More Than Just a Spy: A Cameo of Caleb

When I was younger, I learned a great song (motions included) about the 12 spies Moses sent to reconnoiter the Promised Land (Numbers 13-14). It goes like this, “Twelve men went to spy out Canaan, ten were bad, and two were good; What do you think they saw in Canaan, ten were bad and two were good; Some saw giants big and strong, some saw grapes of clusters long, some saw God was in it all, ten were bad and two were good.”  The song’s point is to focus on the repeated phrase: ten were bad and two were good.  While there might be a few people who know the names of the ten spies who gave a bad report to Moses, many Bible readers can easily remember the names of the two spies who gave the good report:  Joshua and Caleb. While these two are well-known for this event in Numbers, they will also go on to do great things for God in the future.  This is easily seen in the life of Joshua; he does have a Bible book bearing his name, after all.  Unfortunately, Caleb’s story tends to fade into the background, but bringing it out of the shadows is worth the time.

Numbers 13:6 identifies Caleb as the son of Jephunneh, and from the tribe of Judah.  Later on in the biblical text, Joshua 14:6 informs us that Caleb was of Kenizzite ancestry; they are listed as part of the original inhabitants of Canaan (Genesis 15:19). So, Caleb’s family descends from an indigenous people (Kenizzites) who have resided in the Promised Land since they can remember.  Interesting, right? Who better to spy out the Promised Land than a native of the Promised Land? He, better than any of the other eleven spies, would know the land well. In fact, he might be the main reason that the reconnaissance team didn’t get captured or even killed.

Despite his heritage as a Canaanite, he married an unnamed daughter of Hezron (1 Chronicles 2:3-9). Hezron was the son of Perez, and Perez was a son of Judah. Caleb marries into the tribe of Judah, as Numbers 13 identifies him as one from that tribe (the genealogies in 1 Chronicles can be confusing because the biblical text says that Hezron, Caleb’s father-in-law, also had a son named Caleb. In other words, Hezron has two Caleb’s in his family: his son and a son-in-law). Have you ever studied the people in the lineage of Christ? If you have, you will know that some of the characters are unsavory, but that’s precisely the point. God’s grace and redemption are available to everyone, regardless of their past. Caleb descended from the Canaanites, the very people God told Israel not to associate with and avoid at all costs. Yet because Caleb believed in the one true God, he became part of the tribe of Judah, the same tribe from which the Messiah would come.

When the other ten spies brought back the evil report in Numbers 13, the people believed that report rather than Joshua and Caleb’s. Because of their disbelief, Israel was sentenced to forty years of wilderness wandering. After the wilderness wandering, Israel was ready to enter the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership. Israel would spend the next seven years successfully defeating the inhabitants of the land, one by one, and pushing them out. When the land had rest from war, and it was ready to be parceled out to the twelve tribes by Joshua, Caleb spoke up as representative of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 14:67-15). Caleb is now 85 years old. He was 40 when he and Joshua spied out the land, he lived through the 40 years of wilderness wanderings, and for the last five years, he has been a faithful warrior of the Israelite army. He boldly asks for Hebron, the land where some giants still reside! He doesn’t ask for the easy thing, he asks for the hard thing. At the age of 85, he goes after the giants (Anakim tribe) who had not been pushed out of the land (Joshua 15:14) and is successful! To Caleb, age is just a number because when God is on your side, you can do some amazing things. If battling giants at the age of 85 is a heroic feat, watch what happens next in Caleb’s life.

After Caleb has pushed out the giants in Hebron, he went down to Debir (8 miles south of Hebron). He issued a challenge to his warriors: whoever takes this city, I will give my daughter, Achsah, in marriage. Othniel steps up and takes the city, and he is given Achsah as his wife. When the newlyweds are ready to settle down, Caleb gives them a parcel of land, but Caleb’s daughter knows that the land promised to her is a desert region that offers little future, so she boldly asks for more.  She asks for the “springs of water.”
(Joshua 15:19; Judges 1:15). That is a rather insignificant phrase out of context, but within the context of Caleb’s life, it is highly significant. You see, this was the region, the upper and lower springs of the Hebron area, that was most fertile and, therefore, most valuable. Forty-five years ago, Caleb set his dreams on acquiring this land, believing that God would give it to him (Joshua 14:8-9). He is now ready to retire and enjoy all God has given him. However, all fathers who have daughters know this to be true: when your daughter asks you for something, you will move heaven and earth to make it happen. Without hesitation, Caleb grants the request of his daughter and gives it away in the blink of an eye. All those years of waiting and fighting…Caleb’s extreme generosity must not be forgotten. He knew that what He had received was from the good hand of God, and he desired to be a channel of God’s goodness.