Rose Hill Presbyterian Joshua 14:6-13 Rev. Brian North May 25 th, 2014 Character Matters Kirkland, WA Caleb: Character for All Ages Today we continue our series of messages called, Character Matters. It s a look at some of the characters of the Old Testament and how we can learn from them and grow in our own character as we seek to live lives that ultimately emulate Jesus Christ. And today we re looking at Caleb. As we just heard in the passage, though it went by a bit quickly, Caleb was a contemporary of Moses. Caleb was one of the 12 spies sent by Moses to scout out the land that God had promised to the Israelites. And Caleb was one of only two of the spies the other being Joshua who came back and said, We can do this. The other ten said, No way. The people there are big and numerous and even though the land is great and the fruit is awesome, and even though God is on our side and promised this land to us, we can never take it. Caleb and Joshua, however, gave the minority report. Unfortunately, the minority report did not win the day, and they allowed fear to make their decision for them. And as a result, the Israelites wandered around in the desert for 40 years, until Joshua finally led them in. There are a number of things we can learn from Caleb. For instance, in the face of 10 people saying they should not try to enter the land, Caleb stood up in faith and said they should. You can read about that in Numbers 13. He s an example of trusting God and the promises God has made, and doing so in the face of opposition, when he s the minority, which also makes him an example of courage. Joshua is often also seen as an example of courage. And those would be good character traits to note about Caleb and from which to receive some inspiration in our own lives to trust God and to have courage in the face of opposition. But I want to highlight some other facets of Caleb and see if we can t be inspired by him in our living and in our journeys of faith. i Because his faith in God led him to have other character traits that we can emulate as well. The first thing I want to highlight from Caleb s life is that: Caleb is a model 1
of patience. There s a saying about patience that goes like this: 2 Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can Found seldom in a woman, never in a man. ii Well, either that statement is wrong, or Caleb isn t a man s name, because Caleb was patient. Forty-five years before the passage we just read, Caleb was ready to trust God and help lead the Israelites to take over the land the Lord had promised. But nothing happened. They didn t do it. And for forty years he waited along with everyone else. It had to have been completely frustrating for him. And maybe Caleb had his moments or even seasons of life where his patience wore thin. But the fact is, forty years later he was still around to help lead the charge and take the Promised Land. And then, five years after that, we get to the passage we just read, where he gets his own segment of the land for him and his family. Have you ever had to wait patiently a long time for something? Some of you have been waiting patiently for decades maybe since the Seattle Pilots left town in 1969 you ve been waiting patiently for Seattle to have a Major League Baseball Team. In fact, maybe this is the year they stop playing like a glorified AAA team. Some of you have had to wait patiently for a job or to have children we all wait patiently around here during the winter months for the sun to reappear.some of you have been waiting patiently or for your spouse to actually remember your anniversary date. There are any number of things we go through in life where patience is needed. Well, let Caleb be an inspiration for you. If your patience is wearing thin, remember that he waited 40 years to enter into the Promised Land. He was eager to do it when he was younger, and he finally got to when he was 80 years old. And he had patience for another five years until he received his own piece of land. The second thing we learn is that Caleb is an example of generosity. For this part of Caleb s character, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Joshua 15:16-19. It will also be on the screen for those of you who don t have the patience to turn the page of your Bible and find it.
3 Caleb said, I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher. Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb s brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage. One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, What can I do for you? She replied, Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs (Joshua 15:16-19). Two things to explain here. First, what we have here is sort of like one of the first reality tv show contests, except instead of singing in front of judges and a television audience for a prize of a recording contract, the contestants risk their lives to conquer a city, with the prize being Caleb s daughter. Now, I ve never met Caleb s daughter, but she must have been pretty awesome like my own wife, in order for Othniel to risk his life for her. The other thing that s odd to us is the idea of your nephew marrying your daughter in other words, cousins marrying each other. It is not something that is usually done in our culture and in fact is prohibited by law in most states. Some states do permit first cousins to marry, like California, which of course explains a lot about those states. But on the whole, it s something that might strike us as odd. And the act of generosity I want to highlight for us is not the giving of his daughter in marriage, though I m sure that was very generous. Rather: It s the giving of the land and the water rights to her and her husband that is so generous. Now, on the surface, we see this as a certain level of generosity. Who wouldn t like some land and water to go with it? If someone offered me a piece of real estate on the shores of Lake Washington, I d say they re very generous. But here s what makes it even more generous than we realize: This land was for Caleb and his descendents, which in their culture would mean for Caleb and his sons and their families. Caleb has no obligation to give an inheritance to his daughter and her husband. Othniel s parents would have an inheritance to pass along to him
