No 3

(Caleb)

There was a man who was given a mission to spy and seek out information concerning a portion of land that had been promised to his people. He set off with eleven others into this strange new land and had no idea what was facing him and his colleagues. As it turns out, they saw giants, high walls and a land flowing with milk and honey; they even brought back samples of the fruit that was growing wild in that land. Upon their return, ten of the spies actually convinced the people that the land was impenetrable and said that they were as “grasshoppers” compared to the inhabitants of the land. They basically said to forget the whole idea of going into this land. One of the spies tried to calm the people down and said to Moses “let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30). I speak of course of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh of the tribe of Judah. Caleb was courageous in battle (Jos 15:14) because he was consecrated to God “Save Caleb the son Jephunneh, he shall see it and to him I will give the land that he hath trodden upon and to his children because he hath wholly followed the Lord” (Deut 1:36). Caleb’s partner in arms was none other than Joshua, the conquering general who replaced Moses in bringing the Israelites into the land that was promised to them by God, the land of Canaan. By the way, the 10 cowardly spies all died before entering the Promised Land.