“A Man Worth Emulating” – FBC Morning Light (4/11/2023)

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Well a good Tuesday morning to you. So today we're reading in Joshua 13 and 14,

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John chapter 4, and the 72nd Psalm. You know yesterday in Psalm 71, one of the things

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I didn't point out was where the psalmist said to the Lord, do not forsake me in my old age.

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So when the psalmist wrote that psalm, he was apparently an older man. We don't know how old he was, but clearly the psalmist wanted to be faithful to the

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Lord and he wanted to experience the Lord's faithfulness even in the golden years of his life.

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Well in today's reading in Joshua 14, we read about another man who was very eager in the golden years of life to finish strong and to experience

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God's blessing to the full. And I'm speaking of course of Caleb, if you've read the chapter.

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We hear a lot about Joshua, we know a lot about Joshua, the whole book written about him, or written with his name on it anyway, and we read of him before you ever come into the book of Joshua.

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And yet Caleb was a contemporary of Joshua, partner of Joshua when they went in to spy out the land.

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Caleb was the partner with Joshua who said, who was the minority report, said we can go in and take the land.

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Well that was 45 years ago. All right, so when we read this section, verses 6 through 12 of chapter 14,

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Caleb says in verse 7, I was 40 years old when Moses sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land.

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So he was 40 years old. So that means he was roughly 38 -ish when the

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Exodus occurred. So he was already a middle -aged man when the Israelites came out of Egypt.

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He was 40 years old when Moses sent him with Joshua and the other ten spies to spy out the land of Canaan.

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And yet, in his faithfulness, he said, you know, we can take the land and so forth, but he was a minority report, and so the rest of people said, no, we can't do it.

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And as a consequence of that, the Lord said, all right, you're gonna wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the whole generation dies off, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, and those who are under 20 years of age at the time.

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Joshua and Caleb. So now, in chapter 14 of Joshua, Caleb says that was 40 years ago, and actually says it's 45 years ago at the point of chapter 14, and he says in verse 10, he says, and now behold the

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Lord has kept me alive as he said these 45 years ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel was in the wilderness, wandered in the wilderness.

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So now he's 85 years old in chapter 14. And what

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I read here serves to challenge me. Caleb is a man,

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I see, who is worth emulating. He believed God's promises, and steadfastly held to those promises, even when he was in a small minority.

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Everyone else was shouting him down. He remained steadfast. How many of us vacillate when we're in a minority?

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And what's also telling of his character is that he faithfully endured those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and now the five years of battling in the land of Canaan.

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He endured all of that time, all that hardship of the consequences of sin that were caused by others, and he never...

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you don't find any record of him complaining about it. You don't find him, organizing a protest against the rebels.

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He just accepted, by God's grace, the consequences of the sin of his nation, and he carried on faithfully.

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I find that to be a challenge to us in this day, don't you? We're suffering some consequences of sin in our country, and it's not pretty, and it's brought some hardship.

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Well, how do we handle it? I find some encouragement in Caleb's example to just faithfully plod along, and do what you need to do, do what you have to do, and keep your eyes on the promises of God.

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That's the other thing Caleb did. He kept his eyes on the promise of what lay ahead, and here he is at 85 years of age, and he's asking for a particular area in the land of promise to be given to him as an inheritance, and he says,

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I'm gonna fight for this. I'll fight and drive the Canaanites out if the Lord is with me.

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Here's a man who's diligent to fight the foe, even in old age, and I find the older I get, there's a greater temptation to just kind of coast the coast, and slide along, and get by, because after all,

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I don't have many years left on this earth. But no, our challenge needs to be to do what's right, and do what's best for the next generation, as long as God gives me breath.

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And then I see here also in his stated determination to receive this inheritance, and to drive out the inhabitants that God says are to be driven out,

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I see nevertheless a faithful trust in the

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Lord's presence, His power, and His promise. He says, if the

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Lord will be with me, I'll be able to drive them out. So there's no cocky self -confidence here.

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There is a faithful confidence in the Lord, who can use even him in his old age to accomplish his purposes.

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So let that be an encouragement to us, especially those of us who are in the winter of life, or maybe the late autumn of life, that we just remain faithful, no matter what happens in our society, and no matter the consequences of our society's ills, we just remain faithful, keep our eyes on the prize, on the promise of God that lies before us, and be faithfully trusting in Him to the end.

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So our Father and our God, help us to be just like that. May Caleb serve as a great example for us to emulate, and we pray this in Jesus' name,

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Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and I trust the