the next chapter, chapter 15, and we begin at verse 13 of chapter 15. And unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Joshua gave a part, or an inheritance, among the children of Israel according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, even the city of Arba, the father of Anak, which city is Hebron. And Caleb drove out from Hebron the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Nahum, and Talmai, the children of Anak. And he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. And the name of Debir before was Curjath-sefer. And Caleb said, he that smiteth Curjath-sefer and taketh it, to him will I give Aksa my daughter to wife. And Othniel the son of Cenas, the brother of Caleb, took it. And Caleb gave him Aksa his daughter to wife. And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him, that is Othniel, to ask of her father a field. And she lighted off her ass, and Caleb said unto her, what wouldst thou? And she answered, give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land. Give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether, or the lower springs. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families. The story of Caleb is not mentioned outside the book of Joshua and Judges. He is mentioned in the genealogies that you have in 1 Chronicles, but that is all we know of Caleb. And yet, this man was faithful in a time of apostasy. He comes to Joshua. The conquest of the land of Israel, since Israel crossed the River Jordan, has been completed. It's taken about seven years. There were still pockets of resistance, but the power of the Canaanites and the other nations that lived in that land had been broken. And God's promise to his people was every bit of land that the sole of your foot treads on will be yours. The land belonged to Israel, but they would only enjoy the fruits of that inheritance if they went up and possessed each city. And sadly, we know the story. Caleb refers to it. He comes to Joshua. Joshua and the camp of Israel are still based in Gilgal, not too far from Jericho. And Caleb says, Joshua, the land has been conquered. I want my inheritance. So as he says, give me, in verse 12, give me this mountain. And Caleb refers back to what had happened 45 years earlier. We won't turn to Numbers chapter 13, but in that chapter you have the account of how Moses sent out the 12 spies. And as we sometimes sing in the children's chorus, the twelve spies came back and we say ten were bad, two were good. Ten saw the giants, others Caleb and Joshua alone. saw God above it all. Sadly, the ten spies, they came back and they said, yes, the land of Israel is fruitful, but there are those giants. In fact, in Numbers 13 you will find that they said, Compared with those giants, we were grasshoppers in their sight. They weren't exaggerating the size or the height of those giants, by the way. We won't turn to Deuteronomy, but you'll find in Deuteronomy chapter 2 that Moses refers to the conquest of land northeast of the Jordan called Bashan. And there was a king of Bashan there named Og. And how long do you think his bed was? It's described as being nine cubits. That's 14 feet. You don't have a bed 14 feet long. unless it's necessary. And compared with many of those giants, Goliath that David took on was a mere pygmy. He was only nine foot nine, big enough, but the giants in Canaan were tall. And one of the children of Israel had said, or the 10 spies had said, we were grasshoppers in their sight. But Caleb had a different attitude. Isaiah lived centuries after Caleb, but in Isaiah 40, that chapter that ends with that remarkable verse, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. What does Isaiah say concerning the God of Israel, that the inhabitants of the earth are grasshoppers in God's sight. In other words, it doesn't matter to God, you could bring together all the richest men of the world, all the most powerful men of the world, and they taught their assets, they taught their strength in God's sight, they are as grasshoppers. And Caleb and Joshua, you can say of them what you said of Moses, they persevered as seeing God who is invisible. Caleb and Joshua had the word of God and they rebuked their fellow spies and they said to the people of Israel, God has promised, God does not break his word, let us go up because we are well able to conquer it. Sadly, the unbelief of the ten spies prevailed. And because the nation believed them and disbelieved the word of God, that generation, all that were over 20 who had come out of Egypt at the time of the exodus, they were condemned to wander in the wilderness. God took an oath, and God said, surely of all those who came out of Egypt, that is over 20, only Joshua and Caleb will enter the land. 45 years Caleb had waited for his inheritance. He says to Joshua in that chapter, I am this day, verse 10, fourscore and five years old. Many commentators think, interpret that verse to mean that Caleb came to Joshua on his birthday, that he was actually 85 that day. And he says, I have waited long enough. Joshua, you remember what the Lord promised me on that day, that the day would come when I would enter my inheritance. And for 45 years, Caleb had had to wait for his inheritance because of the sins of others. And yet he doesn't complain. He comes to Joshua and notice in verse 8, how does he refer to the ten spies whose unbelief made him wait for 45 years before he knew the full blessing of God. He calls them my brethren. What a lovely touch. He doesn't enlarge on the failings, he simply mentioned that, but he comes to Joshua and he says, I want God has promised, I want what God has promised me. If I were to ask you, and I'm not going to ask you by name, What happened to Israel in those 38 years of wandering? From the time that they believed the report of the 10 