We'll begin reading at verse
13. In accordance with the Lord's
command to him, why evidently have that turned up a little
high there? Okay, in accordance with the Lord's command to him,
Joshua gave to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, a portion in Judah,
Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron. Arba was the forefather of Anak. From Hebron, Caleb drove out
the three Anakites, Shishai, Ahimon, and Ptolmai, descendants
of Anak. From there, he marched against
the people living in Debir, formerly called Kiriath-sephir. And Caleb
said, I will give my daughter, Aksa, in marriage to the man
who attacks and captures Kiriath Sefer. Othniel, son of Kinaz,
Caleb's brother, took it. So Caleb gave his daughter to
Aska, to him, in marriage. Now the first 12 verses of this
chapter establish the borders of the portion of the promised
land that was given to the tribe of Judah as their inheritance. And in these verses that we've
just read, we have a record of Caleb conquering the sons of
Anak and possessing Hebron as promised him by God. And then
we also have an account of Caleb's promise of his daughter's hand
in marriage to any man who would go up and do battle against the
city of Dabir. Othniel takes up the challenge
and wins. He wins against the city of Dabir,
and in so doing, wins the hand of Axa, Caleb's daughter. Now in this lesson, we're going
to consider verses 13 through 17 as they declare the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do that because that's
how we're to approach all scripture. Somehow or another, all scripture
pertains to Christ, and Christ is the essence of the gospel. Before we look at the compact
between Caleb and Othniel, It is important to note that this
portion of scripture shows that God is faithful to his promise. How is that? Well, he had promised
Caleb the land on which he walked when he was a spy some 45 years
previous. And now God has commanded Joshua
to give him that land. And then secondly, we see in
this whole section here, that Caleb was a man to whom God had
given faith to trust his word. Not all men have faith, says
the Apostle Paul, and given the context, I'm thinking that Paul
meant that not even everybody who professes to have faith actually
has faith. Faith's the gift of God. It cannot
be worked up by a preacher. It cannot be worked up by the
sinner himself. Yes, there is a kind of faith
which is a natural faith. A person may have what we would
call a doctrinal faith in the gospel. They see the doctrines
of the gospel and they believe that they are true. But the faith
of God's people is something more than that. It's not just
an intellectual persuasion of the facts of the gospel. It is
a spiritual connection to God in which the soul reaches out
to God, looks to God, trusts in God, calls on God to save
him. You know, it's one thing to know
that a bridge, and be utterly convinced of it, that a bridge
has the capacity to bear your weight as you cross the chasm
to get to the other side. It's another thing altogether
to actually get on that bridge and walk across it. Of course,
the second thing, walking across the bridge, that illustrates
what true faith is. And that's something that comes
from God. And the reason we say it comes
from God is because faith being a spiritual thing, and natural
man being spiritually dead, Well, the only way he can ever have
faith is if God raises his spirit from the dead, gives him a living
spirit, and faith just naturally flows from a spirit that's been
made alive by the Spirit of God. Now, the sons of Anak, and we
run into them in verse 14, It says, from Hebron, Caleb drove
out the three Anakites, Shishai, Ahimon, and Talmai. Now, it was these very people
that had frightened the spies some 45 years previous, had frightened
the spies. and cause the people to turn
back and thus incur the displeasure of the Lord and bar themselves
from ever being able to enter the land of promise. Now, these
terrible giants were the excuse that Israel used for its unbelief. Now, it was not a reason. Remember, we have noted that
there's a difference between a reason and a cause. There can be all different kinds
of causes for an event, but a reason is simply one kind of cause.
And a reason means a reasonable cause, a cause, a motivation
based upon reason. Well, there was no reason to
fear these giants. So the best that they could use
as a cause was they made an excuse out of them. They were already unbelievers.
They were unbelievers before they went in to spy out the land.
