_THE INHERITANCE OF CALEB._[15]
JOSHUA xiv. 6-15.
[15] There is some difficulty in adjusting the three passages in
which the settlement of Caleb is referred to. From this first
passage of the three, we are led to think that it was before the
tribe of Judah obtained its portion. Again, from chap. xv. 13 we
might suppose that it was simultaneously with the rest of the
tribe. From Judg. i. 10, again, it might be thought that the
subduing of the natives in Hebron was effected, not by Caleb
alone, but by the tribe of Judah, and that it took place "after
the death of Joshua" (Judg. i. 1). Putting all these together, it
would appear that Hebron was assigned to Caleb before the tribe of
Judah was settled; that this allocation was ratified at the
general settlement; that as Caleb was a member of the tribe, his
services against the Canaanites, and especially the Anakim, were
ascribed to his tribe; and that the process of dispossessing the
Canaanites went on for some time after the death of Joshua. The
repetitions in the narrative concerning Caleb form one of the
considerations that favour the idea of more sources than one
having been made use of in the composition of this book.
Caleb is one of those men whom we meet with seldom in Bible history,
but whenever we do meet them we are the better for the meeting. Bright
and brave, strong, modest and cheerful, there is honesty in his face,
courage and decision in the very pose of his body, and the calm
confidence of faith in his very look and attitude. It is singular that
there should be cause to doubt whether his family were _originally_ of
the promised seed. When introduced to us in the present passage he is
emphatically called "Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite" (R.V.,
Kenizzite, rightly, same as Kenizzite in Gen. xv. 19), as if he had
been a descendant of Kenaz, a son of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 11 and 15), and
a member of the Kenizzite tribe. It was not customary to distinguish
Israelites in this way, but only those who had come among them from
other tribes, like "Heber the Kenite," "Jael, the wife of Heber the
Kenite" (Judg. iv. 11, 17), Uriah the Hittite, Hushai the Archite,
etc. Moreover, Othniel, Caleb's younger brother, is called the son of
Kenaz (Josh. xv. 17); and further, when it is recorded in the
fourteenth verse of this chapter that Hebron became the possession of
Caleb, the reason assigned is that he "wholly followed the Lord God
_of Israel_." On the other hand, in the genealogical list of 1 Chron.
iv. 13, 15, Othniel and Caleb occur as if they were regular members of
the tribe; but that list shows obvious signs of imperfection. On the
whole, the preponderance of evidence is in favour of the opinion that
Caleb's family were originally outside the covenant, but had become
proselytes, like Hobab, Rahab, Ruth, and Heber. Their faith was
pre-eminently the fruit of conviction, and not the accident of
heredity. It had a firmer basis than that of most Israelites. It was
woven more closely into the texture of their being, and swayed their
lives more powerfully. It is pleasing to think that there may have
been many such proselytes; that the promise to Abraham may have
attracted souls from the east, and the west, and the north, and the
south; that even beyond the limits of the twelve tribes many hearts
may have been cheered, and many lives elevated and purified by the
promise to him, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed."
Caleb and Joshua had believed and acted alike, in opposition to the
other ten spies; but Caleb occupies the more prominent place in the
story of their heroism and faith. It was he that "stilled the people
before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we
are well able to overcome it" (Numb. xiii. 30); and at first his name
occurs alone, as exempted from the sentence of exclusion against the
rest of his generation: "But my servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the
land whereinto he went: and his seed shall possess it" (Numb. xiv.
24). As we have said before, it is probable that Caleb was the readier
speaker, and it is possible that he was the firmer man. Joshua seems
to have wanted that power of initiation which Caleb had. It was
because he had always been a good follower that Joshua in his old age
was fitted to be a leader. Because he had been a good servant he
became a good master. As long as Moses lived, Joshua was his servant.
After Moses died, Joshua set himself simply to carry out his
instructions. It was a happy thing for him on the return of the ten
spies that Caleb was one of them, otherwise he might have found
himself in a condition of embarrassment. Caleb was evidently the man
who led the opposition to the ten, not only asserting the course of
duty, but manifesting the spirit of contempt and defiance toward the
faithless cowards that forgot that God was with them. In his inmost
heart Joshua was quite of his mind, but probably he wanted the
energetic manner, the ringing voice, the fearless attitude of his more
demonstrative companion. Certain it is that Caleb reaped the chief
honour of that day.[16]
[16] Some readers may no doubt prefer the explanation that when
Caleb is mentioned alone one document was followed, and when Caleb
and Joshua are coupled, another.
