The story of Joshua and Caleb is one of the most powerful and dramatic stories in all of the Bible. There are major lessons to be learned from their story in the Lord.
Most Christians have heard of the story of Moses, but many Christians are not fully aware of the story of Joshua and Caleb. They are an extension off the story of Moses. They are the climax to the story of Moses as I will show you below.
I will first give you a brief synopsis of their story, and then give you what needs to be learned from their story and how it personally applies to the situation that you are now facing.
Brief Synopsis of Joshua and Caleb
God sends Moses into the land of Egypt to rescue and deliver His people from their slavery to the Egyptians. He throws 10 whopper plagues at the Pharaoh in order to get him to release His people from their bondage.
God literally parts the Red Sea to complete the deliverance mission. God the Father performs one of the most powerful, supernatural displays of signs and wonders that the world has ever seen to get His people pulled out of Egypt.
Moses tells God’s people that God will give them what He calls the Promised Land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. He will settle His people down in this land and this is where He will then break the Israelites off into 12 different tribes.
However, there is one little catch to this story. Before they are allowed to enter into this Promised Land, they must all first pass a test with the Lord. God allows them to stay in the wilderness for 40 years. He gives them all the basics as far as food and water in order to be able to survive in the wilderness for the 40 years.
God purposely tested His people to see if they would hold fast to Him and follow all of His ways while in this wilderness setting. And time after time, they continued to get themselves in major trouble with the Lord.
At one point, God got so mad at their rebellious attitude, that He literally wanted to kill them. But Moses went into the gap for his people, pleaded his case before God as to why He should not kill His people, and the Bible said that God then relented and changed His mind – all because Moses stood in the gap and effectively pleaded his case before God.
However, just after a little over 2 years into this 40 year wilderness journey is where they finally blew it for the last time with God the Father.
The Israelites sent twelve spies into the Promised Land to check out who the enemy was and to develop battle strategies to defeat them. God was going to allow them to go into the Promised Land, but they first had to defeat and drive out some of their enemies in order to conquer and possess the land.
When the spies came back, ten of them came back with a bad report. They said their enemies were giants and that their kingdoms were too well fortified and they would not be able to defeat them.
Now mind you, God had just got done delivering them out of Egypt with one of the greatest displays of His supernatural power the world has ever seen with Him throwing 10 whopper plagues against the Egyptians and then parting the Red Sea to give them safe passage into the wilderness.
When God saw all of their negative attitudes, and their lack of faith and belief in Him and His power, He literally threw up His hands and said that was going to be it.
At this point, He tells them that all of the men who are 20 years and older would not enter into the Promised Land due to their lack of faith and belief in Him. He said they would all wander in the desert for the next 40 years until they all literally died out in the desert.
God says that their carcasses would fall in this wilderness, and that their sons would be their shepherds bearing the brunt of their infidelity towards God.
The spies that went went in to spy out the land did so for 40 days. As a result of this bad report – God pronounces judgment that they should wander in the wilderness for 40 years to match up with the 40 days they had spied out the land for.
Now this is where Joshua and Caleb come in. God then tells Joshua and Caleb that they and the younger generation under 20 years of age would be the ones who would be able to go into the Promised Land because they had “wholeheartedly followed God.”
They had full faith and belief in God that He could defeat all of their enemies once they went into the Promised Land to conquer and possess it.
Joshua was the leader that eventually led them in. Moses himself was not allowed to go in, and he died and was buried out in the wilderness. Joshua then took Moses’ position as leader of the Israelites.
Joshua then goes into the Promised Land with his strong faith and belief in God, and then proceeds to literally wipe their enemies off the face of the earth and conquer and possess the land that God had promised their earlier forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Lessons To be Learned From Joshua and Caleb
1. I believe the Promised Land for today’s Christian refers to God’s call on that person’s life.
For the Christian that will fully surrender their entire life over to God the Father – I believe that God will place a specific call or calls on that person’s life.
However, it may take many years before God releases this person into what their true calling is going to be for Him. Sometimes it may take years of preparation to get ready for this call.
But once this call comes in and you are getting ready to cross over into your Promised Land, many Christians get cold feet at the last minute and walk out on their call.
They start to get too focused on all the negative possibilities they will encounter if they take the call just like the 10 spies did with God the Father. Fear starts to set in and they then bail out of the boat.
This is why the above story is so powerful.
The Israelites lost their one and only chance to go into this Promised Land due to one main reason – fear, and lack of full faith and belief in the power of God to see them through.
They were too scared of the giants and kingdoms they saw in the Promised Land they were supposed to possess – and they did not have enough faith and belief in God that He could conquer and defeat these giants for them.
