Caleb

Transcript

So I wanted to test your minds a little bit this morning with this verse that's up on the board. Of whom was it said, My servant blank, because he had another spirit with him, or a different spirit, and hath followed me fully. There's more to it, but if I put it there, it would give it away. So just think of it. You don't have to yell out an answer, but just think of who you might think that is. And then I'm going to, Brother Rich already saw this, but these were my heroes growing up. I was a big Batman and Robin fan as a young kid, and I don't know if Dad remembers, but on one Christmas of birthday they bought me a Batman replica figure. And he was probably four feet tall, and he was my best friend for like three or four years. But I put them up there, not to reminisce on Batman and Robin, but just to say, in life and in the Bible, there are many dynamic duos, aren't there? And I put up a list of just a few of the dynamic duos that I could, you know, came to the top of my head. You know, many of them did great things. I don't know why Jezebel and Ahab came to my mind, but they did. I mean, they were a dynamic duo, but for the wrong reasons, as we all know. But these people all did wonderful things. And for the most part, there was a Batman and there was a Robin, if you think about it. And the Batman, in most of the narratives, did all the great things, was the hero, so to speak, and the Robin is kind of in the background. And I say that because the individual I'm speaking of could be considered a Robin. He was more in the background, but he has some awesome things to tell us in Scripture. So the question is – and I'm going to give you a few hints, just because I'm a nice guy. So our mystery guest saw the worst of times and the best of times. And I already gave it away. I didn't mean to put he. I shouldn't have put the he, because it could have been a woman as well, but I gave it away, so it's narrowed it down for you. He was a slave in Egypt and knew all about the pain and the toil living under the yoke of the Egyptians, witnessed God's judgments, the crossing of the Red Sea, and Moses descending Sinai.

One of the first to see the land of Canaan, that should really narrow it down, if you haven't already figured it out. He was 40 years old the first time he's mentioned in Scripture.

Though no fault of his own, he had to spend 40 years in the wilderness watching as his generation all died because of their mistrust of the Lord, often hidden behind his more famous friend, who we already mentioned, the Batman, so to speak, compared to this gentleman's Robin. And we're speaking of Caleb. Anyone figure it out that it was Caleb? You can brag. No? I ran this by my son, and yeah, he, you know, Chris, not to pick on you, but he didn't get it until toward the bottom of the clues. So yeah, Caleb, somebody who we read about every time the readings come to numbers, right, in Joshua? Yeah. And Joshua was the Batman, you know, the more famous of the two, but there's Caleb in the background. And with every good Batman, there are times when a Robin is needed to pull through, to help and save Batman. It's very few. If you watch the old Batman series that I watched with Adam West, usually it was Batman coming to the rescue, but there were one or two episodes where it was something that Robin did that was the storyline. And we're going to see that here in our study today of Caleb. So as great as the things that Joshua did, we're going to look at Caleb. We'll mention Joshua a little bit because it's hard not to because they're kind of connected to each other, aren't they? So we're going to look at Caleb and see what lessons from his life and from what we read of him in Scripture that we could apply to our own. So Caleb, you know, we read the verse from Numbers 14 that he had another spirit in him, okay, or a different spirit. And what I'd like to talk about today is what makes up, what qualities of Caleb help make up that different, that another spirit. And I came up with four or five different ones. We'll look at them. Hopefully we'll get through them all today of qualities that Caleb possessed that make up the different spirit. Okay, so the first one that I came up with was he was a different type of servant. And if you want to follow along in your Bibles will mainly be in Numbers 13 and 14 and will also be in Joshua a little bit as well for reference. So he was a different kind of servant. And to set the setting, okay, the children of Israel, if my timeline's correct, had been on the move toward the promised land for about 15 or 16 months. And can you imagine, and I can only liken it to a couple of things, you know, besides awaiting the kingdom now. But as a child, when your mom and dad say, guess where we're going next year? And you're like, we're going to Disney World for two weeks. And that anticipation, you know, you guys can all think of your own examples where you've had great anticipation for something to happen that's going to happen in the future. And that's really what I can liken this to. Can you imagine after the time they spent in Egypt moving through these last 15, 16 months and now they're on the edge of the promised land? The thrill, the excitement must have been amazing, you would think, right? The promises they've been promised are coming to pass and everything's going great. I mean, that's the only thing I can liken it to is, you know, a trip to Disney World or something to that effect. They had to have been excited. But if we set the scene, if you remember back in Numbers 12, before we're told that they were on the edge in the wilderness of Paran, and I put up an image there of the wilderness of Paran where they were, you know, to me, if you're in an area like this, bone dry, arid, and then you're told you're going into a land flowing with milk and honey, you would think you'd be jumping off the walls, right? But in Numbers 12, we read the account of Miriam and Aaron where they basically come out and say, what's so great about Moses? We're equal to Moses. Why aren't we being treated like Moses? You know, Miriam, God curses her with leprosy. And, you know, everything you don't need before a big trip, so to speak, had happened in previous chapters. And we know throughout the journeys, the grumbling and the complaining and the, you know, what was us attitude that the children of Israel had. And to have two of the three leaders basically try to overthrow the one, Moses, couldn't have been a good thing. It really couldn't have been. So that kind of sets the scene for what we're introduced to in Numbers Chapter 13. So God instructs Moses, and you read of this in the first 16 verses, where he instructs Moses to send out one man out of every tribe. And a key verse in this is in verse two, and I do want to read verse two. So I'm in Chapter 13 of Numbers, and this is God says, send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel, which I give. It's a done deal. All right. You probably recognize that verbiage, the same that he uses in Joshua, when Joshua is told in Conquer the Land, it's yours. All you have to do is listen to me, believe in me, and go in and take it. Okay. And brothers and sisters, that's a beautiful thing because we're given the same thing. Right? We're told the same thing. Whosoever believeth in him shall have eternal life. It's the same thing for us that's given to them. All right. So it's a done deal. Just go in and take the land. You know, I'm with you. As long as I'm with you, don't fear anything. Well, the twelve go out. All right. They go out throughout the land, and they spy out the land. And before they went out, though, one thing I did want to mention was, you know, these twelve were not just picked nilly-willy. All right. These twelve had to have qualities about them that Moses, because Moses, God says, Moses, you pick out the twelve. So they had to have special qualities about them that Moses would trust, you know, leadership qualities, you know, lack of fear because of the land that they were going into, the ability to be a leader, you know, a leader of men, and wisdom, you know, the ability to discern situations, whether it be good for the people or whether it is not good. So, you know, he just didn't pick men out of a hat. You know, it was done with care, prayer. I'm sure a lot of thought and prayer went behind his decisions on who to pick. So one of the men, and we mentioned him earlier, was Joshua. He was one that was picked out to lead, to go into the land, and he's first introduced back in Exodus 17. In here, in the account we read in Numbers, his name, Oshua, is used. But if you go back into the account in Exodus where

