"Over the Hill...And Still Powered by Faith!"

Scripture Passage

Joshua 12:7-15:19

Scripture Focus

“So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me.” (Joshua 14:12 NLT)

Observation

There are a couple of things I really like about today’s reading. I like the notion that, though he is well-advanced in years and (by implication) won’t live to see it all accomplished, Joshua is still instructed to complete the territorial assignments as God directs. “It doesn’t matter, Joshua, that you won’t live to see it fulfilled—map it out!” Oh, for a vision too big to be accomplished in one lifetime!

But my favorite verse in this section of Scripture shows up in chapter Joshua 14:12. Caleb, the second of the two original faith-filled spies from Numbers chapter 13 (of the original generation that left Egypt, only he and Joshua entered the promised land) has not yet been assigned the territory he had been promised. So he comes before Joshua to request it—or, more accurately, to robustly insist he receive it! Here’s what he says to Joshua…

“Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.” (Joshua 14:10-12 NLT)

I love vibrant faith at every stage of life! How wonderful—how powerful—that at eighty-five years old—and forty-five years after first receiving God’s promise of a mountain to call his own—Caleb’s still expecting, still working towards, still faith-filled regarding all that God said He would do.

Let’s be honest—some days my faith falters with the next conversation! One critical word, one discouraging incident, one frustrating encounter, and I begin to doubt that what I (thought I) unshakably believed only moments ago. Today I want to take my cue from Caleb—Eighty-five and going strong, firm in his faith, and still acting in full confidence of God’s rich promise.