Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “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 devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.
Numbers 14:6-10
Live Sacrificially and not Selfishly (:10)
We see in verse 10 that a position of faith when surrounded by negativity can be a very dangerous place. Caleb’s opinion put him in the people’s crosshairs. Ever been there? The whole nation talked about stoning him. Every ministry leader knows this feeling even though the stoning is not literal but figurative. Believing in the calling and promises of God always involves personal sacrifice; it certainly did for Caleb. He came to the place in his own mind and heart where he said, I’m ready to give my life for this. Whatever it takes to see God’s will done in my generation, I’m willing to do it. Even if it involves the ultimate sacrifice.
Because of his heart, Caleb receives one of the great compliments in the Bible. It’s a phrase that’s used to describe him: “he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.” This phrase is used a total of eight times in the whole Hebrew Bible, six of those eight times referring to Caleb. And half the time, it’s God himself who’s giving the compliment!
Once God speaks, our response must be to obey Him completely no matter what the cost.
That’s what it means to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. What will you sacrifice to see God’s will be accomplished in our generation? Don’t ever buy the idea that everything God prompts you to do is going to be easy, uncomplicated, or of low cost to you. Sometimes God prompts his children to carry extremely heavy loads. And sometimes he will prompt you to take up a really difficult task and to just do it for his glory, for the betterment of a broken world.
I think of Paul in Acts 20:22-24. He says, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
He was “compelled by the Spirit” to go. The word compelled means “bound” or “wrapped up by” the Spirit. He was certain of God’s leading. The best leadership always starts with the Spirit’s prompting. All great ideas start with a prompting. Then there’s an “oh crap” moment—when it settles in that this will require great sacrifice. Paul knew that what God was asking him to do would not be easy. He says, I don’t know what’s going to happen there. When God calls us to things, he often withholds some of the details, probably because he knows we would quit! And then Paul’s realization: prison and hardships are facing me. When you are pushing forward with God’s mission, the devil always shows up. Suffering always shows up. Discouragement and distractions always show up. And then the commitment to obey even though it will mean sacrifice. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. In fact, he says, I consider my life worth nothing to me. Paul puts everything he loves in a pile—his Instagram following, his success, his salary, people’s opinion of him, his platform, his reputation—and he pushes the pile into the middle and says all of that stuff is worth nothing if it’s going to hold me back from what God is calling me to.
He can join the ranks of Caleb in that he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.
Are you following the Lord wholeheartedly today? Regardless of the negative voices around you? Are you living sacrificially and not selfishly? Are you looking at the obstacles, or are you looking at God? Caleb was deaf to the negativism of his fellow spies. He put on his noise-canceling headphones and plugged them into the promises of God. He was a winner in a loser generation, an optimist among a pessimist people. Caleb made the same trip the other spies made. He saw the same cities, the same walls, the same giants. But he saw more. Caleb saw God! The others couldn’t see God because of the giants; Caleb couldn’t see the giants because of God.
Caleb’s story continues in Joshua 14, some 45 years after the original spy mission. Caleb was 85 years old. He had gone in, along with Joshua, and received the promise that was given to him. A whole generation died in the wilderness, but not Caleb. He was alive to receive his inheritance because he listened to God’s promises and not his problems; he turned to faith and not fear, and he chose to live sacrificially, not selfishly.
