One of my favorite stories in the Book of Joshua also happens to be one of my favorite lessons in the entire Bible. After most of the land had been conquered and dispersed, one of Joshua’s oldest comrades approached him and requested to be given Hebron. Caleb was a contemporary of Joshua, and they were the only two spies who came back from the land survey with a good report (see Num. 14-15). Caleb was a man’s man. He was 40 years old when they spied out the land (Josh. 14:7: “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 word back to him as it was in my heart”) and 45 years had passed since then, making him 85 years old (Josh. 14:10: “And now behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today”). 85 years old. His request appears so simple on the surface. “Give me the mountain land of Hebron.” Yet, he mentioned there were the Anakim and fortified cities. This was no causal walk through the park. The Anakim were the giants (cf. Deut. 1-2). The very ones who intimidated the original spies and caused Caleb’s brethren’s heart to melt with fear (Josh. 14:8: “Nevertheless my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the Lord my God fully”). This 85-year-old man wanted to be given the roughest terrain with the biggest enemies, the ones who made men half his age quake with fear. But he was unmoved. He was confident in His Lord. Think of all he saw accomplished by God at this point in his life. He was equipped for faithfulness. He would have been a young man in the Exodus and had lived long enough to see the goodness of God repeatedly done. 

It teaches that even giants can be conquered by the most unlikely warriors as long as they are standing with God. This appears to have some implications for a shepherd boy a few hundred years later (see 1 Sam. 17). If we stand with God no enemy is too great. 

The same lesson still stands for us today. If we are on God’s side, nothing can stop us (see Rom. 8:31-39). We must not, however, confuse our own desires with being on the Lord’s side.  This is a temptation. To convince ourselves that whatever we want is what the Lord wants. We must be humble enough to be fully directed by the Lord’s Word. Like Caleb, we must “Follow the Lord God fully.”