It's simply when they came up to a group of people that they
did not feel they were capable of defeating. They said, look
at them, they're big, we're small, we can't win this. Now, when we look at the difficulties of our being accepted by God. When we look at the giants that
stand between us and the blessings of God, if we look at them and
say, they're big, we're small, we cannot overcome them, let's
go back. What are we doing? We are living
by sight, not faith. Now, Caleb saw the same people
that the other spies did. He saw the sons of Anak. Now, why was he not bowled over? Well, when he went into the land,
he was already a believer. When he went in to spy it out,
he didn't go in to find out if they could take the land. He
went in there simply to say, how are we going to do this?
What can we expect? That's all. There was no question
in his mind as he entered Canaan to spy it out. There was no question
in his mind that he was going to bring back a good report.
And why was that? Because he did not go in there
expecting that in his own strength or in the strength of the armies
of Israel that they were going to go in there and conquer the
people of the land. He went in there with full confidence
because God had promised that he would hand the land to them.
So it was irrelevant what was in the land. If they'd gone in there and found
the place just overrun with T-Rex everywhere, I realize this would
have been too late for that, but nonetheless, if such a thing
had happened, everywhere you went, you ran into Tyrannosaurus
Rex, it wouldn't have made any difference to Caleb. Why? Well, just like David, as he
approached Goliath, he said to Goliath, you come to me with
shield and spear, but I come to you in the name of Jehovah,
God of Israel. He said, the battle is the Lord's. And Caleb understood the same
thing. And as big as the sons of Anak might be, they weren't
as big as God. They could not withstand Him.
So, Caleb had not turned back. Caleb, even now, 45 years later,
he was about 40 back then, now he's 85, and he says he still
has, you know, the same strength he did back then. Maybe he did,
or maybe what he meant was, my strength when I was 40 was the
Lord. And 45 years later, that's still
my strength. And an old man with the Lord
is stronger than a whole army of giants without the Lord. These Antiquites brought great
fear to Israel. And the only way they were able
to do it is because, for the most part, all those in Israel,
even though they claim to believe God, they didn't. You see, faith
will always be tried. Faith will be tested to be proven. It is so easy to say, I believe. It's another thing to live as
one who believes. And they said, we believe God,
because they went across the wilderness. I mean, they did
plenty of things that seemed to deny the faith, but nonetheless,
they got there, and they were kind of excited. Okay, there's
the land, we're going to go in. But the spies went in there,
10 of them, thought that it was going to be their responsibility
to drive out the Canaanites. And they came back with an evil
report. And the only reason the people
believed their evil report is that they were unbelievers. Brother Mahan used to say, trials
do not create faith. They reveal faith, or they reveal unbelief. As a pastor of a congregation, I know, well, I see people, and
I'm kind of… Maybe a little bit extra sensitive to people's emotions
and to the way they carry themselves. I usually can tell if something's
going on. And whenever it happens, that
is whenever I see that the people are going through a significant
trial, there's always the question in my mind, what is this trial
going to reveal? Thanks be to God, most of the
time, it is revealed that the one undergoing the trial is indeed
a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we've also seen some
who, when confronted with a trial, no longer walked with us, and
so far as we can tell, no longer walked with Christ. Why? They didn't become unbelievers
because of the trial. It just revealed that that's
what they had been all along. Trials come to all people. Trials
come to those who profess to be the people of God, that it
may be seen and proven whether or not they really are. Now,
the sons of Anak were fierce and terrible, but Caleb knew
that he would have them... Well, he's just going to have
them for lunch. You know, he was convinced that
when they attacked, they would be successful, and big as they
were, they would be destroyed. And it says of Caleb that he
drove them out. He drove out the three Anakites,
and I'm assuming they were sons of Anak, and here's the thing,
in the Hebrew Bible, When it says son of, it could mean any
male descendant somewhere down the line. It might have been
what we would call grandsons, great-grandsons. I don't know
how far Anak was back in their background. But in this group
of Anakites, there were evidently three clans led by these three
men, which evidently were brothers. But he drove them out, and in
driving them out, it didn't just mean he drove those three men
out. He drove out everybody aligned with him. This 85-year-old man knew that
God had kept him strong for this very moment, and his faithful
God would give these giants into his hand. Hebron had always belonged
to Caleb. Anak and his sons were only temporary
inhabitants. God had put them there to build
the cities, build the houses, dig the wells, and plant the
gardens for Caleb and his family. I want you to think on that a
minute. You and I as believers in this
world, we have conflict with the world. And if we are like
Lot, we become vexed with the conduct of the world. But do
you know what God does with them? He has put them on this earth
to take care of believers. That's what the Antiquites had
done. Caleb, when he got his piece of land, he did not get
a bare piece of land. He did not get this bit of wilderness,
and he and his household had to go in there with machetes
and axes and clear it out, you know, and start building houses.
