Open your Bibles to the book of Joshua the thirteenth chapter. Let's open our hearts in prayer. Father, we prepare ourselves right now for what your Spirit is going to teach us through this historical but inspired document of Scripture, the book of Joshua. We know that it takes more than just opening our eyes and opening pages of a book, but it takes the opening of our hearts to the Spirit of God who would speak to them. We ask you to do exactly that, in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, the Bible is full of biographies, isn't it, stories about people? Open up with a story after creation of Adam and Eve and then their children Cain and Abel and Seth. We move onto Noah and his generations. We meet Abraham and Sarah. We meet Isaac, his wife, sons, daughters; Jacob, Joseph. The reason that the Bible is filled with stories of people is because we are more apt to follow people's example rather than people's advice. Advice is good, especially if it's from the Bible, and many of these writers were inspired by God to write God's truth. But then we see their lives, the examples that are examples for us to follow, and when we see it worked out and exemplified by a lifestyle, it goes so much further.

There is an article that I have referred to in the past from U.S. News & World Report called "The Heroes Are Back," "The Heroes Are Back." It's a story about how the younger generations are looking for heroes a little bit older than they are. And as I read through this article, I was pretty disheartened, because of the percentage in the polls. They said that 30 percent of the young people polled want to pattern their life after Clint Eastwood, while 24 percent want to pattern their life after Eddie Murphy. I thought, "Man, do we need heroes, if that's as good as you can get. There's like a vacuum of good heroes then." And with more and more of the moral collapse in leadership---spiritually, politically, etcetera---we are in desperate need of them.

Let me offer you a couple: Joshua and Caleb. We see them tonight. We've seen Joshua already, but what's great about tonight study is we get a chance to put them together. Now, they're heroes because they're from the old school. They're the only two guys that survived the old school, the old generation that died out in the desert. A whole new crop has sprung up, new blood, but there's a couple old guys hanging around, Joshua and Caleb, who are more progressive, I think, than people half their age. They inspire us as we read about them. Both of them, as we open up our chapters, both of them are in their eighties, or at least Caleb is. Some think that Joshua is up near a hundred during---beginning in chapter 13. We don't know for sure, but we know he's past eighty.

These couple of guys refused to live their life in the "good old days" mode. "I remember the good old days. Weren't they really great?" Well, no they weren't. Usually we look back over time and we forget a lot of stuff, and so we think it was a lot better then than it is now. That's just a part of life. For these guys it was always good. They always had a trust in God. It was always good, because God was always good. And so tonight we get a chance to see cameos of both of them. Before we do, I wanted you to see a summary of---there we are---the strategy of Joshua. Remember, he crossed the Jordan River. They take Jericho. Their next big battle is the battle of Ai. They fail the first time. They succeed the second time by ambush.

So what they did is cut across into the lowlands and then the hill country, cutting the land in two to divide first and then conquer. Once the land was divided and communication and alliances could be cut, then he decides to take one section and then another section. He sets up camp at Gilgal. They keep going back to Gilgal. This is a little place down by the Jordan River. It means "circle." The second thing he did, if we were to cut it in thirds, is he mounts a southern offensive. Remember he first makes peace with the Gibeonites who come from afar, supposedly, when they're really neighbors. And then there's five kings down south that mount an attack against Joshua and the children of Israel. These five kings are defeated as they go through a narrow pass after Gibeon into the Valley of Aijalon.

We saw that last week. The sun stood still and the moon and we covered that. And then he went after the five kings down south. So he goes into the middle, cuts down south, and turns around and goes from Gilgal up north through Beth Shean, to the waters of Merom by the Sea of Galilee and up through Hazor. By the way, if you ever go to Israel, you can see all of these places and see the ruins from the time that Joshua took them over. In fact, it says that Joshua burned them with fire. And if you go and you have enough time to see Hazor, you can see still the charred remains on the stones of the burning in Hazor from the time of Joshua. So it's fascinating to see how archaeology shows, once again, what we read in our chapters.

