Give Me This Mountain

Numbers 14:24“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”

In Numbers 14, God brought Israel to the edge of the land of promise to take them into the inheritance He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, Israel because of fear and doubt, Isreal failed to enter into and take possession of God’s promise. Caleb “was of a different spirit.” What kind of a spirit did Caleb have that caused God to single him out with a commendation and promise? He had a spirit of faith. While the rest of the children of Israel saw all the problems and challenges of the promise, Caleb and Joshua saw what God saw. He saw a land of great potential and possibilities and believed God’s promise to give it to them. (Joshua 14:7)

God also declared Caleb as His “servant” who followed Him “wholeheartedly.” Caleb was not out doing his own thing or pursuing what he wanted. There is a liberty and reward with being a wholehearted servant of God. Paul in Romans chapter one identified himself as a bond servant of Christ. The picture there in Roman times was of a slave who was given his freedom but chooses to remain a slave for life. He would put his ear to the doorpost of the master’s house, the master would pierce his ear with a punch, and he became a slave for life. It is a total abandonment of one’s self, one’s freedoms and one’s will to the will of the master. It is in wholehearted servanthood to Christ that we come into the fullness of His enablement and the fulfillment of His promises.

There are some other benefits to wholehearted servanthood. Forty-five years later as Israel under Joshua has begun to take possession of the land of promise, Caleb reminds Joshua of God’s promise. “As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said." (Joshua 14:11-12)

Out of wholehearted servanthood comes a strength and authority. It is from this place of strength and authority that Caleb declares, “give me this mountain.” Possession of the mountain was not automatically his because God had promised it. It had giants and great fortified cities that had to be conquered. But as a wholehearted servant of God, Caleb knew that He came to conquer by the authority of his Master.

God has “given to us exceedingly great and precious promises.” (2 Peter 1:4) They are promises that have great potential and great challenges. These promises that can only be fulfilled through servant people who have a different spirit and follow God wholeheartedly or with utter abandonment. May we wholly abandon ourselves to God and His purposes that His glory may be seen in us.
Andy Clark