Give Me This Mountain

Joshua 14:6–14 NASB95

Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea. “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. “Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the Lord my God fully. “So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.’ “Now behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. “I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. “Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.” So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully.

I. Introduction

A. A Day for Remembering and a Day for Patriotism

1. Remembering those who have fallen in battle

2. Remembering all loved ones who have died

B. A Text from a Book of Battles

1. After Moses, Joshua became the leader

2. The land divided among the tribes of Israel

3. The area given will have to be conquered and developed

C. Caleb: “Give me this Mountain”

1. Asks the most difficult task (v. 12)

Joshua 14:12 NASB95

“Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.”

2. What motivated Caleb to press on to higher ground?

II. Body

A. He Remembers God’s Promise to Him (vv. 6–7)

Joshua 14:6–7 NASB95

Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea. “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart.

1. Caleb the spy ()

Numbers 13:14 NASB95

from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;

a. Sent by Moses 40 years earlier to spy out the land

b. The fruit of the land, flowing with milk and honey

c. But Caleb saw beyond this to Hebron, where Abram met God

2. Caleb: “We are well able to overcome it” ()

Numbers 14:23–24 NASB95

shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

Numbers 14:23-24

a. The majority had great giants and a little God

b. Caleb had a great God and little giants

c. The majority were problem-conscious, but Caleb was power-conscious

3. Caleb will now stand on the promises

a. He will never forget them

b. You will never find him part of the grumbling crowd

c. He is on his way to this better land all through life

B. Caleb Remembers his Own Commitment to the Lord (vv. 8–9)

Joshua 14:8–9 NASB95

“Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the Lord my God fully. “So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.’

1. “I wholly followed the Lord …”

a. Reminded of the time of his full surrender

b. A man of God, total dedication, committed

2. Remembers how he had stood apart from the crowd

a. Do you remember a day of victory?

b. What about the day you were saved?

c. What about the time of full surrender?

3. The sad story of

Revelation 2:1–7 NASB95

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

4. Have you left your first love?

C. Caleb Remembers God’s Faithfulness to him (vv. 10–11)

Joshua 14:10–11 NASB95

“Now behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. “I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.

1. God hath kept me alive

a. Have you thanked God for keeping you alive?

b. Except for Joshua, all the rest had died

2. I am now fourscore and five years old (85)

a. Some senior citizen!

b. Not resting on his laurels

3. God had cared for him up to that hour

4. “Grace hath brought me safe thus far”

III. Conclusion

A. Now, Therefore, Give me this Mountain!

1. Give me your best

2. Give me your toughest task

B. Remembering Should Challenge us

1. Lincoln at Gettysburg - Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

2. Accept the challenge

C. Move on to Higher Ground

Roger F. Campbell, Preach for a Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 89–90.