Moses sends him out to fight the Amalekites, we won't look that up. But his name, Joshua, is used. But it's not until here in Numbers where we're told that Moses changes his name to Joshua. And if you remember, brothers and sisters, his name, Oshua, means salvation, okay? But Moses changes it to Joshua, which means Yahweh saves. And that's why his name is used back in Exodus, because it's not about Joshua. It's not about Moses. It's all about God. You know, God is our salvation. He's our rock. Brother Chris.

In this year's Cycling Through Numbers and Reading Through, something jumped out to me that might be impactful for what you're discussing. But prior to this, their cousins Esau and Moab have already dispossessed the giants in Mount Seir and amongst the Ammonites. And so, you know, it's that much more of a failing on Israel's part where they're not able to go in and do this when their cousins have already accomplished this themselves. And so I think to the spirit, I think the distinction may be the spirit that Esau and Moab wasn't in the spirit that God saves. Perhaps it was by the might of their own arm, but God is trying to develop something different in his people, a spirit of faith in God's deliverance rather than themselves. So when you get into Joshua, meaning Yahweh saves, it kind of gave me that idea. No, that's a good point, too, Brother Chris. Thank you for bringing that up because I didn't have that in my notes, so I appreciate that. Thank you. Anything else? Okay, good. So I want to read, if we can, because I just found this psalm to really reflect the mindset of Caleb and of Joshua and of many others, too, that we read about. And I hope and pray that I can apply this in my life as well from Psalm 130, starting at verse 6. Now, I think this is probably a psalm of David while he was under distress, probably fleeing from Saul. I'm not 100% sure, but this is what the psalm says in verse 5. And that's a great summary of Caleb and Joshua and so many of those that we read about. So I just found that a very appropriate verse for Caleb and the mindset and the spirit that he had and what we're going to see as we continue looking at him here. So what are we told about Caleb? We're told that he's the son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah. His name means dog, and I didn't know that until now, but how appropriate because when you read of Caleb throughout Scripture, he's more than a dog. He's not a gentle little, I don't know what's a gentle little dog, a Chihuahua or something like that. Caleb's a pit bull. He really is. He seems like a really tough guy.

