Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ, and now the message. Let's read that passage of scripture as we begin, Joshua chapter 14, and verses 6 through 15. Caleb's higher ground. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua to Gilgal, And Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, said unto him, thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God concerning me, and thee in Kadesh Barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses was servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swear on that day saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever because thou hast wholly followed the Lord thy God. And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive as he said these 40 and five years, Even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered into wilderness, and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day when Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war both to go out and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, wherefore 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 that the Lord will be with him, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, which Arba was a great man among the Anakims, and the land had rest from war. The background to Caleb's inheritance is the story of the 12 spies going into the land of promise to obtain a report. And that history is found in Numbers chapter number 13. I want to go there in a moment. Although the initial command was by the Lord, it appears that the children of Israel requested this report of Moses. So if you compare that with Deuteronomy chapter one, we'll look at that as well. So 12 men, one from each tribe, were sent to spy the land. One of them came back with a report that the land was good. But 10 of them saw the giants. They saw the walled cities. and the enemy nations and their hearts melted within them. The Bible calls it an evil report. This evil report was then the one that took precedence over the good report. Consequently, Israel rebelled against the word of the Lord and did not take possession of the land. Caleb, on the other hand, tried to encourage Moses and the children of Israel to proceed with conquering the land. Caleb, along with Joshua, were blessed of God for their belief that the land could be conquered. Caleb was interested in reaching higher ground for the Lord. From the life of Caleb, I think we can ascertain what is necessary to conquer the land, what is necessary, what is needed to gain higher ground. That's what we want to look at. But before we do that, let's go back to Numbers chapter 13 and look at this story. Numbers chapter number 13. And one of the places where we mentioned in Sunday School where the 12 tribes of Israel are listed, Numbers 13, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses, by the command of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those men were heads of the children of Israel." And then there's a list. of the 12 men that went, one from each tribe. Verse 16, these are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Osea the son of Nun, Jehoshua. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain. See the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein. whether they be strong or weak or few or many. And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds. And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not, and be ye of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rohab, as men came to Hamath. And they ascended by the south and they came unto Hebron, where Ahimon, Shishai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, he was listed there in Joshua 14, were. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came unto the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of the grapes, and they bared it between the two upon a staff. And they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshkol, because of the cluster of grapes with the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land, whether thou sendest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it." Now, this is the report of all 12 men. Nevertheless, This is the report of the 10 men. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land. And the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak. They're listed there in verse 22. And the Amalekites dwell in the land of the South and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it for we are able, well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that saw it, that we saw in it, were men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own strength as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And you can read that in contrast, let's do that to the book of Deuteronomy. We mentioned in Sunday school that the book of Deuteronomy is a report of Moses at the end of his life, rehearsing some of the history of the children of Israel. And so let's go to Deuteronomy chapter number two. He says, then we turned and took our journey unto the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea as the Lord spake unto me and we compassed Mount Seir many days. So he's rehearsing this history, this wilderness wandering. And let's drop in here at verse 8. And when we passed by from our brethren, the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir through the way of the plain from Elath and from Ezean-geber, We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. The Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for a possession, because I have given our unto the children of Lot for a possession. And the Emims dwelt therein in time past, a people great and many and tall as the Anakims, which also were accounted giants as the Anakims, but the Moabites called them Emims. The Horems, which also dwelt in Seir before time, but the children of Esau succeeded them when They had destroyed them from before them and dwelt in their stead, as Israel did unto the land of the possessions which the Lord gave unto them. Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered, and the space in which we came was Kadesh Barnea. until we came from over the brook Zered was thirty and eight years until all the generation the men of the war were wasted out from among the host as the Lord swear unto them for indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from before from among the host until they were consumed. So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, that the Lord spake unto me, saying, Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, unto this day. And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them. For I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession, because I have given it unto the children of Lot for possession. That also was accounted a land of the giants. Giants dwelt therein in old time, and the Amorites called them Zamzumims, a people great and many and tall as the Anakims. But the Lord destroyed them from before them, and they succeeded them and dwelt in their stead. as he did unto the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horemes from before them, and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day." And he goes on to explain some more about that. Well, if we look at the story of Caleb from Joshua chapter number 14, I want to give you Four necessities for gaining higher ground. Caleb says, give me that mountain that's higher ground. What is it that Caleb needed in order to gain that higher ground? The first thing is to recognize the enemy. Gaining higher ground, to gain higher ground, we need to recognize the enemy. Lord willing, I was supposed to start at this morning, but since I'm here, I can't do it. A new Sunday School lesson series on spiritual warfare. I understand pastors doing that here at one of the sessions. Not that we want to study Satan so much, but he does have some tactics that are patterns and I think if we recognize those patterns it can help us to overcome him. Now in Caleb's case the enemy was the Anakim. Now just I guess a little Hebrew lesson here. Our English text puts an S on the end of that. Anakim does the same thing with the cherubim. Hebrew makes its plural with an I-M ending. OK, so if I say Anakim instead of Anakims, I'm talking about plural. All right. So I'm going to give it the Hebrew flavor as opposed to the English flavor. But Caleb's enemy was the Anakim. So who are the Anakim? The Anakim or sometimes called the Anakites because they were the sons of Anak. We're a formidable race of giant war-like people. All right, now when the Bible does talk about giants, it means giants. We do have the story of Goliath, who was some nine feet tall. So the Bible does record the reference to a number of these giants. They're mentioned here in this passage we just read in Deuteronomy chapter number two. If you jump ahead to Deuteronomy chapter number nine, Deuteronomy chapter number nine, they are mentioned again, and verse number two. A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before thee? the children of Anak. So they were formidable, a formidable race of giants who occupied the lands of southern Israel near Hebron before the children of Israel arrived in the land. Now their ancestry has been traced to Anak, the son of Arba, and he was regarded as the greatest man among the Anakim. You can see that ahead in Joshua 14, 15. The term, the name Anakim, most likely means long-necked or tall. The Hebrews thought them to be the descendants of the Nephilim, which was a powerful race who dominated the pre-flood world. And I don't know what your belief or pastor's belief is about Genesis chapter number six, but that's where you find them popping up. Were they there as a result of the cohabitation of angels with men, or were they just giants in the land? But, nevertheless, they were giants in the land. And those giants, Goliath was one of them, and he had five brothers. They were a part of this powerful race. These twelve Israelite spies returned from exploring the promised land and they gave a frightening report of these people, tall and great, whom they identified as the sons of Anak. And then the Israelites were seized with fear and believing themselves to be mere grasshoppers in their sight. That's the way he describes that. They're really rebelling against the Lord because God said, go up and take the land. Caleb said, we can do it. We are well able to do it. But they refused to enter the land that God had promised them. Now during the conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua, Joshua expelled the Anakim from the hill country and Caleb finally drove them out of Hebron completely. Let's go to Joshua chapter number 11. We're still doing some background study here on the Anakim. Joshua chapter number 11. I want to look at verse number 22, Joshua 11, 22. I guess we ought to read verse number 21 as well. At that time came Joshua and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debor, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, Gath, and in Ashdod there remained. That's the area where Goliath came from. Now, some people say there must be some kind of a contradiction here that Joshua drove them completely out, and then when you come back here to chapter 14, Caleb is dealing with them again. There's no contradiction in the Bible. Any contradictions you find, you think you find in the Bible, are found between your ears, all right? Between my ears. Because we don't understand, we're not given all the details, perhaps, or we don't understand all that is going on there. I think there's possibly two different scenarios here. One would be in chapter 11, Joshua drove them completely out, but some of them remained in that coastal area, Gaza and Ashdod, those are Philistine cities, by the way. And maybe they came back to the land of Hebron. So by the time you get to chapter number 14, Caleb has to drive them out again. Another possibility is that Caleb was involved in the driving out in chapter 11. Whatever the case, the Bible is true. So let's believe the Bible, even though you don't understand it. A lot of things in the Bible you don't understand. Just don't throw it out because you don't understand it. The ways of God are higher than our ways. Now, we want to make a practical application of this, recognizing our enemies. Our enemies are the giants in our lives, whatever they might be, the things that occupy the territory that belongs to God. Once I get started in this study in Sunday school that I'm going to be doing at our church, we're going to talk about the strongholds of the devil. He wants a strong hold on something in your life, in my life. And we are not to give him a strong hold. What is that territory in your life, in my life, that the giants take over? We need to conquer those in the name of the Lord. So recognize the enemy, first of all. We need to see who is the enemy. A second necessity for gaining higher ground. is to realize that God wants to drive out the enemy. You're sort of there in Joshua chapter 11. Let's take a peek at verse number 21 again. 