It is beautiful to see that there was no rivalry between them. Not
only did Caleb interpose no remonstrance when Joshua was called to
succeed Moses, but he seems all through the wars to have yielded to
him the most loyal and hearty submission. God had set His seal on
Joshua, and the people had ratified the appointment, and Caleb was too
magnanimous to allow any poor ambition of his, if he had any, to come
in the way of the Divine will and the public good. His affectionate
and cordial bearing on the present occasion seems to show that not
even in the corner of his heart did there linger a trace of jealousy
toward the old friend and companion whom on that occasion he had
surpassed, but who had been set so much higher than himself. He came
to him as the recognised leader of the people--as the man whose voice
was to decide the question he now submitted, as the judge and arbiter
in a matter which very closely concerned him and his house.
And yet there are indications of tact on the part of Caleb, of a
thorough understanding of the character of Joshua, and of the sort of
considerations by which he might be expected to be swayed. There were
two grounds on which he might reasonably look for the conceding of his
request--his personal services, and the promise of Moses. Caleb knows
well that the promise of Moses will influence Joshua much more than
any other consideration; therefore he puts it in the foreground. "Thou
knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God,
concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea." "Moses, the man of God." Why
does Caleb select that remarkable epithet? Why add anything to the
usual name, Moses? The use of the epithet was honouring to all the
three. That which constituted the highest glory of Moses was that he
was so much at one with God. God's will was ever his law, and he was
in such close sympathy with God that whatever instructions he gave on
any subject might be assumed to be in accordance with God's will.
Moreover, in calling him "the man of God" when addressing Joshua,
Caleb assumed that Joshua would be impressed by this consideration,
and would be disposed to agree to a request which was not only
sanctioned by the will of Moses, but by that higher will which Moses
constantly recognised. In short, when Joshua considered that the
particular wish of Moses which Caleb now recalled was only the
expression of the Divine will, Caleb felt assured that he could not
withhold his consent. The three men were indeed a noble trio, worthy
descendants of their father Abraham, even if one of the three was no
son of Jacob. Long before our Lord taught the petition "Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven," it had become habitual to them all.
Moses was indeed "the man of God,"--pre-eminently in fellowship with
Him; in a lower sphere both Caleb and Joshua were of the same order,
men who tried to live their lives, and every part of them, only in
God.
Having fortified his plea with this strong reference at once to Moses
and to God, Caleb proceeds to rehearse the service which had led to
the promise of Moses. The facts could not but be well known to Joshua.
"Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me
from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again
as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me
made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the Lord my
God." Why does Caleb put the matter in this way? Why does he not
couple Joshua with himself as having been faithful on that
never-to-be-forgotten occasion? The only explanation that seems
feasible is, that from the pre-eminent position of Joshua this was
unnecessary, perhaps it might have appeared even unbecoming. A soldier
making a request of the Duke of Wellington, and recalling some service
he had done at the battle of Waterloo, would hardly think it
necessary, or even becoming, to say how the Duke, too, had been there,
and what surpassing service he had rendered on that day. A soldier
like the Duke occupying a position of unrivalled pre-eminence on
account of long and brilliant service, does not need to be told what
he has done. Joshua was now the leader of Israel, and the last few
years had crowned him with such manifold glory that his whole life was
transfigured, and individual acts of service did not need to be spoken
of. Caleb was comparatively an obscure individual, whose fame rested
on a single service now nearly half a century old, which could not,
indeed, be quite forgotten, but amid the brilliant events of later
times might easily pass out of sight and out of mind. There was no
disparagement of Joshua, therefore, in his not being mentioned by
Caleb, but, on the contrary, a silent tribute to his exalted office as
chief ruler of Israel, and to his all but unparalleled services,
especially during these later years.
"I brought him word again, _as it was in my heart_." The statement is
made in no boasting spirit, and yet what a rare virtue it denotes!
Caleb, as we now say, had the courage of his convictions. He had both
an honest heart and an honest tongue. We can have but little idea what
temptations he lay under _not_ to speak what was in his heart. For six
weeks these ten men had been his close companions. They had eaten
together, slept under the same canvas, walked by the same paths,
beguiled the long way by story and anecdote, and no doubt by joke and
play of humour, and done kind offices to each other as circumstances
required. To break away from your own set, from the comrades of your
campaign, to upset their plans, and counsel those in power to a course
diametrically opposed to theirs, is one of the most difficult of
social duties. And in these days of ours there is no duty more
commonly set aside. Moral cowardice has been well said to be one of
the most common vices of our age.
