Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who’s a little further down the road of life. I’ll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays.
In my devotional reading this morning, I read one of my favorite stories and I’m going to share what I think is a really life changing message from it for all of us.
If we feel we might need a reset in life now, this can be beneficial at any age when we realize we have a dream of something we wanted to do, perhaps something we felt God wanted us to do, but for any reason we simply didn’t do it, or a dream didn’t come true for something we wanted deeply and felt that God wanted us to have. No sin, no problems involved with it.
Remember, though, that it’s never too early or too late for a reset.
And to inspire us, let’s look at the story of Caleb in the Bible. We see him in Exodus after the children of Israel got God’s laws and agreed to them.
In addition, God promised, and they heard it again and again and again, that he would help them conquer the land. With those promises behind them, they came up to the border and sent in 12 spies to check out the promised land.
But when the spies returned, they affirmed that the land was indeed one of incredible wealth and plenty. All God promised, all they dreamed about. But they said there are giants in the land and they are scary and they’re big and they were afraid of them.
They didn’t think they could conquer them. We can’t do it there. We’re like grasshoppers in their sight.
They complained and moaned and groaned, totally ignoring that God had said he would go before them and take care of any problem. 10 Of the 12 spies so discouraged the people that as a group, they didn’t want to go forward.
They didn’t believe God and God sentenced them to 40 years of wandering in the desert for their unbelief.
But remember, it was 10 of the 12. There were two who said, we can do it. Let’s take the land. Here’s what Exodus tells us. I’m quoting here.
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. When the people complained that they could not go up to conquer the land, both Caleb and Joshua responded strongly.
They tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, the land we pass through is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into the land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us only.
Do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.
But the unbelief of the 10 prevailed and the people weren’t moved.
And God judged them by making them wander for 40 years in the desert until that entire unbelieving generation died off.
When we get into the book of Joshua, where they finally get to go into the land, at first we don’t hear much about, well, we don’t hear anything about Caleb. I’m assuming he was just being a loyal trooper and doing his duty to help conquer the land, help everybody get their inheritance.
But when he speaks up in chapter 14, this is great. This is where he there in the final days of distributing the land. And finally, Caleb goes up to Joshua and here’s what he said.
“You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God at Kadesh Barnea. Between you and me, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land.
And I brought him back a report according to my convictions. But my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.
So on that day, Moses swore to me, the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.
Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, 85 years old. I’m still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified. But the Lord helping me, I will drive them out.”
The Anakites were the giants. That was the race of giants that were in the land. Caleb was 85 years old. He was as strong as he’d been at 40 for 40 years.
He’d been wandering in the desert for 40 years and for five more years, he helped others secure their inheritance, but he’d been itching to go after the giants everybody else was afraid of for all that time.
And not just any giant. This is great.
People probably just kind of skip over this, but in the following verses it says, “then Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb the Kenizzite ever since then because he followed the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, wholeheartedly.
And then in parentheses it says, Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba, after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites?”
Did you catch that?
The greatest, the biggest, the baddest giant that there was. That’s who Caleb went after and he conquered him.
I find this story incredibly motivating because all our lives are full of delays, frustrations, time, it seems like that we spend wandering around in circles. Sometimes it’s our own fault. Sin almost always causes delays and obstacles.
But sometimes the delays and frustrations in our lives have nothing to do with us personally sinning. Sometimes the group we’re part of messes up.
Sometimes a partner or family member does something and the consequences spill over into hurts, delays, sadness that touches the entire family. Maybe it’s a church family, maybe it’s a school family, maybe it’s any kind of group. And whatever it is, we suffer with them.
God didn’t tell Joshua and Caleb that they were an exception, that they could go ahead into the land and leave the rest behind who were sinners and he was just going to bless them. Seems like that would have been fair. But that wasn’t God’s plan. They were part of a community.
And though bad decisions were made that they had no part of, they had to suffer because of them. But at the same time, God did not forget them.
He kept them strong and vibrant, hungry for battle and victory as their peers grew old and died in their bitterness and rebellion. And after a 40 year delay, achieving the final goal wasn’t easy. They still had years of fighting and remember, that was bloody hand to hand combat.
But they fought and gained their heart’s desire, a land they loved and an inheritance for their families. I find Caleb’s story incredibly encouraging, and I hope you do too.
No matter what your age or where you are or what you’re doing, we all have dreams that are not fulfilled, that we may have almost forgotten because life has become so heavy that it crushed them. But God doesn’t forget. He can reset any sadness, frustration, or delay.
The challenge is for us to trust him, to keep doing what he wants us to do, trusting all that time that our dreams are safe with Him. And one day, when it’s time, God can give you the strength. He can help you fight.
He can conquer the giants and give you what you’ve dreamed of and trusted him for, no matter how long it takes.
That’s all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the bible. Go to www.bible805.com for now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.
May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you’re no more a hobo soul, no more a transient wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.