What is the story of Joshua and Caleb in the Bible?

When God came down to deliver Israel out of Egypt, He announced His purpose to Moses in Exodus 3:8, "I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Here was the purpose distinctly enunciated. Not one word about "the great and terrible wilderness" which lay between. I pass over their deliverance and subsequent history till we come to the moment when Israel, about two years after, were to go up to the mount of The Amorites and take possession of the land of Canaan. Their faith was not up to the call of the Lord, and they begged that some should be sent to spy out the land. To this the Lord assented, commanding that twelve men — out of every tribe a man — (see Numbers 13; Deut. 1) should go up. Among them were "Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." The spies returned with a good report of the land; but ten of them caused the unbelief of the heart of Israel to manifest itself by their own fears.

The spies were chosen at the commandment of the Lord, and among them were Caleb, for the tribe of Judah, and Joshua, the son of Nun, for the tribe of Ephraim. For forty days they "searched" the promised land, and brought back with them a cluster of grapes from the brook of Eshcol, together with pomegranates and figs, in token of its fruitfulness. All the congregation were assembled to hear their report. At the commencement they confirmed in every particular the word of Jehovah: "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." So far it was well; but no sooner had they stated what they could not deny, than the unbelief, which was lurking in their hearts, broke forth. "Nevertheless," they proceeded to say, "the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover (reserving the greatest difficulty to the last) we saw the children of Anak there"; and in a few additional words they sketched the location of the several nations. Remark, that they had not added anything to the information given them already by the Lord Himself; they had only looked upon the obstacles to the conquest of the land with the natural eye instead of with the eye of faith. The consequence was they left Jehovah out, and measured the foes to be encountered by their estimate of their own strength instead of the Lord's. Instead of saying, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" the thought of their heart was, "How can we overcome such powerful adversaries?"

The effect was disastrous; for their words evidently produced a dangerous agitation among the congregation. At this juncture Caleb stepped forth, and, dissociating himself from his companions, "stilled the people before Moses." He did not, indeed could not, contradict the testimony which had been rendered; but he said, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." As the subsequent history shows, this was the language of faith begotten by confidence in Jehovah and His word. He knew that the God who had brought them out from under the power of Pharaoh, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, could bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance. The utterance of his confidence in the Lord only intensified the opposition of the natural mind, and the men that went up with him said, "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we." As boldness in testimony gives increased certainty, so the expression of unbelief augments its power. Caleb and the ten spies are striking illustrations of these principles.

The increase of the unbelief of the ten is most marked. They now brought up an evil report of the land, which they had before described as flowing with. milk and honey; and they magnified through their fears the greatness of the enemy. In the presence of the sons of Anak, they were in their own sight, they said, as grasshoppers, "and so," they added - what could be only a matter of conjecture - "we were in their sight." Unbelief, which is always contagious, infected all the congregation, and they "lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night." They murmured moreover against Moses and against Aaron; they bitterly complained that they had not died in the land of Egypt; they reproached Jehovah for all the straits and dangers which existed only in their fears; and, finally, they broke out into open rebellion, saying, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." On the borders of their inheritance, a land on which the eyes of the Lord always rested, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year (Deut. 11), filled with doubts and apprehensions, they were ready to sacrifice everything in their forgetfulness of their God and Redeemer. Moses and Aaron, helpless in the presence of such a manifestation of evil, could only fall on their faces, in silent appeal to God, before all the assembly.

Joshua and Caleb were God's chosen instruments to stem, and to testify against, this torrent of unbelief. Expressing their horror at the sin of the people, they rent their clothes, and, raising their voices above the din and confusion that reigned in the congregation, they courageously reiterated their declaration that the land they had searched out was "an exceeding good land." They thus boldly contradicted the "evil report" of their fellows, and, in so doing, separated themselves morally from their company, and took their stand on the Lord's side. They also stated plainly the conditions of possessing the land. First, "If the Lord delight in us," they said, "then He will bring us into this land." In this they showed that they were in communion with Jehovah's mind. He did delight in His people, and they knew it, and consequently that all depended upon what He was, and upon His power, and not upon what the people were, or could do.* Secondly, they said, "Only rebel not … neither fear ye the people of the land." The children of Israel had only to follow their divine Leader. And, lastly, they declared (what was the source of all their strength) that the Lord was with them, and therefore fear of the enemy was needless.

"As the Lord commanded … the children of Israel did … they divided the land" (ver. 5), and then it was to Joshua, at the camp of Gilgal — Gilgal with its grand associations of Jehovah-given freedom — that the men of Judah came. Caleb stood up before the leader and all Israel, and, in the burning spirit of the true possessor, put in his claim to the mountains of Hebron, and the great and fenced cities thereof.

