Unbelief, the Taskmaster

September 17, 2009

God is stirring so much in my heart this morning about courage, faith and believing. Joshua is a favorite book of mine from the Bible. It was a huge help to me as I went through the struggles of this last year.

Today I was in chapters 13 and 14. Chapter 13 is all about the land that was yet to be taken by the Israelites, they were to possess the land that God had given them for an inheritance but they had work to do. God had instructed them to drive out the nations that lived there so that they could claim what was theirs.

Man, I love Caleb’s heart in chapter 14; I want to be like that now until the day I die! Listen to what he says in verses 7-8, “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”

There were two things I saw about Caleb’s heart here:

1. Caleb reported based on how he was convicted not according to what he saw. He had faith in God and his capabilities. Caleb knew his God and he knew his ways. He had seen his power displayed many times before and he believed that God would help him take the land.

2. Caleb followed his God wholeheartedly. He didn’t waver a bit.

In the King James Version it says that Caleb followed “wholly.” I looked up this word in the Strong’s concordance and the literal meaning of the root of this word is to fill, be full, to be full, fullness, abundance (participle) to be full, be accomplished, be ended to consecrate, fill the hand, to be filled, be armed, be satisfied, to be accomplished, be ended, to satisfy, to fulfill, accomplish, complete, to confirm, to be filled.

Wow, what a mouthful! This was Caleb’s attitude toward what God had promised them as a nation and he held to these convictions. He was 40 and in Joshua 14:10 he says now he is 85, so because the Israelites didn’t believe God and they feared they were forced to wander the desert for more than 40 years until every last one of that generation died and their children were given the land (read Numbers 14 and Deut. 1:19-46), but Caleb is still serving and believing God with everything within him.

What a punishment for the people at that time, they had already wandered in the desert for 40 years and now because they would not believe and they feared they were given another 40 plus years to just wander and then die. This is what unbelief and fear do in our lives. This is a stern warning to us today. If we can believe that Christ died for our sins and that in our belief we are saved, then why can’t we believe him for other things that he has promised?

What has God spoken to you? I am challenged today and I challenge you to be like Caleb and believe with all that is in you, God said it and it is so! It is unfortunate but true that Caleb and the people's children had to suffer because of the unbelief of the adults in the group. How does our unbelief affect not only us but those around us?

I don’t know about you but it seems to me that it is much easier to believe God than to work so hard under the taskmaster of unbelief. I don’t want to waste my life wandering in a no-man’s land never seeing what God has promised and I don’t want to die there either!

God has a grand plan and I believe I am part of it as are all of you who have believed in him and many of you who have yet to believe in him and I want to see it all! I want to live all that God has planned for me and I don’t want to miss a thing! How about you? ……..Then be brave and BELIEVE!