Verse 1 of chapter 13, it's what was just referred to: "Now Joshua was old and advanced in years." Now, I know that's a relative term, "old and advanced." God, taking that into consideration, the next phrase: "The Lord said to Joshua: 'You are old and advanced in years, and there remains very much land to be possessed.' " I think God is really the only one who could get away with saying something like that to someone. I think if I went up to some of you and said, "You know, you're old," I think that some of you would probably want to slap me for it, so I won't do that. [laughter] Getting old scares people for a number of reasons. One of the reasons, perhaps, is this feeling of uselessness or guilt. "Oh, I wish I could go back and change certain things," or "I wish I would have done . . . ."

We usually don't think about old age until we're there, we have a feeling that we're there. But no matter what age you are tonight, even if you're very young, there will be a day, if the Lord tarries, that you're going to look at life through the other end. You'll look back and there'll be a lot more to look back on at that time. The key to living your life is living in such a way that you didn't leave anything undone, there are no regrets when you look back, at least as few as possible, so that you're able to say like Paul, "I finished the race. I've done what God wanted me to do. I've kept the faith. And now I look forward. There's a crown of righteousness laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day."

Here's an excerpt I wanted to read from an elderly woman. She said, "If I had to live my life over again, I would dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I'd limber up. I would be sillier than I've been this trip." I don't think I'm going to have that as a regret. [laughter] "I would take few things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. [laughter] I would, perhaps, have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of the people who lives sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to do nothing else, just moments, one after the other, instead of living so many years ahead of time.

"I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, hot water bottle, raincoat, and parachute. If I had to do it again, I'd travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over again, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dinners, I'd ride more merry-go-rounds, and I'd pick more daisies." Of course, as a Christian we'd have to say, "I would give everything I could give to the work of the Lord." I'd put all of that into a spiritual perspective. I have met lots of dying people at different ages who know they're going to die. I've never once heard a person regret that they've been righteous. I've never had a person say, "Man, I've just been too holy, too righteous. I've given too many years to God, too many wasted years."

I've never once heard that, but I've heard a lot of people say, "Oh, if I would have only lived more of my life trusting God, serving the Lord, all-out for Jesus Christ." So, Joshua's old, well advanced in years, between his eighties and one hundreds. We don't know which. God tells them, "I know how old you are. You're old, but there's stuff to do yet. There's more stuff to do." It says, "Yet, there," verse 1, "there remains very much land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all that of the Geshurites, from Sihor, which is east of Egypt, as far as the border of Ekron northward (which is counted as Canaanite); the five lords of the Philistines---the Gazites, the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, the Ekronites, the Avites.

"From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians as far as Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; the land of the Gebalites, all of Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath; all the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon as far as the Brook Misrephoth, and all the Sidonians---them I will drive out from before the children of Israel; only divide it by lot to Israel as an inheritance, as I have commanded you." God lists for Joshua at his advanced age unsettled lands. He begins down in the south with Philistia the land of the Philistines. Then he moves north to Phoenicia, which is more on the coast. And then, finally, Lebanon.

"Okay, you've gone in the middle. You've gone down south. You've gone north. Great start, but you're old. There's more land to be covered, so it's time to divide the land up now, for these tribes now to settle in their tribal allotments." It's an indication here of another truth. The work that Joshua began, he will not finish. Just like Moses began a work and Joshua took it up, Joshua begins the work of settling the land, he will not finish it. Other leaders will arise, judges will arise, tribal leaders will arise, and it will now be their station in life to settle the people in their tribal allotments. He began a work, but God has other instruments. It's always a mistake if we think we're the only instrument God could use.

God, if you decide to step out of the picture, though the body of Christ will be at a loss, and though you will be at a loss for the experience being able to serve God, God will replace you quickly. God has all sorts of ways of getting his work done, all sorts of instruments. And so when Stephen in the New Testament was murdered, God raised up Saul who took the gospel to the Gentiles. We see that through history. When Wycliffe died, Martin Luther was raised up. Billy Graham is now on his last legs. He's old and advanced in years, and I don't think God has to tell him that. He tells us that. And people have said, "Oh, man, Billy Graham, the pastor to the nations, pastor of presidents and kings, etcetera, oh, it's going to be so horrible when he passes."

