Numbers 14:24 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.

My Servant…

 

in the company of Abraham, Moses, David, Job

Why was he recognized by God in this way?

Background Story

Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Exodus 23:21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
Exodus 23:22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Exodus 23:23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.

Exodus 23:28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.
Exodus 23:29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
Exodus 23:30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
Exodus 23:31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

Exodus 23:1 “You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.

Now we pick up the story in:

Numbers 13:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 13:2 “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 among them.”
Numbers 13:3 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.

Numbers 13:6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; [He was already a stand out among the millions] Numbers 13:8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea [Joshua] the son of Nun;

Numbers 13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
Numbers 13:17 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 to the mountains,
Numbers 13:18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;

[not that this was an issue as to whether they could be conquered or not, but merely a complete report of the area]

Numbers 13:19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds;
Numbers 13:20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. [Moses is reassuring them that they have nothing to worry about] And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

Numbers 13:25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.

[So now understand this, they came out of Egypt and this is how long it would take for them to get to the promised land, spy it out and then return; not 40 years]

Numbers 13:26 Now 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, and showed them the fruit of the land.
Numbers 13:27 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.

[check! just like God promised]

Numbers 13:28 Nevertheless [BUT] the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak [the giants] there.
Numbers 13:29 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.”

[this is the same group God said He would cut off; Exodus 23:23 ]

Now we begin to see the character of Caleb kick in:

Willing to Stand Up and Be Counted

Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses [this is the kind of guy he was; why he was seen and picked as a leader], and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

[against the whole nation of Israel (brothers and friends) as it were; not easy; done it out of the abundance of his heart; ]

1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Numbers 13:31 But 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.”

After all the miracles and speaking to God they now have the wrong attitude.

Numbers 13:32 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.

What we need to understand is that they did see men that may have been 9′ tall – give or take.

Numbers 13:33 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.”

Exaggeration for effect; measures, statures; grasshoppers (100 ft tall); They were spying from a distance – so how accurate could they really have been – that apparently didn’t matter

Now notice the effect that this had on the people – this was the aim of the 10 spies and why it was called an “evil report.”

Numbers 14:1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
Numbers 14:2 And 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! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!

Was it really that bad?

Numbers 14:3 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?”
Numbers 14:4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”

They fomented and incited rebellion against Moses and really it was against God who leading them.

Numbers 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
Numbers 14:6 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; [This was done as a reaction to gross impiety or blasphemy
Numbers 14:7 and they [Joshua and Caleb] spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. [As reported and also as God said it would be]

Obedient and Faithful

He understood that he needed to do his part

Numbers 14:8 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.’
Numbers 14:9 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.”

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Because Caleb was Righteous God Intervenes

Numbers 14:10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
Numbers 14:11 Then the LORD said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? [the opposite of what Caleb had been doing] And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? [like we mentioned before; they saw the plagues and water coming out of a rock, etc] Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Numbers 14:13 [Then Moses makes a petition to God on behalf of Israel]
Numbers 14:20 Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;
Numbers 14:21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—
Numbers 14:22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
Numbers 14:23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.

So the punishment is given to the responsible adults because they did not trust in and obey God…

Numbers 14:29 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.
Numbers 14:30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
Numbers 14:31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
Numbers 14:32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
Numbers 14:33 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.
Numbers 14:34 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.
Numbers 14:35 I the LORD have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”
Numbers 14:36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land,
Numbers 14:37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
Numbers 14:38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
Numbers 14:39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

The Zeal of a First Generation Christian

 …because he may have been one

Difference between first generation and second generation

How could this be, we already saw that he was of Judah

Exodus 12:38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.

Caleb a Kenizzite

Joshua 14:6 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the LORD said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.

Joshua 14:14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

Numbers 32:12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’

Kenaz, the Brother of Caleb

Joshua 15:16 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give Achsah my daughter as wife.”
Joshua 15:17 So Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

Who were the Kenizzites?

Genesis 15:18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
Genesis 15:19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,
Genesis 15:20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
Genesis 15:21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Edomites

Genesis 36:11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

Chronology of 1 Chronicles 2

 

Lineage of David

1 Chronicles 2:1 These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,

1 Chronicles 2:4 And Tamar, his daughter-in-law, bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five.
1 Chronicles 2:5 The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

1 Chronicles 2:9 Also the sons of Hezron who were born to him were Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai.[kel-oo-bay’ee]

1 Chronicles 2:18 Caleb the son of Hezron had children by Azubah, his wife, and by Jerioth. Now these were her sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.

1 Chronicles 2:49 She also bore Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbenah and the father of Gibea. And the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.

Exodus 12:43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it.
Exodus 12:44 But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.
Exodus 12:45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it.

Grafted in like Rahab and Ruth and others….

So what’s the point

1. We need to exhibit the zeal of Caleb; we need to be on fire for God – studying it and living it

2. God is not a respecter of persons and all will have a chance to receive God’s spirit: Jew and gentile:

Circumcision of the Heart

Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
Romans 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

a change of heart, this is what the Jews here were missing here and the Israelites in the Old Testament

hardness and your impenitent heart

– but not Caleb

Deuteronomy 10:16 Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Numbers 14:24 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.

2 Corinthians 3:3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Follow God Fully

Numbers 32:11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me,
Numbers 32:12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’
Numbers 32:13 So the LORD’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.

Numbers 14:24 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.

The Inheritance West of the Jordan

Joshua 14:1 These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as an inheritance to them.
Joshua 14:2 Their inheritance was by lot, as the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.
Joshua 14:3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe on the other side of the Jordan; but to the Levites he had given no inheritance among them.
Joshua 14:4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim. And they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for their livestock and their property.
Joshua 14:5 As the LORD had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; and they divided the land.

Caleb’s Request and Inheritance

Joshua 14:6 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the LORD said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.
Joshua 14:7 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.
Joshua 14:8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God.
Joshua 14:9 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.’
Joshua 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive [credit to God], 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.
Joshua 14:11 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.
Joshua 14:12 Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim 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.” [faith that God would deliver] Joshua 14:13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
Joshua 14:14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel. [His nature] Joshua 14:15 And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim). Then the land had rest from war. [Hebrews 3-4]

This was the rest that Caleb got to enter and it is analogous to the Kingdom Of God

Who Gets to Enter the Land of Rest

The first rest he begins with is the Promised Land that the Israelites who were coming out of Egypt and out of “sin” were to be given. This was a type of the Kingdom of God, a land flowing with milk and honey, a safe haven where they could live in peace and not fear enemies if they did all that God commanded them to do:

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “TODAY, IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE,
Hebrews 3:8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS IN THE REBELLION, IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
Hebrews 3:9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TESTED ME, TRIED ME, AND SAW MY WORKS FORTY YEARS.
Hebrews 3:10 THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THAT GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN MY WAYS.’
Hebrews 3:11 SO I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ ”

The adults, with few exceptions, did not enter into this land of promise, which was to be a physical and spiritual rest for them.

Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
Hebrews 3:13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “TODAY,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
Hebrews 3:15 while it is said: “TODAY, IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS IN THE REBELLION.”
Hebrews 3:16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
Hebrews 3:17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
Hebrews 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

This is why the physical Israelites died in the wilderness and were not allowed to enter His rest: because of disobedience and a lack of faith.

We all have our own big trials in front of us

All the spies saw what seemed to be a foe that could not be conquered in front of them . Two rose to the occasion.

A man of faith – believed that God would deliver him into the promised land and He did because Caleb had a different spirit in him and has followed God fully.

Brethren, we too have that exact same spirit – and we can defeat the giants in front of us just like God’s servant Caleb did.