GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN (2)

Open your Bibles Joshua 14:6-14

Joshua 14:6–14 ESV

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 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 him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

BOLDNESS TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT

Some years ago I worked as a construction laborer with my bricklayer father. On one occasion he said to me “When a man/woman has worked diligently all week they don’t have stand in the back of the line on payday.” He said they can boldly step up to the foreman and open their check to make sure that every hour and every dollar is accounted for, unlike the person who missed days or lollygagged during working hours. I believe that he was equating confidence with boldness. The sad truth of many workers today is that confidence has been replaced by shame. Put differently, people are not asking God to come through on what He has promised because they have failed to keep their end of the deal.

When we look at the text before us today, we see a man who had the confidence to step up and speak up about what he wanted. That man was Caleb who spoke up boldly to remind Joshua that a particular portion of the land had been promised to him to possess as his inheritance. The reason that he was able to have such confidence was because he fully followed the Lord (vv. 8, 9, 14). The text suggest to us that we too, like Caleb, can boldly submit our request for higher ground before God when we fully follow Him.