So his name means dog. In Numbers 32, we're told that his father was a Kenazite. And before doing this research, I heard the phrase Kenazite. Truthfully, I didn't know what it meant, so I did a little research on it. And they go back to the time of Abraham. We read about them in Genesis 19. And the Kenazites seem to be a wild clan of people. I don't want to say vagabonds, but they tend to move within all the other groups. So some of them interdispersed with the Edomites, some with the Canaanites, and then others within the tribe of Israel. They kind of merged in on their own. And in fact, you don't read about them at all in the account in Joshua 3, where it's talked about the conquest of the peoples and the nations. They're not there. So I think that over time, they became dispersed within all these other groups. You know, they were kind of, from what I could see, they weren't well-respected people and somewhat considered, I don't want to say lazy, but they kind of lived off of others. So, you know, they weren't well-respected. And I'll just leave it at that. So his father was a Kenazite, which was interesting. So that means his mother had to be from the tribe of Judah, an Israelite. So he was kind of – I'm not saying this in a bad way – but, you know, he was a mixed bag. He was a combination of different peoples. He wasn't what we'd say a true Israelite, maybe. I don't know, but it's interesting. They mention it quite a few times that his father was a Kenazite. Okay? So he has that as his background as well. So he was, in that respect, a little different maybe than the other 11 that were sent out from the other tribes. I put there his spouses and his sons, and we won't get into it. But one interesting thing later on in Joshua 15 is he gives his daughter, his daughter Akish, to Othniel. And if you remember, Othniel was the first judge of Israel. So that was kind of interesting. So I didn't do the great research that Brother Duncan did in his Wednesday night class. That was fabulous. And, you know, I could have dug a little deeper into this, but I wanted to get out the aspects of Caleb more than researching his family. So, as we mentioned, they're on the edge. They're in the wilderness of Paran. And if you can see the map, under Qadish Barneyer, the wilderness ascending right under that is Paran. And we already showed that it was a pretty barren place. We look at, if we go back into Numbers 13, and we get into what they saw when they were in the land. Okay? And they spent 40 days. And if you look at the map, I hope you can see it, but there's a red line from Qadish Barneyer, and it goes all the way up to Rahab. And Hebron is somewhat in the middle, and that's the area expanse that they traveled in 40 days to spy out the land. That's very interesting. That's a lot of walking and a lot of ground that they covered. But they spent the 40 days, and in Verse 26 of Chapter 13, we get to their report. In Verse 25, they returned from searching of the land after 40 days. So in, what, eight verses from Chapter, Verse 17 to 25 is 40 days worth of searching. And then in Verse 26, it reads, And they came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel under the wilderness of Paran to Qadish and brought back word unto them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. All right. It sounds great, right? Everything's starting off great. And they told them, they said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And they brought back the grapes from the valley of Sukkot, and everything perfect. You could just imagine if you were one of the children of Israel hearing this report, you know, you've waited all this time to get into the land. The spies come back and they say, It's true. It's true. Everything that God said about the land is right. It's true. Whoo-hoo. We're going in. But the people are strong. The people are strong. They dwell on the land and the city's a wall. They're very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. Oh. Why did you have to tell me that? I was all excited, ready to go. And it's an amazing thing. You know, everything was just like God had told them. Okay? But how quickly they forgot upon hearing this, all the great things God had done for them. You know, leaving Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, the commandments, the water, the manna, everything. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter anymore that the land was flowing with milk and honey. All they heard was, the giants are there. The Amalekites are there. All these people are there. They're all walled cities. That's all they heard. And, you know, it's easy for us to condemn them, isn't it? But, you know, in our own lives, there have been times, I'm sure each and every one of us have lived by sight rather than by faith. And that can be a tough thing sometimes for us to overcome because what you see, and unfortunately we've seen many, some of our brothers and sisters, turn away from the truth because they are living by sight. You know, they see, well, you can't prove that this happened. Well, we're not proving it. It's faith that, you know, they live by sight. And that's what's happening here. It's a sad thing that happened. But then we're introduced to our Batman, Caleb. And it's funny to me here, and I don't know a reason yet. I don't know, but, you know, in the past it was always Moses, right? When the children of Israel went a bad report, when they grumbled, complained, Moses would say something, but Caleb jumps in. And this is where I think the pit bull that Caleb is. He wasn't waiting for Moses if Moses was going to say something. Caleb was going to speak his mind. He had been out there with them. He saw the same things, all right? He's been through everything they have. And Caleb steps right in. And I can just picture it. As soon as the ten had finished their report, I could see Caleb, if he was in the background, maybe pushing himself to the front. And in verse 30, he stills the people before Moses and says,

brothers, countrymen, we shouldn't wait. Let's go.

Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are all well able to overcome it.

What are we wasting time here worried about, the people and the land? God has told us what he's going to do for us. Let's go. I think it's just great. And then we read on that, you know, and Caleb's a great example, you know, how tough it is, you know, I think of what he did. You know, at this point you've got the ten with their great report turning into a negative report. The people probably starting to get riled up because of the report. And he steps in. And I think at times, and we've probably all dealt with this within our friends out in the world or our work peers, you know, where conversations get to certain topics, how easy it is for us to melt into that topic. Let's say it's politics. You know, they tell you don't talk politics at work. People talk politics at work. They do. And it gets so tough sometimes when one side is for one group and one is for another. And it can be easy. Sometimes it's easier for us to say, you know, kind of be on the edge, not, you know, lean one way or the other, but not to come totally out and say, you know, God's ruling in the kingdoms of men where I come from. You know, I'm not concerned over which political party is doing what. You know, it's all by divine hand. That's tough to say nowadays. It's easier just, yeah, Dad, Dad's smiling. He's got his hand up. Yeah, Pop? Oh, hold on, Dad. He's going to give you the mic. What we see here is a test of faith. God sent out these men to test their faith. There were 12 men. They were leaders of their tribes. God was testing them. They had been aware of all the miracles and all the

wonderful things that God had done for them, delivering them out of the land of Egypt. They knew this, and only two of them, only two of them had the faith to believe that God could overcome any obstacle that they might face going forward. So it was deliberately done by God to test their faith. And there was the other 10 lacked faith in God. That's what it was all about. Yeah. Oh, you're right, 100%. Thanks, Dad. Yeah. Yeah. And unfortunately, what we see is that the 10 influenced everybody else, unfortunately. So, and that's, you know, one thing I noticed, you know, I wrote with Caleb. He stood up with a truthful message despite what his peers were saying and how much of a pit bull he was. If we skip down to verse 31 and finish off chapter 13, you know, it tells us the lack of faith of the 10, as Dad brought up. The men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people. No mention of God anywhere in this. We can't do it. We. For they are stronger than we, and they brought up an evil report of the land through which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And once again, we saw the giants, the son of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers in their sight. Not one mention of God and what he would do. And this is one of the differences between them and between Caleb. So we already talked about this, but they had all seen the same thing. Mark? Yeah, Chris? If, while you have that thought, if we introduce, and I appreciate you bringing to my attention to make me aware that Caleb means dog, but if we think of dog in the sense of Gentiles, because the Jews often look at Gentiles as dog, you know, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table. So not only do we have the lesson that the glory of Moses would fade, and he wouldn't bring him into the land, but our Lord Jesus would bring us into the land, but that Caleb or the Gentiles would be the first to accept this. We're seeing a further foreshadowing of not just Moses and Jesus, but the Gentiles as well. That's a great point, Chris. Yeah, definitely. Yes, yes.

