(4/29/06-5/7/06)

So, there was this thought I had in the shower – a prophecy? Perhaps so. At any rate, the point of this whole thing was that we have abandoned the land, rather than taken the land. The state of the world today, which we so often decry, is as it is because we have chosen to leave the battle. Now we look into a Canaan of education, of philosophy, of science and of art, and we don’t even consider the possibility that we could hope to reclaim the land. We have abandoned the battle, and chosen to set up our own, safe versions of each of these areas. We have decided to leave Canaan to the Canaanites, because they are too big for us. In the midst of this, I hear my God asking, “Where is Joshua, where is Caleb?” Who is the one who will go into the fields of modern thought and reclaim them for the name of the Lord? Where are the ones who will carry His banner proudly into the very camps of the enemy, and reclaim what was ours?

I’ve noted this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. There was a time when Christianity informed the education of our services, when one of the fundamental purposes in education was to train up a moral generation. The earliest colleges on American soil were founded with a purpose of turning out well trained, intelligent ministers and missionaries to carry the Word of the Lord forward. When the forces of the godless began to infiltrate and turn these institutions from their course, resistance swiftly faded, and the campuses were left to the enemy. With the campuses went the minds of future generations, until now we reject the campuses, reject the so-called ministers of unbelief that are churned out by the campuses, and declare the whole system corrupt and worthless. The seminaries have been churning out unbelieving, unorthodox product for so long that the word seminary has become an evil in the minds of the faithful. The colleges have churned out so many atheistic humanists that education and intelligence have become suspect in the hearts of the faithful.

So, too, with science. What gave earlier generations of scientists the confidence to explore their universe was the God of order who had created it. Order could be found because there was a Founder. Now, in part because of our abandonment of education, one of the primary principles of the average scientist is that God does not exist, and their mission is to prove it. Rather than submit their work and their purpose to the moral absolute of God, they seek to become the arbiters of morality themselves. Science, with its scientific method, they say, is a proper place to seek moral answers. Yet, it is a baseless and arbitrary morality they offer. What is the Church’s response? Do we seek to reestablish the principled scientific endeavors of earlier times? In some cases, yes, there are scientists of faith pursuing their labors, it is true. Yet, in large part, they work without the support of their fellow believers. By and large, the believers have looked at the state of modern science and decided that science itself must be evil. So, the field is abandoned.

The arts are no different. We look at the state of music, the state of film, the state of any of the performing arts today, and all seems to be perversion or at best senseless. A movie promotes homosexuality, and this alone is cause for it to win awards. So, too, with television. An actress confesses her abnormality and rather than offers of help, she receives more awards. The perverse is indeed rewarded in this day and age. Again, I ask, how does the Church react? For the most part, if we react at all, we react by removing our participation. Well, of course we must refuse to participate in sinful and rebellious activities. Of course, when the arts insist on offensiveness as the only legitimate art form, we must not agree. But, why have we abandoned the field? Oh, we have our arts, as well. Yet, we carefully market them only in ‘safe’ channels, where only our fellow believers will stumble upon them. Indeed, when an artist seeks to reclaim the lost ground of art, the Church by and large writes them off for lost, complaining that they have gone over to the dark side. Yet, I think these are the very champions God is crying out for.

Education and intelligence are not twin evils. They are a Canaan, a Promised land given by God to His own. We need to catch on to this. The evil is not in the concept, but in what we have allowed to gain ascendancy in the concept. If we were to abandon every aspect of human life that had been corrupted or abused, we should have to abandon life in its entirety, and reject the ministry itself as an evil to be avoided! The pursuit of scientific understanding is not an evil. Science is not the great Satan. In fact, even the scientific method itself is a perfectly valid and viable tool – even for a Christian. A tool is only valid and viable, however, when it is used for its intended purpose. The scientific method is a fine way of understanding the data, of determining fact where fact can be determined. It is not, however, properly fitted for getting at Truth. Philosophy remains a science, in spite of the dim view that many scientists may have of it. It is a science, yet it cannot really apply the scientific method. It is not phenomena that philosophy seeks to explain but Truth. The tools for exploring and understanding phenomena cannot help in this area. Something else is required.

Rock and roll, jazz, blues, maybe even hip-hop, are not inherently evil. Classical music is not somehow automatically holy. Age old hymns do not gain their value by the form in which they are generally played, but by the message they bear. Where there is lyrical work, a part of the goodness or badness of the song must lie in the message the lyrics proclaim. If it is a message of despair, it matters little whether it has a beat, whether it is in a minor or a major key, whether the harmonies are sweet or the whole thing reeks of dissonance. On the other hand, all of these things should be considered by the Christian musician, as regards the nature of the music produced. There is such a thing as beauty, and it is not always (if ever) determined by the eyes and ears of the beholder. There are standards of beauty which God Himself has established. He created His Creation to be beautiful, after all. He has, in a very real way, created harmony, created our ears to understand what is harmonically pleasing and what is not. This may be culturally attuned, as conversations with my Indian coworker makes clear, but the standards are much the same even with the differences of culture.

My point is this: We are not called to simply imitate what the culture has decided is acceptable. We are not allowed the option of doing our utmost to look like the culture around us so that they will like us, buy our stuff, whatever. No, while we are to become all things to all people in order that we may by whatever means win some to Christ, in this matter we are to remind the culture of all that is good and lovely and praiseworthy. If we are going to take the land once again, rather than abandon the field of battle entirely, then we must stop settling for our own Christian black market economy of the mind, and return to the front lines. We must stop trying to make the Church look like the world, and start reclaiming the hearts and minds of the world by reminding them of what they know down deep is truly Good, truly Beautiful, truly worthy of all praise.