Oh, it will be, because God has used him mightily, but you think God is worried that the work won't go on? God has all sorts of people that he's looking to and fro throughout the earth to use. And guess what? You're part of that bunch. You're part of that bunch. Verse 7, "Now, therefore, divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh. With the other half-tribe the Reubenites, the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses had given them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord had given them." Now, from this verse all the way down to verse 33 comes this allotment. Joshua is to recognize and confirm a decision that has already been made before he got on the scene through Moses.

Remember when they were coming over, the children of Israel, they were ready to get into the land, two and a half tribes seeing that the Transjordan that is east of the Jordan was fertile, elevated, had lots of rainfall, and these tribes that are mentioned here, Ruben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, they had lots of cattle. They wanted grazing land for their cattle, and so they said, "Hey, could we just stay right here and not go across the Jordan? Can we live as pilgrims here using this as our allotment?" Of course, God said that their land was on the other side of the Jordan, but Moses said, "Sure, these tribes, two and a half of you can stay on the east side of the Jordan under one condition: You have to first keep your stuff on this side, but travel westward, cross the Jordan, fight the battles with your brothers.

"Once the battles are fought, they've settled in their lands, then you can go back and you can have it." So that was a deal that they worked out. They had to win Canaan, first of all. Let me show you these lands and what it looked like, so you have the tribes in your mind's eye. We're going to go from north down to south. Half of Manasseh---now, you're going to find the other half of Manasseh settles on the west side. It's a big tribe. This is the tribe of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. So Ephraim and Manasseh, though they're going to have land on the west side of the Jordan, here is an area east of the Jordan that the tribe of Manasseh will settle in. This is the Golan Heights, very rich in farmland, beautiful area, marked seasons, but beautiful in agricultural.

Then if you move just down from that is the area that Gad settled in, in the Transjordan region. It's present-day Jordan. I like what half of Manasseh had better than Gad. If you go to Gad and Reuben today, you wonder why these guys settled there, but anyway this is Gad's area, the land of Gilead. Some of it's beautiful, the rest of it is barren. And then Reuben down in the south, the eastern border of the Dead Sea, and then eastward just a little allotment belongs to the tribe of Reuben. Now if you look at your Bible down in verse 32. "These are the areas which Moses had distributed as an inheritance in the plains of Moab on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward." This is sort of then a summary of it. The area is given to them, their allotments are given, their borders are given in the verses that I skipped.

And I showed it to you on the map summing up the verses, and now we have a summary statement. Question: Was it wise for those two and a half tribes to stay east? They were allowed to do it. It was their will. It was sanctioned. But was it a wise choice? I think not. First of all, it wasn't God's original design. He promised crossing the Jordan and it was a miraculous crossing showing a sign: "This is your land." Also, there were no natural boundaries. The natural boundary that was provided by the Jordan River, which is below sea level, the gorge and the pass that you have to cross was a helpful thing to them. But settling east, they were continually attacked by Amalekites, Midianites, Moabites, Edomites, and all the other "ites" that lived around them, because there was no natural border.

So they had a problem with this continually. Now, Reuben was mentioned and we saw where he settled. And I want to talk to you a little bit about Reuben. Reuben settles east of the Jordan River. He does not settle westward of the Jordan River. And let me just give you a little bit of background on Reuben. Reuben wasn't always the best son of Jacob. And on Jacob's deathbed in Genesis 49 he's kind of giving this prophetic litany to all of his sons and talks about their future. In Genesis 49 Jacob says this about his son Reuben who is firstborn: "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it---he went up to my couch."