So, you know, so we get into Chapter 14, and the first thing we read, that all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And this goes back to what Dad said about their lack of faith. Can you imagine if you were Caleb or Joshua looking

out amongst the thousands of people, and it doesn't say, you know, it says all the congregation, not just a few, all of them, lifted up their voices and wept? That had to be so discouraging, didn't it? It had to open for those two to see in witnesses. And then it goes from weeping to revolt. All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this wilderness? And wherefore hath the Lord brought us under this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? And then they say, let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt. Revolt. And Moses and Aaron were told in verse six, verse five,

that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And they started trying to think. They fell on their faces. So to me, they fell prostrate on the ground, facing the people. My first inclination was they did this maybe out of fear of the revolt that was about to take place. But the more I think about it, the more it probably makes more sense, and maybe you guys have your own thought, that they fell prostrate because they were fearful of the Lord's punishment. They knew what the Lord would probably do when they fell on their faces in a plea to God for the people, even though it's not said. So I tend to lean to the second one more than that they were fearful of the people. Maybe a combination of both. I know I would probably have been afraid if thousands of people were revolting against me. So that would be natural to be afraid. But that's what it says. So it doesn't say they said a word, though, does it? It's that they fell on their faces before the people. And then we get to verse six.

And verses six through nine basically where Caleb and Joshua stand and plead with them, if God be for us, who can be against us?

Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land. They rent their clothes. And they spake on all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search it out is an exceeding good land. And if the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Rebel not ye against the Lord. You're not rebelling against Moses, my friends, you're rebelling against God. Neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. So what made such a drastic difference between the ten and the two? And time goes by so fast. We'll probably close on this slide, but it comes down to one thing, doesn't it?

They had different visions. The Psalm 130 that I read was a vision of God and his promises and his word and his truth. And that's what Caleb and Joshua had, that vision. The ten had a different vision. And this is number two of what made have Caleb have a different spirit, was he had a different vision. You know, the ten, and I like this phrasing, the ten compared themselves to the problem. Remember when we read it? We, we, we, we can't do it, we can't do it, we can't do it. They compared their strength to the problems in front of them. Whereas Caleb and Joshua compared the problem to the promises. They looked to God, the rock of their salvation. They didn't look at their own strength. They looked in turn to God. And you, you think of David and Goliath, Jesus in the cross. And this verse from Proverbs 29, Where there is no vision, the people perish. Now these people might have had a vision, but it wasn't a real vision, it was just scared. It was a scared vision. You can't do it.

Joshua and Caleb had a vision. It's the vision that we have. That's why we don't fear. When things go on in the world around us, and the horrible news of the day, and nation warring against nation, and horrible things that go on around us, we can not fear, because we know that God is in control. And that's what Joshua and Caleb were able to do in a very trying time, right? Very trying circumstances for them. And I've kindly already mentioned that. And we'll end here, because, you know, I was one of the brothers that came out and said we need to end our classes at 10.15, just to give everyone time. And it wouldn't look good if Brother Mark went past 10.15. So we'll end here, and it's a great place to end. And we'll pick this class up at another time, because there's quite a few more things I'd like to talk about with Caleb. But I think this is the perfect spot for us to end by looking at Hebrews chapter 12. And you all know this verse so well, but it speaks of our vision. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, the joy that was set before Caleb of the land flowing with milk and honey, Jesus saw a greater joy, didn't he, eternal life, the kingdom, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And Caleb shows that quality here. He put up with the people, the threats. He and Joshua, because of the joy that was set before them for what God had promised them, and they had faith in those promises. So we'll leave off here with Caleb. We've looked at his – he had another spirit, a different spirit, and that was made up of being a different type of servant and a different type of vision. Those are two of five parts that made Caleb have this different spirit within him.

Transcript

So our first class, when we looked at Caleb, there were five different, I wanted to look at what made him, how did he possess a different spirit. Another spirit, it says, but you can define it as a different spirit. What qualities within Caleb gave him this type of spirit? That was our goal two weeks ago, and we looked at a couple of them. The first one we looked at is that he was a different type of servant. We looked into the fact that his mother was from the tribe of Judah, but his father was a kenezite, a gentile. And even from the beginning, I think Brother Chris brought this up. God was in subtle ways announcing his plans that the gentiles would also be included in the promises, and we see that. So he was a little different from the other servants. And his name, if you remember, means dog. Remember, and you see that throughout the very few references made to Caleb that you can picture him as just this type of a dog type attitude that nothing was gonna get in his way in his fight for the truth and for what God wanted. So he was a little bit different. And we're gonna find out today some of those other differences in Caleb. And this is the big one. I mean, every time I think of this, I get a little bit of chill, because this should be applying to us too, and it does. He had a different vision than the other ten. He had the same vision as Joshua, but it was different than the other ten. And you remember the key phrase that I brought up last week. The ten looked at the problems from their own abilities, right? They looked at it as the people are there are giants. They're too powerful. We can't do it. Whereas, Caleb and Joshua looked at it from God's promises. God has promised to us that we will take this land. And you remember, he comes right out and he says, what are we waiting for? Go take it, let's go, and picture that. He's talking with Joshua to the other ten who are scared.