Well, that’s a pretty lengthy introduction to that final question: Where is Joshua? Where is Caleb? The initial sense of this is pretty obvious. Here were the only two in all Israel who looked upon the land with all its giants in the way and said, “with God, we can take it!” The Church’s failure, by and large, to even join the fray is due to having forgotten that it is with God they join battle, not their own lack of strength. The more I have thought on that question, the more I have been impressed by the thought that it is more Caleb than Joshua that God is seeking out just now, and this study is an attempt to understand why that might be.

Of course the story of Joshua and Caleb is, at least in its general outline, quite familiar. The two are proverbial for having looked upon the Promised Land and declared God’s opinion of it, rather than man’s fear of its inhabitants. Joshua is also well-known as the anointed successor of Moses. Added to this is the role Joshua plays as a type of Christ, both in name and in symbol. Perhaps this alone is sufficient reason to recognize that God is looking more for Caleb than for Joshua in this age. Joshua is already by His side in the person of His beloved Son.

Our first introduction to Joshua comes as Israel readies to battle the Amalekites, who were of Esau’s line (Ex 17:9). At Moses’ command, he went to select the men who would go to the fight, and these went forth to battle while Moses held God’s staff up upon the hill. The rest of this story is again well known to us. When Moses grew weary from holding the staff up, it would droop and the battle would turn against Israel. When he held the staff up again, the tide would turn in Israel’s favor. So, Aaron and Hur, seeing the problem, set Moses upon a rock, and then stood at his side keeping his arms lifted, and Joshua was successful. It is worth noting the conclusion of this, though. God tells Moses to record these events in writing, and to have them recited to Joshua. What is the record? “I will wipe even the memory of Amalek from memory. Under all the heavens, not one shall remember him” (Ex 17:14). The fact that God found it necessary to have this recited to “Joshua should tell us something. Joshua, don’t let pride slip in. Don’t go thinking you’ve done this in your power, by your clever tactics and good training. You have won because I, the Lord your God, am determined to blot this evil called Amalek from memory.” It is not ‘God is salvation’ who has done this, it is God who is Salvation.

Another episode in the life of Joshua that can almost slip by unnoticed is that he was there with Moses when the tablets of the Law were handed down. It is all but hidden away in the narrative, yet it seems clear enough that Joshua was there. We are told that Moses went with his servant Joshua, and that Moses went up to God’s mountain, telling the elders to remain behind (Ex 24:13-14). Now, it does not explicitly say that Joshua went up with Moses, but it also does not say Moses went alone, nor does it indicate that Joshua was sent back with the elders. So, this verse alone would leave the question open, it seems. What seals it for me, though, is that Joshua is there again at the end of the story, as Moses is coming down the mountain, long before he had reached camp and also clearly before those in camp knew of his return. As they are coming down, Joshua notes the noise in camp and thinks that war has broken out. This would be the natural conclusion of a military commander, after all. It is Moses who hears more clearly that the noise has neither triumph nor defeat in it, but only singing (Ex 32:17-18).

I labor to establish this point because I think it is important to realize the degree to which Joshua was eye-witness to all that God was doing with and through Moses. If he was on that mountain, then he, too, may have been witness to the passing of the glory of the Lord. He was witness, as well, to the intimate prayer life of Moses, and his unique communion with God. This clearly made an impression on Joshua. Take as example the well-known statement of Joshua’s devotion. The LORD, we are told, used to speak ‘face to face’ with Moses (Ex 33:11). Now, it should be clear enough to us that this is not to be understood literally, as we are talking about the same Moses who had so recently sought to see God’s face, but been allowed only a glimpse of His ‘backside’ as it were. In that same verse, though, there is this said of Joshua: When Moses returned to the camp, Joshua would not depart from the tent.

I have always read that as a commendation of Joshua’s devotion to the Lord, and there is doubtless that to be understood from the text. However, in light of this study, and in light of Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath work, I see something different here. Moses, although having enjoyed such incredible intimacy with God, did not stay in the Tabernacle, but went forth to carry the Light of God into the midst of the people. He went out to do the work of the Lord. Read in light of that thought, the fact that Joshua ‘would not depart’ from the tent looks a little different. What shall we make of that? It is possible that he was determined to experience what Moses had experienced, and therefore refused to leave the altar. I can hear somewhat of his cry in what I heard in the prayers of a young man at church yesterday. “I’m not leaving until You change me.”

That prayer is certainly commendable, so far as it goes, and I know that it was the true cry of his heart. Yet, I also hear God’s answer. “I already changed you! If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here in My house, seeking My presence.” Moses is to be our example in this. It’s not sufficient to come soak in the presence of God if we don’t take what He has poured into us and go pour it out in His service. It’s the same issue as the Sabbath. It is the same issue Pastor has been dealing with us on. It’s no good to come week after week, sitting under this teaching or that teaching and never to go put all that learning into practice. It’s no good to come for the entertainment value. It’s no good to keep coming to the well of the Lord if you won’t drink the water, if you won’t offer the water to those who can’t reach the well for their weakness.

Moses went out to minister, to labor in the Lord’s vineyards, but Joshua would not. At risk of slandering his memory, the point here is, I believe, that Joshua was still more focused on himself, too concerned with his own interests to be useful in ministering to the Lord’s interests. He was, after all, a young man, the verse tells us. There is forgiveness for this, one can be sure. There is an honoring of the heart that so strongly desires after God, even when it leads to period of misunderstanding such as this. Do not despise the one who has locked himself in with God. His time of service will come, for a heart such as this God can use, and the mind of a youth such as this God can train. Do not break the tender reed of such youthful zealousness, but be a tool in God’s hands to train up the youth in the way they should go. Don’t pour cold water on the fire of faith, but feed the flames in a way that makes of that faith a directed burn. Notice that Moses did not go drag Joshua out and tell him to get busy. Neither do we ever read a word of rebuke on this. Simply know that the time must come when we must get out of the tent and get to work.

