Joshua · chapter 14 of 24
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Joshua 14 tells how the land west of the Jordan is divided by lot under the direction of the priest Eleazar and Joshua. Caleb, son of Jephunneh, approaches Joshua at Gilgal and, at eighty-five years old, claims the hill country of Hebron that Moses promised him. Joshua blesses him and gives him Hebron as an inheritance, because he wholly followed the Lord.
Joshua 14 begins the distribution of the land west of the Jordan. It is a transitional chapter between the conquest and life in the land, and it introduces Caleb, one of the two faithful spies of Numbers 13-14. His story shows that someone who trusts God for decades can, in the end, receive the promise he waited for. Caleb asks for a difficult territory, not a comfortable one.
The chapter begins by explaining how the land of Canaan was divided. The priest Eleazar, Joshua and the heads of the tribes distributed it by lot, as the Lord commanded through Moses, to the nine and a half tribes. Moses had already given an inheritance to the other two and a half tribes east of the Jordan, and the Levites were given no territory but cities to live in and pasturelands for their livestock. The sons of Joseph formed two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Then the people of Judah approach Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, reminds him of what the Lord said to Moses about the two of them at Kadesh-barnea. Caleb was forty years old when Moses sent him to spy out the land, and he brought back a faithful report, while the others made the people's hearts melt. That day Moses swore to him that the land on which he had walked would be an inheritance for him and his children forever, because he wholly followed the Lord.
Now Caleb is eighty-five years old, and he says the Lord has kept him alive and that today he is as strong as when Moses sent him. He asks for the hill country the Lord promised him, even though the Anakim live there in great fortified cities, hoping that the Lord will be with him and that he will drive them out. Joshua blesses him and gives him Hebron as an inheritance. Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim. And the land had rest from war.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Caleb says that while his companions made the people's hearts melt, he wholly followed the Lord his God. An honest report and steady faith set him apart.
Caleb recalls that the Lord has kept him alive these forty-five years, since he spoke to Moses. At eighty-five, he looks at his life as proof of God's faithfulness.
Caleb asks for the hill country, although it is inhabited by the Anakim, trusting that the Lord will be with him. He does not ask for the easy land but for the challenge, supported by the promise.
Hebron becomes Caleb's inheritance because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. The reward is not only a territory but the recognition of a life of loyalty.
5 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: By lot, as the Lord had commanded through Moses. — Joshua 14:2
Answer: Eighty-five years old. — Joshua 14:10
Answer: He wholly followed the Lord and brought a faithful report, while the others made the people's hearts melt. — Joshua 14:7-8
Answer: The hill country the Lord had promised him, where the Anakim lived. — Joshua 14:12
Answer: Kiriath-arba. — Joshua 14:15
Caleb's story encourages those who have served God for a long time. He waited forty-five years for a promise, and at eighty-five he did not ask for rest but for another challenge. In a small group you can talk about what it means to persevere in faith over a lifetime, and about caring for those who have served for decades, without treating them as retired from the life of the church.
It also invites us to ask boldly, based on what God has promised. Caleb does not rely on his strength but on the fact that the Lord will be with him. That confidence does not ignore the giants but looks at them from God's faithfulness.
Joshua 14 ends with Caleb in Hebron and the land resting from war. Joshua 15 describes the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, to which Caleb belongs, and tells how he himself conquers Hebron and Debir.
He was the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and one of the twelve spies sent to Canaan. Together with Joshua, he was the only one who encouraged the people to enter the land, and for that reason he survived the wilderness. Here he receives as an inheritance the territory the Lord had promised him through Moses.
Caleb credits his strength to the Lord, who kept him alive through the wilderness years. His statement is not pride but gratitude, and reflects his confidence that God would fulfill the promise of the land in his time.