And he's like, let's go, and we're gonna look at that a little bit too, because it shows me something about a few things about Caleb. Differences with that type of attitude, that let's go get it attitude, not let's be afraid and sit here and whimper and cry. We looked at Proverbs 29, where there is no vision, the people perish. And then we looked at our vision, looking under Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and that's where we left off. So we're gonna pick up today, looking again, we're gonna finish off the different type of vision. Because as we all know, your vision has consequences, doesn't it?

Whether it's choices you make daily or choices you make for your life, those choices have consequences. And we find that here in this study of Caleb, that their choices, their visions have consequences, okay? So first, we'll quickly look at the incorrect vision. And what that does is that generates an incorrect spirit, an incorrect walk with God. You're not putting your trust in faith in God. Your walk will be different than someone who does. So if you have your Bibles open, again, I'm gonna be in chapter 14 a lot. And if you look at verse 10, okay? So the people have refused to listen to Caleb and Joshua. They failed his brother, Chris, and my dad brought up they failed God's test of faith. The 10 had convinced the rest of the people this can't be done. And they had failed that test of faith. And that was a great point by both of you last time we met. And if we go to, well, let's go to verse 11. And really pay attention, because a lot of times when we read a lot of things, we read them. But let's put our minds and our hearts into God's shoes right now. But he must be feeling, and I tried to do that, and I hope it comes across here. But look at verse 11, and the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them? He's frustrated. He has to be, right? He's frustrated. He's angry. We know he's angry, but he's frustrated too. Just think of yourselves as parents with your children, the times that you were angry, but a lot of times that was more frustration. Boy, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, sometimes they just don't listen. And that's what God was going through. Think of that. The love he has for these people, the frustration he must have felt. We read about the anger, but the frustration, he really, you have to read into it. And I think you get that, reading that verse, the frustration he must have had with his people. Verse 12, he is the anger, I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make thee a greater nation and mightier than they. He's ready to wipe them out, start over. It shows you the frustration and anger he had with the people. And then, Moses steps up. Okay, in verse 13, Moses says under the Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou brought us this people in the might from among them. Now, you might read that and not think any significance of that verse at all. But if you remember back to the golden calf brothers and sisters and friends, what did God say to Moses? God's, and we won't look it up, but God told Moses to get down from the mountain for thy people are doing horrible things. Not God's people, thy people, Moses, they're yours. Get down from this mountain and take care of this business. Moses is reminding God, it wasn't me who did this, brought these people up, it was you, it was you. All glory under God, you did this. And if you wipe them out, the nations around us are gonna say, you know, no real God at all, he couldn't save his people. It's a subtle little thing, but if you remember the golden calf story, it makes sense why Moses would do that. It wasn't me, God, it was you, it's all you. I think it's just, and Moses goes on through the 20th verse and really intercedes for the people. You know, verse 15, if thou shall kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land, which he swear unto them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, the Lord is long-suffering, of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation. Moses goes on in verse 19, pardon, I beseech thee the iniquity of this people, according under the greatness of thy mercy. And as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. I mean, it's just wonderful, and you can feel. There had to be a part of Moses, and maybe there wasn't, maybe this is just my thinking, my earthly thinking, that's thinking, yeah, go ahead, you're going to keep me around and give me a new people? Maybe they'll listen, maybe they'll open. It had to be, right? I mean, it's our, deep inside all of us had thought of it for a second, unless it's just me thinking that way, I don't know. But here he goes before God, and asks for pardon. And you can imagine, it doesn't say it, but I'm sure, besides being prostrate, he had to be full of emotion and tears, didn't he? That's a powerful prayer. Just think of times in your lives, brothers and sisters and friends, when you've been in anguish. And you think of Jesus, the anguish of Jesus. Moses had to be in anguish over this. It wasn't just something, he just stood up and said, God, please forgive. He was in anguish. And I had to imagine this was a long drawn out thing. It wasn't a quick two minute prayer. Had to be long drawn out. So when you read, these are things you use as much as we read. You use our brains as visuals and try to picture the setting and you really can feel the emotion of what's going on. God wanted to wipe them out, wanted to wipe them out, and Moses interceded. But we know that there would be punishment. And in verse 22, God says, well, first of all, in verse 20, God says, I have pardoned according to thy word. That's powerful. The creator of all things have pardoned because of the words and the prayer of a man. That's powerful stuff. But in verse 22, because all those men which have seen my glory and my mercies and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness have tempted me now, ten times have not hardened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swear under their fathers. And then if we skip over to verse 27, God continues about that, he goes into their carcasses will fall in the wilderness and so on and so forth. So that generation will spend the next 40 years wandering in the wilderness. And then in verse 36, God says, the men which Moses sent, the other ten that were sent, I think it's verse 36, yeah. And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and

made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land. Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the Lord, all right? Incorrect visions lead to incorrect spirit, which in this case led to death. Same choice we have today. The world which brings up in his classes many a time, you have a choice, life or death.

And unfortunately, the vision of these people was incorrect. They failed the test, and they did not have faith in God. Interesting verses, I was looking at this last night.