On one other matter Joshua was found in need of correction. There came a day when men prophesied in the camps of Israel, and this was reported to Moses. As ever, Joshua was right there with him, and heard the report. His reaction was to call on Moses to reign in these prophets, but Moses’ response to him was that there was no call for such jealousy. It were better, he said, if all of Gods people were prophets, for this would but indicate that He had put His Holy Spirit upon every one of them (Nu 11:27). Thinking on that verse, I cannot help but be reminded of a similar situation in the ministry of Jesus. The apostles saw others ministering in His name, and came to Jesus concerned, for they were “not of us”. Jesus, like Moses, responded that those who ministered the kingdom, even if not of us, are certainly for us and not against us. He welcomed this extension of His purpose. Likewise, Paul echoes the sentiment when he tells the Corinthians that he would be pleased if all were truly prophets.

I would note that in each case there is this issue of jealousy involved. Moses comments on it directly as concerns his servant Joshua. There, and with the apostles, that jealousy is displayed in the form of concern for the master’s reputation. I would not wonder, though, were it revealed that the real concern was for themselves. Joshua’s standing was largely dependent on Moses’ position. Were he to be tossed out by the people, Joshua was likely to feel the effects of that most personally. Likewise, the apostles, men largely pulled out of obscurity to serve Jesus, knew they were nothing without Him. Indeed, even with Him, they were not exactly powerhouses in the public perception. If their little bit of notoriety was to be watered down by all these others who took their Master’s name up, what would become of them? So little was understood about the kingdom as yet. The Corinthians, as well, were suffering from pride of office. Each was taking up the gifts of the Spirit as bragging rights, little concern left for the God who gave the gifts. To each, the correction came.

Here, then, is the correction for the Joshuas of the Church today. It’s not about you. It’s not about your office. You need not concern yourself with preserving your office, for it’s not yours anyway. It’s Mine. I have appointed you which is the sole reason you are in office at all. But, it’s not about you. Stop working so hard to protect your image, and turn yourself wholly to the work I have assigned to you. There is not now, nor ever has been, a place for pride in the officers of My court. I AM your pride, in Me you shall boast, and never in yourself.

Let me make clear that I am not in any way seeking to denigrate the work of Joshua, nor his place in the history of God’s people. That is not the point of recognizing these negative aspects. Neither am I suggesting that the negatives are necessarily the primary point of the passages at hand. My purpose is to understand why it is Caleb who is more particularly being sought out today. Before I turn to Caleb’s record, though, I should consider some of the more positive aspects of Joshua.

First and foremost, I note that he was most certainly commissioned and appointed by God not only to be Moses’ servant, but to be his successor as the head of the fledgling nation of Israel. So, let me say this: there is a very definite call and a very definite place for dedicated service to the man of God. Remember that Joshua, before he led Israel, was indeed the servant of Moses. He was with Moses through everything. We have found him in the tabernacle as God and Moses talked. We have found him on God’s mountain as Moses received the terms of Covenant from God. He has fought the Lord’s battles under the command of his master and his God. More importantly, he has learned from his master. He has learned the way of intimacy with God. He has learned the power and necessity of prayer. He has understood deeply that with God all things are truly possible. That is the simple explanation for his report on the land when first he was sent in to spy it out. With God, we can take the land.

I must pause at this point and take notice of that last sentence. It is part and parcel of the message God has declared in calling for Joshua and Caleb in our time. With Him, we can take the land. Or, as is the situation in our case, we can retake the land that we and our forebears have lost in our foolishness. That is the faith and the understanding God is looking for amongst His children today. That is the faith that needs to rise up amongst us as we look upon the woeful state of the world around us. “Ask, and I will give the nations to you,” says the Lord (Ps 2:8). It is more than a promise. It is the desire of His heart that this prayer would be the cry of our heart. It is the desire of His heart that we would ask this of Him in the confidence of knowing that all things are possible in and through Him. It is the fierce cry of His warriors today, that the land our fathers lost would be restored to our hands by the power of God and for the glory of God.

It was this cry and this confidence that made Joshua a man of note in the kingdom. Now, understand why he had such confidence. The LORD said to Moses, “Lay hands on that young man, for My Spirit is in him” (Nu 27:18). Notice that! The laying on of hands was not for the impartation of the Spirit. The Spirit was already in that man. No, it was the commission. It was the passing on of Authority (Nu 27:20), and that authority extended even to the priesthood. As he had served the Prophet, so the priests would serve him. Joshua was commissioned. And with his commission there came a command. “Do not fear, for the LORD fights for you” (Dt 3:22). That command is repeated later. “Be strong and courageous, for I AM will be with you” (Dt 31:23).

The key to the example of Joshua lies in this understanding of his authority and power. His authority was I AM, and his power was I AM. He could be courageous because he knew with utmost certainty that IAM was with him. How could he be so certain? Well, he had God’s word on it, which certainly ought to suffice. He had the example of God’s past actions on his behalf to bolster belief, for God is ever faithful to provide His children with good cause to believe. Finally, he had the assurance of occupying himself with the things God commanded. Specifically, he was pursuing the purpose for which he had been created, as God revealed that purpose to him.

This is the opposing example to the negative instruction of James in a passage Table Talk referred me to this morning. “You do not have because you do not ask,” James writes. “You ask and do not receive, because your motives are all wrong. You don’t ask for His purpose, you ask in order to satisfy your own pleasures. You adulteresses! How can you think to serve the flesh by serving God? Friendship with the world and the flesh is hostility against God” (Jas 4:2b-4a). Do you see it? Joshua’s success lay in seeking God’s purpose. The failure of so many today is that they seek the Lord solely as a means of deriving temporal benefits. They are not the least interested in His agenda, nor in seeing His kingdom spread, other than seeing His treasury leak into their living rooms a bit. If that is the sum total of your love of Christ, be prepared for the words He will speak when He comes: “I never knew you. Depart from me.”