As a result, they lost out on the biggest blessing of their entire life.
After Joshua fully succeeded in all of his missions for the Lord, he makes the comment shortly before he dies that God had not failed to give him every ounce of land that his foot had stepped on.
God told Joshua that his enemies would be taken out and that he would be given total victory as long as he stayed with God’s instructions on how to do all of this. Joshua saw his call completely through, and when he died, he died a man with his call and mission from God completely fulfilled.
The two keys to Joshua’s success was his strong faith and belief in God, and the fact that he had always “wholeheartedly followed God.”
I always tell everyone to stay with their leadings from the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and teach us all things.
He is our personal Guide and Teacher in this life. If God puts a call on your life, but you do not follow His specific instructions and leadings on how to get there, then you will never succeed.
Joshua’s story is one of the most dramatic stories in all of the Bible about someone who did it right in God. His story is a perfect example for all Christians on how to properly follow God and the call that He can place on your life.
2. This story really applies to where you are at right now with God. You may be getting ready to have your door opened to enter into your Promised Land – into God’s true calling on your life.
However, you are well aware of the giants and strongholds that you will be coming against if this door opens up for you.
Remember the above story on Joshua.
- He saw the same giants and strongholds that you are now seeing.
- He saw all this before going in.
- God allowed him to see exactly what he was going into before he actually went into it – and God is showing you the exact same thing.
You now have one of two choices to make.
- You can either let fear and panic set in just like the Israelites did, and lose your one and only chance to enter into your Promised Land.
- Or you can have the same strong faith and belief in God that Joshua had – and go in there with a kick-butt attitude that you will be completely victorious and that you will accomplish everything that God will want you to accomplish for Him.
I will leave you with one last thought. Joshua and Caleb took their strong faith and belief in God, entered the Promised Land, and achieved total victory in God.
The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. What He will do for one, He will do for another.
If God is calling you to go through this door, then rest assured that you will have the full power of God operating through you to achieve total victory just like Joshua did!
As a final testament to the this man’s story, God saw fit to name one of the Books of the Bible after him – “The Book of Joshua.”
I think this was a very fitting ending to what this man accomplished in God while down here on this earth. The Bible said Joshua lived to be 110 years old.
Let God do the same for you as He did for Joshua and Caleb!
Im blessed by dis story of Joshua,leading Israelites to d promised land. I hav learnt a lot about faith nd patience nd perseverence.bless u…
By joshua story i think he is true and honest person of god
I’m thinking that though I feel fear every day, I will walk in Faith, with the spirit of love, in my Lord, Jesus Christ. I am truly blessed.
Thanks for your word, you said that God will raise a Joshue up which he has. He has every thing in place for the release of His word to His people. This world is going to be shaken with the word of God for it said the kingdom of God must be preached before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word we are busy with is called, The Lord God has spoken, establish our kingdom, for my son is coming. Please pray and intercede for we are in need of prayers to prepare God’s people heart to receive this word. Your servant the prophet Amanda…. the release is soon. It is time for the desolation to end. May God bless you.
You talk of 12 spies being sent to the promised land. What happened to the other 2.
The other two spies were Johsua and Caleb and they were allowed entrance into the Promised Land.
Mike
I just used this to prove my Texas History Teacher Wrong 😀
i know God has a reason for each and everyone journey, though long and may seem un defined God have plan for us all. All we need is to submit to his calls
So would you consider these to be the first of the twelve disciples in this day? As well as, was Joshua and caleb two adults allowed to go into the promised land witht the other under 20 years of age (children)?
Were there other adults/
What happened to Mariam and Aaron?
Wasn’t this the same Aaron that God used to enter into the Ark of the Covenant? What happened to his faith. He had to be holy at some point,in order to be able to be used for this purpose (Ark of the Covenant?)
Why didn’t Moses enter? was it because of his anger or because he told God to kill him to when he made the agreement in order to saved the chikdren of Isreal? And so it was…….(Let Him die in the wilderness with them?)
Let’s keep in touch, God is doing a new thing as he unveils new revelations of His Word each day (Himself) each day. I am looking for mentors to discuss the true word of GOD. Where did Caleb come from? Who was he?
The 12 spies is the same as typology. as in 12 disciples. their were no other people alive who had started the Exodus ,the rest were people born on route.. Miriam and Aaron had also died, Moses did not enter because it was his punishment for striking the rock twice to get water, Aaron was a priest and did go into the inner sanctum, Miriam got into trouble with God so he made her hand leprous, Aaron pleaded with Moses to pray for cleansing, so God cleansed her, but sent her outside the perimiter for a time.