And it's very interesting. And I want to read these verses from Proverbs, and think of Caleb and Joshua as I read them, okay? So this is from Proverbs 24, verse 17. Rejoice not when thine enemy faileth. Let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleeth. Lest the Lord see it and displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. And I bring that up because, like Moses, I'm thinking somewhere deep in the recesses of their minds and their hearts. Joshua and Caleb had to be saying, you got what you deserve to the ten. Now, the ten weren't enemies. I'm not saying they were enemies, but they were adversaries. They were going against the word of Joshua and Caleb. So they were technically adversaries. So somewhere deep in their hearts, and again, maybe this is my human thinking, they had to be thinking, you got what you deserve, but we don't read that here. There was no gloating. There was no, see, we were right, you were wrong, ha, ha, ha. Remember that verse. It's a lesson for us, isn't it? We're in no position to be happy or gloat, and I've done it. And we're the one fight I've ever gotten into in high school. We were in the principal's office. Principal looked at me, he says, I don't know you. And I said, well, that's probably a good thing. And he says, you're Hampton, right? I said, yep. Football, yep. Straight A student, pretty close. Go back to your class. The other guy got five days suspension. I laughed. I was so happy. Now, of course, then I was 16, 17 years old, but you grow over time and, you know, you know better, but. So that's kind of, I had to think Joshua and Caleb kind of felt that way, right? Deep inside, yeah, maybe they wanted to gloat a little bit. They're human, but we don't read any of that. So they didn't. I just think that's an impressive thing and a good lesson for us. So let's look real quick about a correct vision. You know, the vision that we look for, we look unto Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. We go back in Chapter 24 and Chapter 14. And one of the beautiful things in scripture, you know, when you get into revelation and you study revelation and you look at it and you see how many times, no matter what the events that are taking place, everything points to one thing. The kingdom, right? Everything starts with the kingdom, ends with the kingdom. And even in the midst of all of this, the frustration, anger of God, the sadness, the anger, all the emotions Moses must have had, Caleb and Joshua, God always leaves everywhere, it's all around us. Verse 21 of Chapter 14, as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. There it is again. Amidst all the chaos and the pain, the vision of the kingdom. It's going to happen. I just think that's where our vision is, right? No matter the pain and the chaos that's going on around us in our lives, what keeps us strong is this vision. And that's what kept Caleb strong was this vision. And we already read this verse in Chapter 24 about another spirit for Caleb. In Verse 30, God continues. You know, he tells, you know, you guys aren't going to see the promised land, but Caleb, Caleb the son of Jefuna, there it is again, the Kenazite, the Gentile, and Joshua the son of Nun, they're going to see the land. Because they had faith in me and obeyed me. And another verse in Verse 38 about the two of them seeing the land. And I put up a verse from Proverbs 3. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your understanding. Boy, does that fit the ten perfectly, huh? They trusted in their own understanding. Joshua and Caleb did not. Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take. We should, we do this every day, right? Lead me, Lord. You know, take me in your arms and guide me to where you want me to be. We have that mindset. All the craziness around us is kind of blocked out, isn't it, when we feel that way? And we don't feel this way all the time. I know I don't. There are times I feel myself being tossed in a boat to and fro. You know, not feeling I'm on a, a, the path. I'm just floating around. But boy, when you're on that path and you trust in God, you feel it. You just feel different. Nothing dissuades you from, there's no negativity. Everything's positive. And we have great examples in this Ecclesia of people who are suffering things I can't imagine, but they're oh, so positive because of the vision, because of this verse, you know, trust in the Lord, and that's what they do. Great examples for us, brothers and sisters. And I had put Second Corinthians up there. We walk by faith, not by sight. And I found this, this to just be a beautiful place

to end with those who, who have a vision of God in their life and of his promises from Deuteronomy 30. Now, this is after the blessings and the cursings of Deuteronomy 28. You remember those, that chapter where the blessings take up, I think, 13 verses. The curses take up at least double, if not triple that. And then we get this beautiful, and I think of Caleb now.

I never did before I did this study, but I think I'm going to do it again. I think of him now whenever I read these words, and I think of us, too, right? Because this applies to us. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death. The blessing and the curse. God's pleading, choose life. It's here. I'm giving it to you. I've made these promises. I keep my promises. Please believe me that you may live. You and your descendants love the Lord your God, obey his voice, and to cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days. And again, I think of so many people, brothers and sisters, that have lived this every day of their lives. My mom, you know, my mom was a flawed woman. I know that. But on a last breath, don't be sad, Mark. I'll see you in the kingdom. John Claude, same thing. So many of us saw him in the hospital. And he said, I'll see you in the kingdom. And I pray for this, for me, when it's my time and Jesus doesn't return, that I have this same kind of spirit. This is the spirit Caleb had, Joshua had, so many in the Bible had, you have. And this is what carries us through. Before I move to the next one, any questions? I'm going to stop moving now because I've got a little bit to finish. Any thoughts? No? So the next phase I want to look at, Caleb, is called a different majority. So we covered servant, we covered vision. Now we're going to look at a different majority. And I'm moving around in numbers, but if you go back to numbers one, remember we read this earlier. The congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. That's a lot of crying. They wept that night. To me, they wept the entire night because of the report from the 10. And that's what it caused. And the 10, we're able to get, I don't know the percentage, but the majority of the crowd do agree with them. We can't do this. And that's, you see that today, don't you? How influences, and I'm not picking on the media, but the media influences a lot of people to think one way or the other. No matter what the facts are, the media, if the media presents it, it's true. That's just the way it is. And people can be influenced a lot by the majority. Getting back to my fight in high school, I wasn't a super popular guy. I was liked by a lot of people. But the majority of guys that were around during that fight were cheering for the other guy. And I don't know why. I never had anything to do with any, I thought I got along with them. But two or three people started, come on, Bob, beat them up, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden, everyone was cheering for Bob. I was like, wow, I thought I had a couple of friends here. I guess I don't. I did. I got one good shot right to the nose. I broke his nose. But I'll tell you, Butch, it was one of the hardest things to do.