Joshua knew better. He did not presume upon his authority, nor did he presume upon his God. The thing one sees in the servants of God over and over again is that they never display the attitude of one who thinks he’s arrived. However they may rise in the realm of human fame, they remain servants at heart. Whatever accolades man may shower upon them, they accept only as proxy for the Father who commands their life.

The fact remains, though, that whatever good or bad example we may find in Joshua, he was not the deliverer. He did not, the author of Hebrews writes, give the people the rest of the promised Sabbath. If he had, there would be no further mention of that coming day of rest.

Notice this. Moses bore the promise of God, that He would go with Moses and the people of Israel, and He would give rest (Ex 33:14). It is difficult, I must confess, to look upon the Exodus of Israel, or any of its subsequent history and see it as restful. In the remaining years of Moses I see nothing but work. In the life of Joshua I find nothing but battle. Yet, the Lord promised “I will give you rest”. I am returned to the message of the Sabbath Law as Jesus presented it. The priests labor on the Sabbath yet do no violate the rest that is the Sabbath. God Himself continues to work for life in the midst of His eternal rest. For His Sabbath day has never seen the setting sun. Indeed, with the Risen Sun of Christ ever present beside Him, how shall there ever come an evening to that day?

There remains a day of rest, though, for God’s people. There remains a fulfillment such as we have not seen even at this time (Heb 4:9). There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, the author writes. “Come to Me, you who are so weary and born down by your burdens. Come to Me, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). It is not the rest of the indolent that He holds out. It is the rest of laboring in His service. It is the rest of being smack in the center of His purpose for you. This is the rest that Moses knew as he labored to keep Israel somewhere near the straight and narrow. This is the rest that Moses knew as he pleaded with God on their behalf. This is the rest that Moses knew even as he stood on the mountain looking into the land he would never reach in this lifetime. I wonder if he knew even then that he would one day stand on another mountain, one within the borders of promise, beholding the Promise Himself.

Joshua knew that sense of rest as well. Though he was a man of war on behalf of God, though his vocation was violence on the Lord’s behalf, he was a man at rest. He was at rest because he knew himself to be in his purpose. He was at rest because he knew himself to be in God’s purpose. He was at rest because he was absolutely and unshakably confident in God’s faithfulness. He knew that no matter what came of his battles, his future was assured.

That is your rest! That is the rest God promised to Moses, and He gave it to Moses, too. That is exactly the rest that Jesus offers. Come to Me. Come to know Me. Come to know your purpose in Me and fulfill it. Come to Me and know in yourself that as I AM Faithful and True, your future is settled. Whatever the present may hold, whatever labors you are doing, whatever threats and challenges surround you, your future is settled. I will give you rest. Not, lazing about, slovenly neglect for the needs of the day, but rest. Rest in the midst of your work, the rest of knowing your work is not in vain.

By way of turning my attention toward Caleb, I turn now to that joint confession of Joshua and Caleb after first seeing the land of promise. They recognized that the land was good, and they recognized that Israel’s ability to take the land rested on one thing only. “If the LORD is pleased with us, He will give it to us” (Nu 14:6-10). Also, they understood that since the LORD is with us, the protection of those currently in the land has been removed. But, how did Israel respond? Did they rejoice at this news from the LORD? No, they moved to stone the witnesses of God. What is particularly intriguing is the last part of verse 10. When Israel moved to stone Joshua and Caleb, it came about that that glory of the LORD appeared in the Tabernacle, and it appeared in such fashion that all of Israel saw it.

Viewed in light of the message I have been pursuing, I see two things that should be understood from this passage. The first lies in their affirmation of God. If He is with us, He will give it to us. Now, hear something in the wording there. The confession is not that we can do it because He is with us, but that He will give it to us. Again, I notice the rest that is ours as we work with God, for it is ever this way. It is not that our labors are somehow enhanced by our love of God. It is that He gives to us the things we need, the things we would otherwise strive after. “Consider not what you shall eat, how you shall be clothed, for God knows you need these things, and He’s got you covered! Pursue His kingdom and its purposes (for this is pleasing to Him) and know with all confidence that He shall provide.”

Hear, as well, the other portion of that confession. So far, it is only if, but now comes the confidence of faith. He is with us, therefore they are already defeated, though we may see them standing before us. Again, there is no hint of self in that confession. We do not hear a ‘we can’, for with the saints of all ages, these two confessed truly, ‘apart from God we can do nothing.’ No, the confession is that because God is with us, there is none who can stand against us. The reason is once again because God will do it. God will give us the land. Ours is but to obey what He commands, and to see Him work mightily.

Where are Joshua and Caleb? Where are the ones who understand this simple truth? The enemy may rage all around, he may seem to be in full control of every field of thought. But, because the Lord is with us, he who seems to be in control is utterly powerless to resist us. If we will but step towards the land which God has declared is ours, those who currently occupy it will be scattered. They will not be scattered because of our great wit, our great power, or anything that has anything to do with us at all. They will be scattered because God will give into our hands the things we foolishly allowed to be stolen. It is His great good pleasure that the halls of learning and the ministry of arts should once again be restored into the hands of the godly.

If we would stand as Joshua and Caleb, though, we must understand the consequences. As they foretold the inevitable outcome of obedience to God, God displayed the inevitable rebellion of man. Hearing the great good news that God was with them, Israel reacts by deciding to stone the witnesses. Does this sound familiar? They did it again when God Himself came down and declared He was with them. He stood in their midst, declaring hope and salvation, and their response was to shout out for His death. But, do you see the result of that rebellion? This is in no way to suggest that the rebellion was good because it brought about a good thing, but the fact remains that in the face of that rebellion, God came to His tabernacle, and He came in such fashion that nobody in that camp could miss it.