Reuben, being the firstborn would have been entitled to a double portion of the inheritance. But as it is, Joseph who is the younger brother, whom the older brothers hated and sold as a slave into Egypt, he got the double portion. Reuben has to settle east of the Jordan River, not west. What happened with Reuben, "unstable as water," this reference he says to defile his father's couch, his father's bed? At one point, Reuben, this firstborn son went into his father's tent and slept with Bilhah his father's concubine. And because of that sin, though it may have been forgiven after that, there was still consequences that he paid because of his immorality and he never was able to enter into the full inheritance. Now, look at that last verse, verse 33. "But to the tribe of Levi Moses had given no inheritance"---stop.

Doesn't sound fair. These guys that work in the tabernacle and the temple later on, who serve the Lord wholeheartedly, who are dedicated to the work, to the utensils, to the sacrifices, it says they get no land inheritance. But lest you think they're getting a bad deal, we have to finish the verse, because they get the best deal, the best inheritance. "The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he had said to them." That means a couple of things. First of all, they were allowed to eat portions of what was brought and sacrificed by the rest of the tribes: portions of the meal offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering. There were portions that were designated for the priesthood and tithes that were given from all the children of Israel. The tribe of Levi lived on them.

So though they were given no land inheritance, they were amply provided for by the rest of congregation as they full-time served the Lord. Also, there were forty-eight Levitical cities, cities dispersed among the different tribes of Israel, and they were taken care of in those cities. So, you know, really, what better inheritance could you have than just the Lord? And it reminds me of a scriptural verse. Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust can corrupt and thieves can break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." And then he said, "For where you're treasure is, there will your heart be also." I was reading a story about a man who was buried at the south of France near the Mediterranean Sea in a graveyard.

There's a tombstone and people pass by it for years, because, you know, they didn't really know what it meant. But it said on the tombstone: "Here lies the soul of Count Louis Esterfeld." "Here lies the soul of Louis Esterfeld." Well, one man was digging around in the graveyard one day, dug in this grave, and found a metal box with jewels and coins, treasures and a note. And the note said this: "To you my heir: to you I bequeath this wealth, to you who have understood. In this box is my soul---the money with which a man is but a machine without, and his life but a long procession of weary, empty years." What a fool! "Here's my soul, my wealth, my treasure, my jewels." Jesus said, "What does it matter if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?" His soul wasn't in that box. His soul had already faced the judgment of God.

And so the tribe of Levi, you get the best of it all. The Lord is your inheritance. Serve the Lord faithfully and the congregation would take care of them---actually, the Lord would. Now, we're in chapter 14 already. "These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as an inheritance to them." I don't know if you can feel the excitement or not, but it had to have been there. This is payday. This is the day they've been waiting for a long time. Forty years they wandered through the desert. Seven years they have spent in conquering the land. It's been a long time coming, now it's payday, now it's allotment time.

Cast the lots, take your portion, go home, settle down, and finish possessing the land. "Their inheritance was by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and half-tribe on the other side of Jordan; but to the Levites he had given no inheritance among them. For the children of Joseph were two tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim. And they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for livestock and their property. As the Lord had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; and they divided the land. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal.

"And Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite said to him: 'You know the word which the Lord had said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me back from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.' " What a cool saying. It's mentioned previous books. It's mentioned here a couple different times. " 'I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, "Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God." ' "

"Caleb," the name means "bold." It can also be translated "impetuous." I think he typified his name. He was bold. He was a go-getter. He was impetuous in a good kind of a way, a man of faith. "Who cares if there's giants. Let's go after them." The name also can be translated and is translated in certain Hebrew texts "dog." So I'm only bringing that up, because depending on who is in his neighborhood or he was going through the wilderness with, they understood his name to be "Bold" or "Dog." So maybe this kid grew up, you know, kind of as a tough kid with a name like "Dog," like a boy named Sue, you're going to grow up as a fighter. And so Caleb---Dog, Bold---bold as a dog, one who would rush out. Now, look at what he does when he comes to Joshua.

