And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.- Num_13:30.
1. The year that followed the Exodus was a wonderful one for the children of Israel. It was spent at the foot of Mount Sinai, where measures were taken to organize them into a theocratic commonwealth. It was here that they received the Decalogue. It was here that Moses, as God's viceroy, gathered about him the princes and the forty elders, the former of whom constituted the Upper and the latter the Lower House of Parliament. And it was here that an army of able-bodied men was mustered and mobilized under Joshua as commander-in-chief. Thus, in twelve months, the people who had escaped from Egypt a mere rabble of slaves were transformed into a well-organized and formidable nation.
And now at length they stood facing the land towards which all hearts were yearning. The time was ripe. Everything hinged upon a concerted movement to take possession. But the people must deliberately choose. Moses could lead them only with their will. Accordingly, a committee was representatively appointed, one member from each tribe, through whose eyes the people might see the land and upon the basis of whose report they might act.
2. The men did their work thoroughly, traversing the valleys and climbing the hills, viewing the oliveyards and vineyards, and skirting the slopes of Hebron where the Anakim dwelt. After forty days' search they returned, bringing with them a branch with one cluster of grapes, and also a specimen of the pomegranates and the figs. On the whole, their report was very gloomy. They had, of course, some good things to say about the productiveness of the land, but they gave a very alarming account of the people: “The people be strong that dwell in the land.” “All the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature;.… we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Thou camest to spy out the land of promise; go not back without one cluster of grapes to show thy brethren for their encouragement. Let them see that thou hast tasted of the wine, by the gladness of thy heart; and that thou hast been anointed with the oil, by the cheerfulness of thy countenance; and hast fed of the milk and honey, by the mildness of thy disposition, and the sweetness of thy conversation. This heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart, and refine and spiritualize it, but it must have time to operate. Thus pursue the work till something be done, till thy grace be in exercise, thy affections raised, and thy soul refreshed with thy delights above. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.1 [Note: Richard Baxter.]
3. The children of Israel, who had counted on an easy victory, gave way to a cowardly despair, even before the report was brought to its conclusion. They heard the words, “The people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great,” and there was an immediate outburst of panic and confusion. Caleb, and at this point in the history he alone, “stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” His associates in the exploration, however, repeated their discouraging reports. The whole work of the Exodus and of Sinai seemed on the point of being frustrated: First, there was the despairing wish, “Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Would God, we had died in this wilderness!” Then there was the natural result of that backward look, “Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?” Then the thought passed into a deliberate purpose, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” And then the two who had not yielded to the first impulse of fear-Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun-stood forward against the madness of the people. They “rent their clothes” in passionate protest against the rebellious cowardice of the people. They testified once more that the land to which they had been sent was an exceedingly good land; that the Lord Jehovah was able to bring them into it, and give it them; that the people of the land would be as “bread” for them to devour. They ended with the watchword of all true hero-souls, “The Lord is with us: fear them not.” The others had measured themselves against the trained soldiers and giants, and were in despair. These two measured Amalekites and Anakim against God, and were jubilant. They do not dispute the facts, but they reverse the implied conclusion, because they add the governing fact of God's help.
Once Frederick the Great wrote to one of his generals, “I send you against the enemy with 60,000 men.” But, when the troops were numbered, it was found that there were only 50,000; and the officer was surprised and displeased. “There is no mistake,” Frederick replied, “I counted you for 10,000 men.” But who will say for how many God counts?1 [Note: The Morning Watch, 1890, p. 104.]
4 Caleb and Joshua saw two things. First, they saw and put prominently forward the greatness of the opportunity; and they saw also that behind the land's strength there was a real weakness. It may have been that they detected the moral rottenness of the people among whom they had gone. But, whether or not, there was certainly in them the conviction that God was with Israel to carry through the purpose which He had begun-that astonishing conviction, one of the greatest of the world's miracles, which went with Israel through its history, and which still binds into unity for us the whole of the Old Testament. With that conviction burning in them they gave their voice for the forward policy.
But the heart had gone out of the people. They feared and trembled and refused to advance. It was in vain that Caleb pointed to the grapes he had gathered at Eshcol; it was in vain he tried to tempt his countrymen. There were even some who would have slain Caleb for his earnest exhortations. “Stone him! Stone him!” they cried; and there is no telling what would have happened, but for the fact that just then the cloud appeared above the tabernacle of the congregation to signify that God would speak with the people. And through Moses He delivered this message: “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me?… Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.”
