Now when Numbers 13 begins to tell us about the work of the spies, it doesn't give us very much detail as to how they went about their work. We don't know, for example, whether they toured around in a body or whether they divided up. We might suspect that they divided up so as not to attract too much attention. One thing I suspect as I read about this is that whether they divided up or whether they went around as a group, Caleb must have expressed some particular interest in Hebron. Hebron is the only one of the cities of the land that’s described in any detail in Numbers 13. It tells that they explored the land from the desert of Zin all the way up to Rehob. It says in verse 22 that they went through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. I suspect that Caleb must have had a special interest in seeing Hebron.
The magnificent old man to which I am referring here in Joshua 14 is Caleb, who was Joshua’s companion and fellow soldier during all these long years of the conquest of Canaan. It’s often the case that in the presence of an outstanding leader, other people are overlooked. And it’s not because the other people are not great in themselves. Sometimes they’re even greater in some ways than the leader who’s getting all the attention. But, for one reason or another, perhaps just because he or she has a position of visibility, the leader gets the attention, and the other people are overshadowed.
There’s also personal holiness. That's not something that just falls upon us like a mantle. That's something that is achieved by small decisions day by day. You have to enter into holiness step by step, act by act, obedience by obedience. Another possession are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. According to the New Testament, every Christian has been given a gift. And yet, many people aren’t even aware of what their gift is. Or if they are, they don't always use it very well. We have to possess that gift in a personal, practical way.
In the previous studies when we were looking at the battles in the south and the north, we took time to look at some of the great characteristics of Joshua. This is certainly a point where we can look at his character and say that if anything characterized this man in a complimentary way, it was certainly his faithfulness in duty to the very end. Even at his advanced age, Joshua was carrying out the duty God had assigned him. Here was a man who was given a task to do, and he did it. He kept at it year after year. He didn't take his hands off and retire to his city until the task that had been assigned to him was completed.
Once Joshua had made settlement of the frontier areas, he moved into the center of the land and began the second stage of the distribution, which we have in chapters 18 and 19. There are seven tribes remaining. Because Benjamin was a very small tribe, he gave Benjamin a relatively small territory. Ephraim was to the north, and Judah was to the south.
