Joshua 4:12-13 – “Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.
How old are you?
I know that’s a personal question.
It is like the woman who responded to the judge when asked her birthday. She replied, “I was born on June 14, and the rest is none of your business.”
But it is not a question about physical age.
The math on your birth certificate gives that number.
Rather, it is a question of “how old are you really?”
I have known 40-year-olds who are grumpy old men.
But I have also known 80-year-olds whom life could not stop.
So the question is, how old are you?
When Douglas MacArthur, the commander in the Pacific Theater during World War II, turned 75, they asked him how old he felt.
He said: “In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, of hope, cheer, and courage, you remain young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then and only then are you grown old.”
While our bodies wear out, how old we feel is up to us.
One of the great characters of the Bible is a man who is mentioned only three times. But his spirit should be that of all people.
Caleb was one of the spies that came back with a report from the land of Canaan.
While all of the others were gloomy, pessimistic, and defeated, he and Joshua maintained faith that God could conquer the giants. Instead, the people refused to listen, and for the next forty years they wandered in the desert.
Then, so many years later, we meet an older Caleb.
The new generation entered Canaan with only two who had the Egypt experience left to come in — Joshua the commander and Caleb the faithful.
When it came time to parcel out the land, Caleb made a special request.
“Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. (Joshua 14:12–13, NIV)
It doesn’t say it directly, but it is there. Caleb wanted the land of the giants. He still had it in him to conquer the giants, even at his age.
As we get older, let’s find it in us to have the spirit of Caleb.
- Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
