Wholly Following the Lord

Barry Metz 05/28/17

Wholly Following the Lord

Joshua 14-15

In the famous story from Numbers 13 and 14 where Moses sent 12 spies, one spy from each tribe, into the Promised Land, Caleb the Son of Jephunneh was chosen to represent the tribe of Judah.

Moses told the spies… “Go up into the Negeb…that’s the southernmost desert-like region of Canaan…and go up into the hill country…that’s the mountainous spine that runs north to south through the country[1] …18and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and ….and while you’re at it… bring some of the fruit of the land.”[2] So the spies went throughout the land and eventually made their way to Hebron where the descendants of Anak the giant lived, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai. Hebron had been around a long time.[3] It was a city with a storied history. Most of the patriarchs were buried there[4] And later in David’s time—a future time from our story—Hebron would be his first capital. But the descendants of Anak had made it home. At one point in its history Hebron was called Kiriath-Arba, the City of Arba. And Arba was the father of Anak.[5] So we kind of get this picture of a dynasty of giants who lived in Hebron—first it was Arba, then his son Anak, and then Anak’s descendants Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai.[6] And all of them were somehow connected to the Nephillim who walked the earth in Genesis 6.[7]

{Now I belabor this dynasty-of-giants-in-Hebron-thing because we’re going to find out that Caleb seemed to take a liking for Hebron from the get go. And it seemed to me it was the challenge of it all that attracted him. It’s a little bit like the Awana worker who surveys the kids signed up for Awana and says ‘I want the kids who’ve never heard the name of Jesus at all’ Or the Sunday school teacher when asked which group they’d like to teach replies by asking ‘Which group is the hardest?’ Or the father, in the midst of a terribly busy schedule, who commits to memorize a chapter of the Bible…. The whole thing reminds me of the story of the shoe salesman of an American shoe company sent to a foreign country. He had hardly arrived before he cabled for money to come home. His reason: “No one over here wears shoes.” The company brought him back and sent another shoe salesman over. Soon he cabled: Send me all the shoes you can manufacture. The market is absolutely unlimited. No one over here has shoes.”[8] The sheer difficulty of the task turned off one shoe salesman and stimulated another. Well there was something about “Giant Land” that attracted Caleb.}

So in their journey through Canaan, the spies took it all in—you can just imagine them doing their best to assess everything they saw-- and because they were commissioned to bring some fruit from the land, they arranged to bring back a single cluster of grapes that was so large that it had to be carried on a pole between two of them.[9] As God had said, the land of Canaan was a very fruitful land. After 40 days the spies returned back to home base where Moses and Aaron and the congregation of Israel were.

Ten of the spies came to the people and said, “The land does flow with milk and honey, and pointing to the single cluster of grapes, they said…“And this is its fruit.” 28However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” It’s as if they said, “Enemies are everywhere.”

Forty year old Caleb, looking to squelch the rebellion that was beginning to break out, quieted the crowd and courageously cried out, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.[10]

The other spies countered, “We’re not able to go, for they are stronger than we are. The land we spied out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people we saw are people of great height!”[11] In their presence, in the presence of these giants we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers…and so we seemed to them.[12]

The rebellion gathered momentum, “Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land?.... Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt![13]

Joshua and Caleb tried once again to counter the rebels… “It’s a good land…if Yahweh delights in us, he will bring us into the land and give it to us.”[14]

But no one was listening. The cause was lost. The congregation began picking up stones[15] And thankfully God showed up.[16]

Alan Redpath says this: “The majority (of spies) measured the giants against their own strength; Caleb and Joshua measured the giants against God. The majority (of spies) trembled. Caleb and Joshua (trusted). The majority (of spies) saw great giants but a little God. Caleb and Joshua saw a great God and little giants”[17]

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So this was Caleb at 40. He was ready to follow God no matter what! He was ready to follow God no matter where! He was ready to follow God no matter when! And he was ready to follow God no matter why!

There’s a phrase used repeatedly of Caleb—he wholly followed the Lord.[18] He fully trusted the Lord. He completely relied on the Lord.[19]

We could imagine someone saying, “Tell me about Caleb.” Oh he’s the one who wholly follows the Lord! Now does somebody just wholly follow the Lord like that out of nowhere? I don’t think so.[20] It starts early and it starts in the little areas of life. And then it builds and grows. And before long it’s a lifestyle. Before long there have been a thousand decisions to follow the Lord. And then, God in his providence, brings along an ‘epic’ decision point when it would be particularly difficult to follow the Lord (like what Caleb encountered at Kadesh Barnea.) And Caleb did just what came natural—after a lifetime of wholly following the Lord….say it with me… he wholly followed the Lord.