He's going over his history. He's going, "Now, forty-some years ago back in the wilderness when I was this age . . . ." And no doubt the younger generation that was gathered around this old guy started rolling their eyes: "Oh, there he goes again, talking about the past. I know what he's going to say." You know how that is when your parents say, "Now, when I was your age . . . ," and you just sort of automatically tune out, unfortunately. [laughter] Perhaps, that was going on among their ranks. Truth is forty years before Joshua and Caleb were at the very border of the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea. Moses had sent twelve secret agents on a six-week tour of the Holy Land. They were going to see it firsthand.

By the way, when I first went to Israel, it wasn't on a tour bus, it was on the back of a pickup truck. I lived on a kibbutz and I saw it as a worker from the back of a truck. And I thought, "This is the best way to see it, like you live there." And so for six weeks they were traveling looking at the land that God was going to give them. The story of what happened, and he's referring to it, is back in Numbers 13. You know the story well. We've recounted it in this study of Joshua. Ten have a bad report; two have a good report. The two with the good record are still alive; the ten with the bad report have died with the rest of the generation. So these guys are left. There was this report circulating among the children of Israel.

And the report that was believed, the story that was believed by everyone, the headlines in the newspaper, so to speak, was: "This is a great place to go, but there are big dudes that live there. We'll never make it." And the ten viewed big people and a little God; but the two, Joshua and Caleb, viewed small people, because they have a big God. You can view your problem through the lens of "These impossibilities are so big," or you can say, "I serve a God with whom nothing is impossible." It depends with which lens, which glasses you put on. The ten felt sorry for themselves because, "These guys are big." Joshua and Caleb felt sorry for the giants: "Oh, these poor giants. They're dead meat. We have such a big God, he's going to wipe them out. They're going to be humiliated."

It just all depends on how you approach it. They come to Joshua or he comes to Joshua along with the tribe of Judah in Hebron in this paragraph. And Hebron is the very place that they had come forty years before. This is the area where the grapes of Eshcol were taken. Joshua and Caleb put these grapes on their arms, on their shoulders, and marched back down south. By the way, if you go to Israel, notice the Ministry of Tourism symbol. To this day, it's on all of their cars, it's still the symbol of Joshua and Caleb carrying this huge harvest of grapes from the Valley of Eshcol in Hebron. And so these guys are still talked about, still immortalized in history.

Verse 10, " 'And now,' " Caleb continues, " 'Behold,' " good Bible word, " 'Behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.' " Every time I read that I want to say, "Happy birthday." "I'm eighty-five years old today." Here's a guy who trusted God in the midst of everybody else complaining and not trusting God. You know how hard that must have been to be outnumbered by a bunch of complainers, and whiners, crybabies, mad at God, wondering what's going to happen? And it's like this guy has to not only not go into the land, which he should have gotten to go in the first place, but he has to listen to all this.

One of the hardest jobs, one of the hardest callings we have is to maintain a godly walk in the midst of an unbelieving culture, all of these dissenting voices, to remain faithful. What's his secret? Verse 8, "I wholly followed the Lord my God." You know why this guy made a difference? Because he was different. How do you make a difference in your culture? By being different. If the world is corrupt, and the world is dark, then you be salt and light. Don't be corrupt and dark, be different. And when you live this way, you start viewing God the right way, you have nothing to lose, everything to gain. You never have to settle for anything less. So this guy comes forward to Joshua, and notice verse 6 and verse 9. He states the promise. He remembered it well. He had memorized it.

" 'You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.' " Now in verse 9, "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.' " Isn't it interesting that after this many years, he still remembered the exact quotation of Moses? You know why? This was a dear promise to him. Oh, the value of listening to the Word of God and memorizing it. "Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." You know, all these years this guy had been storing it up waiting to quote it at this point, so he quotes it. Verse 11, he continues, eighty-five years old, " 'As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me.' "

Don't you love this? " 'Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.' " This old guy is ready for more. He is like an infomercial, a walking infomercial. [laughter] I don't know if you remember the commercials that they show these senior citizens and something like, "Life is just beginning for Mr. So-and-so of this city." It's like life is just beginning for Caleb. "I'm as strong today as I was back then."

