Division of Canaan
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Israel. This, above all others, was the place which Caleb, trusting in
the strength of God, chose for his inheritance.
“Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive,” he said, “these forty and
five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses: ... 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 that 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, 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 the Lord will
be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”
This request was supported by the chief men of Judah. Caleb himself
being the one appointed from this tribe to apportion the land, he had
chosen to unite these men with him in presenting his claim, that there
might be no appearance of having employed his authority for selfish
advantage.
His claim was immediately granted. To none could the conquest of
this giant stronghold be more safely entrusted. “Joshua blessed him,
and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance,”
“because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” Caleb’s faith
now was just what it was when his testimony had contradicted the evil
report of the spies. He had believed God’s promise that He would
put His people in possession of Canaan, and in this he had followed
the Lord fully. He had endured with his people the long wandering
in the wilderness, thus sharing the disappointments and burdens of
the guilty; yet he made no complaint of this, but exalted the mercy
of God that had preserved him in the wilderness when his brethren
were cut off. Amid all the hardships, perils, and plagues of the desert
wanderings, and during the years of warfare since entering Canaan,
the Lord had preserved him; and now at upwards of fourscore his vigor
was unabated. He did not ask for himself a land already conquered,
but the place which above all others the spies had thought it impossible
to subdue. By the help of God he would wrest his stronghold from
the very giants whose power had staggered the faith of Israel. It was
no desire for honor or aggrandizement that prompted Caleb’s request.
The brave old warrior was desirous of giving to the people an example
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that would honor God, and encourage the tribes fully to subdue the
land which their fathers had deemed unconquerable.