'And Caleb... said unto him (Joshua), Thou knowest the thing that the
Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in
Kadesh-barnea.'--JOSHUA xiv. 6.
Five and forty years had passed since the Lord had 'said this thing.'
It was the promise to these two, now old men, of the prolongation of
their lives, and to Caleb of his inheritance in the land. Seven years
of fighting have been got through, and the preparations are being made
for the division of the land by lot. But, before that is done, it is
fitting that Caleb, whose portion had been specially secured to him by
that old promise, should have the promise specially recognised and
endorsed by the action of the leader, and independent of the operation
of the lot. So he appears before Joshua, accompanied by the head men of
his tribe, whose presence expresses their official consent to the
exceptional treatment of their tribesman, and urges his request in a
little speech, full of pathos and beauty and unconscious portraiture of
the speaker. I take it as a picture of an ideal old age, showing in an
actual instance how happy, vigorous, full of buoyant energy and
undiminished appetite for enterprise a devout old age may be. And my
purpose now is not merely to comment on the few words of our text, but
upon the whole of what falls from the lips of Caleb here.