1121, wrong place. Let's see here. 1121, at that time came Joshua cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron. Joshua is said to have driven these out. And so Caleb comes back and if he has to drive them out again, that's somewhat of a pattern that happens in your life. Sometimes we think, well, I've got the complete victory over something and then months later, years later, it pops up again. What do you have to do again? drive out the enemy some more. And so if that's the scenario that's happening here, but God has granted a promise of victory. Caleb reminded Joshua of the promise that God gave to them. Let's go back to chapter 14, 14 and verse number 6. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God concerning me, and thee in Kadesh Barnea." So Joshua and Caleb were the two spies that came back with a good report. And Caleb reminded Joshua of the promise that God gave to them. Caleb remained faithful to the Lord. Look at verse number 7. 40 years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to a spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. Caleb was faithful to the Lord. You and I must remain faithful to the Lord consistently. Now we'll read a little bit later that he waited 45 years in order to get the promise. Remain faithful even though the others want the heart to melt. Verse number eight says, nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt. But I wholly follow the Lord my God." God promised to Caleb. was a promise of an inheritance. Verse number nine, and Moses swear on that day saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. If you remember reading there in number 13, the land where they went was near that city of Hebron. where these giants were. And so God promised to Caleb was a promise of an inheritance of that land. The promise began in the year of the spies. It was a promise to Caleb and his descendants because he wholly followed the Lord. Once again, if you cross-reference that with the Deuteronomy chapter one, we didn't look at chapter one, Deuteronomy chapter one, let me read that verse and verse number 36. Save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it. And to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord." So the testimony that Joshua had back 40 years ago, 45 years ago, he still had that he fully followed the Lord. And we noted that Caleb waited 45 years to inherit this land. Chapter 14, verse 10 says that, 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." Eighty-five years old. It's a challenge to me. I don't expect to live that long, but we'll see. But his strength was as strong as it was when he was 40, he says. Most of us probably can't say that, but sometimes we do not patiently wait for God to drive out the enemies. Sometimes we try to go ahead of the Lord. He's waiting 45 years for God to answer this prayer and give him this promise, give him this blessing. At other times, there are things that we must remove immediately. And I can't tell you where and when those are in your life or even in my life, but sometimes things have to happen right now. At other times, God wants to drive out some things and he wants to bless. Now, Caleb wanted to drive out the people, okay? He couldn't do it because the children of Israel wouldn't go with him, all right? So he was hindered from getting his blessing because of the others. So sometimes we have to wait for God's blessing. And at other times, God works immediately. But realize that God wants to drive out the enemy. And we also note that God can actually, not only does He want to, but God can grant a victory. God gives victories in spite of great and fenced, walled cities. Caleb recognized that God could give them the victory even at 85 years of age. Look at verse number 12 of the text. Joshua 14, 12. Now therefore give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake in that day, for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fenced. If so be that the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. You know, sometimes we look at the fenced cities, we look at the tallness of the enemy around us, and we feel like grasshoppers. And we feel like we can't do it. But if God wants us to do it, God can help us and give us the strength. So God can actually grant a victory. So the first thing is to recognize that there is an enemy. The second thing is to realize that God wants to drive out the enemies. I guess part of the question is, do you and I want to drive out the enemies from our lives? Are we content to live with them? I look at the study of the nation of Israel and I watch and read all of this and I sometimes say, well, why didn't they drive them out completely? Sometimes there was deception, like the Gibeonites who deceived them and told them they had come from a long journey, put on some old clothes and worn out stuff and Israel believed them. And they were their neighbors right next door. They technically should have driven them out also. So they made a pact with them, a covenant with them. to protect them. Sometimes we do that with things in our lives that are our enemies. We make a covenant with them and we keep them around. Maybe we think it's easier to just tolerate the enemy than to do battle with the enemy. Again, I can't tell you where and when and how. I look at this history of Israel again, I look at them battling this and I do scratch my head sometimes and say, well, wait a minute now. This land was occupied by the Hittites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and