JOSHUA 14, 15; PSALM 128

 READ: JOSHUA 14, 15; PSALM 128

TEXT FOR MEDITATION: JOSHUA 14:7-12

I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. ⁸ But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. ⁹ And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ ¹⁰ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. ¹¹ I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. ¹² So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

REFLECTION

A 45 year-long wait! Caleb was one of the spies who had been sent to spy on the land that God had promised the Israelites. The spies had seen the fortified cities, the size and strength of the enemy, and concluded that compared to the inhabitants of Cannan, the Israelites seemed like grasshoppers (Numbers 13:32-33). Caleb on the other hand, saw that this was the land that the Lord had given them, and was confident that despite the strength of the enemy, they would win the battles. For his faith and courage, God promised Caleb the hill country which he had been sent to spy on and which he believed God would give the Israelites. Caleb was 40 years old then and in his prime. But he could not claim the land, as he had to join the rest of the Israelites in fighting for their inheritance. Now 45 years later, at the age of 85, when the tribes of Israel were settling into their inheritance, Caleb reckoned it was time to ask for the inheritance which God had promised him 45 years earlier. But it was not an inheritance that they had already won. The inhabitants of that land, the Anakim, were still as intimidating as they were 45 years ago. And now, at 85, Caleb asked permission to fight the giants of Anakim and to take the land for his inheritance. For 45 years, Caleb had waited for God to keep His promise. And after fighting for others, he was ready to fight for his inheritance, confident that God would give the land to him.

RELATE

A 45 year wait for God's promise to be fulfilled is unthinkable for most of us. In an age of instant gratification, we have grown accustomed to immediate answers to prayer. We lose faith in God when we do not receive blessings immediately after we have prayed, or when the situation which we prayed about takes a turn for the worse, or when a project we embark on does not show immediate success, or worse, appears to fail. And it is only natural to lose heart. When we ask God for success in our endeavours, we expect to see immediate growth. Even in our prayers, we often ask that God would make our paths smooth, and that there be no hiccups. And we feel a sense of failure when things do not work out as planned.

Jesus' ministry looked very promising when he first came out to proclaim the Kingdom of God was near. The sick were healed, the lame walked, the blind received their sight, and demons were cast out from their victims. Multitudes gathered to listen to him and receive healing. He was so popular the leaders of the day feared he would lead a revolution against the Romans. And then, his popularity took a hit. After he had taught an unpopular truth, many of his disciples left him, and the crowds began to thin. By the time he was arrested by the authorities, the people who had once followed him were joining in to call for his crucifixion. And at his crucifixion, even his inner circle had abandoned him. Jesus' ministry had shot up off the charts and then plummeted. Yet it was at his death that life was given to the world.

Caleb was 45 years past his prime when he was inspired by God to claim the promise that God had given him. It is hard to imagine an 85 year old man going to war against an army of giants that younger and stronger men could not overcome. If God had sent Caleb to fight the Anakim at 40, surely his chances of success would have been that much better. Yet as Caleb testified to Joshua, "my strength now is as my strength then". God had not simply taken 45 years to keep His promise to Caleb, He had sustained Caleb's strength for 45 years.

All of this only shows that God does not work according to OUR 'perfect' timing. Nor according to our prime. Nor even according to what we deem as OUR 'best interests'. But as God displayed in Caleb's life and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, God does have our best interests at heart, and will bring them about at His timing. 

On a church level, God gave our pioneers a vision of reaching the Jurong area with the Gospel. After about 30 years (including time as a preaching point), we do not seem to be even scratching the surface of Jurong. Our growth has been inconsistent and sporadic, growing one moment and declining the next. It must be very discouraging for those who have laboured hard for this vision, to not see growth, or worse, to see growth and then decline. And many of us are way past our prime. Being called to reach Jurong with God's love, we need to hold on to these truths: First, God has the best interests of Jurong in His heart. And He has the best interests of Agape as well. Second, God does not work according to the world's impatient timing. The world has a way of comparing: who is growing faster?; who is lagging behind? God has a different set of markers to look out for: do we trust God?; do we love God and those He sends to us?. And third, God does not care how old or young we are. We may be past our prime, or we may be well below our peak. It doesn't matter. We simply need to believe in the mission that God has sent us to, to reach Jurong. And to believe that He will fulfil that promise.

REST

Are there promises that you have received from God that have not been fulfilled? Promises of an abundant life? Promises of intimacy with God. Are there prayers that you have prayed that have not been answered? Prayers for a family member to be healed, or to know God? Have you cried out in anguish, "How long O God?" Take heart, What seems unbearably long to you is simply God preparing you to receive the promise.

Let us pray. Father, it's really hard to wait. Give me the patience and the faith to believe that you will intervene in my situation, whether it is at the next moment, or many years from now. And help me to trust that even if it is many years from now, you have my best interest at heart, and that there is a good reason for the delay. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.