It has been said that "There are none so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm," just get burned out with life, enthusiasm is drained out, no more adventures, no more horizons, nothing left to do, just to veg. Not this guy. Notice he states his age publicly, just as an aside. He goes, "I'm eighty-five years old." You know, that's not cool to do these days. In fact, it's funny me how we monitor age in our culture. At first we start by months---"Oh, he's so many months old. He's eighteen months old." Then we go by half years, right? "I'm eight and a half," and that "half" matters to an eight-and-a-half-year-old. [laughter] Then later on we get into years. Then we start talking about decades. We forget the years. "I'm thirty-something." Don't want to say what part of that thirty-something. [laughter]

Then it reaches a point where, "Hey, don't ask. It's impolite for you to ask my age." He doesn't care: "I'm eighty-five years old, big deal." He wants more. A couple things to notice about him, verse 12 he says, "Now give me this mountain." Here's a guy who doesn't live in the past. Here's a guy who doesn't look back and survey past glories as so many people often do. Sometimes we stagnate. We just decide to stay in a place. "Oh, I remember back in 1997 . . . ." And we start looking back to some era. "Oh, I remember when God used me." Is God using you today? would be my question. I'll tell you why this is important, because Christian movements do this all the time. Denominations do this all the time. Even nondenominational denominations do this all the time. [laughter]

I don't care what you call yourself, great movements of God that started with fire and passion often stop, and then all they can do is look back at the peak of their history. And they tell their congregations their history and "This was the peak, and these were our great leaders," but everything inside is deader than a doornail. Okay, the history is great, it's neat to see where God has taken us, but what's ahead? Sometimes people who go back into the Jesus Movement will say, "Oh, I remember the Jesus Movement. Wasn't the Jesus Movement great?" Yeah, it was cool. "What do you mean? You should be more enthusiastic." Well, listen, Jesus is still moving. It's not like he stopped in the seventies and went somewhere else.

I just think we look back through certain color glasses and we---"Oh, but remember the bell-bottoms?" [laughter] Yeah, I'm trying to forget them, please. [laughter] ". . . or the tie-dye T-shirts with Jesus and . . ."---forget it. What's ahead? What is Jesus doing in our lives now and in the future? This guy wouldn't live in the past and I love it, man. "Give me this mountain." It's like, you know, look out, Canaanites. For the Canaanites, this is Jaws 2. [Laughter] This is Caleb 2. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the land! It's Caleb 2. He's back! [laughter] Notice verse 11 how he views himself: "I'm as strong this day . . . ." It doesn't sound like he's saying, "Well, I'm useless. I'm tired. I'm no good. I've worked. You guys owe me some benefits, and I paid my dues."

Rather he's saying, "You see those hills, see that village, I want it. And I want those giants that are still left in it. I'm after them." You know, I want to be able to live my life so that at the end of the journey I can say something like this: "I've worked for the kingdom. There's no regrets." "And Joshua blessed him, and gave him Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba," which means "village of the four" or "village of Arba." Arba is "for" in Hebrew, but it could also refer to a person, because it says in parentheses, "(Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim)." Who were the Anakim? Giants.

Here's Caleb, "Give me this place Hebron where the giant are. Still some of them left around here. The greatest one, I want to take him on." And, "Then the land had rest from war." Now before we move on into the next chapter, if we even have time, there's several characteristics, three of them---there are probably more, but I'm going to limit it to three---of people who wholly follow the Lord as seen in Caleb and Joshua. There's some characteristics of people who are wholehearted and I think that's an important concept. The Christian life is to be lived wholeheartedly, not haphazardly, not halfheartedly---wholeheartedly. And we always know there's a difference, right? There are people who say, "I trust in the Lord."

But we know the difference between people who say---who just say that and what it says in Proverbs, "Trust in the Lord with all of thine heart; lean not to your own understanding," someone who has a wholehearted trust, who's a wholehearted follower, who's wholeheartedly obedient rather than halfhearted---big, big difference. What are the characteristics? First of all, a person who wholly follows the Lord has spiritual and moral bravery, spiritual and moral bravery. The nation of Israel back in the book of Numbers was influenced greatly and sympathized with ten cowards. It was more politically correct to be a coward. "I'm too afraid. There's too many giants. It's too hard." But it seemed not to bother Joshua and Caleb. They spoke up. They were the dissenting voice among the majority.