Listen, when God truly comes into His house, it won’t matter whether there are more believers or unbelievers in the area. They will know it is Him whether they want to or not. That has been the story of every real revival that man has experienced. When God comes, and it’s more than our wishful thinking, more than our tickled flesh, it will not just be the Church that notices. When God comes, we will not have to work to convince those around us that He is real. The nature of our work will simply be to shepherd and disciple all those who have come to the sudden realization that He is real. When the rebels awaken to that realization, there can only be fear. The very King against whom they rebelled is in their midst, and they know it. What can they expect but the death that is treason’s due? God moves to guard His spokesmen and, more importantly, to guard His message. He will get His Word out, and His Word will not go out in vain. It will accomplish all that it declares. He will accomplish all His purpose in mankind, whatever the opposition may try.

The things Joshua and Caleb experienced at the hands of Israel are recorded for our benefit. It is the typical reaction of blind and fallen man to those who take off their blinders and stand up for God. It is the typical reaction of rebellion and sin when confronted. The Lie does not wish to be exposed to the Truth, so he struggles mightily to abolish Truth. The rebel does not wish to pay the price of rebellion, so he seeks to destroy the rightful rule of the land, even in the face of amnesty. Yet, Joshua and Caleb did stand, they did declare Truth and they did dare to identify the rebels. Those rebels stood up, pursuing their rebel agenda, but God. At what seemed the last possible moment, God stepped in on behalf of His own, and made Himself known to those who were arrayed against Him. In doing so, He provided instant and verifiable proof of the veracity of His spokesmen. See? Even right here in this camp, the enemy is defenseless because God is with us. Even though almost the whole of this camp is in his hands, it only takes God to move and the camp is given to the righteous. Recognize that because of God, these two who stood faithful were almost instantaneously moved from the place of imminent destruction to places of power and honor. These two, who were about to die for their belief not only did not die, but they became the military leaders of the very ones who sought their death. But God indeed!

The story we see played out in this passage has been replayed over and over in the course of history. It was the story of pretty much every prophet of God. It was the story of the Son. It has been the story of the saints and the martyrs across the ages. To this day, there are those who stand up for the name and the purpose of God in the face of slow and painful death. Many among them give the ultimate testimony of choosing death over discrediting the Name which is above all names. In this, they but hold fast to the promise of the Christ. As the world has always hated Him for making its sinful condition known, so it hates all those who represent Him. If the world in its hatred is pleased to attack and destroy the Head, surely the rest of His earthly government can expect the same. The student is not greater than the Teacher. In this world you will have tribulation. But rejoice! In the very hour of greatest trial, the God whom you serve shall come to His Temple once again. He shall be manifested in His glory, and no eye and no ear shall fail to take notice of the glory that is His.

I had another shower thought yesterday, after working on this study. It came to mind that these are the two witnesses spoken of in Revelation. Now, I must say in looking at that text (Rev 11:3-14), I don’t see a great deal to support this idea. As many before me have noted, the particular powers mentioned as having been given to these two would certainly reflect Elijah and Moses, and their previous presence at the Transfiguration would add credence to such a claim. Yet, there is this in the text, that any who would seek to harm them must be killed (Rev 11:5). This sounds rather like the warriors of God. This is the end of those who would oppose God’s purpose in taking the land. Certainly, Joshua and Caleb stood up in a relatively unique fashion as two witnesses of God’s truth. Certainly, both men were a terror to the opposing nations, as they between them spearheaded Israel’s taking of the land. As such, would it be any wonder that the remnants of those deposed nations would rejoice over their apparent destruction? Clearly, this can be little more than another supposition added to many suppositions in regard to the identity of those two, yet it is an interesting thought. However, I shall not spend further time on its pursuit, unless further cause is given.

Of course we know that all those who were present to hear the testimony of these two, all those who chose to stone the spokesmen for Truth, perished before ever Israel set foot in the land of promise. This was God’s just punishment upon those who would not hear Him (Nu 14:30), only His two witnesses would go in. There is an interesting message in what God tells them in addition to this news. “You said your children would become prey to your enemies,” He points out. Oh, what godly concern was on their hearts! It wasn’t their own hides that they were worried about, it was for the kids. I notice that God does not claim that this was the word of their hearts, only their vocalizations. “You have said this,” God declares, “however I did not. I will bring them in and they shall have the land you reject.”

Wow! Here’s another bit of Christianese debunked. It is to be expected, really, because it has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with New Age nonsense. We are taught to be ever so careful about what we speak, particularly about our children, for it shall come to pass. As if our words had any creative power! That, as I said, is New Age nonsense. It is modern pop psychological babble that suggests that great creative power of positive confession. I tell you plainly, only God can create by His Word. As He spoke, so it was, because His Word does not return to Him without accomplishing His purpose. We are not so, and never shall be in this life. It is not, as the evidence of Israel’s exile clearly indicates, the words that leave our mouths that determines our legacy. It is the heart. It is the character. Words can be spoken to deceive. Words can be spoken to hide away the decrepitude of the soul, but God knows the heart. If there is any power in us to determine the future it lies not in our words but in our spirits, in our character, in our determined pursuit of truly being Christ-like.

God! That You would cleanse Your people from this psycho-magical view of You! That You would destroy from our thinking any idea that prayer is some sort of incantation by which we guarantee our prosperity or our legacy. Lord, let Your people return to a concern for Your kingdom and Your holiness as it concerns us in our prayer life and in our physical life. Let our focus be on what pleases You, not on what tickles us. Let us heed the concerns of Your will and testament to us, and recognize that the prayer of the wrong hearted is not only non-binding, but mercifully unheard in Your courts.