Now we’re going to look at Joshua chapter 14 and Joshua chapter 15 this morning. And we’re going to pick up the story of Caleb some 45 years later—in other words 45 years have passed since Caleb stood up against the entire congregation of Israel at Kadesh Barnea. And Caleb at 85 is a ‘magnificent old man’[21]

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Now students of scripture have made the observation that Joshua chapters 14 all the way through chapters 19 are a literary unit of scripture—they go together to communicate a key idea.[22] You’ll see a chart at the top of your sermon notes. I’d like to explore this chart with you—and the idea that Joshua chapters 14-19 are a literary unit-- before we jump into Joshua chapter 14.

Now again we’re talking about Joshua chapters 14 through 19. And we’re going to argue that these chapters exhibit a literary symmetry.[23]

At the far left of the chart is Joshua 14:1… These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel gave them to inherit.

Now look at the far right of the chart at Joshua 19:51 …51These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.

Don’t those verses, Joshua 14:1 and Joshua 19:51, sound like bookends?

Now move in from each of those book ends and you see the symmetry continuing: on the left, Joshua 14:6-15 is about Caleb, a faithful spy receiving his inheritance. And then over to the right, Joshua 19:49-50 is about Joshua, a faithful spy receiving his inheritance. Again don’t miss the symmetry.

And then simply moving from left to right, starting at the third block in the chart:

■Judah’s inheritance is given first (Why we wonder? We’ll talk about that. But just make a note—JUDAH IS FIRST!);

■Joseph’s inheritance is given next (and by Joseph we include his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh and we’ll talk more about that. We know that Joseph plays a unique and prominent role in the last chapters of Genesis. Is his prominence reflected in the fact that his inheritance comes second? More on that later.

■There is a convocation (a large assembly of all the people) at Shiloh before the ‘tent of meeting’. So as of Joshua 18, the Ark of the Covenant and the tent of meeting are positioned in the center of the land and in the center of the people and kind of in the center of this unit of scripture

■The inheritance of the remaining 7 tribes is given together.

So here’s the point. It seems that chapters 14-19 provide historical information in a carefully structured literary form. And that form is designed to communicate a message.

(Under the chart you’ll see a sentence from the ESV Study Bible) “Joshua chapters 14-19 provide detailed historical information in a carefully structured literary form, and in so doing underscore a fundamental theological truth: those like Caleb or Joshua who wholly follow the Lord (14:8-9, 14) will be able to enjoy their inheritance.” [24]

Is that a truth that we could pull forward into our New Testament setting? I wrestled with that some. That those who wholly follow the Lord will be able to enjoy their inheritance? Aren’t the rewards that Jesus promises dependent on our faithfulness? Isn’t our enjoyment of the Lord in the new heavens and new earth dependent on how we live our lives now? I think so.

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Well having considered an overview of chapters 14-19, let’s jump in to Joshua chapter 14. Follow along as I read verses 1-5….Joshua 14:1-5.

14These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel gave them to inherit. 2Their inheritance was by lot, just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and one-half tribes. 3For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one-half tribes beyond the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. 4For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for their livestock and their substance. 5The people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses; they allotted the land.

Notice in verse 1, that Eleazar the priest is mentioned first along with Joshua and a leader from each tribe as Moses had prescribed[25]. Eleazar was the son and successor of Aaron the former high priest.[26] And this is Eleazar’s debut in the book of Joshua.[27] His involvement communicates that distributing the land was a sacred act.[28]

Verse 2 tells us that the inheritances were granted by lot. This is the first reference in the book of Joshua to lots, but they show up again and again as we move along-- in 15:1; 16:1; 17:1; 18:6, 8, 10.[29]

Lots were probably small stones or pieces of wood “with markings keyed to the decision sought.”[30] God had commanded that lots be cast to determine the inheritances (Num 26:52–56; 33:54).

And the assurance was, Proverbs 16:33, that the lot’s every decision was from Yahweh. {Of course today we have the scriptures and the Spirit so we no longer discern God’s will by casting lots.}

The end of verse 2 through verse 4 attempts to clarify how when it was all said and done that there would be 12 allotments of land, 2 ½ on one side of the Jordan and 9 ½ on the other. How would there be 12 especially since Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob wasn’t to be given an allotment.

Let me use a slide to help explain this.

So if we go back to Genesis 29-30 where Jacob’s children are born, there are twelve sons born to Jacob. You’ll see them on the slide—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulin, Joseph, and Benjamin[31]…these are the 12 sons of Jacob. Well God had announced that the tribe Levi was to be given no tribal inheritance; “their” inheritance was the offerings and Yahweh himself. We learned that last week. So Levi is crossed off the list.

And you can see that Joseph’s name is marked through on the slide and there is a note that his two sons basically take his place. What’s going on here? Well this happened way back in Genesis 48. Jacob was dying and he called for Joseph and his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh to come to see him. And Jacob pronounced a blessing on the sons and said—and this is Genesis 48:5-- 5And now your two sons—this is Jacob speaking to Joseph about Ephraim and Manasseh—And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. In a sense, and this is a terrible way to say it, but Ephraim and Manasseh got a promotion—as nephews they got moved up by the command of their grandfather Jacob to be with their uncles.