Joshua 14

Read the full chapter here.

Joshua 14 begins in similar fashion to Joshua 13: land is being allotted as inheritance. We see that Eleazar the priest and Joshua…and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes come together to oversee the casting of lots for inheritance (v.2). We see that everyone is taken care of in some way, shape, or form in vv.2-4, and the people did as the Lord commanded.

Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite then comes to Joshua to claim what was promised to him many years ago:

That day Moses made this solemn promise: ‘Surely the land on which you walked will belong to you and your descendants permanently, for you remained loyal to the Lord your God.’ So now, look, the Lord has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the Lord spoke these words to Moses, while Israel traveled through the wilderness. See here, I am today eighty-five years old! Today I am still as strong as when Moses sent me out. I can fight and go about my daily activities with the same energy I had then. Now, assign me this hill country that the Lord promised me at that time! No doubt you heard then that the Anakites live there in large, fortified cities. But assuming the Lord is with me, I will conquer them, as the Lord promised.”

(Joshua 14.9-12, NET)

Caleb was one of two spies who returned with a positive report of the land ahead of the people in Numbers 13.1-25, the other being Joshua himself. Everyone else was destined to die in the wilderness because of their lack of faith, trust, and obedience to God except Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 14.30). Here, now, Caleb is claiming what was promised to him (Joshua 14.9). 

Often in our own faith life, we are reticent to claim what has been promised to us, aren’t we? We know that God has said this and that and made these promises and those promises, but we are seldom stand up to claim them. Yes, there are promises made to specific people at specific times which we cannot claim, such as Jeremiah 29.11, but there are also big, bold, and broad promises that apply to anyone and everyone (Isaiah 40.30-31, for example).

Today then, rather than seeing the struggles ahead as the spies did, choose to focus on the promises God has made about you and about your situation. See how your life changes when you stand on the Word and the promises of God and when you claim what has been promised to you.