so forth and so on, all those Canaanite nations. And God's telling the nation of Israel, this land is my land. You go and take that land. I struggle with that. I don't know how that works politically. I wouldn't make a very good Israeli ambassador. Because I would not be for the two-party thingamajig. Because the Bible is not for it. But it's not politically correct. So I wouldn't make a very good politician. I wouldn't last very long. Because I'd say, give the land to Israel. The Palestinians are going to say, wait a minute, we can't do that. But from a biblical standpoint, that's what God is saying. I don't fully understand all of that, but I think I do understand that in the sense of a spiritual application. Sometimes we want to have a two-party system in our own lives. We want to have the devil living alongside of God. God says no. God says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and what's the rest of it? Him only shalt thou worship. You got to cast out the other gods. You can't live alongside of them. And that's what God was doing with the Canaanite nations. They were all worshiping false gods. So in driving out those nations, He was driving out all of those false gods. But in the history of Israel, for whatever reasons they lived alongside, they could not fully conquer the land. They could not fully drive out the land. Why? Because God wasn't able? No, because the children of Israel didn't follow. You and I, here's the spiritual application, you and I can drive out the enemy. If the enemy is still there, it's not God's fault. It's our fault. We haven't fully followed the Lord. We're half-hearted. And so that's the next thing. The third necessity for gaining higher ground is to wholly follow the Lord. Back to verse number nine. And Moses swear on that day, saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine and thy children forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. The key for Caleb was to wholly follow the Lord. We miss God's blessings, a portion of God's blessings, because we do not fully follow the Lord. Now, most of us sitting here in this room will say, well, we're following the Lord. I mean, look at us, we're in church. That's part of what God wants us to be doing. We're about to give our tithes and offerings to the Lord with, what do you call it? Stewardship Sunday. And so we're following the Lord. Okay, but wholly following the Lord? 100% wholehearted, truehearted. We miss some of God's blessings because we do not fully follow the Lord. Our desire is half-hearted. Our commitment is temporary and fleeting. You mean I got to commit to this for the rest of my life? And our trust is partial. We like Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. So I'm trusting in the Lord. with all thine heart. Our trust is partial. So what does it mean to fully follow the Lord? I want to give you three things. Number one would be to trust the word. Joshua 14, six. And the children of Israel, a children of Judah, came unto Joshua, unto Caleb, unto Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, came to them and said, thou knowest the thing that the Lord said, that's the word of the Lord, unto Moses, the man of God. You know what Caleb was doing? He's trusting the word of God. But he's not only trusting the Word of God, he is, number two, pursuing the Word of God. Pursuing the Word of God. I want to take you back to Numbers chapter number 14. Numbers 14. The next chapter after the story, Numbers 14. Let's go ahead and read the beginning part of the chapter. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. For the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this wilderness? Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, were it not better for us to return unto Egypt. That's all the result of this evil report. There's some fenced and walled cities and some tall, great and tall men. Oh, we're gonna die. Well, look at verse four. And they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return unto Egypt. And Moses and Aaron fell on their face before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. And they spake, unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land." All 12 spies agreed to that. It was a good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into the land, this land, and give it to us, the land that floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Pursue the Word. You know, you look at the Word of God and the Bible says you need to do this if you're going to be blessed. And we say, whoa, I don't think I can do that. We're afraid. Pursue the Word of God. When God tells you to do something, He gives you the power and the provision to do or be that thing. You can do it. God doesn't ask you to do something you can't do. So number one, Joshua trusted the word. Number two, he pursued the word of God. He said, let's do it, let's go, let's go. And number three, obey the word. Back to Joshua number 14. Joshua 14 and verse number Where do I want to go? Verse number 12. Now therefore give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake in that day. He's following the Lord's spoken word. Thou hast heard in that day how the Anakim 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 out as the Lord said. Obey the word. What does it take to fully follow the Lord? Well, I think it takes some concentration. You've got to think about what you're doing. It takes some commitment. We're living in a day and age when we're missing commitment. People don't want to be committed to much of anything. It takes completeness. He wholly followed the Lord. We want to follow the Lord, you know, partway, but not completely. Did you hear what I said? Yeah, I heard what you said, but you're not really doing what you were told to do. Have you really completely followed the obedience of the word? Mom, dad, tell you, somebody tells you boss, somebody tells you what to do. And consistency. Well, I bathed yesterday, isn't that good enough? No, you got to bathe today too. So concentration, commitment, completeness and consistency. I want to give you one more necessity. Number one, you need to recognize the enemy. Who is your