The Story of
Joshua and Caleb

usie,

The story of Joshua and Caleb is one of the most powerful and dramatic stories in all of the Bible. There are major lessons to be learned from this story.

Most Christians have heard of the story of Moses, but many Christians are not fully aware of the story of Joshua and Caleb. They are an extension off the story of Moses. They are the climax to the story of Moses as I will show you below.

I'll first give you a brief synopsis of their story, and then give you what needs to be learned from their story and how it personally applies to the situation you are now facing.

Brief Synopsis of Joshua and Caleb

God sends Moses into the land of Egypt to rescue and deliver His people from their slavery to the Egyptians. He throws 10 whopper plaques at the Pharaoh in order to get him to release His people from their bondage. God literally parts the Red Sea to complete the deliverance mission. God the Father performs one of the most powerful supernatural displays of signs and wonders that the world has ever seen to get His people pulled out of Egypt.

Moses tells God's people that God will give them what He calls the Promised Land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. He will settle His people down in this land and this is where He will break the Israelites off into 12 different tribes.

However, there is one little catch to this story. Before they are allowed to enter into this Promised Land, they must all first pass a test. God allows them to stay in the wilderness for 40 years. He gives them all the basics as far as food and water in order to survive in the wilderness for the 40 years.

God purposely tested His people to see if they would hold fast to Him and follow all of His ways while in this wilderness setting. And time after time, they continued to get themselves in major trouble with the Lord.

At one point, God got so mad at their rebellious attitude, that He literally wanted to kill them. But Moses went into the gap for his people, pleaded his case before God as to why He should not kill His people, and the Bible said God relented and changed His mind - all because Moses stood in the gap and effectively pleaded his case before God.

However, just after a little over 2 years into this 40 year wilderness journey is where they finally blew it for the last time with God the Father. The Israelites sent twelve spies into the Promised Land to check out who the enemy was and to develop battle strategies to defeat them. God was going to allow them to go into the Promised Land, but they first had to defeat and drive out their enemies in order to conquer and possess the land.

When the spies came back, ten of them came back with a bad report. They said their enemies were giants and that their kingdoms were too well fortified and they wouldn't be able to defeat them.

Now mind you, God had just got done pulling and delivering them out of Egypt with one of the greatest displays of His supernatural power the world has ever seen with Him throwing 10 whopper plaques against the Egyptians and then parting the Red Sea to give them safe passage into the wilderness.

When God saw their negative attitudes and their lack of faith and belief in Him and His power, He literally threw up His hands and said that was going to be it. At this point, He tells them that all of the men 20 years and older would not enter into the Promised Land due to their lack of faith and belief in Him.

He said that they would all wander in the desert for the next 40 years until they all literally died out in the desert. God says that their carcasses would fall in this wilderness and that their sons would be their shepherds bearing the brunt of their infidelity towards God.

The spies that went into to spy out the land did so for 40 days. As a result of this bad report - God pronounces judgment that they should wander in the wilderness for 40 years to match up with the 40 days that they had spied out the land for.

Now this is where Joshua and Caleb come in. God then tells Joshua and Caleb that they and the younger generation under 20 years of age would be the ones to go into the Promised Land because they had "wholeheartedly followed God." They had full faith and belief in God that He could defeat all of their enemies once they went into the Promised Land to conquer and possess it.

Joshua was the leader that eventually led them in. Moses himself was not allowed to go in and he died and was buried out in the wilderness. Joshua then took Moses' position as leader of the Israelites.

Joshua then goes into the Promised Land with his strong faith and belief in God, and then proceeds to literally wipe their enemies off the face of the earth and conquer and possess the land that God had promised their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Lessons To be Learned From Joshua and Caleb

1.  I believe the Promised Land for today's Christian refers to God's call on that person's life. For the Christian that will fully surrender his entire life over to God the Father - I believe God will place a specific call or calls on that person's life. However, it may take many years before God releases this person into what his true calling is going to be for Him. Sometimes it may take years of preparation to get ready for this call.

But once this call comes in and you are getting ready to cross over into your Promised Land, many Christians get cold feet at the last minute and walk out on their call. They start to get too focused on all the negative possibilities they will encounter if they take the call. Fear starts to set in and they then bail out of the boat.

This is why the above story is so powerful. The Israelites lost their one and only chance to go into this Promised Land due to one main reason - fear and lack of full faith and belief in the power of God to see them through.

They were too scared of the giants they saw in the land they were supposed to possess - and they did not have enough faith and belief in God that He could conquer and defeat these giants for them. As a result, they lost out on the biggest blessing of their entire life.

After Joshua fully succeeded in all of his missions, he makes the comment shortly before he dies that God had not failed to give him every ounce of land that his foot had stepped on.

God told Joshua that his enemies would be taken out and that he would be given total victory as long as he stayed with God's instructions. Joshua saw his call completely through and when he died, he died a man with his call and mission from God completely fulfilled.

His story is how God wants all of His people to live! The two keys to Joshua's success was his strong faith and belief in God and the fact that he had always "wholeheartedly followed God."

I always tell everyone to stay with their leadings from the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and teach us all things. He is our personal Guide and Teacher in this life. If God puts a call on your life, but you don't follow His specific instructions and leadings on how to get there, you will never succeed.

Joshua's story is one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible about someone who did it right in God. His story is a perfect example for all Christians on how to properly follow God and the call that He can place on your life.

2.  Susie, this story really applies to where you are at right now with God. You may be getting ready to have your door opened to enter into your Promised Land - into God's true call on your life. However, you are well aware of the giants and strongholds that you will be coming against if this door opens up for you.

Susie, remember the above story on Joshua. He saw the same giants and strongholds you are seeing. He saw all this before going in. God allowed him to see exactly what he was going into before he actually went into it - and God is showing you the exact same thing.

You have two choices. You can either let fear and panic set in just like the Israelites did and lose your one and only chance to enter into your Promised Land - or you can have the same strong faith and belief in God that Joshua had - and go in their with a kick-butt attitude that you will be completely victorious and that you will accomplish everything that God wants you to accomplish for Him.

I'll leave you with one last thought. Joshua and Caleb took their strong faith and belief in God, entered the Promised Land and achieved total victory in God. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. What He will do for one, He will do for another.

If God is calling you to go through this door, rest assured that you will have the full power of God operating through you to achieve total victory just like Joshua did!

As a final testament to the this man's story, God saw fit to name one of the Books of the Bible after him - "The Book of Joshua." I think this was a very fitting ending to what this man accomplished in God while down here on this earth. The Bible said Joshua lived to be 110 years old.

Susie, let God do the same for you as he did for Joshua and Caleb!

 

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Scripture taken from New King James Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2008 by Michael Bradley.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.