Give Me This Mountain

It is the same spirit which David had in I Sam 17 when he faced Goliath. For days, Goliath had challenged anyone from the Army of Israel to fight all 9 feet of him. Everyone looked at this GIANT and then looked at themselves and like the 10 spies they were “grasshoppers in our own sight.” The ten spies were afraid because they compared themselves to the GIANTS and KNEW they could not defeat them. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!

Caleb and David saw the giants and compared them to God and KNEW that with God’s help they could defeat them. Caleb’s confidence of victory did not come from “the power of positive thinking” or from some glorified and exaggerated sense of self worth, but from his Faith in God.

Paul may have been thinking of Caleb and David when he told Timothy in II Tim. 1:7 that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control.”

2. Caleb followed God fully (Num. 14:24; Deut 1:36))

In this passage and in the parallel passage in Deut. 1:36 God uses this phrase to declare Caleb’s complete faithfulness to Him. Josh. 14:9 indicates that God’s declaration may have been delivered through Moses. Caleb uses the same phrase in Josh. 14:8 to declare his faithfulness and cite that as a reason why he should be given Hebron and the surrounding hill country. Caleb’s dedication to God was complete, unwavering and unending. Jesus declared in Matt. 17:20 that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. Caleb’s faith did not help him move a mountain but it surely helped him capture one.

3. Caleb was confident of his own strength. (Josh. 14:10-11)

Caleb declares that he is as strong and ready for battle now as he was when he stood with the nation of Israel on the threshold of the promised land 45 years earlier. In his statement, Caleb indicates that his strength did not come from within himself but from the fact that “The Lord has kept me alive . . .” Caleb knew that his strength and vitality was a gift from God and he gave God all the credit. But Caleb also knew that God would not just hand Hebron to him on a silver platter. Caleb knew that he would have use his God given strength and go out and fight for his inheritance. As some said, Caleb’s faith wore work clothes.

4. Caleb was patiently persistent.

God made a promise to Caleb that would not be fulfilled for 45 years! All during that time, Caleb never gave up his hope and never gave in to despair. God had promised it. Caleb believed it. That settled it. Caleb did not know when God’s promise would be fulfilled but he knew it would some day. For 45 long years filled with hardship and death, Caleb kept himself ready so that whenever God was ready to give the land to him, Caleb would be ready to take it.

Through God’s help Caleb was able to conquer the inheritance which God had promised him and take it for his own.

You and I have a promised inheritance. Peter talks about it in I Pet. 1:4 where he describes it as an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled and unfading.” Heaven is our promised land. Our land flowing with milk and honey. But . . . Before we can receive the promised land we have to face the giants in our lives. We have to fight the spiritual fight that Paul describes in Eph. 6:12. Our giants are not physical but they are far more powerful than any physical giant ever faced by Caleb or David or any other Old Testament hero. Our giants are the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Those are the giants we must battle and conquer if we expect to spend eternity with God in heaven.