In the book of Numbers, chapter 14, we are told that all in Israel from twenty years old and upward must wander forty years in the wilderness because of their unbelief. "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years" (verse 34). "Doubtless ye shall not come into the land . . . save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun" (v. 30). "But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went:and his seed shall possess it" (v.24).
Apparently, Caleb lost the best part of his life in the wilderness. Those forty years of aimless wandering were, to outward appearance, thrown away. Nor was he to blame. His faith was ready to take him into the land of Kadesh Barnea. He knew God was able to give the people their promised inheritance, and he was ready in the vigor of that assurance to act at once:"Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it" (Num. 13:30). But he, with Joshua, stood alone, and in vain attempted to stem the torrent of fear, unbelief, and rebellion which swept the whole congregation past this point of opportunity_opportunity never to come again to any of that unbelieving host. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19). And so he must accompany a rebellious and unbelieving people compelled to go up and down in a waste land, and all that time the home of his choice, fair Hebron, lay away off in that "pleasant land" which the people had despised.
What did it cost him to walk those forty years in peace and patience? He was suffering under the government of God, not for his own sin, but because he was identified with Israel and had to go through all the circumstances of trial, sorrow, and temporary cutting off which, in righteous chastening, God was bringing upon the people. Personally he was guiltless, but this enabled him more clearly and fully to enter into the reality of the chastening.
In all this, he presents a vivid illustration of our blessed Lord as Messiah, Israel’s King. In the gospel of Matthew, Christ had attracted the people and awakened their desire for the "kingdom of heaven." He had shown them_as it were "spied out" for them_the holy principles of that kingdom in the sermon on the mount; He had exhibited the "power of the coming age," Eshcol’s fruit (Num. 13:23), in healing every kind of sickness and infirmity, only to find the same unbelief that existed in Caleb’s day. This unbelief culminated in the same rebellion and apostasy, even ascribing to Satan the works of the Holy Ghost! How like Kadesh Barnea and how similar in result! The people as a nation refuse to enter with Him into the blessings of the kingdom, and so from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew we see Him, Caleb-like, turn from the prospect of an immediate earthly kingdom to tread in patience the thorny path of rejection, ending in His being "cut off" as Messiah. "For the transgression of My people was He stricken" (Isa. 53:8).
Caleb, in his measure, no doubt exhibited this same patience in accompanying the people in their wanderings. To be sure, it was the only thing for him to do; but he evidently did not succumb to the surrounding circumstances for we hear him say when at last a new generation of the people under Joshua had entered the land:"And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five years, . . . while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness:and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me:. . . for war, both to go out, and to come in" (Josh. 14:10,11). Only a man who had kept himself "unspotted from the world" could have said that. Only of the righteous can it be said, "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing" (Ps. 92:14). There is no need to mention the various instances where special patience, kindness, or diligence was shown. His wilderness history is an unwritten one to be filled out by each one who will walk in his steps. And are not our circumstances very similar to Caleb’s in many ways? To be sure, there is the added factor of personal failure and the need of realizing the chastening for this,, but there are certain general characteristics which can be applied to us all. What an example for those who, shut out for the time from their Home, become absorbed with their surroundings and forget "those things which are before." Did not the memory of Hebron remain in Caleb’s heart as fresh during all those years as at the first? How is it with us, dear brethren? Do we have a longing to be there? Do we have a desire to depart, if need be, and be with Christ? Are our treasures realized to be there and not here? Let us be taught by Caleb, who, though his feet were in the desert, had his heart in the land. "Set your affection [or mind] on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:2).
But "we can get help and encouragement from Caleb’s example for individual cases. He was yoked with a carnal people and outwardly had to follow where they were led. We, too, are in Christendom and must accept, in a broad sense, the position brought upon it by unbelief. We have often heard it said that it is impossible to restore a ruin; this is true, and we go wrong if we ignore it or attempt to extricate ourselves from the consequences of this ruin. Caleb could not leave the rest of the people, neither can we separate ourselves from the professing church; we must sorrowfully bear witness to the fact that we are in confusion. (And who can, with Caleb, claim personal blamelessness in contributing to this confusion?) But, though Caleb was outwardly with the people, who could dream of his taking part in, or by his presence sanctioning the shameful scenes of Bethpeor? So we have not the slightest excuse for mixing ourselves with practices which, if not so gross, are as much forbidden as the sin of Peor. Specification is not needed. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19). We are to hold ourselves ready to help in every way and to minister to God’s people wherever they are, but we are most assuredly not to partake in their unscriptural practices.
But we have lessons still more individual. One of the constant complaints of God’s people, if not upon their lips, in their hearts at least, is that their circumstances are so unfavorable to a full enjoyment of divine things. One is hampered by absorbing business; another is thrown with ungodly persons in the performance of his duty; a third has, it may be, a worldly family. If matters were different, how much more would they enjoy the things of God. Caleb teaches us to have the heart wholly set upon God’s things, and then to walk the path of duty. It is not said that we cannot alter some of our circumstances. We surely ought where they involve us in dishonor to God. But the vast mass will remain unchanged, and it will spoil us for service if we are going to be dragged down by it. Here is our lesson_to live with God and for Him where He puts us. Nay, we may have, through unfaithfulness, put ourselves in positions where we must quietly learn from God and glorify Him in the position.
What is the foundation of a proper walk? To be wholehearted for God. "Hebron [communion] therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel" (Joshua 14:14). If the Lord has not our whole heart, the world will, wedge like, enter and spoil all. Oh, for that confidence in His love, that conviction of His all-sufficiency which will abide with us in all our path and give us such rest of soul that we may remain, like Caleb, fresh and full of vigor until the Lord Jesus returns.
Faith never expects to learn deep lessons without deep difficulties; therefore she is not surprised by strange and dark providences. How many are apt to say, "My temptation is peculiar," but we should remember that it is the peculiar aggravations which make a trial effectual and we should not forget the word, "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" (I Cor. 10:13). Our faith is greatly strengthened when we are brought to see that no one but God can help.