If Mistrust and Timorous had been prepared to face the dangers of the way, they, like Christian, would have reached the Celestial City. “Now when he was got up to the top of the Hill, there came two men running to meet him amain; the name of the one was Timorous, and the other Mistrust. To whom Christian said, Sirs, what's the matter you run the wrong way? Timorous answered, That they were going to the City of Zion, and had got up that difficult place; but said he, the further we go, the more danger we meet with, wherefore we turned, and are going back again. Yes, said Mistrust, for just before us lies a couple of Lyons in the way, (whether sleeping or waking we know not) and we could not think, if we came within reach but they would presently pull us in pieces.
Chr. Then said Christian, Yon make me afraid, but whither shall I fly to be safe? If I go back to mine own Countrey, That is prepared for Fire and Brimstone, and I shall certainly perish there. If I can get to the Celestial City, I am sure to be in safety there, I must venture; To go back is nothing but death, to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it. I will yet go forward. So Mistrust and Timorous ran down the Hill; and Christian went on his way.”1 [Note: Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (Cambridge edition, 172).]
5. Caleb was an optimist. He dreamed dreams and saw visions. No wonder he possessed such a spirit, for he “wholly followed the Lord his God.” This is a striking expression. In the Hebrew it is a pictorial word, and describes a ship going out at full sail. This was the reason of his optimism: he flung every power of body and soul and spirit like a free sheet to the winds of God's grace and God's Spirit and God's providence. He went in whole-heartedly for God and His cause, unhampered by any spirit of limitation. Caleb had something of Moses in him. He had an eye for the future. He was capable of Pisgah glimpses. His was one of those lives which seem always to be pitched upon a hill; he could see things afar off. He is the real hero of this enterprise; he has made the work of exploration his own. Joshua is the actual conqueror of Canaan; Caleb is the man who predicted the advantage of possessing it. But Caleb's confidence that “we are well able to overcome” was more than natural optimism; it was religious trust, as is plain from God's eulogium on him in Num_14:24.
We may compare Caleb, to use the metaphor of good old Gotthold, to a tree. The wind had been blowing-it was a dreadful hurricane, and Gotthold walked into a forest and saw many trees torn up by the roots; he marvelled much at one tree which stood alone and yet had been unmoved in the tempest. He said, “How is this? The trees that were together have fallen, and this alone stands fast!” He observed that when the trees grow too closely they cannot send their roots into the earth; they lean too much upon each other; but this tree, standing alone, had space to thrust its roots into the earth, and lay hold on the rock and stones; and so when the wind came it fell not. It was so with Caleb-he always would lay hold upon his God, not upon men; and so when the wind came he stood.2 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
The Rev. F. B. Meyer, in course of an appreciation of the life and work of Dr. Paton, wrote: An invincible optimist! For him, no good cause can ever be a lost cause. I question if he has ever been permanently disappointed, or ever absolutely failed. “Impossible” and “impracticable” are words for which he has no use; and though they have probably been hurled often enough at his schemes, when first announced, they have been found to be inappropriate and untrue. A visionary, whose visions have been realized; a dreamer, whose dreams have clothed themselves in fact! At an age when ninety-nine men out of a hundred leave the conduct of affairs to others, he is in the forefront and thick of the fight; and the rest of us gladly recognize that he is in his right place, and that years have not diminished but enhanced his competence to lead in all that makes for the betterment of the people. His optimism and enthusiasm are so contagious that statesmen, bishops, deans, ministers of every religious body, philanthropists, and shrewd business men are swept into his orbit and become inspired by his aims. His motives are absolutely selfless; his soul is simple and pure as a child's; and the strength of his personality is fairly irresistible. When he begins to weave his web around you to secure your interest and co-operation, you may as well yield at once to his genial persuasiveness, for you will have to do so sooner or later. In fact, you would feel it mean to leave a load on those broad and burdened shoulders which you could lighten or remove.1 [Note: J. Marchant, J. B. Paton, 106.]
Florence Nightingale did many things herself, but she was also the inspirer and instigator of more things which were done by others. She was able of her own initiative to institute considerable reforms; but she was a reformer on a larger scale through the influence which she exercised. Though she was in truth no magician, there were men on the spot who, not being able to understand the secret and sources of her power, seemed to find something uncanny in it. Our good friend, Colonel Sterling, who hated the intrusion of petticoats into a campaign, was very much puzzled. The thing seemed to him “ludicrous,” as we have heard, but he had to admit that “Miss Nightingale queens it with absolute power”; and elsewhere he speaks of “the Nightingale power” as something mysterious and “fabulous.” The secret, however, is simple. “The Nightingale power” was due to causes of which some were inherent in herself and others were adventitious. The inherent strength of her influence lay in the masterful will and practical good sense which gave her dominion over the minds of men. The adventitious sources of her power were that she had both the ear and the confidence of Ministers, and the interest and sympathy of the Court. I have called this accession of influence “adventitious,” but it also accrued to her, in a secondary degree, from the inherent force of her character.1 [Note: Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, i. 214.]