Because I played a little bit of sports, but you never want to get in a fight. I never wanted to get in a fight. But I got jumped. He was hitting me pretty good, and I didn't know what to do. Do I just take the beating? But my human will got in the way, and I saw one good shot, and I got it, and that was it. It's funny how they broke up the fight when I got my one good one in. But after 10 minutes of being beaten on, no one even thought about stepping in. But it's just the way it is. So the majority, the crowd, and we have to be so careful of that in our walk, don't we? Letting the world and the majority of people out there and their influences affect us. But then I considered a couple of things. You know, did the crowd, did the 10, were they influenced at all by what Joshua and Caleb had to say? You know, we're told, right, to search the scriptures. You know, Brother Richard, I think, is famous when he's preaching the truth. You know, don't believe me. Search the scriptures for yourself. Did the 10, did the crowd, did anyone think to look into it at all? Or were they just so rabid that, you know, the 10 have to be right, because they're 10. And these two guys have to be incorrect. And that seems to be what happened. So they didn't even search it out for themselves. Brother Chris, how you doing, Brother? It kind of brings us to a verse that I always enjoyed during this section of history. And it's verse 9 in Numbers 14. And this is right, this is kind of what Josh Caleb says, I think, just before they're ready to stone them. And he says that they'll be bread for us. And because that, I think, brought the whole issue to the forefront. You know, connecting it to the bread, like the manner that, you know, God will take care of these people, just as he's taking care of us every morning and providing us the manner. And it's not a matter of us, okay, but God will take care of us. And I think in their hearts, you know, they were wrestling with that idea, but they weren't. To me, it's almost like a horse that is approaching the jump, and they just refuse to make the leap of faith. But an animal like that can get very violent, okay? If you force it to make a leap, it's not willing to make. And so I think you're seeing that's, Josh was calling them to make that leap. And they're refusing at that point and then turn to kill him. Yep, exactly. Yep. Anyone else?

And Brother Chris led into our next, but Caleb and Joshua, as we know, stood alone. And if we go to verse 6, Joshua stands up, Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them, and they rent their clothes and they spake under the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us, as Brother Chris pointed out. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not.

The Lord is with us, don't fear them. And as Brother Chris pointed out, the congregation prepares to stone them.

So here are these two men standing alone. And one thing I find incredible that, and I have some examples, you know, the apostles, you know, after they had been beaten, they went out and they continued to preach. Matthew 5, blessed are you when they were violent, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you, falsely for my sake. But one thing I, and I just noticed this last night after going through my notes, and I added it in here in bold, notice how Caleb and Joshua, their response is positive. They don't argue with the ten or with the crowd, and they don't judge them. At least I don't see that in these words. I don't see any, they just, God is for us. Come on, believe. You've seen everything. They don't judge. They don't get angry. They might have been angry. I'm sure they spoke loudly, but they didn't say lack of faith. They didn't judge. They didn't, do you see that in there? I didn't. They were positive. They exposed them, you know, for not having, but they don't come out and say your lack of faith is going to,

and that reminded me of somebody. Did it remind you of someone, Brother Jim Sullivan? Yes. Yes, who, Brother Jim? Brother Jason. Brother Jason. Well, you have a saying, I think, Brother Jim, referring to Jesus as he never judged the darkness. Is that true? Yeah. That's what it made me think of with Caleb and Joshua. All right. They voiced their opinions. They were positive, but they didn't argue. They didn't judge. Brother Jim, yeah, I'm going to leave that to you, Brother, because that was your class I courted.

So the way light works is light shines, and when light shines, by the light shining, it exposes the darkness. It isn't that light judges the darkness. It simply shines, and the darkness is exposed by the light. That's really what that expression means. It's the same thing as Jesus saying, I came not to condemn, I came to save, but if you want to live in the darkness, then you step away from the light. The light doesn't kick you out. That's basically what that means. Much better said, Brother Jim. Thanks. Sure. And that does make us all think of Brother Jason, obviously. Yes.

All right. So another aspect of Caleb was he was of a different persuasion.

Okay. You may be thinking, what does that mean? Hopefully, when we go through this part of our class, it'll make sense. So if you go back to numbers, verse 34, God bids judgment on the people after the number of the days in which he searched the land, even 40 days each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities in 40 years?

You shall know my breach of promise. So for the 40 days that the spies searched out the land, the people were now going to be in the wilderness for that many years, 40 years.

Caleb and Joshua didn't deserve this, did they? They didn't.

And this brings me back to school, you know, in high school. And again, I keep going back to school, but those are the, you know, in class and when the class starts getting rowdy, the teacher sometimes, instead of punishing those that deserve it, punishes the class. I remember really young when punishment would be no recess today. We're not going outside. And I'd be like, I didn't do anything. Why am I being punished? Joshua and Caleb could have said the same thing, right? There's nothing in here that says they said that. They didn't complain. They didn't argue. They could have.

