Joshua Chapter 14:1-15:12

Who represents your 10 spies?

We all have them. People go, oh, that'll never work. Oh, you shouldn't do that. Don't believe the 10 spies. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. In the book of Joshua, we see God accomplishing for the Israelites what 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent said was impossible. Today, Pastor David encourages us to trust God and his promises as he continues his study in the book of Joshua chapter 14. But first, when you're in trouble, where do you turn most often?

Do you look to yourself or the advice of your friends or do you go straight to God? We want to help you experience the hope that comes from looking to the Lord when your life turns upside down by sending you Pastor David McGee's CD series titled Lessons from the Wilderness. In this encouraging resource, Pastor David looks at one of the most difficult periods of King David's life to show you how you can wait confidently on God no matter what you're facing. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now here's David McGee with his teaching Inheritance. Turn with me to Joshua chapter 14. Joshua chapter 14 verse 1 says, These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as an inheritance to them. Their inheritance was by law as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe on the other side of Jordan, but to the Levites he had given no inheritance among them. For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they gave no part to the Levites in the land except cities to dwell in, with their common lands for their livestock and their property. And as the Lord had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.

So, noticed in this, there's a leadership hierarchy that's set up here. And be careful, it changes gears within these two chapters between the leadership of Joshua and the leadership of Moses. But, you know, here at this point in time, Joshua's hearing from the Lord and sharing with the leaders. And the first part of what he was to do, which was to go into the Promised Land, go into the land of Israel, and battle against those people who were already there, had been accomplished. Now, the second part of what he was to do was to divide up the land with the different tribes, and the tribes were to protect the land from the idolatry and from other nations. Now, what you see in here is you see, hey, the Levites weren't given any of the property except these cities.

These cities were called cities of refuge. Now, we're going to get into that more in chapter 20 and chapter 21 of Joshua, so we'll get into that more. But notice also that there's, it says cities to dwell in, and actually, if you're in the King James, it says suburbs, which is kind of interesting. The King James uses the word that we think of a modern word, but same thing going on.

There was a major city and little towns or little villages or little suburbs around here. And here again, we see the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel did the stuff, and so we see a picture, I believe, of what's called a theocracy. Now, theo is just a Greek word meaning God. Theocracy means how it's governed, so theocracy means God governed.

Democracy, demo means people. It's governed by the people, but here we have this theocracy because the children of Israel, they weren't governed by Moses per se, and they weren't really governed by Joshua. No, what happened was Moses would seek the Lord, receive revelation from the Lord, and then tell the people, well, this is what the Lord wants us to do. And Joshua did the same thing. Joshua would seek the Lord, and then he would come back to the people and say, hey, this is what I believe the Lord wants us to do. And evidently, they were hearing from the Lord.

And how awesome it must have been for them to be gathered here at this place. Knowing that Moses had heard from the Lord, and that Joshua had heard from the Lord, and the Lord had been faithful. Verse six, then the children of Judah came to Joshua and Gogol. And Caleb, the son of Jephthah, the Kenizzite, said to him, you know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. And I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt. But I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, this is Caleb speaking at this point, it's a little confusing. So Moses swore on that day, verse nine, saying, surely the land where your foot has trod and shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.

Your attention, please. You may remember the story. They got to Kadesh Barnea, and they came up with this plan that they were going to send 12 spies into the land to kind of check the land out. Now this, if you read that portion really closely, or perhaps you were here for that time, that wasn't really God's plan. That was a plan man came up with that God said, okay. So what happened is the 12 gods go in, and the 12 gods come out, and 10 of them go, oh my gosh, there's giants in the land. There is no way this can ever happen.

Let's just all go back to Egypt or die in the desert. They're really kind of bright and cheery. Now let me ask you a question. Does anybody in here remember the names of those 10 spies?

No. But then the two guys, does anybody remember their two names? Joshua and Caleb. Oh, we remember them.

Why? Because they came back with a good report, and they were filled with faith. So if you want to be remembered, give a good report and be filled with faith. Joshua and Caleb, they came back out, and they're like, yes, man, there's grapes as big as basketballs. Okay, so that's a little paraphrase, but I mean, they're big grapes is what they were saying, and let's go in, and we can take this land, and God will give us the land.