What more common in Parliament, for example, than for men to differ
strongly from some of the measures of their party, and yet, because it
is their party, support them by their votes? And in the ranks of the
Church and of its various sections the same tendency prevails, though
it may be in a less degree. Of the many able and seemingly honest
prelates of the Roman Church who dissented, often with vehemence, from
the Vatican decree of the pope's infallibility, what became finally of
their opposition? Were there more than one or two who did not
surrender in the end, and agree to profess what they did not believe?
And to come to more ordinary matters, when our opinions on religious
subjects are at a discount, when they are met with ridicule, how often
do we conceal them, or trim and modify them in order that we may not
share in the current condemnation? The men that have the courage of
their convictions are often social martyrs, shut out from the
fellowship of their brethren, shut out from every berth of honour or
emolument, and yet, for their courage and honesty, worthy of
infinitely higher regard than whole hundreds of the time-servers that
"get on" in the world by humouring its errors and its follies.
Nevertheless, though most of us show ourselves miserably weak by _not_
speaking out all that is "in our hearts," especially when the honour
of our Lord and Master is concerned, we are able to appreciate and
cannot fail to admire the noble exhibitions of courage that we
sometimes meet with. That beautiful creation of Milton's, the Seraph
Abdiel, "faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he," is the
type and ideal of the class. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resisting
the enthusiasm of myriads and calmly defying the fiery furnace; the
Apostle Paul clinging to his views of the law and the gospel when even
his brother Peter had begun to waver; Martin Luther, with his foot on
the Bible confronting the whole world; John Knox defying sovereign and
nobles and priests alike, determined that the gospel should be freely
preached; Carey, going out as a missionary to India amid the derision
of the world, because he could not get the words out of his head, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every
creature,"--have all exemplified the Caleb spirit that must utter what
is in the heart; nor has any new idea commonly laid hold of mankind
till the struggles of some great hero or the ashes of some noble
martyr have gone to sanctify the cause.
"He that believeth shall not make haste." Caleb believed, and
therefore he was patient. Five-and-forty long years had elapsed since
Moses, the man of God, speaking in the Spirit of God, had promised him
a particular inheritance in the land. It was a long time for faith to
live on a promise, but, like a tree in the face of a cliff that seems
to grow out of the solid rock, it derived nourishment from unseen
sources. It was a long time to be looking forward; but Caleb, though
he did not receive the promise during all that time, was persuaded of
it and embraced it, and believed that at last it would come true. He
did not anticipate the proper time, though he might have had as
plausible reasons for doing so as the two tribes and a half had for
asking leave to settle on the east side of the river. He bore his
share of warlike work, bore the burden and heat of the day, waited
till the proper time for dividing the land. Nor did he rush forward
selfishly by himself, disregarding the interests of the rest of his
tribe; for the children of Judah, recognising his claim, draw near to
Joshua along with him. Nor was it a portion of the land which any
tribe might be eager to enter upon that he asked; for it was still so
harassed by the Anakim, that there would be no peace till that
formidable body of giants were driven out.
It seems that when acting as one of the twelve spies, Caleb had in
some emphatic way taken his stand on Hebron. "The land _on which thy
foot hath trodden_ will be an inheritance to thee." Perhaps the spies
were too terrified to approach Hebron, for the sons of the Anakim were
there, and, in the confidence of faith, Caleb, or Caleb and Joshua,
had gone into it alone. Moses had promised him Hebron, and now he came
to claim it. But he came to claim it under circumstances that would
have induced most men to let it alone. The driving out of the Anakim
was a formidable duty, and the task might have seemed more suitable
for one who had the strength and enthusiasm of youth on his side. But
Caleb, though eighty-five, was yet young. Age is not best measured by
years. He was a remarkable instance of prolonged vigour and youthful
energy. "As 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,
and to go out and to come in." Faith, and temperance, and cheerfulness
are wonderful aids to longevity. As one reads these words of Caleb,
one recalls the saying of a well-known physician, Dr. Richardson, that
the human frame might last for a hundred years if it were only treated
aright.
There is something singularly touching in Caleb's asking as a favour
what was really a most hazardous but important service to the nation.
