Word of Salvation – Vol.40 No.07 – February 1995
Caleb’s Gift
Sermon by Rev. R. Brenton on Joshua 14:6-12; 15:13-19
Congregation.
And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” Othniel, son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, took it. So Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage. (Joshua 15:16-17)
My message to you is entitled CALEB’s GIFT. Caleb offers Acsah, his daughter, in marriage to the man who wins the contest.
Is this not the stuff of which fairy tales are made? The king, desperate to marry off the princess, devises a contest in which princely men full of courage and cunning may compete for the hand of her royal highness, only one proving himself worthy. Othniel, like a true prince, rises to the occasion by capturing the city for his king. So, he wins the prize: his princess. And the two live happily ever after.
It reads like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? To think that this is a Bible story from God’s Book! Are you amused? If you take this story to be a rollicking good fairy tale, you will likely find yourself amused by it all. But, if you take this tale of true faith in God’s promise, you will find yourself amazed by it all.
To me, this story is the stuff of which amazing faith is made, not the stuff of fairy tales. I hope you will see it the same way.
It all began when Caleb, forty years old and stalwart in faith, was chosen by Moses as one of twelve men to explore the land of Canaan, which the Lord had promised to the children of Israel. Caleb was honoured to represent the tribe of Judah on this special expedition in order to find out what the Promised Land was like before all the people went in to take possession of it. Moses told the explorers to make some careful observations. The land: good or bad? The soil: rich or poor? The people: strong or weak, many or few? The cities: fortified or not? He also told them to bring back a sample of the fruit of the land. So the explorers went in. After forty days they returned with a generous sampling of fruit and a report on all their findings. Here is the account they gave to Moses. “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalakites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack the people; they are stronger than we are. The land we explored devours the people living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim [mighty men from the legendary Anak of pre-Flood times]. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
At the sound of this disheartening report all of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and wished to the Lord that they could go back to Egypt. But Caleb wouldn’t stand for such cowardice. He and Joshua (the other courageous explorer) stood together against the other ten explorers and against all the chicken-hearted people. They said, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.”
Try as he might, Caleb couldn’t convince Israel to go in and take possession of the land the Lord had promised for their inheritance. To the Lord, Israel’s cowardice was nothing short of contempt for their God. The Lord did not take their sin lightly. He consigned Israel to a life-sentence of wilderness wandering until every unfaithful adult member died off. Only Caleb and Joshua survived the ordeal and were allowed to enter the land with the new generation (the children of the faithless generation who came out of Egypt). As the Lord had said, “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”
My brothers and sisters, Caleb was a man of great faith. He was possessed of a different spirit than the multiplied thousands who said, “We can’t take the land God has promised to our forefathers.”
It is this same Caleb whose faith takes centre stage in the offer of his daughter as a contest prize. Forty-five years have passed since his courageous expedition of the Promised Land, and Caleb is eighty-five years old. Yes, it has been forty-five years, but Caleb hasn’t forgotten the sight of the sons of Anak. He can still envision with his mind’s eye the hill-covered Land of the Giants.
Above all, he hasn’t forgotten that the Lord promised him and his children an inheritance in the land. So now, as an eighty-five year old, he approaches Joshua, the Captain of Salvation for Israel, and says to him, “Give me this hill country that the Lord promised me on that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified. But the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as He said.”
Eighty-five years old! Yet, Caleb’s faith has not wavered or weakened. The man of faith is still going strong. With holy boldness Caleb asks Joshua to give him the Land of the Giants for his inheritance. And Caleb is ready and willing to back up Joshua’s “YES” with his own affirmative action plan to take that land away from the giants.
The land Caleb confidently asked for, and was ready to take by force, was in a sense the most highly prized section in all the Promised Land. It was the one piece of land nobody believed could be acquired. But Caleb had never entertained a single doubt. He was as determined now as he was then to go for the highest prize and take over the Land of the Giants as an inheritance for his descendants.
Who were Caleb’s descendants? We know of only one: a daughter named Acsah. As far as we know, Caleb had no sons. So, Acsah was in line to inherit. But she wasn’t married. The line of Caleb’s descendants started and stopped with her. Who would inherit after her? There was nobody.