They listened to the 10 spies, the people did. They said, well, we're going back to Egypt. And then Moses said, oh, hey, guys, I can't believe you're going back to the desert.

God's going to give us this land. But they said, no, we're going back to Egypt. And then Moses said, okay, well, let's go back to Egypt. And then they said, well, no, let's go into the land. And Moses said, no, no, no, no, God's not with you now.

If you go up there now, God's not going to honor you. And they were very headstrong, and they went anyway, and they lost. And then they wandered around the desert for almost 40 years. And in this portion of scripture, Moses said to Caleb, that part that you wandered on as you were spying the land, you're going to have that one day.

And you know what's amazing? That as Caleb marched around the desert for 40 years, I think he remembered that. I think he walked around and thought, one day, that's going to be Caleb's mountain. One day, I'm going to live in that place where I walked around.

And everybody else might not have understood that. Everybody else might have been, man, it's 118 degrees. I'll go home. I'll go back to Egypt. But Caleb's like, no, no, no, we're going back in the promised land at some point. That mountain is going to be Caleb's mountain. He was filled with faith.

Why? Because he believed the promise. He believed the promise. What are you believing? Who are you believing in your life?

First life lesson is believe God. Do not believe the 10 spies. Now, I'm not sure who represents the 10 spies, but the life lessons believe God. Do not believe the 10 spies.

But who represents your 10 spies? We all have them. We all have them. The people who go, oh, that'll never work. Oh, you shouldn't do that.

Oh, you're going to church again? We all have these people in our life, don't we? There's four people in here that have, no, come on, now we all have these 10 spies. And maybe one of your spies is the media or the news or the television or the newspaper.

We all have them. Don't believe the 10 spies. Don't believe them.

Don't listen to the reports. So Caleb now is reaping the blessing of holy following the Lord his God. Verse 10, and now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he had said these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now here I am this day, 85 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me, just as my strength was then. So now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.

Man, isn't that glorious? Wouldn't you like to be saying that at 85? Notice Caleb's not, he's not kicking back. He's not, well, you know, I'm ready to lay back. No, no, no. Caleb's going, you know what, I'm ready for the next round.

Somebody hit the bell. So at this point, Caleb's looking back on his life and look what he sees. He sees a life of believing God. He sees a life filled with faith. He sees a life that even though some chose not to believe God and suffered the consequences, he continued to believe God and walk in faith. And he walked in a blessed life because of that. And now he's at this point and he's going, oh, you know what, I remember God strengthening me then, he's strengthening me now, he strengthened me in the future.

And so, I think we've got a model here. Because see, at some point, we don't talk about it a lot, but at some point, we go home to be with the Lord, some sooner, some later. But what do you want to be thinking and feeling and sensing on that day?

We talked about this Sunday morning. Do you want to be looking back going, oh, you know, I should have done that. Oh, you know, I could have done that, but I didn't. I wish I would have served the Lord more. See, if you know that day is coming and you want to own that day like Caleb, like Joshua, like Moses, like Paul, like the heroes of our faith, say, you know what, I fought the good fight, then brothers, sisters, beloved, you need to start living that way now. Because none of us knows when that day is coming, but we do know that day is coming. So, the only way not to have any regrets on that day is not to have regrets today and begin to really live for the Lord. Revelation chapter 12 verse 11 tells us something interesting. It says, and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, talking about the beast, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. See, what we need to do is not love our lives to the death. What does that mean? It means we get so caught up in our lives, in our little circle, in our own little stuff that we begin to forget the bigger picture.

Now, I don't know about you, but you know what I found? I found that there's certain things I don't really need reminding of, and those are the things I tend to get reminded of. You see, well, like the power bill. I mean, you know, at this point, I'm pretty sure I got to pay the power bill once a month, you know? But Duke Power, just to help me out, they kind of send me a reminder.

They probably send you the same reminder, and then if you hit a little snag, they'll send you a how you doing kind of card. And if you forget for long enough, they'll give you a real strong reminder, you know, because the lights will go off, and you'll go, uh-oh. And that's a real strong reminder.

But you know what? There's other things that I don't need reminding of, like to eat. I remember to eat. I remember to eat. I mean, on a pretty regular basis. Nobody really has ever come to me and go, hey, you know, when's the last time you ate?

Oh, my goodness. What day is it? It's Thursday?

