The following is second part of a study on Caleb's Following God Fully found in Joshua chapter 14. Not only should you have a
reverent remembrance of what God has done
and what God DESIRES, ask yourself, do I have a ...
Notice what Caleb said in
Josh 14:7, “and I brought back word to
him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the
people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God.”
Did you know that fully following the Lord will help your
heart?
Not talking your physical heart but the heart you need to follow him. The word
used here for melt means to turn to
water. Deuteronomy 1 recalls we read earlier in Numbers 13.
Read the following from Deut. 1:20-39. In his book Battle-Ready, author Steve Farrar points out that the ten “not able” spies and the two
“notable” spies earlier were commanded
by God and instructed by Moses to
go into the promised land not to see whether
they could take the land, but HOW they could take the land.
20 Then I said to
you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our
God is giving us. 21 See, the LORD your God has given you the
land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your
ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” 22Then all of you came to me and
said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report
about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”…
…26But you were unwilling to go
up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. 27You
grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of
Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28Where
can we go? Our brothers have made our
hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than
we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the
Anakites there.’ ” 29Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do
not be afraid of them. 30The LORD your God, who is going before you,
will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,”… 32
In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, 34 When
the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35“No
one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your
ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I
will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he
followed the LORD wholeheartedly.” … 38 But your assistant,
Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to
inherit it.
The ten “not able” spies not
only didn’t believe God and didn’t obey God, not only did they forget
what God had done and what God desired. Because they talked about what
they were not able to do rather than God WAS ABLE to do, the
heart of the people melted.
But listen to this: 40 years later, two more spies went into the
promised land, to the house of the harlot Rahab. Listen to what she said. Joshua
2:10-11 “For we have heard how the
LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt,
and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of
the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we
heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more
courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven
above and on earth beneath.”
For 40 years, the people of Jericho and the inhabitants of the land which God had ordained and prepared for the people of Israel had melted
hearts! Everything that happened in Joshua could have happened 40 years earlier under the rule
of Moses if only the people would have trusted God with all their hearts.
What is it that God has given to you that fear and faithlessness is keeping you from obtaining? Fully
following God begins with a reverent remembrance of what God has done and what
God desires, and it will give you a heart that won’t melt away when times of
testing come. And as we will see, fully following God will give you a Lasting LEGACY.