Many in our churches today would be sure that the generation following those who ran from the borders of the promised land were cursed beyond hope by the words of their parents. Yet, God once again makes it clear that He is greater. Once again, Righteousness trumps lineage. It is nothing in the parents that deserves this reprieve. It is nothing in the children either. It is not that the new generation is somehow better spiritually. Not at all! As ever and always, the only reason is God. He chooses in His Sovereign Authority to be merciful to this subsequent generation, to preserve them in spite of their parents’ dire predictions. He does so because it is His good will, and He does so because it makes His own power and His own goodness so clearly evident. He does so because it will vindicate His Truth so marvelously in the very face of an unbelieving generation. Oh, they would be dead and in their graves before this proof came, to be sure. Yet, they would witness the outcome nonetheless, and known themselves justly sentenced for their unbelief.

Now, here the word of God regarding Caleb specifically. It is interesting that before God promises that both Caleb and Joshua shall settle that land, He singles out Caleb alone. All those who saw His glory, all those who saw His signs and wonders in Egypt and in the Exodus would pass away, because in spite of the evidence they would not believe. “But Caleb has had a different spirit, and he has followed Me fully and faithfully” (Ex 14:24). For that reason, he and his descendants shall possess the land.

Caleb had a different spirit. He had the gift of God’s faith in his life, as did Joshua. Yet, I would note this difference between the two. Joshua had had the very great benefit of being servant to the man of God, to the prophet Moses. He had been close eye-witness to things that only he and Moses were witness to. He had been there in the midst of God’s glory in the tabernacle, and on the mountain. He had been there when the tablets of the Covenant were engraved, and had walked under the tutelage of Moses all those long years. For him, unbelief would be nigh on impossible. Caleb, however, had enjoyed only the common grace given to all Israel. He had witnessed only those things that the whole of Israel had witnessed. He had received no special treatment, no special training. Yet, he had learned. He had understood the import of all he had witnessed, and he knew that the same God who had done these things for Israel was not likely to lead them into destruction now. If He had promised, He surely meant to fulfill it. If He wanted this land cleared of enemies, it would surely be cleared. It really didn’t matter what the spies had spied out. The eyes of the Spirit and the spirit of the faithful saw only what God could do, and thought not about their own meager capacities.

As Moses recounts the situation to the rebel nation, Caleb again receives first mention (Dt 1:34-38). The Lord was so angered by the rebellious lack of faith in His people – people who had witnessed His presence amongst them – that He determined only Caleb would see the land of promise. There is a particular promise delivered to Caleb in this message: Wherever you set your feet, that land will be given to you for yourself and your children (Dt 1:36). Moses continues by noting that God’s anger was so great that even he was being excluded from the land for allowing such lack of faith in his charges. Instead, Joshua would lead Israel into the land and make it their inheritance.

Certainly, Joshua is not to be belittled, and I must be careful not to put more weight on such matters as this than is their due, but it is interesting that of the two, God seems to place more honor upon Caleb. Caleb will inherit his own, whereas Joshua will cause Israel to inherit, and he needs encouragement. Well, certainly he needs encouragement to step into the place Moses would vacate. He has seen what that position is like, what constant challenge and frustration is comes with such leadership in God’s cause, so he needs encouragement. On the other hand, Caleb has not seen these issues, his faith is strong on the simple evidence of God, and he has not allowed events or circumstances to dissuade him of belief.

Later, in the account of Joshua’s leadership, Caleb comes to his partner in faith and speaks of this promise that was given to him. In the use Caleb makes of this promise it becomes easy to see why God gave it to him specifically (Josh 14:6-13). He comes to Joshua, the leader of the nation, and reminds him of the promise God made. “He said that wherever I set foot would be an inheritance to my children forever.” So, is he about to lay claim to the lands through which he has battled thus far? Will he wind up with half the nation because of this promise God made? No! The promise was made to him because he followed God to the full, and this was still his way. Instead of claiming the benefit of the promise for himself, he sees in it another victory for the nation. That promise of bringing the inheritance to Israel may have been given to Joshua, but here is Caleb, offering his own promise as a tool towards that end. “Since God has promised me this great boon, allow me to go up against the strong cities of the Anakim, and perhaps the LORD will be with me, and they shall be driven out as He has said.”

This is the voice of incredible faith, yet it remains tinged with humility. Leading into this, Caleb has found cause to remind Joshua that he remains a strong warrior. When first he and Joshua had spied out the lands Caleb was already forty years old, and then had ensued as many more years wandering the desert. The battles didn’t even start in earnest until he was in his eighties, and he was now eighty-five, and declaring to the leader of Israel that he was as fit and prepared for battle now as ever he had been. Bring ‘em on! The LORD is with me. Now, the conclusion of this tale is that Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb as an inheritance in the land. It must be understood, though, that Hebron was not yet in Israel’s possession. It was an inheritance to be claimed by battle. According to the Chronicler (1Chr 6:54-56), that city was later given to Aaron’s descendents, the Kohathites, leaving Caleb only the fields and villages around that stronghold he had been so instrumental in capturing.

Here again I see why the promise was given to Caleb. It was given to him because he would not jealously cling to the claims of that promise, and insist that he get what was his. He took possession of his inheritance on behalf of that One who had promised it to him, and he remained a faithful servant of that One. If the LORD has need of his lands, by all means let Him take them for His use. This attitude that I see in Caleb comes of understanding that whatever accomplishments may have accompanied his life, they were not his, they were God’s. Whatever victories he had experienced were not due to his great prowess as a man of war, but because the LORD had been with him. Whatever he possessed, then, in this land of promise, he possessed solely because of that promise, and because it was God who had promised.

So where have I come in all of this? Let me first say that I felt a clarification given to me yesterday as regards the two witnesses of Revelation. The point was not that those two were a return of Joshua and Caleb, but only the similarity of position and situation. Two witnesses remained true to God. Two witnesses stood up in spite of the danger to themselves, in spite of the culture of unbelief that engulfed them, and declared that God is True. In both cases, the risk of death at the hands of the nation was present. In both cases, the God of Life stepped in, either preventing or overruling death. He is, after all, the Resurrected Lord!