spies, they weren't going to enter the land, they wandered for the next 38 years until every one of the over 20s had fallen, had perished in the wilderness. You go to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 14 is when you're in the second year after the Exodus. In Numbers chapter 14, that's when God condemned the people to wander for 38 years. Numbers chapter 20, you're in the 40th year. And the only two things that we know from the book of Numbers happened in those 40 years. They were wasted years. First of all, in Numbers 15, there's a man who flouted the law of God and gathered sticks on the Sabbath day. And the other thing that happened was Cora's rebellion against Moses. But there are clues elsewhere in the scripture. You know, for those 38 years, we are told in Ezekiel, and we'll turn to one or two chapters before we come back to Caleb, in Ezekiel chapter 20, We have a lot of details mentioned concerning Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness which you won't find in Exodus or Numbers. And we'll only read selected verses from Ezekiel chapter 20. But in that chapter, God refers to Israel's wickedness, not only in the time of Ezekiel, but in the times of Moses. In Ezekiel chapter 20, we'll just read verse 13. Ezekiel chapter 20, God says, and my sabbaths they greatly polluted." Do you know the attitude of that generation that was condemned to wander in the wilderness for 38 years was this? Well, if God isn't going to take us into the land of Canaan, why should we obey any of his laws? And God says for those wilderness years they they rejected God's law, they broke the Sabbath day, they greatly polluted it. And yet God says in verse 17, in his grace, speaking of those wilderness years, nevertheless my eyes spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness, but I said to their children in the wilderness, walk not in the statues of your fathers, don't be like your disobedient fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols." You have two of Israel's sins in those 40 years. They worshipped idols in those 40 years. And we won't turn to Amos, but Stephen quotes it in Acts chapter 7, God gave them up to worship the host of heaven. You know, we may not like the discipline of God, God may bring things into our lives in order to bring us back to him or even closer to him. But there's something far, far worse than the discipline of God. A Hebrew says of the discipline of God, no discipline for the present seemeth joyous, but rather grievous. But afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of God to those who accept it. But far worse than that is when you have those awful words, God gave them up. Where God reached a point with Israel where he says, you love your idolatry, you are determined to break the Sabbath day, I will step back and let you do it. even if it means your destruction. Psalm 78 says, of God, sorry, Psalm 105, he gave them their desire, but he sent leanness or sickness into their souls. It's far more dangerous when God steps back and says, I will leave them to walk in the way that they have chosen. And sadly Israel reached that point. And they were guilty of idolatry. In those 38 years, they were guilty of flouting the Sabbath day. But there were two other sins that you can add to that. not only had they rejected the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath day was a sign, or one of the two signs, one of the two covenant signs between them and God, they had also stopped practicing circumcision. We won't turn to Joshua, or maybe because we're in the book of Joshua, we will turn to it. If we go back to chapter five of Joshua, The people of Israel, this is seven years before Caleb comes to Joshua, and they have just crossed the River Jordan. And now they're on the west side of Jordan. And in verse 2 of Joshua 5, the Lord said to Joshua, make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives and they circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskin. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise. All the people that came out of Egypt, that's some 40 years earlier, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out of Egypt were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness, by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, Then they had not circumcised. Children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the people that were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord. In other words, during those 38 years, the children of Israel had broken the Sabbath day, they flouted it, they worshipped idols, they refused to obey the other covenant sign that God had made with Abraham to circumcise their children, And if we turn to other scriptures, they stopped offering sacrifices in the tabernacle. Coming back to circumcision, I think on Friday in Compass Club in Blast, the children did the story of the Passover and in Exodus chapter 12 you have the account of the Passover and towards the end of that chapter God said every male that you circumcise may eat of the Passover But those who are not circumcised may not eat of the Passover. It's very, very likely that for those 38 years they didn't even observe the Passover which commemorated God's goodness when they came out of Egypt. They flouted God's law concerning sacrifices. In Leviticus chapter 17, the tabernacle had been completed and God said to the people of Israel, every sacrifice from now on you bring and you offer it on the brazen altar in the tabernacle. But in Deuteronomy chapter 12, Moses after four years said, when you get into the land, God is going to choose one place of worship, and you don't carry on what you've been doing for the last four years, offering sacrifices wherever you please. What a picture of Israel in those 38 years. And you know, I have to