and his wife and their family. Caleb didn t need to do this. This is much more generous than we night realize with a casual reading about Caleb. Are we generous like that? So often we just want to do the bare minimum, don t we? We help cook dinner by turning the oven on to the temperature that s needed, and we call ourselves generous. We put a dollar in the offering plate out of the thousands we make each month, and we call ourselves generous. We tell our kids we ll read them a whole book before bed and we choose Bambi meets Godzilla (Ok, that s never been a book but it was a disturbing movie that lasted 90 seconds, including credits. The book certainly would be just a few pages long.) And we call that 45 seconds generosity of time with our kids out of the 24 hours God gave us that day. Caleb gives us a model for going the extra mile in his generosity. Lastly, we see a final character trait that is something very appropriate for us here at Rose Hill, and it is this: Caleb invested in the next generation. I think that kind of begins with the generosity of the previous point. He blessed his daughter and her husband with the giving of this land to them. But he clearly did more than just that. He invested in them in other ways, too. We don t know what he did, but we see the fruit of it a little later on, just a few pages past Joshua 15, in the book of Judges. Here s what Judges 3:7-11 says: The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan- Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb s younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the Lord came on him, so that he became Israel s judge and went to war. The Lord gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died (Judges 3:7-11). In case you missed it: Othniel became the leader of Israel in the footsteps of Moses and Joshua. Now, clearly, he had influence from his own 4
parents and other people in his life as well, though we don t know anything about any of those people. But based on the generosity of Caleb, and based on Caleb s close relationship with Joshua who became Israel s leader after Moses when you connect those dots together, it s not difficult at all to see that Othniel came into his position, at least in part, because of Caleb. Partly, undoubtedly, because of Caleb s standing as one of the two guys who said, let s take the land 40 years earlier Caleb certainly would have been a respected elder-statesman by this time and had a close bond with Joshua. He d have some influence and could help his son-in-law get a job in the government. But Othniel certainly rose to the position of Judge of Israel because Caleb must have believed in Othniel and helped Othniel to grow into being a God-fearing man who could lead well. The text tells us that the Spirit of the Lord came on him (Othniel). This isn t just a political position this is a spiritual leadership position as well. Someone invested in him spiritually, someone impressed upon him the importance of trusting God, of not giving into the pressures of society to worship false idols as they had done before he became their leader. His leadership of Israel mirrors the faith that Caleb displayed throughout his life. It is not a stretch at all to believe that Caleb is the one who invested in him. Let me ask you: Who are you investing in, and how are you shaping them? Is there someone in your family that you re taking the time to get to know, to build trust, to speak into their life, to train up in the ways of the Lord so they d know Jesus and lead others in His name? Is there someone here at church that you re leading in that kind of way? Let Caleb be a source of inspiration and a model for us of investing in the next generation. If you ve been a part of Rose Hill regularly since I came as pastor, you know that I rarely use the sermon as a vehicle for promoting stuff going on in the church. Usually, I allow God s spirit to move in your life and help you to connect the dots to specific opportunities to live out the message of the sermon some of those opportunities may be through the ministries of the church, many may be in other facets of your life. But let me just say that: With VBS coming up, we have a great opportunity to live as Caleb models: to exercise patience, to be generous, and to invest in the next generation. This is true in a variety of ways: 5
Through direct involvement in the VBS such as being a teacher or leading games, or being a group facilitator you can teach kids about the love of God in Christ. I guarantee you that you ll be able to model patience for them. But rather than bemoaning that fact, maybe we can look at that as an opportunity to invest in those kids as we patiently teach them about Jesus. For those of you who have been around the block a few times, like Caleb was at 85 years old when he gave the land to his daughter and son-in-law, VBS is also an opportunity to work alongside newer adult leaders here at Rose Hill and invest in them, to develop relationships with them, and pass on the mantle of leadership in the church. Maybe some young parent you work alongside in a class becomes an elder in the church because you took the time to get to know him or her in VBS and a relationship grew out of it. Or how about the opportunity to welcome new people here to Rose Hill? What an opportunity to be generous toward them and invest in them as people from outside of our church allow us the privilege of teaching and leading their kids. We can roll out the red carpet so that the parents say, Wow! That Rose Hill Presbyterian Church blessed our socks off! They didn t know us from Adam or Eve and yet the welcomed us with open arms and were generous in every way! Those are the kinds of opportunities we have with VBS to show patience, generosity, and investment in the generations to come after us. And I think that s the kind of person Caleb was. He was patient 40 and 45 years worth of patience, to be exact. He d be a great Mariners fan. He was generous he went beyond the customs and expectations of the day and blessed his daughter and her family (Seahawks illustration rookie cut because of heart condition, but they signed him to a contract first). And even in his later years (in fact, he was 85 years old when Othniel became his sonin-law) he invested in the next generation, the fruit of which is seen in Othniel s Godly leadership of Israel for 40 years. And if Caleb doesn t do it for you, then turn to Jesus for the same characteristics. Jesus was patient with everyone who came to him sick, 6
proud, sinner, wealthy, poor, young or old didn t matter. Jesus was generous. It doesn t get any more generous than giving your life for others. And Jesus invested in people the 12 disciples and others who would go on to lead the Church and grow the faith. Let Caleb and Jesus be models for each of us whether we re 25 or 85 so we d be a church marked by patience, generosity, and investment in the next generation. Let s pray Amen. 7 i I m indebted to several others who made these more in-depth observations about Caleb s life, and I ve pulled together three of them that seem to be particularly appropriate for RHPC at this time. ii http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/p/patience.htm