A mountain is lovely to see, and it’s fun to climb. It can be enjoyable to live on one too, if it’s not so high that it’s above the timberline where trees and other green things will not grow. A very high mountain is also not very good for older people who grow tired of climbing or people who have difficulty breathing the high mountain air that has less oxygen.
Not afraid of anything? Yes, and do you know why? Because he trusted God. If God said, “Go,” he went! Nothing can stop God’s plans, and if Caleb followed what God told him to do, he knew victory was ahead!
This is still true. There’s a song with words that say, “My sins were as high as a mountain.” If Jesus really wants you and me with Him in heaven, nothing can stop Him, not even the mountain of my sins or your sins that can never be allowed in heaven. This is what Jesus did for me: He took my awful load of sins on Himself and paid the penalty for them when He suffered on the cross. And this is what He told me: “[Your] sins and [your] iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:1212For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12)). They are gone forever! He won that victory for me, and He invites me to follow Him. Did He pay the penalty for your sins too? Yes, He did, if you confess to Him that you are a sinner and are sorry for your sins and want to be washed clean from every hell-deserving sin. Will you do that?
Even when Caleb was an old man, his muscles and his eyesight were like he was still a young man. I wonder if you know that this can be true of you too, if the Lord Jesus is the One you are following. You can see Him by faith, even without glasses or without any eyesight at all. And you can be strong in faith, giving glory to God, even if you are unable to walk.
“Give me this mountain,” said Caleb. He knew giants were living on that mountain—big, strong men who would not give up that mountain without a fight. But a whole army of giants can’t stand in the way of someone who is following God. God had given that mountain to Caleb, and he drove the giants out by the strength of God. Nothing can stop God’s promises.
Neither can many, many, many past sins stand in the way of Jesus’ promises to save you. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). If you are trusting God’s Word, not all the devil’s clever lies can turn God’s promises into nothing.
Yes, Caleb got his mountain, and he lived there and all his family. And if his children trusted the same God as their father did, they were on the winning side too. Are you?
Caleb had been through a long, weary, desert journey before he got his mountain. For 40 years, all he could see was desert sand and desert storms. But God gave all the children of Israel a daily supply of food and water when they needed it, including sturdy, wear-ever clothes. But Caleb was not a complainer. He knew God had something better ahead for him.
We Christians do too. We are on the way home to heaven where Jesus lives. Are you coming too?
You may read this story for yourself in Joshua 14:6-146Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. 7Forty 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. 8Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. 10And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. 11As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. 12Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. 13And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. 14Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. (Joshua 14:6‑14).
ML-11/16/2014