It was all there. The enemies of God had built
dwelling places. set up everything necessary for
them to just move in and begin living. Now, what giving I do? Almost
100% of it. is for the church. And there's
a reason for that, at least from my perspective. There are so
few people, there are so few true believers, and they're the
only ones going to support the church. Well, then we kind of
have to, at least I feel this for myself, this is not something
I would bind on anybody else. But for me, I think, okay, whatever
giving I can do, it is going to go to the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because after all, the world's
got plenty of people given to it. There are just a couple of
organizations to which I give a little bit. And one of them
because they send me a free magazine. And I don't mind. I mean, I think
it's good they send it out for free, but I think, I always have
this idea, if I can pay for something, I should. And so I send them
some money each year that I figure covers the cost of producing
and sending me that magazine. And the other one I give some
money to, it's called Alliance Defending Freedom, because the
work that they're doing is a help. to churches because they are
a group of lawyers that defend not only churches but other groups
who are being attacked by governments. I don't know if you've read about
these cases. This is the example that I've
noticed most of all. But florists and bakers, they
are being targeted by gays because supposedly the law says if you
own a business, you have to serve everybody. What they'll do is go in there
and make it quite obvious, say that this one fellow named Jack
down in Colorado, he has a nice, you know, he's been in the baking
business for a long time, baked wedding cakes. They come in there,
make it obvious this is going to be for a gay wedding, you
know, they don't want a groom and a bride, they want two grooms
on the top of the cake, you know. you know, good luck, Bob and
Bill or whatever on it. And they want him to make this
cake. Well, he's not going to do that. He professes to be a believer. And he cannot promote that which
he feels conscientiously opposed to. And so the state of Colorado
sued him. And this ADF, Alliance Defending
Freedom, if it hadn't been for them, that guy would have been
sunk. You can't, when the state comes after you, you don't have
enough money to defend yourself. The state's got essentially unlimited
resources. So I give money to that group,
because the day will come, folks, when no matter how much we try
to protect ourselves from being abused by those who are unwilling
for us to peaceably and freely worship our God according to
conscience. They'll come after us. And when I say us, I don't
mean us in particular. It might not ever happen to us,
but it'll happen to churches. They'll demand the right to be
members of churches that are opposed to the way they live.
That kind of stuff is already happening in other countries.
So I'll give to them, but here's the thing about these organizations. Now some of the people in them
may be true believers, but whether or not they are, God uses them
to do the grunt work, shall we say, the grunt work of clearing
away many of the obstacles that stand away, stand in the way
of the church as it lives in this world. And that's what those
Antiquites were. In Deuteronomy 6, beginning in
verse 10, When the Lord your God brings you into the land
He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to
give you a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses
filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells
you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not
plant. Now, I've become so jaded about
politics, it's really hard for me to be involved with it at
all. But I'll say this. For all the abuse of governments,
governments are necessary. They are necessary. And while
most of them are self-serving, tyrannical by nature, yet the
Bible tells us the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and
like a rudder on a ship, he turns it wherever he wants it. And
you know what he's making them do? He is making them provide
for the believer in this world, one way or another. Unbeknownst
to Anak and his sons, they were an expendable, advanced team
of contractors and farmers that prepared the land for Caleb and
his family to inhabit. Now, we can't take any glory
in this. It's not as though Caleb could
say, yeah, God sent these people that are lower than me and less
than me. to come here and build these
cities. We can't say that, because we're
just like them. In our flesh, we're exactly the
same kind of people they are. But we can be thankful and we
can glorify our God that indeed He works all things together
for our good. And while that has an eye to
the future and our eternal good, it's also for our good here.