They said, "What do you mean? Forget it, let go for it." They were brave. They were courageous. And again, of course, Caleb does it here. One time when Alexander the Great, who was quite a warrior, was told by one of his advisors that he was outnumbered by the Persians and that the Persian army was more in number than all the sands of the seashore. That's how it was put to Alexander. Alexander laughed and he said, "One butcher is not afraid of a whole flock of sheep." [laughter] And he defeated the Persians, though he was outnumbered. You don't have to bow. You don't have to be afraid, even though you are outnumbered by the world. Another mark: those wholly follow the Lord speak truth without regard to pleasing men. They won't be afraid to say truth.

They don't care if people necessarily agree with them or not. They're not there to follow the polls, but to say and do what's right. Verse 7, "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart." "It was in my heart. I knew it was true and I said it." I've been reading Galatians lately in my devotional time, and as Paul begins his letter to the Galatians, he says something very radical. He says, "As we have said before, so I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."

"I'm telling you the truth. Some of you won't like it. It is the truth. This is from God. You should believe it. You should adhere. You should grow. And I'm not trying to please men; I'm trying to please God. And if I was out to try to score points, to have the plaudits of men, it would mean that at some point I would have to compromise my allegiance to Christ, and I won't do that." Charles Spurgeon, one of my heroes, said, "My motto is this: I yield to none. I preach what I like, when I like it, as I like it." And read some of his sermons, he did exactly that, and he moved London with his sermons. And so Caleb said, "It was in my heart; I spoke it." Third, a person who wholly follows the Lord has a reckless abandonment to the will of God. Be careful, I phrased that that way on purpose.

It doesn't mean he's reckless in his life and goes 150 miles an hour home in his car---a reckless abandonment to the will of God. In other words, "If this is the will of God, let's just go for it. It's an adventure." Verse 12 embodies what I just mentioned. " 'Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified.' " Listen to this: " 'It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.' " You hear that? "I might die doing this, but this is an adventure. It might be that the Lord will be with me and I will be able to drive them out." Here's a guy, eighty-five, who's not seeking comfort, but he wants the battle. He wants the battle. He looks to a new horizon.

"What else is there for me, Lord? You know, if I'm eighty-five years old, and God just told Joshua, 'Hey, you're old, man,' then I don't have much time left. I might as well go out in a blaze of glory." He didn't seek his own comfort. John Haggai wrote these words: "Attempt to do something so impossible that unless God is in it, it is doomed for failure." Interesting---"Attempt something so impossible that unless God is in it, it's doomed for failure." Could be that God is in it. This is an adventure. When you look at the world, and I look at the world, what's our response to it? "Oh, there's giants in the land." There's a lot of anger among the world against Christians, fundamental Christians, pro-life Christians, people who raise the flag of righteousness.

And it seems that there was one of three responses you can have: number one, intimidation. "There's so many of them. They're so big. I'm so intimidated. What could I do? Could I ever make a difference?" And so we kind of hide. Second response that I see common among believers: isolation. "The world is bad. The world is so horrible and corrupt it is my duty to get out of it, to find some place way far away from civilization where I can just store things and be alone and be isolated from the corruption of the world rather than in it." Seems to me that the only biblical response to what we see in the world is not intimidation, not isolation---here it is---infiltration, infiltration. The world's corrupt. The world is dark. There's a lot of sick, bad, evil things: pornography, drugs, alcoholism, crime, abortion, disregard for the elderly.

