he wasn't even listed, he wasn't even a prophet, he wasn't even listed in Hebrews specifically, but by extension he certainly was. By implication he was a very great man, and there are great women in the BIBLE as well. And the great men and women in the body of Christ in the church today doing the same thing, learning how to do the same things, facing our own giants, our own Goliaths, our own Anakim in our lives. Let's read Hebrews 12:1-2.
Hebrews 12:1 - " Therefore we also," (whether you live in Jakarta, Sumatra, Fiji, Papua, New Guinea, LA, Eagle Rock, White Plains, New York and on and on all around the Earth. "Therefore we also, (the saints, the people of God) since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, (Caleb being one) let us lay aside every weight, (let's not follow the crowd; let's cast our lot with God) and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Remember, forty-five years, Caleb waited. And he was just as invigorated about it and in belief of those promises that he had been back then.
Verse 2 - "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I'd like to finish with a story which takes us back to the beginning, in essence…. You remember Matthew 6:33, seeking first the kingdom of God and finishing the race. United States runner Maria Runyan has been legally blind for twenty-two years. Even so, she competed in the 2000 summer Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. In fact, for the finals in the 1500-meter race Maria finished eighth, three seconds behind the medal winners. How did she do it? Maria can't see in color, and what she does see is just a fuzzy blob. In a race she just follows the blob of figures in front of her. She told TV commentator Tom Hammonds that the real difficulty was in rounding the final turn and "racing for a finish line that I can't see. I just know where it is."
What about us? I think we have greater clarity than that, but in some ways we don't. Nonetheless, just like Caleb and Joshua and many others before us, we need to keep focused. We need to keep seeking first the kingdom of God, and the qualities of God, just as those fine men and women of the past who we will see together at the same time when Jesus Christ returns.
I appreciate the chance to be with you and maybe we'll see you next time around, no pun intended. See you again.