Give Me This Mountain

Joshua 14:12: "Give me this mountain."

Caleb of the Old Testament was a man who never ceased growing.
The passing years increased his stature.
He demonstrated the exhilarating truth that it is possible for the greatest achievement in life
to take place in old age.
There is no fixed retiring age in serving God.

And every stage of life, Caleb merits our admiration, and he never disappoints us.
The secret of his godly consistent captured in five simple words
that can also be true of us as they were of him.
Those words were, "He wholly followed the Lord."

Caleb was consistent in his youth.

He appears on the stage of Israel's history as a young man.
Nothing is recorded of his youth, but his subsequent record gives an accurate insight
into his character as a young man.

We are not told of the 30 years of our Lord's obscurity, but the following three years of ministry
tell us all we need to know of it.
The crises do not create the man, but they always reveal the man.
Until the crisis of being shipwreck, Paul was merely "one of certain prisoners,"
but he then became the undisputed master of the situation.

The choice of Caleb, a ruler in Judah, was one of the 12 spies indicated the esteem
in which he was held by the leaders and the people.

Two qualities stand out conspicuously.
First, he showed undaunted courage.

Moral courage is greater and rarer than physical courage, the Caleb demonstrated both
in the crisis at Kadesh.
His moral courage was noticed as he stood almost alone against
the growing tide of popular opinion.

This is one of the most difficult tests for young people who crave popularity.
It is difficult not to pursue an opposite course when "everyone is doing it."
Not everyone is willing to back a minority cause.

It took a lot of physical courage to persist in his attitude of faith when the stones begin to fly,
but he refused to be intimidated, and he refused to bow down to the wish of the majority.

In the second place, he had a robust and unwavering faith.
This is a quality that ranks high in God scale of values.

He faith was even more remarkable because it flourished amid the unbelief
that came from the majority report of the spies.
That report is found in Numbers 13:
"The people be strong… the cities are walled, and very great… we saw the giants…
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers… we be not able to go up against the people…
they are stronger than we…all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature."

Into this chilling atmosphere of despair and unbelief, Caleb reveals his undaunted faith.
He said, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome…
The Lord… will bring us into this land… neither fear ye the people of the land;
for they are bread for us… their defense is departed from them…
the Lord is with us: fear them not." (Numbers 13:30; 14:8, 9)

This was a magnificent faith of courage that Caleb displayed.
Were there really fearsome giants?
Caleb and Joshua, who gave the majority report, had seen all that the ten had seen.
Now they did not minimize the greatness of the task.

The difference between them and the 10 spies was in the fact that while the 10
had compared the strength of the giants against their own grasshopper strength,
Caleb and Joshua matched it against the omnipotence of God.

Faith gives a true perspective.
The 10 urged them, "Let us go back to Egypt."
They had forgotten the lash of the taskmasters.
But for Caleb, there was no turning back.

As we face our own particular giants in our own particular walled cities,
are we going to be like the 10 or the two?

Caleb was not frustrated in midlife.

Many who achieve great things in their youth have descended like deflated
as they are tested during the middle years of life.
It is true that these years are not as explosive as those of youth, but they are much more subtle.
Instead of transmitting the vanishing enthusiasm of youth into a worthy life purpose,
we often soften things, and become anemic and insipid.

There is a loss of spiritual fervor, and a lack of personal devotion.
Then there is the feeling that we have earned the right to ease up on sacrifice and self denial.
We are ready to indulge ourselves a little, and to yield to a comfortable ease, and just settle down.

Too often unrealized ideals in life come to be accepted as inevitable.
With the fixing of life tendencies and habits, and the disillusionments, and the cynicism.
Sometimes the cynicism becomes the pattern of life to a greater or lesser degree.
Now there is an unconscious deterioration of moral and spiritual fiber.

Caleb satisfactory passed the test of youth, but how does he fare
in the long drawn out test of middle life?
Despite his own faith and courage, he could be expected to suffer a life of frustration
and disappointment for 40 years because of the unbelief of his contemporaries.

Unbelief always affects others.
It also infects others because it is very contagious.
Doomed to aimless wandering at the age when his powers were at their zenith,
he could easily have become petulant and disgruntled.
But he successfully resisted the surrounding influences, and survived
the long sustained test without losing his moral or spiritual stature.

He soared with wings as an eagle in his youth, and now he had mastered
the art of running without being weary, and he was stabilized by the vitality of his faith.
But can he walk without fainting?

Caleb was triumphant in his old age.

