Bible Men: Caleb: A Giant of Faith

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said. Jos 14:12  

Mountains and Hills

Imagine a mediaeval knight wearing an iron armour and hurtling forward with his sword drawn, ready to draw blood, and you have an inkling of what sort of man Caleb was. He was a born soldier. And he wore no iron armour.

You can also have a picture of those poor ten spies who gave an evil report which sent shivers down the spines of the whole Israel congregation in the wilderness. Their words melted the hearts of the people. Their tenor is full of defeat.

The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature… the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Numbers 13:32-33

They are not words a father can repeat in front of his children. They are traumatizing.

So we have a grudging admiration for men of great courage. But they also fill us with rage. They make us feel like grasshoppers.

It is nearly impossible to praise (or love) our equals, wrote the preacher Morrison. We hate them. So a beautiful woman cannot stand a fellow beautiful woman in the same room, a doctor a fellow doctor, and a preacher’s greatest critics are his fellow preachers.

So Caleb with all his bravery (together with Joshua) come in, and yet all that the people want to do with them (in gratitude!) is to stone them! (Nu 14:10).

And apostle Paul, that other giant of faith, elicited much love and much scorn at the same time, but chiefly from his fellow apostles. “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me,” he cries to Timothy.

Men can only praise their fellows for a time. After a while that admiration wears off. But it is not so with God.

Greatness comes at a high price, chiefly loneliness. So Jesus too died alone:  “Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.” His most avowed loyalist denied him in the most disparaging fashion to save his own life.

Preacher, do you feel like you are alone in the whole congregation? Please don’t lose heart! Hasn’t Christ promised to be with you until the end?

The Word “Mountain” in the Bible

Now I’m a student of the Bible. I’m also a lover of the language and everything that is beautiful. A study of the word “mountain” in the Bible unearths an interesting detail.

We associate a mountain with the place where God dwells (even in our traditional beliefs). So the psalmist sings, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” A mountain is where we go for a transfiguration.

A poet will see gorges, ravines and the smoking peaks in a mountain, and in a sense, he will know he has seen God. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

But a mountain can also be an obstacle: “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Isa 40:4). Pride and fear may be counted as examples of mountains we pray to God to remove.

A mountain can also be a challenge in life to be reckoned with. I think the latter interpretation is the one holding sway in Caleb’s “Give me this mountain” prayer. It is both a poetic and hyperbolic expression. And that is the nature of faith. It can only go up towards the clouds but never below!

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Mat 21:21-22  

It Pays to be Specific in Prayer

A prayer like “Give me this mountain” isn’t quite enough. It wants a qualifier: A mountain of what? Is it faith? Is it God’s presence? Or is it health or peace?

I remember the prayer of Jabez. It is noted for its specificity. Nothing is left hanging. He goes directly for what he wants. “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested” (1Ch 4:10).  

Caleb prayed for Hebron, that hilly and rich (in both history and fertility) country, so he called it a mountain (for a hill and a mountain are the same thing to a Jew). And Joshua gave it to him.

And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. Jos 14:10  

As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Jos 14:11  

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day… Jos 14:12 

And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Jos 14:13

So there goes Caleb, a man of endearing courage, and a man of daring faith. May he be an example to us all. Let us work too until we drop dead, if God so grant us the strength. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2022 everybody! God loves you and so do I! God willing let us meet here next year.