In light of all that I have seen, then, what shall I make of that original question? Where is Joshua? Where is Caleb? Where are there even two who will stand up for God’s Truth in the face of all the opposition of modern man? I recall that the message came seated in thoughts of the things which good Christians have given up as lost – the realms of thought, of skill and of art. That is the land which was promised to us. That is the land where God wants His children to establish dominance. It is not a question of nationalism, as if the petty kingdoms of mankind were any great concern for the King of kings! Nations need not trouble the One who owns the hillsides upon which the nations are settled! They are all established by His own authority anyway.

The battle ground for God’s people today is that of heart and mind. I declare them both because in the light of God they are one. The heart and the mind were never meant to suffer divorce. They were designed to be wedded, to be a whole greater than its parts as heart and mind together considered the issues of life and spirit. The heart alone is not sufficient, too easily misled by emotions and tending towards pursuing what feels good rather than what is good. The mind alone is not sufficient, for it gets so caught up in what is possible that it loses sight of what is permissible for the child of God. The mind alone cannot assess beauty. It requires the counsel of the heart. The heart alone cannot assess wisdom. It requires the counsel of the mind.

God has united these two aspects of our inner life, and what He has united, we should in no wise seek to divide, yet that his what has happened in this modern culture. Because it has overtaken our culture, it has infected our own approach to things, even our approach to God. We tend to either come before Him with all our hearts, and insist that the mind should be shut down in His presence, or we come before Him with all our minds, appreciating the intricacies of theology, but never really putting them to work in our own lives. On the one hand lies the danger of chasing after every ‘spiritual’ movement, on the other, a cold technical competence not unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees, knowing the Truth, but not submitting to Him.

I am constantly reminded that when Jesus delivered the two chief commandments of faith, He changed the wording ever so slightly. His ministry required that He do this, because the people had lost sight of the point of Scripture as the basic tenets of society shifted. When God first declared the commandment of loving Him, He commanded a love consuming all one’s heart, all one’s soul, and all one’s might (Dt 6:5). In other words, “I want all of you.” When Jesus spoke of this same commandment as being the most important, He said we were to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk 12:30). The message is exactly the same, but it had become necessary to add ‘mind’ to the mix because it was now thought of as a separate organ with separate responsibilities.

Well, for modern man, the divide between heart and mind has become all that much greater. Indeed, the mind has been removed from all counsel as regards Truth, and the heart left to fend for itself. The heart has largely been removed from all counsel as regards Beauty, and the mind satisfies itself with intricacies and possibilities, declaring what is at best complex and at worst chaotic to be beautiful. The heart would know better. You will hear this dangerous divide preached from the pulpits today. When God speaks, stop thinking. What? Oh, how reason is decried as some great evil. No! Reason is the gift of a good an wonderful God, given to be wed to the heart’s emotions. It is not reason that is evil, not even the concept of being rational, it is the movement that became Rationalism, the promoting of reason and rationality above and beyond its proper station that made an evil of what was created for good.

It is no different than law and ceremony. The things God created for His people, the Law that He delivered to guide them and the rituals He gave to train them in the ways of heaven; these things were good, created by a good and loving God for the good of His people. It was the abuse of these things, the elevation of these things beyond their proper place that made of them the evil they had become. It was the sinfulness of sin taking advantage of what is inherently good to make of it an evil. So it is with the realm of heart and mind today. The sinfulness of sin has put a wedge between the two. It has been a bitter divorce, and the forces of the mind cry out against all manner of abuses and excesses of the heart, while the forces of the heart denounce the mind as cold and prideful and overbearing.

Where is Joshua? Where is Caleb? Where are they who will stand up in the midst of this generation of brilliant fools and declare how greatly God abhors this divorce? Where are those who will stand in the halls of academia and remind them that there really is a knowable Truth? Who will point to the lies and nonsense that have taken possession of the spirit of man in this age and call them out for what they are? Lies and nonsense! Where are the ones who will dare to challenge the giants of Education? Where are the ones who will dare to challenge the giants of Religion? Where are the ones who will challenge the giants of Philosophy and Science? These lands were given to our forebears as an inheritance to be passed on through the ages, but somewhere along the way we let down our guard and allowed the inheritance to be taken from us.

Caleb arise! Arise with the promise of God in your heart and in your mind. Arise and see the promised inheritance already in your hand though you also see the battle ahead. Let not your weakness make you fearful. Let not the numberless opposition dissuade you. Only believe the God Who Is, and be very courageous. He is with you yet, and His promise still stands. That land is yours, your inheritance. Don’t you make of His promise a call to indolence. That is exactly how the land was lost to your parents. They took His promise as reason to sit back. “Let go and let God” was the cry of the day. We let go, all right, but we refused to let God command our actions. We made of Him a God who could do as He pleased so long as He didn’t call upon us to do for Him. That is no God, that is idolatry and nonsense. Caleb arise at the command of your Lord and King, go forward in His service, knowing that the occupied lands before you are yours because they are His. Hear! Joshua, the mighty Yeshua, Anointed Champion of God, has sent you forward with His blessings. Take the land, Caleb, for it is yours by right of God’s promise. Take it, and hold it well. Train up your children to understand that this inheritance you establish for them, that God establishes for them, will only remain theirs as they remain His, as they remain faithful to do all His command.

Remember that lesson that was given in the original stand taken by Joshua and Caleb. They insisted on God’s Truth against the false witnesses that outnumbered them, and the response was to call for their stoning. It’s not going to be all glory and ease to stand up for Truth. More than ever before, we are in an age that wants to hear nothing about Truth, doesn’t even accept any longer that Truth can exist. That is the price that has been paid for removing the mind from Truth. They will not appreciate being reminded of their loss. They will seek to silence you by whatever means they can, but stand and declare the Lord’s witness! Remember that even as these two faced imminent death, the glory of the Lord came in such power as made everybody there acknowledge that He Is, and He Is here. Remember that even as the nations celebrated their victory over the two witnesses, the Lord of Resurrection Life resurrected those same two and called them to His glory. Again, the great glory of the Lord was evidenced in a way that none could help but see. Think about that. Their witness was made even greater than what they were capable of. It was made more than words, it was demonstrated with Power that they spoke Truth.