So I need to love that world in the name of Christ. I need to bring a message to it. I need to infiltrate it. Well, we have six minutes to cover another chapter, so let's do that. [laughter] Chapter 15, "So this was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families: The border of Edom at the Wilderness of Zin southward was the extreme southern boundary." You can see on the map---the wrong thing. Ooh, see, now you see all my secrets. [laughter] There we go. It's coming up. Wrong one, wrong one. There we go. There's Judah. Look how big it is. Huge area of land, the biggest portion of land down south. The only thing is that Simeon is a little island inside of that. He has a tribal allotment among those that live in Judah.

But Judah had the largest tribal allotment, some of the most fertile land given to the tribes of Judah. And in this chapter, beginning in verses 1 through 12, the borders are described. And then verses 13 through 16 the borders are described family by family or clan by clan. But you can see that they encompass the whole western portion of desert of the Dead Sea and then all the way down to the Negev Desert. So it's kind of bordered on either side by deserts, but in the middle is some of the most beautiful, terraced, vineyard land, some of the most fertile land in all of Israel. A hundred cities are given to the tribe of Judah, they are mentioned. But now look down in verse 63. See, I told you we could cover it. [laughter]

"As for the Jebusites, which are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day." The Jebusites will remain in the fortifications of Jerusalem, as we mentioned, until the time of David when he and his army move from Hebron to Jerusalem, make it the new capital of the land, and move out the Jebusites. So it says they couldn't do it. I think really they couldn't do it because they wouldn't do it. God said, "I'll be with you. I'll drive them all out of the mountains," but they could not because they would not. And you're going to see this phrase repeated over and over again. Okay, we don't have time---actually, we do have time. We could finish up to chapter 17 the way we're going.

But a question---and I want to end with Christ, because we mention Judah here. Judah is the first tribal allotment given, which might seem a little odd because Judah was the fourth born, not the firstborn, the fourth born. Once they get into the land proper, the very first allotment is given to the tribe of Judah. Now there's numbers of reasons for that. It could be because they're the large tribe. It could be because they went to battle sometimes first. There's a number of conjectures, but let me read something to you that I think really states it. It's the prophecy given by Jacob in Genesis 49 when he was on his deathbed and all his kids are gathered around what he predicted with Judah. Quote, beginning in verse 8, Genesis 49, "Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise," play on words.

"Judah" means praise. "Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who is shall rouse him?" Now comes this wild prophecy. "The scepter," it says, "shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of the people." He says, "The scepter," that means the symbol of rulership, the symbol of sovereignty, being a sovereign nation able to govern one's own self. That scepter, that kingship, that rulership will not depart from Judah, this territory, "until Shiloh comes." "Shiloh" is a name that means "the one to whom it belongs."

"And to him," referring to a person, "shall be the obedience of the people." If you keep this prophecy in mind and you take it up into the time of the New Testament, you open the gospel of Matthew and you find that a foreign army has occupied Judah. Jerusalem is not self-governed any longer. The rights of capital punishment and self-governance has been stripped away, because the Romans have occupied the land. One of the first things they did was to take away that right of self-governance indicated by the right of capital punishment. It had to go through the Roman courts. They took it away from Judah. As soon as this happened, some of the high priests saw this as being abandoned by God. And they ordered a procession through the streets of Jerusalem bewailing the fact that God had not kept his promise to Judah.

"The scepter has departed," said the high priest, "but Shiloh has not come." Little did they know that there was a twelve-year-old at the time of that procession who lived a few miles north in Nazareth, who worked in a carpenter shop, who was just about ready to lay down his carpenter's tools and come into Jerusalem for his coming-of-age, his bar mitzvah, his coming into the temple and talking to these rulers. Little did they know that he was about to lay down this trade and come as the Messiah and be offered to the nation. Shiloh had come. The prophecy was fulfilled. The One to whom the nations would eventually bow down---Shiloh, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ---had come and the prophecy was fulfilled.

And later on he came into the city and wept over the city that refused to received Shiloh and said, "Because of this your children will all be taken captive or killed," as he predicted the fall of Jerusalem. So that's sort of---that's where I wanted to end on chapter 15. I thought we'd make it through chapter 17, but I'm always very optimistic when it comes to Bible study. And for lack of time we'll close our Bibles and we'll end in prayer.