Joshua 14 offers us another look at Caleb, who along with Joshua had been the only two spies of the twelve Moses had sent into the Promised Land forty years earlier to come back with a good report. Caleb was eighty-five and as Joshua was distributing the land, Caleb had a request–Give me the high country! The older I get the more I love Caleb. He is the poster child (grandfather?) for living our lives fully for as long as God gives us good health and the strength to do it. Caleb took on some of the toughest of the land’s inhabitants, and after he and his people defeated them, settled where they had lived. The final words of chapter 14 are “And the land had rest from war.” That’s what happens when we follow the LORD fully. We gain victory, and ultimately rest from the battle. It might take longer than we think, after all, it took Caleb forty-five additional years to claim the piece of land he must have thought would be his shortly after he and the rest of the spies walked through the Promised Land the first time. I’m sure for Caleb it was worth the wait, as it is when we remain faithful for however long it takes for Jesus to give us rest from the wars we face spiritually, physically and in every way.
In Joshua 15-17 we read about the distribution of lands to the other tribes of Israel. The details are similar for each tribe. We’re told of the area of the land, and what its borders were on the north, south, east, and west; we’re told of some of the towns in the land; and we’re told some of the local people were not driven out. This last detail would prove to be a thorn in Israel’s side from that moment and for decades to come. As we’ll see when we complete the Book of Joshua and turn to Judges, these remaining people would eventually gain strength, because the Israelites abandoned their worship of the LORD and followed the pagan gods of these people. As a result God would let the Israelites be subjected to slavery for a time. While we’re getting ahead of the story, the seed of the downfall of Israel was planted in their not fully rooting out the indigenous people of the Promised Land. The principle of one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch will be lived out in Israel’s history as we read forward through the Old Testament. The lesson for us is not to participate with those in our spheres of influence, when they follow the gods of this world, rather than the One, true and living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We must remain faithful to Him alone, and seek to draw those who are turning away from Him back to relationship with Him.
As we return to John 9, and the account of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind, I want to underline Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question about whether it was the man or his parents who had sinned that resulted in his blindness. Jesus said the answer was neither. No one sinned. The disciples, and the Jews of Jesus’ day thought all negative outcomes were the result of someone’s sin. Jesus made it clear the only reason the man had been born blind was so God could be glorified in his healing. Think about that. The man endured blindness all his life, for decades, so God would ultimately be glorified. It seems like a high price for the man to pay, especially given he wasn’t even aware it was happening. The principle is powerful: God brings good out of bad situations. It doesn’t matter whether the situations were caused by sin, or whether they were the result of living in a fallen world, where “innocent” babies are born blind, or deaf, or without limbs. I put innocent in quotes, because as the Apostle Paul reminded the Colossian Christians, we were all once enemies of God. None of us are innocent in the sense of having no guilt or blame, but a baby is as innocent as a human being can being apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ washing away our sins. The blind man was made into an example by the religious leaders, because he confessed Jesus was the Messiah. He was kicked out of the synagogue. It was at that point when Jesus offered the man the opportunity to believe in Him, and also to show the religious leaders they were blind spiritually. Spiritual blindness is ultimately worse than physical blindness, because it keeps us from a relationship with Jesus, and from salvation in Him.