admit, if I'd have been Caleb, I'd have said, Lord, I'd rather perish in the wilderness and be taken home to be with you. And yet, Caleb kept his eye on the goodness of God. And in the chapter we read, in Joshua chapter 14, notice, first of all, his faith is anchored in the Word of God. If you had looked at his fellow Israelites, the mass of them were idolaters. They flouted the Sabbath day. They did not worship at the tabernacle. Our brother Andrew Davis is in Beulah, Cambodia today and probably this morning and this evening. The congregation will be single figures, even at their best. And I feel sorry for the people that are there because the youngest is nearer 70 than 60. And the prospect of being the one who closes the doors after over a century of witness weighs heavily on his heart. And yet that's a picture of what the tabernacle must have been like in those 38 years. That those who worshipped in the tabernacle were few and far between. Most of them worshipped idols. Any high place they could find, that's where they offered their sacrifices. For 38 years, that nation walked contrary to God. And you know, you and I must think, well, why did God ever choose the nation of Israel? They were beyond in every sense of the word. But then don't we sing a hymn concerning ourselves. I wonder what he saw in me to suffer such deep agony. And Caleb kept his eye on the Lord. And his faith was in the word of God. But secondly, he rejoiced in the goodness of God. Because you notice he says in verse lambda, Joshua, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in. That is not the natural course of nature. Caleb is saying, when I was 40, I was strong, I was at my peak for fighting a war. I'm as strong now as I was then. God did the same, didn't he, for Moses. You remember what he said of Moses in the last chapter of Deuteronomy. When he died, his natural strength had not weakened in the slightest, his eyesight was not dim, and Moses was 120 years old, not 85. God wonderfully preserved the physical strength of Caleb So at 85, he was as strong then as he had been 45 years earlier. But you notice there's no presumption because he says in verse 12, his confidence is in the power of God as well as in the word of God. He does not say, he does not boast and say, because I'm as strong now as I was then, I can do it. Notice what he says, if the Lord, at the end of verse 12, be with me, I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. Paul was in prison when he wrote to the Christians at Philippi and he said, I can do all things But notice what follows. The opposite side of the coin is what the Lord said in John 15. you can do nothing. We may have great gifts, thank God for them. We may have wonderful abilities, but unless our trust is in the Lord, then they avail nothing at all. And Caleb comes to Joshua, but this man is a man of vision. He's got wonderful discernment. 45 years ago, he had said, Those giants are nothing in God's sight. And when he asks for the inheritance, he doesn't take the easy option. He takes the very city that had been a stumbling block to the nation 45 years earlier, the city of Hebron. At that time, it was called Kirjath Arbor. Abba was one of the giants. And it was those giants that the 10 spies had seen in Hebron that convinced them that God could not give them the land. And Caleb remembers what the obstacle was 45 years earlier. And had he chosen an easier city, there might have been those in Israel say, ah, Caleb, it's all right for you. Fine words 45 years ago when you said, if the Lord is with us, we can do it. But now Caleb realizes this is the opportunity to put his words into practice. And he chooses the very city where the giants had held out for all that time. And the result was that God gave him the victory. Here was a man who was, apart from Joshua and Moses who was still alive, well Moses had died now apart from Joshua, Caleb was the second oldest man in Israel. There was a considerable gap between him and the rest of Israel because the generation of over 20s that had come out of Egypt had perished. And here, if you like, after Joshua is the senior Israelite. And at 85, he's not settling for an easy life. He's an encouragement to those who are younger. But I said Caleb was a man of vision, because if we go into chapter 15, not too far from Hebron, south of Hebron, there was a city called Debir. And Caleb, it would have been no inconvenience for Caleb just to take his soldiers because he was the prince, he was the commander of the army of Judah at this time. It would have been quite easy for him to take his soldiers those few miles and take the city of Debir. But Caleb realized that he was getting on and that the work of God would carry on after his days. And so Caleb resolves to encourage those who are younger to take up the reins and to display his same faith and his trust in the Word of God. And Caleb is quite clever because he has a daughter. Presumably, she was very, very attractive. She had a number of suitors. And Caleb, he has a double motive. He wants to encourage those who are younger to imitate his belief, his confidence, and his resolve to do things for God. But he also wants his daughter to marry well, spiritually. Sadly, how many, even Christians, have been more zealous that their daughter should marry well materially and have neglected the spiritual. Caleb wants his daughter to marry a man whose faith and trust is in God. And so he issues a challenge. Rather, in chapter 15, verse 16, rather than march from Hebron to the city of Debir, or Kerjaseffa as it was then, Kerjaseffa was probably the university town of that area because it means the city of books, But Caleb issues a challenge. He says, whoever goes and takes the city of Debir can have my daughter, Aksa, to wife. And Caleb had a Nebu, verse 17 says, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb. Some commentators say that Othniel was Caleb's younger brother. I've always assumed from verse 17 that he was Caleb's nebu. Apparently the Hebrew is capable of both meanings, so I'm not going to argue that point, but I shall refer to Othniel as Caleb's nebu. This young man was obviously in love with Aksa, And he takes up the challenge. And we read in verse 17 that Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, he goes up against Debi and he takes it. And he wins Axa to be his bride. I wonder if when Caleb issued that challenge to the faith, of Othniel and others, I wonder if he realized that he was helping to equip the younger generation to do greater things for God. Because Caleb died, and we've just jumped very briefly to the next book in the Bible, to the book of Judges. Sadly, after the death of Caleb and Joshua and the elders of Israel, the nation fell into gross sin and into idolatry. And in Judges chapter 3, We read in verse 5, Judges chapter 3, the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and so on. And in verse 6 of Judges 3, it says, they took, that is the Israelites, took the daughters of the Canaanites to be their wives. and gave their daughters to their sons and served their gods. The unequal yoke led to idolatry. And verse 7 says the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. forgot the Lord their God, and served Barim and the groves. Therefore the Lord's anger was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan Rishathim, the king of Mesopotamia, and the children of Israel served Chushan Rishathim for eight years. We know nothing much about this king, whose kingdom was based in Mesopotamia, that is between the Euphrates and Tigris, But the name suggests he was a brutal king because the second part of his name, Rishithim, means doubly wicked. The Bible says no more, but obviously he was a severe oppressor. And it took eight years for the children of Israel to turn from their sin and cry to the Lord. Presumably, they spent part of that time praying to their idols or seeking to shake off the yoke of this oppressive king. But in verse nine, after eight years of servitude and oppression, verse nine says, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel. And who did the Lord use? Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Holy Spirit is only mentioned four times in Judges, but the first time it's mentioned, it's mentioned in connection with Caleb's son-in-law. It says in verse 10, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel and went out to war. And notice verse 11, Othniel gained victory. The children of Israel became free and the land had rest for 40 years. I can't prove it and it's only a conjecture. Would Othniel have achieved that for God? Maybe he thought how some 20 years earlier he had been challenged by Celeb to take the city of Kyrgyzstan. and he took it. And in the meantime, Caleb had died, but he was preparing the next generation to do great things for God. And you know, for those of us who may be older in the faith, sometimes there has to be a time when we step back and encourage others, those who are younger, give them the opportunity to serve the Lord. But we'll close by looking at Caleb's daughter, and I hope I'm not demeaning the opposite sex by saying I always smile when I read this passage, because to me, and I may be using too much imagination, to me it's a lovely example of female guile, and I use the word guile in a positive sense. Because Caleb's daughter is Gimdothniel, and his daughter, Axa, she seems to have had more initiative than her husband, Othniel. And you'll permit a little bit of imagination, verse 18 of chapter 15 says, As she came, that is, as Axa came to Othniel, she is about to be married to him, that she moved him, that she persuades her husband to ask of her father a field. Axa is about to marry Othniel. And she says, Othniel, you've taken the city of Debir. You've pleased my father. Now is a good time to ask him for a special present because you have shown yourself to be man of faith. And she persuades him to ask of her father a field. Caleb had been given the whole city of Hebron There was a lot of land, and Axa has spied out the piece of land that she wants. You say, why did you say that? Well, you notice in verse 19, it was a south-facing land. It enjoyed the sunshine. And Caleb gives Othniel his request, and I admit I'm using some imagination. Axa goes out to investigate the field, and she thinks to herself, it's not bad. plenty of sunshine, good soil, but my dad could have given a little bit more land to the north uphill because there are nice springs there, there are wells there, and he could have given us a bit more land near the valley because there are springs there And so she goes to see her father. It's interesting that we are told in verse 18 that Axa went to see her father and she rode on a donkey. As far as I'm aware, there are only three times in scripture where ladies are recorded as riding on donkeys. I once said at a ladies' meeting, it was on a Sunday, over in Kifili, I said, men, whatever you do, don't buy your wives a donkey. Because every time a woman rode a donkey in scripture, they asked for something, and usually they got more than what they asked for. Interestingly, There are three accounts of individual men riding donkeys, and every one of them rode to their death. The last one, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ. The other two disobeyed. and they're recorded as riding on donkeys and they rode to their death. But the third man who rode a donkey went to the cross for our sins. He had done none of his own. If you want to know who the other two men were and who the other two women were, you can either look up a concordance, that's the easy way, or you can come and