Can you tell me how many cities there was that the children of Isreal had to conquer before they reached the promised land? At oint of the battle between these cities did Joshua and Caleb take over to take the children of Isreal into the Promised Land.
So did they go ahead and leave the others with Moses that had to die in the wilderness, or did they wait until they all died off and then went to fight the remaining battle picking up where (the last city) Moses left off. This is a mystery to me?W hat was the last battle the children, (the adult’s that did not make it to the promise land) of Isreal fought with Moses before he died and they were not allowed to go any further? Was the battle of Jericho the last fight before entering into the promised land?
I’m Danny Hendrix the story blessed me too think God that at least 2made it to the promised land.now how many of us we’ll make it pray for me as I pray for you.
Yes, I feel that God does provide. Now, it is important to have the FAITH to trust in his ways.
He will never leave us because he is always faithful. It is usually better than I could ever imagine in every decision. We must have faith and not fear.
Sandy
liked this article
Wow! wow! wow! awesome write up………….thank you for the encouragement.
thank you for this wonderful story..by Joshua..i am christian believer and now i know he is one of the great follower of Jesus…. the name of our church is ” cornerstone baptist church..
The story of Caleb & Joshua is a powerful one. I have been coming across a lot of stories on Caleb and the prayer of Caleb comes up a lot of times. I didnt know about what he did in the Bible and so on.
I admire his courage,faith, and perseverance. He was able to stand up for what he believed in, he didn’t go with the flow. I also pray for the same character because many times we ignore the inner voice telling us to do this and we just want to do what everybody else is doing.
May God strenghthen us in our walk. May our faith in him be strong and unwavering.
God Bless you all.
I think that Elijah who did not exprience death at the old testament. He appears in the new testament but in the form of John Baptist.
God doesn’t do reincarnation. You watch for the two witnesses at the wall during the tribulation and you will see Elijah and at that time he will experience death.
Noel, Elijah did come back as John The Baptist and paid the price with his life. But, a great, great, great man and the greatest prophet there was besides our Lord.
If you guys like I have a small group on fb
I am a proud christian champion
This story intrigues me, it consistently reminds me to walk in the spirit, not in the flesh!!!!…..TO TOTALLY TRUST JESUS WHOLEHEATEDLY!!!!…..AMEN!
Joshua and Caleb are two of the same person. Joshua is the different” spirit with Caleb it describes in Numbers14:24 as Caleb having with him. Which is the Holy Spirit.
@Caleb Daniel Kerby, No they are not. Numbers 13 clearly says that Caleb is from the tribe of Judah, whereas Oshea is from Ephraim. Moses called Oshea the son of Nun “Jehoshua” in vs 16. In Numbers 14:6 the spelling is Joshua and again it says he is the son of Nun and Caleb is the son of Jephunneh. Two different people.
Before we’re too harsh on the Israelites for beign afraid- let’s consider that they were beign asked to overcome extreme fear- not just a little doubt, but extreme fear- to put it into perspective- it would be akin to us walking into the ring with mike Tyson knowing how powerful he is and how weak we are- would many of us have the courage to do so? Knowing we could die In the ring? Sure, it’s easy to say “With God all things are possible’ and it’s even easy to know that- however, it’s a whole nother thing to actually be put to the test.
Suppose you become a cripple tomorrow? Suppose you have to have someone do EVERYTHING for you for the rest of your life? Or suppose you lose your home and are thrown out on the streets in the dead of winter? Now knowing where to turn? Or suppose, God forbid, we are kidnapped and beaten and abused and don’t know if we’ll even survive it, let alone escape it? Or that we’re falsely accused and thrown into prison with hardened criminals for life? No possibility of parole?
It’s easy to declare we’ll ‘walk by faith’- it’s a whole nother thing to actually have to do so when we’re put into a situation where we’re forced to do so- and many of us WILL fail to have the faith we need in terrible situations- EVEN IF God had previously done miraculous things in our lives in our lives in the past-
It is NOT easy following God when life is bad- When life is good, sure, it’s easy-
The nephilim in the city were giants- over ten feet tall- every last one of them- they were powerful people, and they were spawn of satan, evil, angry, blood thirsty warriors- and while it is true they were nothing compared to God’s power- it’s still a fact that as people, being asked to walk in and face them, it’s a tough tough decision to trust God- Remember the story of David? Every person In the region feared Goliath and the other giants in the region- NOONE stepped forward- not even the Christians of the day (God’s people)- it took a person of extraordinary and uncommon faith- David- to step forward-
Bottom line is, it’s easy to criticize or look down on the Israelites for their lack of faith- and to declare we would never do such a thing as they did, that we would have faith no matter what- but we’re NOT facing giants in our lives, and if that day ever comes, most of us will likely fail God just like the Israelites did because our faith will NOT be strong enough in the face of terrible menacing situations that we will have no control over-
God who created this universe is greater than all the possible problems and He is mighty and ever-loving.