Caleb's words must have stirred every faithful soul as, addressing Joshua, he said, "Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea." The Lord was the same unchangeable Lord to Caleb, though forty-five years had gone by, and a new dispensation had arisen for Israel; and though Caleb's old associates were dead and gone — buried, because of their unbelief, in the wilderness, for he alone believed in the faithful promise of the Lord. Forty-five years previously, in the dark hour of Israel's rebellion against Jehovah, Caleb had stood firm for his God. When the faint-hearted spies urged the people to unbelief, brave Caleb stayed himself upon God, and, regardless of the favour of his old associates, he answered their mean and unbelieving words by "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it," while, to the wails and despondency of Israel, his firm heart answered, "If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey" (Numbers 14:8).

The Lord had said of him in that day: "But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it" (ver. 24). Caleb's faith lifted him out of the murmurs of Israel, their cowardice and their reproaches of the Lord. He trusted in God, held on to Him and left in His hands difficulties and giants; one thing only he sought — the Lord's delight in him.

Caleb and Joshua, spared in the judgment that was visited upon the guilty people, lived still; and both, according to the word of the Lord, crossed the Jordan, and shared, in their respective positions, in the victories of faith, when engaged in conflict with the enemy for the possession of the land. Coming to Joshua 14, Caleb is again brought to our notice. He came unto Joshua in Gilgal to apply for the inheritance which the Lord had promised to him. His address is full of interest. First of all, he recalled the past (vv. 6 - 8); then he reminded Joshua (showing how he had treasured it up in his heart) of the promise made to him by Moses (v. 9); next, he testified to the Lord's faithfulness in preserving him alive, and in continuing to him his strength, through all his lengthened and varied experiences; and lastly, requesting the possession of his inheritance, he expressed his confidence that, if the Lord should be with him, he would be able to drive out the Anakim, and to take their cities, notwithstanding they were great and fenced, as the spies had reported. The assurance of the Lord's presence always adds courage to faith, and thus Caleb confidently anticipated the conquest of the enemy. Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to him as his inheritance "because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." The man of faith must ever be foremost in the conflict with the enemy; but his victory is ensured.

But then there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must never be forgotten; nor must these things ever be confounded. The whole book of God illustrates the distinction between grace and government; and no part of it, perhaps, more forcibly than the section which now lies open before us. Grace will pardon; and grace will fill the earth with the blessed beams of divine glory; but mark the appalling movement of the wheels of government as set forth in the following burning words: "Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." verses 22-25.

This is most solemn. Instead of confiding in God, and going boldly on into the land of promise, in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm, they provoked him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness. "The Lord spake to Moses and to Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say to them, As truly as I live, says the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." (Verses 26-33)

One striking fact emerges at the end of the chapter. Amongst all these males of twenty years and over, numbering just over 600,000, there was not an individual left alive, who had been in the earlier census, saving Caleb and Joshua. We turn back to Numbers 14, and again reading verses 20-32, we see with what absolute exactitude God fulfils the word He has spoken. A solemn fact for the unbeliever, but one in which we who believe can heartily rejoice.

It is of the utmost importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan, on the occasion now before us. The inspired commentary in Hebrews 3 places this beyond all question. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." It might, perhaps, be said that the time was not come for Israel's entrance upon the land of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its culminating point. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: "They could not enter in" — not because of the iniquity of the Amorites; not because the time was not come — but simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. The judgement of faith, as uttered by faithful Caleb, was clear and unhesitating: "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." They were as well able, at that moment, as they could ever be at any moment, inasmuch as the One who had given them the land was the spring of their ability to enter upon it and possess it.

The consequence was judgment; and no wonder. For they say, "Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt." This is the sure result. The heart that refuses to go on with God goes back to Egypt in its desires. "Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb," the two who had brought the good report, "rent their clothes; and they spake to all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land." Let us not forget this. We owe it to our God to give a good report of the land which lies before us. "If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us — a land, which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us. Fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel." This was Israel — Israel in the wilderness — Israel in presence of the goodly land and of the earnest which had been set before their eyes.

"Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God." It is no presumption in any of us to answer to the testimony of God to our own souls. So did Caleb; for the Lord said, "But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully." Caleb had searched the land, following the Lord his God there, when the Lord Himself was his guide and defence, and no enemy could set upon him. He had seen that the land "was exceeding good;" but he reckoned on the good pleasure of the Lord in His people. "If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us." The soul of Caleb rested entirely on the grace and power of God, which had caused them to triumph at the Red Sea, and had kept the spies in searching the land. The same grace and power could alone lead them into possession of the land. On this, and this alone, he reckoned. Only let his soul recognise where the Lord was, and he could see victory. But the very same principle of fully following the Lord, which made him encourage the people to go up, would hinder him from the attempt, after that the Lord had said, "Tomorrow turn again the way of the Red Sea;" for the Lord had no delight in the people. Where the Lord was there was both grace and power; and Caleb had to learn that grace and power for forty years in the wilderness on which he had so early reckoned, and which eventually put him in actual possession of the very part of the land which he had trodden with his feet. He fully followed the Lord through the wilderness, and knew Him there as his guardian and guide whom he had known as a mighty deliverer out of Egypt, and who had introduced him into Canaan, and enabled him to see and search the land and know its fruits.