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Caleb and Joshua

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Sep 14, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 46.

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Caleb and Joshua

By R. D. Quinn

In the Wilderness

R. D. QUINN
JOSHUA the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh stand out prominently after the death of Moses as the men whom God mightily used in giving his people possession of the Promised Land. The prime characteristic of these wonderful lives was their entire devotion to God. Repeatedly is it said of them, that they wholly followed the Lord.
Joshua is first mentioned in connection with the fight against Amalek at Rephidim, where it seemed he was chosen to lead the Israelitish hosts to battle, and was the minister, or servant, of Moses.
Caleb first comes into view, and manifests a spirit kindred to that of Joshua, when they returned with the other spies from searching the land; and they were the only two of the twelve who brought back a good report, saying, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’
Before going further into the lives and characteristics of these men, let us inquire, What is our object in studying this story? We answer, Every believer must have a similar experience at this time. The story is a prophecy of what every one of us can receive by faith, and their lives must be lived over again in us when the true Israel of God shall come into their possessions.
After the unsuccessful attempt on the part of Caleb and Joshua to counteract the evil report of the faithless spies, and to inspire faith and courage in Israel to go up immediately and possess the land, they were compelled to fall back into the wilderness with the unbelievers, of whom the Lord said at that time, ‘As truly as I live, . . . your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.’ Num. 14: 28-33.
The seventy-eighth, ninetieth, and the one hundred and sixth psalms especially tell the tale of those sad and dreary years of the wanderings of the children of Israel when an unceasing train of funerals passed out of the camp. Doubtless less their winding course in the desert sands could be traced by the mounds that marked the resting places of that murmuring and unbelieving race, ‘until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord swore unto them. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.’ ‘For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.’ Deut. 2: 14, 15; Num. 26: 65.
For forty years they had wandered in that great and terrible wilderness, until Caleb and Joshua had seen the death of every man who disbelieved God. Those desert sands were converted into a training ground, to humble and prove the nation to see what was in their hearts. To Caleb and Joshua and the younger generation it doubtless proved to be a school for higher service. But one by one the unbelievers fell out by the way, until the last man was gone.
They did not all fall at one time or at one place. Some dropped out at one point, and some at another. We read in Num. 11: 1 that some of the people complained, and ‘it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.’ In the same chapter we learn that some ‘fell a-lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?’ They gave way to perverted appetite, and in the midst of their gluttonous feast the wrath of God was kindled against them, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.
The Amalekites and Canaanites slew those who presumptuously tried to go up and take the Promised Land while they were encamped at Kadesh-barnea. Num. 14: 44, 45. Others lost their lives as a result of Sabbath breaking. Num. 15: 32-36. Then Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, ‘with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: . . . gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.’ The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them, and all the persons who sympathized with that terrible apostasy. Numbers 16.
‘There came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.’ Num. 16: 35. Again the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron because of the judgments of God visited upon their brethren, and God’s wrath was again kindled against the people, and fourteen thousand seven hundred died from the plague before it was stayed. Num. 16: 49. Again the people murmured against God, ‘and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.’ Num. 21: 6.
And so the record goes on, until the last great apostasy at the Jordan. The people were now in sight of their possessions. There were the cities, and houses, and lands; the vineyards on the terraced hillsides, and the waving fields of grain in a country that was flowing with milk and honey. Only the Jordan River was now between them and their possessions. But alas, there were many in Israel who were not prepared to go in. They had not reckoned on Balaam’s diabolical scheme to entice them into sin, and many were unprepared to meet his subtle temptations.
Knowing that in all ages temptations appealing to the physical nature have been most effectual in corrupting and degrading mankind, Satan used Balaam to entice Israel to engage in the iniquitous and licentious worship of Baal, and ‘Israel joined himself unto Baalpoor.’ Sins of the most degrading character were soon rampant in the camp, and thousands speedily fell a prey to the wiles of the beautiful Midianitish women. Swift and summary judgment was meted out to the transgressors; those that died of the plague were twenty and four thousand,—doubtless the survivors of that vast host who forty years before had incurred the sentence, ‘They shall surely die in the wilderness.’
Let us for a moment consider these twenty-four thousand men who failed on the very confines of their inheritance. They were in sight of the prize, and doubtless thought they were going over with Caleb and Joshua in a few days to take possession. These men had run the gauntlet, so to speak, for forty years. They had successfully passed through the apostasy of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and remained loyal to God. They were evidently not among the riotous eaters of flesh, and so did not die of the plague. When vast numbers of the people murmured against God, and he sent serpents among them that bit them so that many died, these men were not bitten. They had survived every great crisis through which the nation had passed for forty years, only to fall signally in sight of the Promised Land.
The only basis upon which such a failure can be accounted for is that there was a plague spot somewhere in the character of these men, some pet sin or indulgence over which they had not gained the complete victory; and Satan knew their weak point, and adapted his temptations in a way to deceive and destroy them.
Our only safety is to have nothing in common with Satan. Then we shall be invulnerable to his attacks. Christ said, ‘The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.’ John 14: 30. ‘There was in him nothing that responded to Satan’s sophistry. He didnot consent to sin. Not even by a thought did he yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ’s humanity was united with divinity; he was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And he came to make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character.’—‘The Desire of Ages,’ p. 123.
South Lancaster, Mass.