enemy? What are you fighting about? What is it that's in your life? What is it that's in my life that is against God? Number two, recognize that God wants to drive out that enemy. And then of course, the idea would be for you and I to grab onto that and let's also desire to drive out the enemy. Holy follow the Lord. And number four, the fourth necessity for gaining higher ground is to tap into God's strength. Tap into God's strength. So far, we've been encouraging you, Caleb kind of doing the same thing. Hey, we can do this. Yeah, there's fence cities. Yeah, there's tall people there, but we can do it. But you will notice that both back in Numbers and here in Joshua, Caleb is saying, we can do it with the Lord's strength. So when he says I am as strong today, where was that, verse number nine or so? I'm as strong today, verse 11, yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Now where'd that strength come from? You say, well, he's talking about his physical strength. Well, yeah, probably, but I think he's also talking about the Lord's strength. The Lord's strength was the same 45 years ago as it is today. The Lord's strength is the same for you today as it was however many years ago you want to go. because the Lord doesn't change. His strength doesn't wax and wane. So you need to tap into, I need to tap in to the strength of the Lord. Even in his old age, Caleb's strength was to go out and to come in. His strength was not merely his physical strength. Repeatedly, throughout the time of Israel's history, God encouraged Moses, Joshua and the whole nation the children of Israel to not fear But to be strong and of a good courage. Let's take a quick tour Deuteronomy chapter number one Deuteronomy chapter one. I said in the Sunday school, Deuteronomy is a repetition. This is the end of Moses' life, but Moses is doing this at the beginning of his life, okay, but he's recording it here in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse number 21. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee, then what did he say? Fear not, neither be dismayed. What happened to these children of Israel? They got the report and they were afraid. Are you afraid to do the will of God? Fear not, be not dismayed. Look at verse number 29. Then I said unto them, dread not, neither be afraid of him. Now this is Moses' report of what he's been doing through those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. People don't be afraid. Trust God. Don't be full of dread. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 20 and verse number three. As Moses is continuing through this whole report, he's given a lot of information as a summary of his life and the life of the children of Israel, chapter 20 and verse number three. And shall say unto them, hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto the battle against your enemies. Let not your hearts faint, fear not, do not tremble, neither be terrified because of them. What is it that you're afraid of? What is it that I'm fearful of? Deuteronomy chapter 31. We're getting closer to the end of Moses' life here. Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse number six, be strong. and of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Okay, now this is not just, all of these are not just, you know, pep talks that Moses is trying to give to the children of Israel. Say, hey, be strong, don't be afraid, come on, let's buck up here a little bit. What he's doing is saying you can trust the Lord because the Lord will give you the victory. The opposite of fear is what? Faith. Trusting in the Lord. And of course, when we don't have faith, that's where the fear comes in. So trust in the Lord. Where did I stop reading? Verse number six, be strong. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Verse seven, and Moses called unto Joshua and said unto him, in the sight of all Israel. So now Moses is putting this on his assistant. Joshua, you need to now challenge the people to be strong and have a good courage. For thou must go up with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit. And the Lord, He it is, that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. And then turn over to verse number 23, same chapter. And He gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge and said, Be strong and of good courage, for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them, I will be with ye. And then go to the book of Joshua. Interestingly enough, the book of Joshua starts out with the death of Moses. Joshua 1.1, now the death, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, when that leader dies, sometimes it's difficult to press on. And God says, no, I've got to, Moses, my servant, is dead, verse two. now therefore arise," the idea is now therefore you arise, and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I give to them, even to the children of Israel. He promised that every place that they stood, they would have that land. Verse six, be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide an inheritance for the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. And then verse nine, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. And that's repeated. throughout the book of Joshua, okay? He does it again in verse number 18, same chapter. And they answered Joshua saying, all that thou commendest us, we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. And then chapter 10 of Joshua, just a chapter or two before our story, Joshua 10, verse number 25. And Joshua said unto them, fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of a good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. So all throughout this history, God has been telling the nation, you don't need to be fearful. And Caleb is picking up on that. Caleb fully followed the Lord. If you and I are going to reach higher ground, we need to recognize the enemy. We need to realize that God wants to give a victory. We need to wholly follow the Lord. And number four, we need to tap into God's Spirit. I pray that we'll do that. Let's pray. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 17112. And visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time,