I think it was Monday I ate. I've just been totally slipping my mind. I don't need reminding about that. What I do need reminding of is the things that are really important.

Now, isn't that bizarre? And I'm sure a lot of us are the same way. It's thinking on the pure things, the innocent things, thinking about heaven, thinking about God.

Those are the things where I actually have to exert concentration and focus on remembering what this life is about, especially when those other things start swirling around us. We need to be reminded and not love our lives to the death, but love the Lord and serve the Lord. And I think Caleb had reminded himself of this constantly. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 36 is when Moses gave this promise to Caleb, he said, except Caleb, the son of Jephthah, he shall see it.

And to him and his children, I am giving the land on which you walked because he wholly followed the Lord. And see, and here we are 40 years later, Moses is long gone and Caleb's like, hey, Moses promised me that land. Nobody had to go up to Caleb and go, Caleb, didn't Moses make some kind of promise about the land you walked? No, Caleb remembered because there's power in remembering.

And then notice Caleb wasn't counted out. He was 85 and Caleb was saying, my faith was strong for the past. My faith is strong for the present and my faith will be strong for the future.

It's awesome testimony that Caleb has given at this point. And we can have faith, obviously look back on your past and see how God has come through. Look at how God is coming through now and look into the future and know that God is going to continue to come through on your behalf. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's word in just a moment. But first, no matter how wise you are, listening to your own advice when you should be trusting God is dangerous. That's why we want to send you Pastor David McGee's CD series called Lessons from the Wilderness. Journey through one of the darkest times in King David's life and discover how you can wait confidently on God no matter what struggles you're facing because his plans are perfect and he always comes through for you. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now back to today's message. Verse 12, now therefore give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day. For you heard in that day how the Anacom were there and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. Understand what Caleb's saying. He's 85 and he's going, hey, you know what, there's still giants up there in the mountains.

That's the area that I want. He's not taking the easy way out, folks. He's being led by God to the place that has trouble. What an awesome, awesome brother. And Joshua blessed him. He brought him to Caleb the son of Jephthah as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephthah the Kenizzite to this day because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

He gained his inheritance because he followed God. Now check this out, guys. Sometimes we get caught up in our own ways. Sometimes we get caught up in our own things. And here's the thing, as believers we need to follow God. Now you know that I prefer the term follower of Jesus over the term Christian because we've so watered down and torn apart the term Christian that it really doesn't have a lot of power and meaning in our society today. But to be a follower of Jesus, that should reveal what we're about. If you're a follower of Jesus, doesn't that kind of tell you something?

See, when you get in a situation, no longer does it become an option. Well, I know the Bible says that, but I really want to do that. You cannot imagine how many times in counseling situations we hear that. Well, this is what the Bible says. Yeah, I know what the Bible says, but I want to do something else. Well, then may I suggest in love that you're not following Jesus because this is what Jesus says to do. So as we follow Jesus, what happens? We get blessed beyond measure.

But here's what happens. Some of you, maybe even tonight, are saying, why am I not blessed? Why am I not walking in the blessings and the fullness of God? Now, there may be a lot of reasons and this may not be the only one for you, but do a heart check, do a life check and ask yourself, am I following Jesus? Because what happens sometimes is we expect the blessings, but we don't want to follow Jesus. Jesus loves us too much to give us that deal. He wants us to follow him and he wants to bless us.

And those things come hand in hand. As we see, Caleb followed the Lord and he was blessed because of it. Here's what happens in a church. Well, here's what's supposed to happen in a church, is that some people get blessed and they begin blessing others.

See, we see that here. It's such a beautiful thing to see people come in and perhaps get saved here. And then, you know, just a couple of months later, they're like, hey, you know, I want to start helping in some way. Then they start helping, they start serving, they start being a blessing to other people.

And guess what happens? Other people see that and they go, oh, okay, this is what we're supposed to do. We're blessed, so we bless others. And it becomes a natural but supernatural way the church is supposed to operate. Now, obviously, the flaw in the plan is when somebody gets blessed and then just sits there and go, oh, this is great, more, Lord, more blessings, more blessings for me. And they forget to turn around and bless others.

See, that's an important thing to remember as believers. And, guys, we see this in an incredible way here. I see so many people pouring out blessings on other people. It's an amazing thing.