They didn't. That's what I mean by persuasion. They had a different quality amongst them that they accepted what God had planned, no matter what, if the effect was positive and negative to them. That's part of what it means. Whereas most of us would have been persuaded to get angry. We would have probably maybe gotten angry. I know I did. You know, when we got punished as a group and I'm like, this is ridiculous. I don't deserve this. I didn't do it.

But, you know, so, you know, I have here in the notes, they weren't influenced or corrupted. And think of the 40 years, the complaining, the grumbling, the rebellion, the strife, the jealousy. All the things that went on during that time didn't affect these men. They came out the other side the same way they went in, didn't they? You know, when Joshua, when Moses dies and Joshua is appointed the leader and Joshua 1 and 2, you still see that same Joshua that we read here and we see the same Caleb. They weren't affected by it. That would have affected a lot of people, I think. You know, me personally, it probably would have. You know, maybe over time the people's influences, their persuasion might have influenced me. I don't know. Didn't them. I pray it wouldn't have affected me. But, you know, that's what the world has on us, right? The persuasion of the world is strong. And that's what we all fight against every day with Caleb and Joshua faced in the wilderness. You know, I put it easy. We mentioned the Kenesites were blended. They were a group of people who easily blended into different groups, right? And I don't mean to use the name Kenesite in a defaming way. I hope it doesn't come across that way. But if we're not careful, we can kind of become like that. We can find ourselves. Yep, we come to church every Sunday and we do this and we do that and we think we're good. But the world is still there. Part of our body and our old man wants to be part of that. And we kind of mold into things, worldly things, saying it's okay. It's all right. I'm good. You know, you blend in. You know, and I know we do. But we need to be mindful of that every day in our lives. You know, I put a quote, you know, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And that's what Joshua and Caleb did, to come out on the other side as strong or if not stronger because all of these things that happened probably strengthened them immensely for the work that lied ahead. So they had a different persuasion. And this is one of my favorite parts and I'm sorry we're going to have to go through it quickly. But if you go to Joshua, chapter 14, this part is called Caleb had a different energy. And this is something that, you know, you might not think of until you read these verses. So if you go to Joshua 14, verse 6, Caleb asked Joshua for his inheritance. All right. We won't read the chapters just because of time. But he asked for his inheritance. And he says this down in verse 10. Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses.

The vision. The Lord told me I would inherit this land and I know God keeps his promises. And he had this vision and he kept it for forty-five years. He had the vision. The children of Israel wanted in the wilderness and now, well, I am this day, four score and five years old, eighty-five years old. I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in. Now, I know it totally sounds like physical strength. And he definitely is speaking of physical strength, but I think he's speaking more than just physical. I'm as strong now in my faith than I was when we started this wandering. I think that's what he's saying. Eighty-five years old. Now, I know in those days that probably wasn't what eighty-five is today. He was as strong then as he was now. He's speaking physically, but he's speaking spiritually. That's a great example for us. And we see that all around us.

You know, this wonderful family of people. I think of Sister Norma. You know, my dad, Sharon, everybody. We're getting older. We are. But our faith is as strong now, if not stronger, than it was when we were baptized. And that's great examples for the younger people. It's a great example for me. You know, and that's what Caleb had.

Caleb had this different type of energy about him.

You know, and he wasn't worried about his age. He wasn't worried about what he physically could or couldn't do, even though he said he was as strong now, because he knew God was on his side, just like David and Goliath. David knew he couldn't on his own beat Goliath, but with God, no problem. That's what Caleb had. He had a different energy. Remember people growing up, you know? I played sports, and there were certain guys that had

enough energy to get by, but there were some with super energy. Energy is infectious, isn't it? If you work with people with no energy and just go each day, punch the clock, and go home, all right, you might get some stuff done, but I like to work with people with energy. My bosses have energy. And that's infectious. Your energy is infectious to me, and I hope that mine is infectious on you. That's, as a brotherhood, brothers and sisters, as an ecclesia, that's what we need to do, our energy. No matter what our situation, we need to keep our energy up, and that's what Caleb and Joshua were able to do. I put these here, and again, I'm going to go speed up a little bit. Our physical bodies may age and slow down, but our spirit insists for the truth. Our vision doesn't have to. And again, I keep repeating it, but the amount of examples that we see in our family and our family worldwide speaks to that. And I put some verses up there that you can look at on your own. And that's our end goal, isn't it? You know, we're running a race and climbing up the mountain, and as we know, Caleb was able to take the mountain with the Lord's help, and he won his vision, and we can win ours, too. So just to recap, and we've got two minutes left, and this is perfect. I thank you all for your attention. So Caleb, a man with another or a different spirit, what made him different? He was a different servant. He had a different vision. And I think out of all of them, to me, this is the most important. You know, he compared the problem with God's promises and not to his own abilities. And a verse we know very well of God before us who can be against us, right? He had a different majority. He stood alone. You know, I know Joshua is there, but standing alone can be hard. But he had the truth, he had faith, and he had the courage to do it. He had a different persuasion. He wasn't affected by those around him, those who doubted.

Forty years in the wilderness, it didn't affect him. He came out stronger on the other side, and he had a different type of energy. He was eager. He was a dog, right? He was always on the move. He was always ready to serve. And always remember that it's God's strength that carried him and not his own. And again, he conquered the mountain. So in closing, be strong and let your heart be courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord, from Psalm 31-24. And we'll close there. Any thoughts, questions, comments, anything? Yes? Oh, you want me to go back? Yes.