And yet, the Lord had promised Caleb’s section to his descendants. When God makes promises, true believers take faithful measures to lay hold of them. That explains why Caleb took the initiative and called a contest in which he offered to give his one and only daughter to be the wife of the one who could prove his worth as a man of like faith.
Caleb was not about to give his beloved Acsah to any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens by. Acsah is not up for grabs (as so many daughters nowadays are). The man who wins Acsah will have to be an exceptional man: “one in spirit” with father Caleb, the man with the “different spirit.” The man who wins Acsah will have to show great faith for he must go to war against the Giants of Anak.
Surely you can see the wisdom of Caleb’s contest. The ordinary Joe (or should I say “Jew”) wouldn’t dare to enter such a contest. Having “eyes for Acsah” would hardly be incentive enough. Only those men with eyes for the future of Caleb’s household would dare to risk life and limb in the contest. Caleb knew that only the right man could prevail against the odds.
Don’t underestimate the tremendous challenge involved in going up against the city of Kiriath Sepher. Just because the story-teller of Joshua understates the effort involved here, saying only that “Othniel took it,” does not mean that the man of faith didn’t have to fight for his life.
Praise God! Othniel took it! Praise God that He made good on His promise to Caleb. He provided a faithful husband worthy of his only daughter and, in him, God gave Caleb hope of descendants, and the future of his household. Because the Lord so provided, Caleb could freely give Acsah to Othniel to be his wife.
The story could easily end here: the giant-slayer wins the contest and receives his princess bride, and the two live happily ever after. Yes, it could end here, but it doesn’t. Not only does Othniel prove to be Caleb’s equal in faith, but Acsah also proves herself to be his equal: a true daughter of faith. As soon as she marries, she urges her new husband to ask father Caleb for a certain field. The story-teller does not elaborate on this act, but simply assumes that Othniel, at Acsah’s urging, asks Caleb for the field and receives it from him. Then, having the field, Acsah herself approaches her father with a special favour. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What can I do for you?” She replied, “Do me a special favour. Since you have given me land in the Negev (a wilderness region), give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
Do you see what is going on here between Acsah and her new husband and her old father? It may appear that Acsah is trying to pry her daddy’s fingers open in order to get him to let go of some of his land before he bites the dust. In order to do so, she uses her new husband to finagle a field from him. And then, with a little special pleading of her own, she gets the old man to agree to give her whatever she wants; and what she wants are some springs of water to go with the field.
What’s going on here may have the looks of a conniving daughter out to wheedle away her father’s will. But, in truth, we see something entirely different going on: a faithful, far-sighted daughter who actually wants what her father is predisposed to give her. What happens here is not as strange as it may at first appear. In fact, what we find here is a commonplace in our own covenant life.
Isn’t the Lord predisposed to give His children every good thing they need, including a rich everlasting inheritance? But doesn’t He delight in His sons and daughters making their requests known to Him? Doesn’t it please the Lord all the more when His children have the faith and foresight to ask for those things which will ensure everlasting covenant benefits?
My brothers and sisters, the entire story of CALEB’s GIFT is about a faithful family that is trying to ensure that everlasting benefits will be received from the Lord and passed on to succeeding generations. Father Caleb has godly wisdom enough to know that “a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).
To make this happen, he needs to find a faithful husband for his daughter to marry. And he devises a plan to ensure that the right man rises to the occasion. Othniel proves himself the right man not just by having admiring eyes for Acsah (a most inadequate requirement for any marriage, but sadly the sole one in our day), but by demonstrating his worth as Caleb’s successor.
Othniel proved himself fit to be the new father of Caleb’s household, one who would diligently watch and pray for its God-blessed future. As for Acsah, surely you realise by now that she is no mere contest trophy. She is just as eager as her father Caleb to ensure the family’s future. Her role is different than his. It is Caleb’s to give, to apportion the inheritance. It is Acsah’s to ask, to entreat the father for the gift.
My brothers and sisters, surely the Spirit of the Lord has a message for us in the story of Caleb’s gift. But what could it be? Is the Spirit content simply to tell us how certain select Israelites came into the Promised Land and took hold of their inheritance? Is this story a prime example of people inheriting what God had promised? Yes, it is a prime example. The story is confirmation to God’s people that their Lord had delivered on His promise. But it is more than that. The Spirit is not simply content to give us divine confirmation.