ask me at the end and I'll give you the references. But the first lady, In scripture, it's recorded as riding a donkey is axa. And she gets off the donkey. And she says, well, I wonder if Caleb knew what was coming, because as we see in a moment, she was a chip off the old block. Caleb sees her coming, and in verse 18, and maybe many fathers have said to their daughters, yes, what do you want now? What do you want me to give you? That's exactly what Caleb says at the end of verse 18. What wouldest thou? And AXA says, in effect, dad, you've given your son-in-law a present, I'm your daughter. What about me? Because that's what she says in verse 19, give me a blessing. Often when you have the word blessing, especially in the King James Version, it doesn't just mean praying over somebody for God to bless them. It means a blessing in a material form. It means often the word blessing is a gift. I'll give you an example. Remember Esau, how he was cheated out of his birthright? He comes in and he says, Dad, will you bless me now? It doesn't mean, Dad, will you pray for me now? He says, Dad, you've given Jacob what you should have given me. Have you got anything left to give me? Give me a blessing. And Axel says, give me a blessing. You've given us the south land, gave me also springs of water." And Caleb gives her a request. He gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. I wonder if Caleb smiled when Axa, his daughter, said in verse 19, give me a blessing because you see those were the very words a few weeks earlier Caleb had said to Joshua back in chapter 14 and verse 12 now therefore give me this mountain and now his daughter is saying give me a blessing and Caleb gave her the upper and the lower springs Axa, and this is a spiritual lesson, Axa didn't just want an inheritance in Israel. She didn't simply want a portion that God had promised to her father. She wanted that inheritance to be fruitful. That, she says, in effect, you've given us a land. If you give us those springs of water, that field will be exceedingly fruitful. And you know, isn't there a lesson there for us? Paul said in 1 Corinthians concerning every child of God, you are God's husbandry. You are God's tillage. The Bible speaks of each believer, if you like, in terms of a portion of land. that now belongs to God. And when we came to know the Savior, if you like, the land of our lives was full of the weeds of sin. God forgave us freely before we'd done anything to please him whatsoever. But now that the land of our lives belongs to God, God doesn't just want it to be his and a land full of weeds. He wants it to bring forth fruit for his glory. Water, of course, is a picture. of the Holy Spirit. It's only a few weeks ago that Pastor was taking us through John chapter seven, that wonderful promise, that wonderful claim that the Lord Jesus made at the Feast of Tabernacles. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. And John says, he wasn't speaking of literal water, but he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, which the Father would give to those who believe on him. And if we close simply with one or two verses from Galatians 5, you know the verses very well, you don't have to turn to them. But in verse 22 it says this, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The earlier verses speak of the fruit that our sinful nature produced in part. We may not have committed all the sins that were mentioned there before we became Christians. But verses 17 to 21 describe the fruit of our sinful nature, that now that we are God's land, God wants to cultivate our soil, the soil of our lives, and we can't produce anything that pleases God. We can't have a life full of love, peace, patience, goodness, and so on. unless it is watered by the Holy Spirit. I've heard people say, and some may have used it as an excuse for never believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, I couldn't live up to the standard. Who can? Who can live the life of God but God himself? But that is why God has given us the Holy Spirit. God can live the life of God. and God has given to every child of God the Holy Spirit and he is God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit lives in us and if we submit to his control then it becomes far, far easier to live the life of God by being filled with the Spirit. And as Pastor said, that is not having more of the Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit possessing more and more of my life. And Axter was not satisfied with a field that enjoyed the sunshine of God's love, She wanted a field that was fruitful in every respect. I wonder what Caleb thought of his daughter and of his son-in-law. Sadly, the nation for the most part continued to be rebellious, and faithless, but that was no excuse for Caleb, nor was it an excuse for Daniel. When he was a captive in Babylon because of the sins of others, he set his sights upon the Lord, and he persevered because he saw the one who was invisible. And there's a time coming when however hard things become for the child of God, whether individually or in society as a whole, when we shall look upon the Savior, the one who suffered far, far more for us than we can ever suffer for him. And may he say to us, as he could say to Caleb, well done, thou faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. There's a lot more we could say about Caleb, but may God give us the grace to copy that faithful man of God not to look at circumstances, but rather to look at the one who has done so much for us, and the one who said, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age. We'll sing our closing hymn, and maybe after I could ask our brother John if he would close in prayer. And our last hymn is 499, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. you you you you you you you