In addition, there is the particular lesson from Caleb’s experience. The promises of God are not a thing to be grasped and claimed, they are a thing to be depended upon. Rather than look for personal gain in the promise he received, Caleb saw in the certainty of that promise a victory for the kingdom. When he went up against Hebron it was not to ensure that he had some property for his retirement, it was simply because Hebron needed taking. He did not ask for Hebron as his personal takings from the land, but Joshua gave it to him anyway. Even then, though, with the city taken and the promise of Joshua before the elders of the land in his pocket, he did not consider the promise a thing to be grasped. When God declared that He had need of Hebron as a means of blessing His priests, Caleb offered no complaint. We do not read that he reminded God of that promise. There’s a very simple reason for that. Caleb knew God had not forgotten. Caleb didn’t look upon the promises of God as coupons to be redeemed, but as certainties to be counted on.

So, some simple messages, yet powerful. First: fear not the enemy. Don’t ignore them. Don’t pretend they’re not there. Yet, don’t let their number or their size or their entrenchments concern you. That simple confession of Joshua and Caleb is so incredibly powerful! God is with us, so they are defenseless. Sure, they’re giants. Sure, they’ve got heavily fortified cities and we have tents. But, we have God and they have only dead idols. If God is for us, who can be against us? All their protections have been taken away.

Second lesson: It’s not about your prosperity. Any number of folks today read the promise to Caleb and claim it for themselves. Look! It says that wherever we set our feet is ours! Let’s go walking! Yet, many who make this claim have neglected the lesson of James. You ask but you do not receive for your motives are wrong. It is not the prayer of faith but the prayer of lust. Lord, I will walk the land so that it may be mine. Caleb walked the land, right up and into the enemy’s stronghold and in the face of the enemy’s might, so that it might be God’s. He was not out to claim his reward, but to reclaim his King’s property. The promise, in his eyes, was not for his profit but for his assurance. Remember the promise, Joshua? Well then, let me set my feet toward yon stronghold and surely it will fall!

Oh! Grab hold of that! The strongholds of post-modernism will surely fall as Caleb strides into its courts. It is not for Caleb’s glory, nor would he have it be. It is simply that these are the courts of the Lord of Creation, and He would have them restored to Him. What of the strongholds in your own life? What of those sins which so easily beset, which seem to persist in spite of the assurance that we are His, that we are a new creation? Where are the giants in your own life? Do they seem too entrenched to ever dislodge? Stand up, Caleb! Rise up in the assurance of God’s promise. Walk boldly in defiance of that enemy and know it will be subdued. It will be subdued not because you are something, but because the God in Whose name you stand is everything. The battle truly does belong to the Lord. So, too, does the victory.

Finally, let me reiterate the power of bold witness. Two men stood up, out of all Israel just these two, and declared that because Israel was God’s Israel, it really didn’t matter who was in the land. God would give it to them. What pure humility in that statement. It was not, with God on our side, of course we can. It was God will give it to us. It was an acknowledgment that all of life is a gift of God, given into our hands more often in spite of our actions than as reward for them.

Two stood against all the odds. Thy stood against the might of the enemy and they stood against the doubt of the friendly. The whole world, as it were, was arrayed against them but they chose to stand up for God. Oh! How the world hated that. These two who had removed their blinders must surely be destroyed, lest others begin to see as they do. See how even the Church is riled up against them. Yet, they stand, and on the very verge of their destruction, the most wonderful thing occurs. The glory of God fills His house. Yes, and unlike the visitations that so excite us, He does not visit His house in a fashion that only His children can know and enjoy. When He comes in response to real witnesses, He leaves no doubt that He has come. All of Israel, it says, saw His glory in the house. Belief or unbelief didn’t matter in that particular moment. As I have said so often, Truth doesn’t really care if you believe it. It remains Truth, and Truth had come to His house to testify to the words of His witnesses.

Where’s Caleb? Where’s Joshua? Who will step up and challenge the strongholds? Who will believe Me, and in the power of simple belief go forward on My business? Who will stand up and restore to Me the kingdoms of mind and heart? So many today blather on about their rights and their high (if groundless) morals, and claim to be speaking truth to power. Well, my friends, it’s time for Caleb and Joshua to arise, and speak Truth to powers, powers that have blinded and deluded the nations for too long. Rise up Joshua! Rise up Caleb! Prepare the way for the Lord, that the King of glory may come in. Then shall it truly be said that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess His Lordship, for He will surely come to back up your witness to His Truth.

Have I captured the whole of this, Lord? Have I at least captured the sense of it? In truth, Lord, it seems I could continue looking at this simple question You posed for months and still only begin to understand. Yet, I know that You are looking for more than understanding. You are looking for a life that will reflect that simple understanding. You are looking for me, in particular, to grasp the power of what You have said, and to stand in that power. Yes, Father, and I know there are giants in my life that I have refused to chase from the land. I know I am hardly immune from the fears, the nay-saying, the doubts that foreign doctrines have trained me to. Have I still not come to that place of real belief? Oh, I know I have faith in You. I know with the absolute certainty of Your promise to me that my salvation is secure in You. Yet, I have to ask if I have that same absolute certainty as regards other things You say. It’s not enough to know them, Lord. I need the belief of a heart that knows You. I am prone to that weakness even though I know better. Holy One, work on this in me, and work in me that I might join the effort rather than oppose it. Let the power of conviction rise up in me, the conviction that You are True, and the determination to see Your territories reclaimed to that conviction.