And you know what? Do you realize that as we bless others, do you know who we are acting like in that moment? We're acting like God.

We are being conformed to His image. See, because our God, our God is a blessing God. That prayer that I close in, it's called the Aaronic blessing.

The Lord bless you. Our God is a blessing God. So when we bless others, guess who we're acting like? We're acting like God.

Now, don't get freaked out that I'm using that terminology. We're not God. We're clearly not God, okay? But we're acting like God in that moment, probably more than other moments as we pour out on others. Verse 15, In the name of Hebron, formerly was Kerjoth Arba.

Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest for more. That's an awesome statement. Do you have rest for more right now? Do you have real rest?

Now, that doesn't mean you're just sitting still doing nothing. Rest, in the spiritual sense, means you can be really busy and life can be full, but there's a peace, and there's a peace that the world can't give, and the world can't take it away. Now, be careful that you don't give this peace away, because you can do that.

You ever been just having a great day, and then something goes wrong, and then all of a sudden you're having a horrible day? Do you understand you gave your peace away? Something happened where you went, oh, I can't believe. I never, I didn't know about this bill. I'm going to give that bill my peace. No, I'm not at peace anymore. Don't do that.

Don't do that, because you can have rest like the world will never see, because God has a place of rest for you. Chapter 15, verse 1, So this was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah, according to their families. The border of Edom at the wilderness of Zin, southward was the extreme southern boundary, and their southern border began at the shore of the salt sea from the bay that faces southward. Then it went out to the southern side of the ascent of Acharabim, passed along to Zin, ascended on the south side of Kadesh Barnea, passed along to Hezron, went up to Adar, and went around to Carca. From there it passed towards Asmon, and went out to the brook of Egypt, and the border ended at the sea.

This shall be your southern border. The east border was the salt sea, the Dead Sea is what it's talking about when it passes. As far as the mouth of the Jordan, and the border on the northern quarter began at the bay of the sea, the mouth of the Jordan. The border went up to Beth Hagla, and passed north of Beth Araba, and the border went up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben. Then the border went up towards Dabir from the valley of Achor, and it turned northward towards Gagal, which is before the ascent of Adumim, which is on the south side of the valley.

The border continued towards the waters of Enshamesh, and ended up in Enrogal. And the border went up by the valley of the son of Nome to the southern slope of the Jebusite city, which is Jerusalem. The border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of Re from northward.

Then the border went around from the top of the hill to the fountain of the water of Neftoah, and extended to the cities of Mount Ephron. And the border went around to Bela, which is Kerjath Jureim. Then the border turned westward from Bela to Mount Seir, passed along to the side of Mount Jerim to the north, which is Cheshelon, went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed on to Temna. And the border went out to the side of Ekron northward. Then the border went around to Shichron, passed along to Mount Bela, and extended to Jebneel. And the border ended at the sea.

And the west border was the coastline of the great sea. This is the boundary of the children of Judah, all around according to their families. See, and now basically what's happened is we've been given the borders to the tribe that was the land that was given to Judah. And keep in mind, it was not the battles necessarily that gave them the land, it was the Lord.

It was the Lord. Now we need to understand that because that definitely has modern-day implications because what was just named included the area over to the Jordan. Understand something, Israel is in that country because God gave Israel that land. Their battles didn't win the land. They are not occupying the territory. The British government did not give them this land. God gave them that land. Now I understand, and I hope that you do, that God's blessing of the inheritance of the land was a gift and it was unconditional.

Now them being in the land and experiencing the blessing of the land was conditional upon them following the Lord. That's why we see when they fall away, well you have things like the Assyrian captivity. You have things like the Babylonian captivity. You have the thing where the Romans, you know, they were under the occupation of Rome, who in 70 AD laid siege to Jerusalem and then drove them out.

And they were out for about 1900 years. But God saw fit to bring them back. And so we need to know historically and biblically what the deal is. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you.

All of my days. In Jesus name. Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him.

And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

So many people look to their friends or within their own thoughts when faced with a problem. Even King David struggled with listening to his heart and not trusting in God's promises. Pastor David McGee wants to encourage you to wait confidently on God through whatever trial you're facing by sending you his CD series, Lessons from the Wilderness. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com now for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord. Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David McGee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David McGee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge as we continue in the book of Joshua. We'll see you then.