Wednesday, May 4, 2022
I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Psalm 27:13
Holding On To The Promise
Patience is a virtue, but one that most of us struggle with, especially in this modern age of technology. Almost anything we could want, or need, is ours at the tips of our fingers, and we can have it delivered almost that fast. We have gotten used to getting what we want, when we want it. But not everything works at the speed of the internet. God still works on His own timing.
Caleb knew that God had already promised the Israelites that the Promised Land was theirs. All they had to do was claim it. There were a few other things involved, like crossing the Jordan and defeating the people that were already there. Claiming the Promise of God may require effort on our part. It may mean taking a small step of faith, or it may require huge faith to cross a raging river and defeating the giants. What that actually comes down to is that God wants us to have faith in Him, to trust Him.
And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because
you have wholly followed the Lord my God. Joshua 14:9
As we have already talked about this week, Caleb was one of the twelve spies that Moses sent into the Promised Land to scout it out and see what was there. Ten of the spies came back shaking in their boots and telling the Israelites about the giants in the land. They warned Moses not to enter Canaan. But Caleb wanted to take the land. He told them they could surely do this! Caleb believed that God’s promise was true, and they did not need to fear. They needed to go in faith and claim what was promised to them by God. The Israelites would not do it. In fact, God not happy with the Israelites and decreed that they would wander in the wilderness until all of their faithless generation had died. Because of their lack of faith, they would not even get to claim the Promised Land.
But God said, My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly. God gave him the promise that he would own all the land he had seen as a spy (Numbers 14:11–24). So, they wandered for another 40 years, and Caleb never quit believing in the promise. He lived for the moment he could take the mountain that had been promised.
Faith breeds patience…and Caleb was patient enough to outlast the doubters. A generation of funerals would make the rest of us gloomy and morose. But not Caleb. His engines were still revving. The fire in the furnace of his soul was still lit. He was still living wide open for God. - Van Houser
Caleb’s spiritual vision gave him spiritual vitality, and it led him to spiritual victory. Even though Caleb was forty years old the first time he went in as a spy, and eighty-five years old by the time it was finally time for him to claim the Promised Land, he was ready to do what was required of him to claim it. Even though the giants he had to fight were the biggest and most intimidating opposition in the Promised Land, he had faith that God would be with him every step of the way - because He had made the promise.
All those years in that dry, dusty desert, trying to keep the faith. For most of us, our faith would dry up and blow away in the hot wind. You may be barely holding on right now. Your faith may be wavering because you have been hanging by a thread for a long time, but it probably has not been forty-five years. Caleb is a great testimony of faith for us. He didn’t just live for the promise. He lived patiently for the promise. If he ever had a doubt or felt discouraged, it didn’t stop him from believing.
Like Caleb, through patience and faith we can also experience all that God promises. When we are in a season of waiting, we can’t let doubts and discouragement lead us into unbelief. We must keep our focus on our promise keeping God, and faithfully and patiently wait for His perfect timing.
