Joshua 12-15

March 9

Joshua 12-15

When Moses sent the twelve spies to check out the land back in Numbers 13, Caleb came back and told the people that they should go in and take the land God had promised them. He admitted that the cities were walled and the people were giants, but he also realized that God had promised to give them this land. Caleb realized that His God was bigger than the obstacles he faced. Caleb was forty at the time they explored the land and though he wanted to obey God, the other spies stirred up the people and they refused to go.

Caleb was forced to wander in the desert with the rest of the Israelites, but as God had promised Joshua and Caleb were the only men from that generation who entered the Promised Land. Forty-five years later, Caleb still trusts God to provide. He went to Joshua and asked him to give him the land God had promised him. At eighty five, Caleb was ready to go and claim God’s promises. At eighty five Caleb was not looking to retire, but with God’s help, to claim his inheritance. Caleb had assurance because he had spent those forty-five years between the exploration of the land and his claiming his prize by following “the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.”

God has made many promises to those who follow Jesus wholeheartedly. Do we claim them? Do we live as if we believe what the world tells us or do we live as if we believe what God tells us? Here are a few of His promises from the New Testament. Do our lives reflect our faith like Caleb’s reflected his?

"“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (Mark 8:34-35)

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”" (Luke 11:13)

"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”" (John 11:25-26)

" And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (Romans 8:28-29)

"He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." (Revelation 21:6-7,)