Nothing happens to us here that is not good for us. Doesn't mean
it's pleasant. Doesn't mean it's the route we
would have chosen. Doesn't mean that God is going
to allow us to achieve our dreams and our expectations. He may
use the world to obstruct us. Now you think of this, use the
world to obstruct us from following a path that would have been destructive
to us. When I was at the end of the
11th grade, I played trumpet in the band. I was the lead trumpet in our
stage band, and I was second chair in a concert band. And
that was because me and the guy that was first chair, we were
about equal, and he was a senior. So, of course, it defaults to
the senior if nobody's a good deal better than him. Well, he
was about to graduate out, and I thought I'd kind of graduate
out to first chair. Well, at the end of the year,
the band director picks who's going to be the leader in the
marching bands in the various sections, called them sergeant
majors. And he picked a guy a year younger than me who wasn't as
good as me. Well, I thought, so what? Well, it may have been the last
day of band, or very near the last day of band class, and we
were just going over music. that we might play the next year. I like playing parts up high,
playing them an octave higher than they're written. Now, hey,
of all the times I ought to be allowed to play around, it's
this day when we're just kind of going over music. You know,
there's nothing real serious about today. And I played some
music up a octave higher. And that guy, who I did not personally
care for in the first place, he leaned over and looked down
at me and he said, play it where it's written, Joe, and said it
in a real, you know, commanding and putting me down. And then the band director said,
And he scolded me. Well, I'd been doing this ever
since I was in the high school band, never got scolded before.
Really kind of caught me off guard. But I thought, OK, I'm
done. And I did. They were passing
around a clipboard, had everybody's address on it. And he said, correct
it. If you have any problem with your address, contact information,
correct it. And I just scratched out my name.
Band director comes to me afterwards and said, well, I saw what you
did. That's not what I intended you to do. And actually, it was
not until I reached my 40s, not until I reached my 40s that I
realized that's exactly what he wanted me to do. And he had some, he had a nephew
who played trumpet, and he was going to be in the 10th grade
the next year. And the band director had a tendency to put anybody
that was a relative of his in places of leadership, and I was
in the way. Well, I stood on that. It got
to be... Every time I'd think of it, I'd
get mad. I thought I wasn't treated right. I should have been first chair,
I should have been the leader and all this. Until it occurred
to me. God used those people to get
me out of the band because that's not where I belonged. As much
as I wanted to be there. I was considering a career in
music. That's not the career he had in mind. Now those people,
they weren't saying, well, you know, Joe's not supposed to be
in band and God told me I need to find a way to get him out.
They were just doing what they wanted to do. But God used it
to get me out of band and put me on a path that put me here
some 50 years later. Joseph was sold into slavery
by his brothers, and when he revealed himself to his brothers,
who he really was, oh, they were scared, and you can imagine so.
Here's a guy that's second in charge in Egypt, and they had
been the ones that sold him into slavery. And he told them this,
he says, don't you worry. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. When the world treats you wrong,
as it will, don't get upset. If anything needs done to them
in vengeance, let the Lord handle it. But understand this. While they may treat you unjustly,
they do to you exactly what God believes needs to be done to
put you in the right path. I don't know about you, it's
real hard for me to remember that. When somebody treats me
unjustly, when somebody lies to me, those things get under
my skin hard for me. You know, like a little tiny
thorn that, you know, got in your skin and then, you know,
the callus grows over it and everything. Boy, it's hard to
get that thorn out. But remember this, everybody in this world
is used by God to bring about the good of his people. All right, we'll stop there for
now.