Caleb provides us with a glorious conception of the possibilities of old age.
His supreme opportunity presented itself when he was 85 years of age.
To Caleb, it was not a time of "phasing out," but it was a time
to press on to new achievements.
It was not dissenting the mountain, but it was climbing to a higher peak.
It was not senility and sterility, but it was adventure and achievement.

His life move steadily forward, not to termination but to consummation.
His last years were his best years.
He towers above his contemporaries at every age.
In his youth, he stood alone.
In his old age, he climbs alone.

After 45 years of waiting for the fulfillment of God's divine promise,
he has lost none of his aggressive faith and none of his drive.

Caleb was physically virile.
In Joshua 14:11, he says, "My strength is now, for war."
Here this man of 85 years of age, who should have been putting on his soft slippers,
but was talking about binding own shoes of iron so that he can ascend
the mountain and rout the giants.

Caleb was spiritually adventurous.

In chapter 14:12, he asked, "Give me this mountain."

Which mountain?
It is the mountain where fearsome and invincible giants lived.
It is the mountain which more than 45 years ago the patient Lord had promised
to Caleb and his seed.

Still effervescent with youth he tackles his greatest task, and achieves his greatest victory.
He was not careless or reckless, but he had a calculating faith.
He cherished a godly ambition, and would be satisfied only with the complete fulfillment
of the divine promise of God.

"Give me this mountain" is a great watchword for the aging Christian,
and for all of us at any age.
We must ask ourselves are we losing our spirit of aggression?
Are we becoming hesitant to risk a step of faith for God?
Do we inwardly cringe from the rigors of the battle?
Are we conscious of things we left in our youth?

Perhaps, we need to get out of our comfortable chairs, and ask the Lord
to give us some forbidding mountain to conquer in His name.
We can take courage from Caleb.
It is true that the best years are yet ahead.

Caleb never stop growing because his faith never wavered.

Perhaps, the most noteworthy feature of Caleb's achievement was
that of all the young men of Israel -- all his own contemporaries had fallen in the wilderness,
and not one had ever expelled the enemy from his territory.

The Bible tells us that "Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak."
Concerning the others among who came and was divided there runs the melancholy refrain:
"They… did not utterly drive them out… the Canaanites would dwell in the land
… There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed."

Two reasons were given for their failure to fight their enemies.

First, was there sheer inability.
"They could not drive them out."
Their lack of faith resulted in a lack of power.

Secondly, was their indolence.
"How long will ye be slack to go and possess the land?" Joshua chided them.

Why did the aged Caleb prevailed when the youthful Israelites were frustrated?

Here are those five words are the reason: "He wholly followed the Lord".
The importance of this reason is emphasized by the number of times it is repeated
in this record.
Caleb with an approving conscience was able to assert it of himself:
"I wholly followed the Lord." (Joshua 14:8)
This was not boasting on his part.
This was a simple statement of the fact.

Moses, Caleb's revered leader, who had every opportunity of praising his character
and attitude, asserted, "Thou hast wholly followed the Lord." (Joshua 14:19)
But the most striking testimony comes from God Himself when He said in Numbers 14:24:
"My servant Caleb… hath followed me fully."

Caleb completely defeated his enemies -- giants and all -- because he wholly followed the Lord.
With Caleb there were no divided loyalties.
There was a steady obedience to the light he received and the uncomplaining acceptance
of the divine will of God as he knew it.
There was no complaining of the unfairness of his lot.

To him, the will of God was good, acceptable, and perfect.
God moved very slowly, and Caleb was content to wait for God's time.

In the language of the New Testament, as a logical act of worship,
he presented his body a living sacrifice to God which was in striking contrast
to the faithless multitude whose carcasses fell in the wilderness
because they were unwilling to make that kind of sacrifice.


Are there spiritual enemies in our lives which refuse to be defeated?
Are there giants who laugh at our puny efforts to defeat them?
We find our character much larger than the spiritual territory
that we ought to be occupying and enjoying?

There is a reason.
There are some areas in our lives in which we are not wholly following the Lord.
There is some small reservation in some of our lives.
There is some flaw in our dedication.
There's something within us that has short-circuited spiritual power.
There is something that has sapped our spiritual vitality

Caleb's reason should be our reason.
Complete victory results from total obedience.

"Make us Thy mountaineers;
We would not linger on the lower slope;
Fill us afresh with hope, Thou God of hope,
That undefeated, we may climbed the hill
As seeking Him who is invisible."
-- Amy Carmichael

Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White