The Spirit is also showing us human faithfulness at its covenant-keeping best: the whole- life response to God’s gracious promise. By showing us this faith in the life of Caleb’s family, the Spirit is teaching the church how to keep in step with Him as we direct our living toward God’s goals with each passing generation.
Today I am concerned that the lesson of CALEB’s GIFT has been lost on us. Here’s why. We are now so accustomed to God’s gracious provisions that we practically assume that our children will accept the Christian heritage from us as a matter of course. We parents think that God has given us some good things, even spiritual blessings in Christ. We come with our children to worship on the Lord’s Day and give thanks for all that is ours in Christ Jesus. This we do as a matter of habit. We believe it is the right thing to do. Yet, some of us have found that our children are not eager to receive our covenant life as their inheritance. Some of our grown children have already made it clear to us that they want no part of what we claim is the dearest treasure in heaven or on earth. And some of us have worries that our younger children will say to us some day, “thanks, but no thanks.”
So children, what’s the story? Would you take a million dollars right now if someone offered it to you? I know I would take it. And so would you. I would take a million dollars right now because I know a lot of good things I could do with that much money. You children know what a million dollars can do, too. You’ve seen the LOTTO advertised. You’ve seen the big prizes. You have some pretty good ideas about how much a million dollars can buy. You know so much about money because you handle money every day. You trade with it, and buy the things you need and some of the things you want. Your life depends on having so much money, or on your parents having so much money. All of you have learned that it sure wouldn’t hurt to have so much more of it.
Children, let us suppose that instead of a million dollars someone offers you all the treasures that Jesus has in heaven. What if someone says to you, “They’re all yours so long as you show your thanks to God for His gift by trusting in Jesus and obeying His commands.” What would you say to an offer like that? I’m not sure what you would say, but I’ll tell you what I would say, if I were you. I’d say, “What treasures are you talking about?” I’d also say, “Show me the treasures you are talking about! Don’t just tell me. Show me.”
Parents, the reason your children and young people will jump at the chance for a million dollars is that you have done such a good job showing them what so much money can do. You are “in the money” every day. And they know how much your life and theirs depends on it. But you are not doing the same good job with your Christian heritage. You say you want your children to eagerly accept the faith you say is so dear to you. But what happened to the “show and tell?” Why aren’t the riches of Jesus just as much your daily “currency” as dollars and cents? Why is it that the capital of heaven’s kingdom hardly figures in the daily transactions of our living here below? Why don’t we talk about these riches with our children, teach them the value of eternal treasures, and show them the things that earth cannot afford?
Do your children really know what you parents have in Christ? Do they have any idea of the inventory of your riches? Can they give names for the treasures you say you possess? More than that, have they touched these treasures for themselves? Have they tasted the goodness of our God? Have you given your children the tools they need to mine this treasure, and are they skilled in the use of them?
My brothers and sisters, and boys and girls: I am convinced that Caleb knew precisely what he wanted his descendants to inherit. He could point to it and talk about it freely. He could say to Acsah, “This is what I want you to have. Look at it. Isn’t it wonderful! How gracious and generous our God is! See what God gave to me? It’s for you, too.”
I am also convinced that Acsah knew precisely what she wanted by way of inheritance. She knew all about her father’s treasures. She knew all about the field. When the time was right she had her new husband ask Caleb for the field. Then, in order to enhance the value of her heritage, she asked for the springs of water to quench the thirsty field and make it bear its fruit.
How Caleb must have rejoiced in his daughter’s request! Perhaps he remembered telling his darling little girl the story of the twelve explorers and of his own discovery of the hidden springs. My guess is that he repeated the story so many times that a special room for the land and its secret waters was created in Acsah’s heart. Then, when Caleb came into his portion, he went hand-in-hand with Acsah in search of the springs, until they were found!
“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:3-4)
May our gracious God, who has promised us more than we can ask or imagine, so impress us with the worth of our Christian heritage that we will use it as the currency of our daily living. May the Spirit take our “show and tell” and create room for faith in the hearts of our children.
Amen.