Faith means that God will take care of you when things are impossible.
He already had given so many samples earlier for them to believe so why not continue in believing Him when He had made promise…
Lack of faith means that thinking either 1. God is not mighty enough
2. God will break His promise.
And God promised us a lot of things… Faith means to trust all those promises when situation gets tougher and darker or empty…
The giants were not taller than the red sea GOD parted. They were not based than the ten plugged Egypt faced, they were not greater than the throat or the hunger they had experienced,yet GOD brought. All these things happen to build Israel’s confidence in GOD. GOD will ask you to trust HIM before HE build up HIS trust in HIM first. GOD will do the same for you. HE is no respect of person. When GOD ask you to trust HIM, HE will build up your trust before he ask you to trust HIM. Remember GOD already India’s WHAT you will do before you do it. If GOD is asking you to trust HIM, HE through THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL remind you of times you trusted HIM in the pass and HE came through for you. Remember David said GOD delivered me from the lion and the bear, and GOD will deliver me from this gaint. Remembering the giants that GOD has delivered you from the pass, will help you face with confidence the giants you face today and tomorrow. I pray this helps
BE BLESSED.
i see your concern. just like the person above me. God will build up your faith before he ask you to do something you wont handle. He wont put you in position where you wont win. If God ask for you to take the land he will give you the land. When Caleb took over the land they were still the same people the other 10 feared 40 years prior. God has built their faith this whole time by taking over one of the greatest arm at that time the Egyptians hence why he was harsh on their lack of faith by casting them to wonder in the wilderness for 40 years. God is always on the move. once he has built your faith with one thing he expects us to have built our faith. Just like David to say he has delivered me from lion and bear and now he will deliver me from this giant. If we lose what God has done for us in the past we can lose our promises land. The key is not to have petty on the other group but to focus on the Lord and keep our eyes on him. This will build our faith and know he is with us all the time. Be blessed. i know many years later but still great topic to talk about.
I just wanted to point out the thing that blesses me most about the whole Caleb, Joshua thing and that is 40 years later when they go to take on this attack, Caleb, (40 years older) is an old man at the front with the attitude of “COME ON THEN, LETS GET ‘EM!”
I love that he was faithful to that belief, even after 40 years he had that David spirit, ‘we got God on our side, their days are numbered!’ and God honoured him for it!
Thanks for this Article, it has really helped me.
Sincerely, I know of the story of Joshua a bit but never heard of his companion Caleb not until I was asked a question by an elderly person but I couldn’t answer.
In other for me to know it so I could respond the next day which he would ask me, I stumbled on this site and thanks it has really explore my mind to know of actually everything. Thanks a lot.
why was caleb the only one mentioned to be having a different spirit can we find the difference between him and his companion Joshua
Thank you, You have no idea how much this has blessed me! Reading this at 1am after being to a women’s retreat, and God has been speaking to me about trusting him with everything because fear and anxiety has been holding me back from fully trusting that he has me and he has a plan even when I mess up! I’ve got to step out into the unknown and know he will never leave me nor forsake me! God bless you.
Thank you for that great word. It has made an impact in my life. I have entered a battle against my health but, with the reading I received today I know I’m ready to move forward with where God is leading me. It’s not by chance that I stumbled upon your website. God has already begun to move and I am so thankful for this ministry of the word. Continue making a duffel in the lives of others. May God continue to bless you and your ministry.
Thank you for the story. I learned a lot about my faith reading it.
This story confirmed for me what God’s plans for me are.
For weeks now, I have been “putting off” an educational opportunity to teach at a level I’d never taught before. Th excuse “why I couldn’t” became my mindset. Reading this article “grouped” me with the ten spies. I realized my faith in God wasn’t as strong as I thought it was.
The story of Caleb has given me a renewed faith in God. Knowing that He is with me at all times has given me a different perspective; a perspective that “I can” succeed at a level that I once thought was unattainable. With God by our side, anything is possible.
Very powerful, motivating and encouraging all mankind to belief and submit to God. As he said ” He will never give us burdens about power and belief”.
Let’s invite him in our life and battles trust him whole heartedly Amen