Rough though these Hebrew soldiers were, they were capable of the most
gentlemanly and chivalrous acts. There can be no higher act of
courtesy than to treat as a favour to yourself what is really a great
service to another. Well done, Caleb! You do not ask for a berth which
there will be no trouble in taking or in keeping. You are not like
Issachar, the strong ass couching between the sheepfolds: "and he saw
a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant;
and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under
task-work." The dew of youth is yet upon you, the stirring of lofty
purpose and noble endeavour; you are like the warhorse of Job--"he
paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength; he mocketh at
fear, and is not dismayed; he smelleth the battle afar off, the
thunder of the captains and the shouting."
There is nothing we admire more in military annals than a soldier
volunteering for the most hazardous and difficult of posts,--showing
"That stern joy which warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel."
In the spiritual warfare, too, we do not want instances of the same
spirit. We recall Captain Allan Gardiner choosing Tierra del Fuego as
his mission sphere just because the people were so ferocious, the
climate so repulsive, and the work so difficult that no one else was
likely to take it up. We think of the second band who went out after
Gardiner and his companions had been starved to death; and still more
after these were massacred by the natives, of the third detachment who
were moved simply by the consideration that the case was seemingly so
desperate. Or we think of Livingstone begging the directors of the
London Missionary Society, wherever they sent him, to be sure that it
was "Forward"; turning aside from all previous mission stations, and
the comparative ease they afforded, to grapple with the barbarian
where he had never begun to be tamed; his eyes thirsting for unknown
scenes and untried dangers, because he scorned to build on the
foundation of others, and thirsted for "fresh woods and pastures new."
We think of him persevering in his task from year to year in the same
lofty spirit; disregarding the misery of protracted pain, the intense
longings of his weary heart for home, the repulsive society of savages
and cannibals, the vexations, disappointments, and obstacles that
seemed to multiply every day, the treachery of so-called friends whom
he had helped to raise, the indifference of a careless world, and of a
languid Church; but ever girding himself with fresh energy for the
task which he had undertaken, and of which the difficulties and trials
had never been absent from his thoughts. We think of many a young
missionary turning away from the comfortable life which he might lead
at home and which many of his companions will lead, that he may go
where the need is greatest and the fight is hottest, and so render to
his Master the greatest possible service. A crowd of noble names
comes to our recollection--Williams, and Judson, and Morrison, and
Burns, and Patteson, and Keith-Falconer, and Hannington, and
Mackay--men for whom even the Anakim had no terrors, but rather an
attraction; but who, serving under another Joshua, differed from Caleb
in this, that what they desired was not to destroy these ferocious
Anakim, but to conquer them by love, and to demonstrate the power of
the gospel of Jesus Christ to change the vilest reprobates into sons
of God.
And even now there are other Anakim among us for whom the fate of the
Canaanite giants ought to be reserved. Anakim within us--greed,
selfishness, love of ease, lust, passion, cruelty--all, if we are
faithful, to be put to the edge of the sword. And there are Anakim,
tremendous Anakim, around us--drunkenness, and all that fosters it,
despite the paltry excuses we so often hear; sensuality, that vile
murderer of soul and body together; avarice, so cruelly unjust, and
content to gather its hoard from the thews and sinews of men and women
to whom life has become worse than slavery; luxurious living, that
mocks the struggles of thousands to whom one crumb from the table or
one rag from the wardrobe would bring such a blessed relief. With
giants like these we need to wage incessant war, and for the necessary
spirit we need constant supplies of the faith and courage that were so
remarkable in Caleb. He followed the Lord _fully_; believing that if
the Lord deserved to be followed at all, He deserved to be followed in
full. What was there to gain by following Him one half, and
surrendering the other half to the world? Could he count on God
helping him if he went with but half his heart into His service, and,
like Lot's wife, looked back even when flying from Sodom? "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy strength, and with all thy might."
The tendency to compromise is one of the besetting sins of the day. In
the army or the navy, if one is to serve God at all, one must serve
Him wholly. Decision is eminently requisite there, and Christians
there are commonly more whole-hearted and consistent than in many
circles nominally Christian. Decision is manly, is noble; it brings
rest within, and in the end it conciliates the respect of the
bitterest foes. Courage is the ornament of Christianity, and the crown
of the Christian youth. "FEAR NOT" is one of the brightest gems of the
Bible.